Jing, Speakmania & Creative Commons

Jing

Jing is a free screen recording software program available from Techsmith. It allows people to select part of their computer screen for snapping screenshots and screencasts, which it automatically saves so that users can easily share them via email, link sharing, or embedding on webpages. Assume that your students are using laptop or desktop computers, either in your classroom or from afar.

 Advantages: 

•  Jing is free!
  
• Instructional Activities: Jing would permit instructors to share screen-based lecture materials by selecting, snapping or recording part of their screen activities, and sharing them with students. It also allows users to mark up the screenshots with visual indicators for added emphasis. In screencasting mode, instructors could add audio narration. Thus, instructors could make multimedia lecture materials.
  
• Student Activities: Since Jing permits the user to record and share screenshots or screencasts, when students encounter technical issues pertaining to the software or interface on their computers, they can easily record the relevant data as a screenshot or screencast and share it with a teacher or technical support representative associated with the learning program. Students can use the same method to ask questions about learning materials presented on their screens. Students could also turn in assignments as screenshots or screencasts.

Disadvantages: 

• Technical Requirements: Jing requires users to have a laptop or desktop computer with a Windows or Mac OS, which is not as mobile as a tablet or smart phone with iOS or an android OS. Plus, Jing requires a broadband connection, but not every user always has access to broadband connections. Thus, Jing could only be used on the go as far as one’s broadband connection and laptop battery life afford. 
  
• Jing’s screencasting tool does not allow a split-screen function that shows the user speaking on one side of the screencast.
  
• Jing does not allow for video editing. 

 Speakmania

Speakmania is a website where language learning pen pals can meet to practice language skills.

Advantages: 

• Speakmania allows users to practice with language learning pen pals through email, text chat, or audio and video chat. Text-based practice allows users to practice reading and writing in a language whereas voice-based practice permits users to practice listening and speaking.
  
• Speakmania affords instructors the opportunity to arrange for a classroom exchange for his or her students to pair with each other.
  
• Speakmania could be used by students who want to supplement their studies at their own pace.

Disadvantages: 

• Users cannot identify their own levels of proficiency on their user profiles, nor can users search for partners that meet a certain level of speaking or writing proficiency in a language.
  
• If meeting with a stranger, the user relies on the reliability of what the pen pal says or teaches. When language use strays from the language use the student is learning as part of the class, there is no given way for the student to tell that it does stray and how. Sure, the student is gaining real world experience by listening to or reading what the pen pal says, but the student must also develop a sense of what conventions are specific to which linguistic communities.
  
• There is no translation tool (e.g. tool like Google translate) built into Speakmania. Such could be helpful when a partner uses a term, part of speech, or combination of words (e.g. idioms) that the user does not recognize.

 Creative Commons

The Creative Commons organization hosts the Creative Commons website. It affords educators and students many benefits that can enhance lecture materials or assignments. It is about licenses for creative works (e.g. images, sounds, video, and code) that stipulate criteria for the fair use of the work.

Advantages

• Users can search out creative works that they can use in their projects without violating copyright restrictions. The works have licenses that stipulate what constitutes fair use of the work. The works could be used by instructors for making lecture materials or by students for making projects that satisfy assignments.
  
• Users can register their creative works and stipulate what constitutes fair use or sharing of the work. 

• Through using the website, users learn about important concepts in digital ethics and develop ethical practices in the fair use of digital media. 

Disadvantages 

• Users can only search for works by entering a key word or phrase rather than entering a combination of key words of phrases that would yield more selective search results.
  
• The website’s search feature does not always take users only to free works that match the user’s specification.
  
• Some of the works are not licensed for modification. This can be a disadvantage for users when the work as is does not perfectly match the user’s needs and modification of the work could.