Educator Resources

Lots of educators use Macs. Some are quite enthusiastic, you might even say zealous, for the platform.

So what could cause a lifelong Mac user to buy and start using a PC?

Camtasia Studio, apparently. I received an email yesterday with the following (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) comments:

"You guys should be ashamed of yourselves. I've been a mac user my entire life and get this... I was FORCED to buy a pc just to use Camtasia Studio. I ONLY use the pc for Camtasia. Can you please finish the mac version?" –Dave M.

Take heart, Dave. Your plea—like that of many other Mac users—has not fallen on deaf ears.

TechSmith recently decided that the time is right to begin development of Camtasia Studio for the Mac...and we're considering whether to build SnagIt for Mac, too!

We'll have some folks at Macworld next week, asking Mac users what they want and need. If you'll be at the show, please stop by and see us at booth #4329. More details at www.techsmith.com/macworld.

To receive occasional Mac-related news from TechSmith, please sign up here.

Daniel Foster
Newsletter Editor

P.S. - Maybe you're not a Mac user but know someone who is. Please help us get the word out by forwarding this email to them, if you think they'd be interested Thanks!

Drexel University has a reputation for offering students a high tech learning experience. Campus Technology recently reported that many Drexel professors record class sessions with Camtasia Studio and post the files for students to review at their convenience. But staff and faculty there also use Camtasia Studio in some more surprising ways.

Drexel instructors are using Camtasia Studio at their desktop for what could be termed "individual capture."

"By using a tablet PC and Camtasia to create a video that captures his redlining of a student's paper online, along with verbal comments, Professor Scott Warnock is able to comment much more extensively on a student's work than he would be able to via written comments," the magazine reports. (Watch an example; RealPlayer required.)

When used for individual feedback like this, Camtasia helps instructors provide clearer, more detailed feedback in one-third of the time, according to the report.

Drexel faculty aren't the only ones using Camtasia Studio. The school's instructional technology team makes videos that walk freshman through the registration process, while HR produces audio and video recordings for new employee orientation.

Janice Biros, Drexel's associate vice president of instructional technology support, is quoted as saying, "Students today are not satisfied with going to class and hearing it once, and that's it. They demand re-read and re-use and re-listen to whenever they would like. That's how they work with other resources on the Internet, and that's what they're demanding from professors."

We love to share stories about how educators use TechSmith technology to advance the art of teaching...and sometimes those stories also get told by the national media!

The Guardian newspaper reports on Jonathan Boyle, who teaches design and technology courses at Wallsall Academy, a secondary school in the U.K.

Boyle uses Camtasia Studio to reinforce student learning. He also packages and sells his videos as part of Cad Cam Cookies, an accredited CAD training course that is marketed to other schools!

Here's a snippet from the Guardian article, summarizing the benefits of Camtasia Studio for teachers and students at Wallsall:

"The software gives access to all learners, can lengthen the life of your work and materials and let you repurpose earlier projects. Pupils can learn independently and the video element often works well with those struggling with literacy."

You may also be interested in the case study we put together on Boyle, posted at the TechSmith site.

Just last week we released an important update to Camtasia Studio 5. If you're running version 5 and have disabled the "check for upgrades" feature, please take a moment to download and install the latest version.

1. Click here to download Camtasia Studio 5.0.1. Choose to save the file to your hard drive.
2. Run the installation.

Casey Phear, one of our friendly tech support staff people, says, "This is definitely an update you should install. Most of my support calls lately are solved when people update to 5.0.1."

To make sure you get future updates:

1. Open Camtasia Studio.
2. Click Tools | Options.
3. Select Upgrade Options tab.
4. Check the box for "Enable automatic upgrade check."

If you're a Camtasia Studio user, the development team would like to ask you a quick question...

Do you use Camtasia Studio to combine camera and screen videos in a side-by-side presentation like this?

Click here to complete the one-question survey.

Thanks! Your feedback will help the developers decide where to focus their energies.

Sometimes when creating a video with Camtasia Studio you want to insert a still image. The image could be a fancy title slide. Or a chart. Or perhaps a photo of yourself.

If you use SnagIt for screen capture you can download a new (free) accessory that makes it easy to send images directly from SnagIt to Camtasia Studio.

The accessory adds a button to the toolbar inside SnagIt's Capture Preview window. Click the button and your image is sent directly to Camtasia Studio's clip bin.

Need help convincing others of the value and importance of usability testing? Maybe you'd like to make a case for re-designing your institution's Web page or testing the usability of your learning management system.

Download our brand new usability PowerPoint Presentation and get some ideas!

The presentation combines statistics, case studies, and quotes from UX experts to make a powerful case for usability and for TechSmith Morae software. It also includes details and clip reel highlights from our own usability testing of SnagIt 8.

(Note: be sure to grab the presentation that matches your version of PowerPoint. If you don't have PowerPoint installed, you can use the viewer included with the presentations.)

The TechSmith training team is posting a new screencast to the Visual Lounge Blog every weekday during the month of January.

Why? To help you get the most benefit from TechSmith products and services...whether you use Camtasia Studio, SnagIt, Morae, UserVue, Screencast.com, or Jing!

A number of videos have been posted so far; check back at the blog during the month for more...or just add the RSS feed to your reader.

Here's an advance look at the video that will be posted next. It shows how to save time (and become a SnagIt Ninja!) by automating things you now do manually—like adding a drop shadow to a captured image. Neato!

SnagIt Tutorial: Create a Custom Profile

(Remember, this is a special link directly to the video; find the others on the blog...)

Adding captions to multimedia files is becoming more common, especially under the U.S. government's Section 508 accessibility requirements. Captions also help non-native speakers—or people without speakers!—benefit from your content.

Fortunately, Camtasia Studio 5 contains a rich, easy-to-use captioning feature. It also complies with Section 508 as far as the amount and color of text displayed by default.

To help you get started with captioning, visit the Camtasia Studio Learning Center for both video and written tutorials on the topic.