Users of the Internet have been taking screen captures for a while now. However, taking screen captures is sometimes an unnecessarily complicated process. Indeed, if users want to write on their captures, they have to go through PDF or Paint. If they want to share it on a blog, they have to upload the file. However, there is now a much simpler solution: Jing.
What is it?
Jing, created by TechSmith in 2007, is a downloadable software that allows users to take screenshots and screencasts in just a few seconds and to easily save or share them. This software is completely free of charge; there used to be a pro version for which people could pay, but, as TechSmith announced, it has been out of the market since 2013 and replaced by a better software, Snagit.
How does it work?
First, users have to sign up. There are specific accounts available to teachers; everybody works with the same features. All you need to sign up is an e-mail, a username, and a password. Jing is a software, meaning that is has to be downloaded and installed on your computer. The file is not heavy, so the downloading doesn’t take very long. Once installed, Jing offers you a beginner’s tutorial to make sure that you know how to work with the basic features. This tutorial was very explanative and so, I did not even feel the need to look at more tutorials before beginning. However, to ensure that I knew all of the features, I went to Jing’s tutorial page, which is very informative. There is nothing they don’t tell you how to do. There are also many tutorials available on YouTube, such as one by Technology for Teachers and Students, and one by Stacey Gauny.
Jing is easy to use and easy to access. When you open the software (which you can choose to open automatically every time your computer opens), it takes the form of a small yellow sun at the top of your screen on which you can drag your arrow to use.
Jing allows users to take screencasts and screenshots of varied size. Users simply choose to take their whole screen by clicking anywhere, or they click and drag to choose the area of their screen that they wish to work from. Once that is done, they can choose to capture an image or capture a video. If they choose to capture an image, they can then work directly from Jing to add arrows, text squares, squares of all sizes, and to highlight (see image below). The users can choose to do this in a wide variety of colour, which is very nice for the visual users and learners. As mentioned by Jalger:
For users that want more powerful options Jing also allows you to easily add text, arrows or highlight sections of your screen capture. This is a great feature for teachers wanting to add notes on top of images or text, for students. Jing really is a must have tool for all teachers.
When users choose to create a video, these options are not available; nothing can be written on a video. The video allows you to record everything you do on your screen along with your voice, if you wish to narrate or explain. There is a five-minute length limit to videos; Such a limit is not so small, but you have to rehearse beforehand to make sure you don’t go over. When you are done recording a video, you can always preview it to make sure that everything is all right.
Once you are finished working on your screencast or screenshot, you can name it, and you have many options to save or publish it. They can either be saved, meaning that they will be saved both on your computer and on your Jing’s history (easily accessible bank of all the screenshots and screencasts you have made), shared via Screencast.com (this is an online database with 2GB available to you), which will provide you with a URL that you can give to anyone you want to, or copied (only for images, this will enable you to copy them in, for example, a word document).
Jing also offers users with an easily accessible history of all the screencasts and screenshots they have taken, as well as a “homepage” section from which users can send feedback to TechSmith, get easy access to the Jing Help Center, and set their preferences such as their share options.
My experience as an ESL teacher
I really enjoyed my experience with Jing. It is a software that is incredibly simple to use. It avoids all the frustrations I previously endured with taking screencasts from my computer. No more going through Paint or PDF for editing or adding an arrow and no more sharing files (since we can now paste a link). All of that, you can do from Jing. Furthermore, this tool is very advantageous, as it combines both screen and image capture in one software. It is also very instinctive, which is why I would recommend that teachers use it with their students from all levels. Primary-level students will easily understand how to work with the software and high school students will still enjoy recording their voice over their videos. The tool is very engaging for students, as creating a video on Jing will engage both their oral and visual skills.
Jing offers many uses in the ESL classroom. A first use would be to help your students learn new vocabulary. As mentioned on the Teacher Challenges blog, teachers can create videos of themselves pronouncing and defining key words or concepts. However, as Jing is really easy to use, the opposite can also be done. Teachers can provide their students with a written list of vocabulary and have their students pronounce all the words. As teachers watch their students videos, they can easily see their students’ weaker points and help them when needed.
Another interesting use is to have the students share their knowledge with the class through an “expert blog”. Have your kids create a video about a website, an online tool, or an online magazine or a video that they found on the Internet and particularly enjoyed. They can explain how they found it, why do they like it, and even how to use it if it is a website or an application. In order to help them develop their vocabulary, you can have the students define a few words from the text or the video that were new to them. As mentioned by Erika Osváth:
After some time of using Jing as a teaching tool, I encouraged learners to use it to collaborate with each other. I asked students to choose an online tool that helps them along their studies. Then they used Jing to explain and share their thoughts on these tools explaining how they use them. […] The same can be done with their favourite videos, including how they found the link, and explaining why they like them, giving them extra speaking practice.
If students can pick a video or a website of their choice to talk about, they will already be more interested in the assignment. If on top of that, the videos are gathered in a classroom blog (created outside of the application, on WordPress, for example), which can be accessed by all students, the students will work extra hard to provide a final product of which they are proud. As Jing itself does not allow for editing, your students will have to record their videos until it is perfect. This means more and more oral skill practice for them. Furthermore, teachers can use their students’ recording as a way to evaluate their oral skills. Students will be able to perform very well and their performance will not be hindered by factors related to in-front-of-the-class oral presentations, such as the stress to talk in front of a class or the pressure to do well the first time they present.
Furthermore, teachers can use their students’ recording as a way to evaluate their oral skills. Students will be able to perform very well and their performance will not be hindered by factors related to in-front-of-the-class oral presentations, such as the stress to talk in front of a class or the pressure to do well the first time they present. An activity that could be used for such oral presentation is the reading of a book. By working with Jing and a website, such as StoryBird, teachers can have their students create their own book and read it while recording themselves! This brings storytelling to a whole other level. For a Jing screencast I created myself on how to read a book from StoryBird, click here. For a screenshot of how to “like” a book you read, click here.
Jing’s screencasts can also be used to increase older students’ literacy skills. Indeed, as Jing allows users to write, highlight, and add squares on their screen captures, it can be used to point out important elements in texts. When working on topic sentences, for example, teachers can have their students read a text and highlight the topic sentence. When working on discourse connectors, teachers can have their students highlight the discourse connectors and even write what type of discourse connectors it is on the image itself. All those projects can be easily submitted to the teacher via the URL (sent by e-mail, for example). Those activities can be performed in teams to enhance the students’ involvement. In fact, as screen captures are very quick to do and easy to share, students can do their own capture and send it to teammates for feedback. The teammates can even take a screenshot of their peers’ screen captures and give them feedback directly on the image, using Jing. Getting feedback from their peers can really help students improve. As mentioned by Shauna Hedgepeth, such activities can also be done as whole class activities. She uses Jing in her mathematics classroom and states:
I showed Jing to my students and they instantly wanted to use it. Students come to the board and record themselves working on problems in front of the class. Students started recording themselves working on math problems at home and would email them to me, or to each other, even uploading the videos to their own student-created web pages.”
If Jing is used to give answers in class, the screencasts or screen captures can easily be sent to students and serve as useful reminders to study for potential exams. Also, as long as the teacher makes sure that the content is good, student-created videos or screen captures can serve as student-made revision tools or tutoring sessions.
Jing is also an incredible tool for teachers to use. As James Gill mentioned, Jing can be a powerful time saver; teachers can create videos about notions that they show regularly to their students and post them online either as homework or as reminders that students can refer to if they forgot something. Students can also simply take their time listening if they did not understand one aspect of the lesson. Many teachers, such as Erika Osváth, also encourage using Jing’s screencast tool to give students on their written production. Indeed, by explaining to students what could be improved in their text and by showing it to them on the screen, the teachers enable the students to get personalized feedback and to watch that feedback as much as necessary. I consider this to be a great way for students not to lose the feedback you gave them.
However, Jing has a few technical disadvantages. First, the tool is incomplete; it does not allow for editing on videos, not even for writing on them. Every time a user creates a screencast or a screenshot, Jing asks them if they wish to improve their work by using Snagit (for screenshots) and Camtasia (for screencasts), two far more complete applications also created by TechSmith. These software, even if they charge a certain monetary amount to be used, offer much more editing options to the users. Also, Jing has a bad audio quality. This is a huge disadvantage that might be a bother when teachers want to listen to their students’ recordings. A shy student that does not talk loud will only be harder to hear with a bad audio quality.
All in all, Jing is definitely a tool that I would recommend to ESL teachers. It is very simple, and your students will enjoy using the tool. It’s wide range of uses, as well as its potential for feedback, will allow you to plan varied, engaging lessons.
by Camille Leblanc, TESL student