Value+of+screencasts


 * What is the value of screen-casts for IB curriculum support?**

Screencasts can be used for many different purposes but their main value comes when you need to showcase the features of something on-screen, or demonstrate the steps involved in doing something on-screen. Screencasts can take the form of quick and sketchy outlines for a process or long and complex demonstrations or tutorials. Anyone can put one together, but there are also professionally produced screencasts that integrate different design software applications into very impressive online presentations.

Screencasts are popular on the web because they are quick, accessible and intuitive ways to get information across. Like all teachers, IB teachers are usually short of time and would value having key information presented in a quick and accessible format. There are likely to be areas of curriculum support across the programmes therefore that would benefit from screencast support resources.

However, screencasts would only be truly valuable to the IB and to its educator community if they were used appropriately (i.e. only in the areas where they added real value). Screencasts should also be high quality, both in their production and design and in the content they contain. Poor quality or inaccurate screencasts could have a negative effect on how the IB is viewed or might cause confusion or misunderstandings amongst viewers. And we need screencasts to support the values of the IB, for example in accordance with our language policy.

To ensure that screencasts are use appropriately and developed properly, we need to identify how this technology could be of most use to the IB and its educators and students. We need to establish the likely demand for screencasts within the organisation. We also need to develop an agreed development and production process for screencasts.