Screencast

Today, I'd like to bring the Screencast application to your attention.

Screencast is a way for users to store information online. Now, you may think that this sounds similar to Dropbox, but Screencast throws in a couple of curveballs in order to make it one of the best online storage systems available! Read on for more information!

If you've read my post about Dropbox, you know that Dropbox is really an online flash drive system. Using DB, you can share information with others, but you have to go through the hassle of creating a public folder, making sure the other person is a current user of Dropbox, sending the link...yadda, yadda. It's a whole ordeal. If you've read my post about Dropbox, you also know that it is free to use if you only need 2GB of storage. I'll come back to this point later.

Screencast makes sharing information with users much easier. If you've tried to share something using Dropbox, you understand that there's a whole process you must go through in order for that other person to see your materials: you must create a public folder, you must make sure the other person has a current account with Dropbox, and then you must send that person the link. When that's all you know, it doesn't seem like such a hassle. But if you're a Screencast user, you're going to find sharing material with other people so much easier.

And that 2GB of free storage I mentioned for Dropbox earlier? You can have the exact same amount of storage plus 2GB monthly bandwidth for free using Screencast! Users have the option to upgrade to 25 GB of storage and 400GB monthly bandwidth for $10/month or $100/year. Whoo-hoo!

You may be worried about privacy with Screencast because I'm making it sound like it's open to everyone. Fear not; Screencast offers 4 different privacy options so that you can make sure only the "right" people see your materials.

So what does Screencast do, exactly? I mean, we know it stores materials, but if we're already using Dropbox, why would we get a Screencast account, too?

Allow me to enlighten you.

The biggest plus to this account is that you can upload viewable movies, music, and presentations. With Dropbox, you can store the files, but people have to download them in order to play them...and what if that person doesn't have the correct computer programs in order to view the presentation? Time wasted. With Screencast, you pretty much just embed the video into your website and then anyone can view it with the proper privacy settings and link(s).

Speaking of privacy, I mentioned earlier that there are 4 privacy settings available on Screencast. Here they are:

1. Public: Anyone and everyone can view your materials. It will be listed in the library content of the site's general search engine, and to share things with others, just give them the simple URL. 
2. Hidden: You must specifically give the URL to people before they can view it; searching for this material won't produce any results.
3. Password Protected: You must have the URL and a password in order to view it. 
4. Authenticated: You must have a Screencast account in order to view it. 

While I'm not quite sure about the purpose behind privacy setting number 4 yet, I could see settings 1-3 as a very positive addition for classroom use. Let's say I want to post materials ahead of time (I'm a planner, people! I like to plan lessons a month or two in advance!). I can go ahead and store the materials on my Screencast and click "hidden" until I'm ready to share it with my students. If you have pictures or videos of students that you'd rather not allow the general public to see, a password protected privacy setting would be ideal. Parents, students, and administrators would have the password to access the materials, but Joe Shmoe down the street would not have access. I like it!

If you're a teacher that likes to use Prezi presentations, podcasts, iMovie clips, etc. in your class, you may need a place to store all those files so that your students can find them any time they need to. Screencast seems like it would get the job done!

Try it out and let me know what you think!