I love Jing. This is the most exciting tool I’ve used in a while! Do you have teachers in your building that are technology immigrants – to the point that they soak up lots of your time being trained on the same tool? That’s a digital immigrant. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not their fault! They have been trained to do things right. I mean, they fear making a mistake. They were taught that the definition of excellence is something – error free. Well, that kind of thinking works well when you are editing a final draft, but what if you are trying to learn a new technology tool? If you love using technology, then you know trial and error is expected. In most cases, if you do something wrong it can be corrected.
Digital immigrants hate making mistakes. They fear that if they do something wrong, it will be unchangeable. Jing is a great solution to helping these folks.
I’m thinking about creating a bunch of quick tutorials using Jing. These tutorials will help the digital immigrants answer those simple questions – without the embarrassment of asking again! And, it saves me a bit of time, too. Imagine wanting to learn how to send an e-mail with an attachment – and it will take three sessions to fully understand the steps. No problem! Create a Jing screencast of the directions and the user can replay it as many times as needed. Perfect!
Anyone, digital immigrant (some teachers), or digital native (most students) will love the combination of visual and auditory directions. Add a piece of music in the background and you have a mini-movie ready to share!
Be sure to remember the cognitive load theory. Keep your screencasts focused on the task at hand. If you are creating some how-to screencasts for your folks who have trouble learning new technology software – keep the video short and to the point. Everyone will benefit from screencasts that:
- begin with a short overview of what will be learned
- stay focused on the task at hand
- show what the user needs to know in sequential steps
- explains why
- keep directions simple
- provides a positive and friendly tone
- invites them back
Be sure not to overload your learner. Use Jing, your staff will love it. Professional development just in time!
1 Comment
July 25, 2008 at 4:06 pm
You’ve got it! This is perfect. Your users will thank you so much for getting to know this tool. I created a page on our school’s website, hidden from links so spiders wouldn’t find it, that I posted all this “stuff” to. I sent the link to that page a few times a year when I had made enough improvements and I was always referring folks there when they stopped me in the halls.
Great job-