I used Jink (a free, open source tool, easy for creating slideshows and screencasts) and hosted by screen cast.com (a free, open source tool, by the same company as Jing called TechSmith).
Jink is great, really easy to learn, it sits in the background in the top corner of your screen (so you can use it at a moments notice). You can take a screenshot (and do some nice animation), you can video your actions on your screen (ie. Used as a tutorial for learners or “how to….” session), you can record audio on top of a powerpoint presentation. You are limited to 5 minutes video only (though Jink use this as a USP saying 5 minutes is enough!!!). The problem is that the file format is not compatible with many other file sharing sites (eg. You Tube). This is a real issue for me and a real pain (I’m sure others too would have issue on this). Jing puts a positive spin on this saying it’s files are not compressed so are better quality.
I didn’t however like screencast.com, a site where you host your Jing content. I couldn’t see any network effect (no real community sharing stuff and bouncing ideas of each other). It’s not that pretty a site (well to me in any case). You can embed files in other sites, but you are limited to only 1 type of widget (which isn’t the best) and it doesn’t work with all sites (eg. It doesn’t work with quite a few blogs).
That’s the end of the blog………but you can read on! I’ve rated Jing/screencast under several criteria. I’m going to try to do this with other tools. This will mean that I can compare & contrast tools. The main criteria are around ease of use; multi-media & instructional design (does it help learners learn). I’ve been tough on Jing/screencast as I see 10 out of 10 as very easy to use, fairly rich multi media, good instructional design & a good network!!! Please do let me know what you think of the criteria!!!
I've just set up a wiki for these tools. Please see http://sidnick.pbwiki.com/Jink-and-Screencast (you won't be able to read the table below on blogger!)
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