Jing

Jing

Jing is a diverse screen capturing tool that allows users to do a variety of different tasks.  It is an easy to use way to share images and short videos from your desktop with others.  Jing also gives you the ability to add visual elements to enhance your images or videos.  Jing is a program that needs to be downloaded on to your desktop and appears as a sun on the side of your screen.  It is quick and easy to use and the features are easily accessed.  I watched two videos for this project: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/screen-casting/jing.html and http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/screen-casting/jing-in-reality.html.  The first video described the basics of Jing and the second video described how I could apply it to my teaching.

What I Knew Before

I had Jing installed on my computer before starting this learning process, I used Jing to screen capture images that I wanted to use for my Grade 5/6 classroom.  I would cut worksheets and use different pieces of them or I would cut images that I found on the internet and wanted to show at a later time. I only used the most basic features of this program.  So because I had this program on my computer and I wasn’t using it to the best of its ability, I decided that I should learn more about it. 

What I Learned

History and Storage

When watching the CAI videos I was most surprised to learn that all the work that I captured is stored on my computer and on the Jing server.  When I went into my history, there were documents that I had image captured from three years ago.

Videos are no exception.  As well as being stored on my computer, my videos that are stored on the server are also provided to me as a URL.  I can create a video for my students and can easily share it with them by just providing them with the URL.  This is fantastic because I do not have to upload it anywhere for students to access it and students do not have to download it anywhere.  They can watch the video on any device that they have with the provided URL. The URL is automatically copied to your clipboard so you just need to hit paste where you want it. http://screencast.com/t/sUs8AJLi

Image Capturing

There are many features that I did not realize that I could do with an image within Jing.  I was pulling my image out of Jing and putting them into a different program such as Paint, Windows Photo Gallery, or Adobe Photoshop to add text and arrows.  Now I know that I can add text that includes: any typesets that are installed on my computer, a variety of text colours and multiply sizes of text.  These are all added and changed quickly before saving the image to my computer, as can be seen by the image below.

Adding arrows and drawing attention to specific things is a feature that I commonly use when creating informational sheets for my students.  It is another feature that is quickly accessible from the toolbar on the side of the screen.  I am not sure why I didn’t see these features earlier but I think when you start using a program for a specific purpose you don’t see the other options that are available.  I really like the fact that you can change the colours of the arrows and the text boxes.

The last feature that I learned about when capturing images is the recapture button.  This feature was great to learn about because before if I didn’t have the capture screen lined up the way I wanted I was closing out of the program and then going back in.  Now after I have my screen capture box drawn of what I was going to capture I just need to click the redo button in the tools and now I can go back and get what I want.

Video Capturing

I was completely oblivious to the fact that I had video capturing at my fingertips with a program that I already had on my computer.  Jing allows you to take up to 5 minutes of video.  This video is then available to use or share on your computer.  One of the best parts about the video capturing is that it captures everything you do from when you hit the record button.  So if I want to add my voice, change screens, add a picture, or just give video instructions.  These are all possible with Jing’s video capturing tool.  This was incredibly useful to learn because now I can easily demonstrate to students how to do something and give instructions that they can watch over and over without me having to repeat myself ten times.  For example: http://screencast.com/t/HfD1TZKC

If you have a video camera on your laptop or an external camera, you can also have your image show up on the screen.  This way students would know that you are talking to them and it is no different than if you were standing right in front of them.  I didn’t try this feature because my laptop does not have a camera and my external camera was not available.  

An additional feature with the video capturing is that you have the option to edit your video in Camtasia Studio. Camtasia Studios is video editing software that allows the user to take the video that you captured in Jing and add transitions, animations, and audio effects to name a few.  The downside to Jing accessing Camtasia is that Camtasia is a program that you need to buy.  It does offer you a free trial but that is not a long term solution.

Additional Settings/Buttons

I learned that you can upload directly to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a few other social media sites with Jing.  There is a place in the setting to customize your tool bar and have easy access to each of these features.  I had never gone into the settings before but I can see where this would be incredibly useful.  If you are a teacher who does a lot of videos and has a YouTube channel, it would be incredibly handy to be able to just click the button and have your videos automatically stored there.

Teacher Uses

When I was looking into which videos to watch to learn about Jing I chose to go with teachertrainingvideos.com because I am a teacher and I wanted to learn how I could use Jing more effectively in personal life as well as in my classroom.  I learned it was good for feedback, explanations, reading aloud, and commentaries.  Each of these ideas opened up a whole new way to use Jing in my classroom.

I never thought of using Jing for feedback to students.  So many times when I am marking students work on the computer using Google Docs or Word, it would be so much easier to capture a video and record what I want to tell the student.  For example, it is hard to explain to a student why the sentence structure is incorrect with words.  It would be way easier with Jing.

 Explaining is a large part of teaching.  Students need to understand the concept that you are trying to teach and be able to apply it to their assignments or the real world.  Jing makes that a little easier.  In Saskatchewan schools, teachers are supposed to utilize technology and incorporate it into their teaching.  With Jing you can have an entire lesson ready to go with the entering of a URL.

        Having students read to Jing was definitely an idea I had never thought of but will be using frequently.  I have many students who need to practice reading out loud to improve their fluency, pronunciation and making sure that they are reading all of the words in the text.  Most Saskatchewan schools use Fountas and Pinnell testing to level their students to see if they are at, below, or above grade level expectations.  My school is no different.  I recently tested my students and was wondering how I was going to help a couple of the students improve so that they are at grade level and then I watched this video on Jing and a light bulb turned on.  I can have the students read the text using Jing and then listen to themselves.  This way my students can hear the mistakes that they are making and it becomes more meaningful to them.  This will work better than me saying this is what you are missing or need to improve on.

I teach art and when the video mentioned commentaries, I immediately thought about describing a famous piece of art.  I could have students pick a famous piece of art and answer a list of questions about it.  They could use the Jing and point out what they are talking about and demonstrate their thinking.  For example, is Mona Lisa smiling or frowning could be the question.  Students would then use their rationale to explain their thoughts.

Conclusion

Jing has so many uses that I never explored or even thought of before.  The videos were incredibly helpful and expanded my understanding of how to use Jing both personally and professionally.  I would recommend the videos to anyone who uses screen capturing tools or video capturing tools.  They are easy to use and free.