Screen Casts

Screen casts are one of my new favorite tools! When a colleague had a question on how to work something, I explained to her how but ultimately we decided to create a video to share with the staff on how to do it, so that they knew how to do it. That wasn't a screen cast but I have created 8-10 screen cast in the last month and this is what I have learned.

I used Screen Castify and Screencast-O-Matic. The two are both free to start with. Screen Castify allows you to create videos up to 5 minutes without any fee and it does not need to be downloaded to your computer, simply added to Chrome. Screencast-O-Matic must be downloaded to your computer and will create up to 15 minute videos for free.

Both will create great screen casts that get the job done. However, when I first started working on screen casts I was a t work. This only allowed for me to use Screen Castify because I couldn't download  Screencast-O-Matic to my work computer.

Screencast-O-Matic shows you the amount of time you have been recording for in the lower left hand corner of the screen with the pause button. This feature helped me to see when I was approaching the end of my time. On Screen Castify it did not show me a clock on my recording time and on one video I was cut off at the 5 minutes without finishing. All in all, the only difference that seems to mater in this case is how long you need the video to be. You are limited to 5 minutes with Screen Castify but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you are creating a screen cast it is most likely for a very specific task or instruction. In this case if it a resource you are trying to put out for others you don't want it to be more than 5 minutes because they are not as likely to watch it.

Ultimately, my favorite is Screen Castify because it suits my needs but I have nothing bad to say about Screencast-O-Matic. The only problem I came up with was having to download it to a computer, which for most of us is not an option at work. Below is a screen cast I created through Screen Castify.

Here is my screen cast on accessing the digital catalog at my library.

Infographics

Infographics are a great way to create instructions, posters and even
step-by-step instructions. You can pay for subscriptions to many
sites that will help you to create infographic displays and many have
free options as well. I have listed some of these sites below:

https://www.easel.ly/

https://infogram.com/

https://create.piktochart.com/

https://www.canva.com/login

For a specific project, I created accounts on Easelly, Infogram and Pikochart.
Though it was not specific to that project I had already had an account on Canva
and looked at this site as well. Overall I have a recommendation that 3 of the 4 sites
have some great FREE resources that can serve anyone needing or wanting to
create infographics. I will start with why I do not recommend Infogram.
Database Instructions 

Infogram 

Infogram did not have many free tools to create a visually appealing infographic and
would not let me download my creation in any format, without paying a fee. I was
only able to save the document as a link. The final result was an infographic that
was not very visually appealing and left me feeling like the project was not satisfactory.

Pikochart

Pikochart helped me to create a visually appealing infographic. I was able to
create it the way that I wanted it. However, when editing shapes, text boxes
and graphics I continually had to return to the undo button as you have to
click multiple times on an object to just select that one. It was also difficult
to select a layered object that they provided in order to move it around when
there were graphics behind it. It has many great graphics and options in the
free version and it can work well in many ways if it serves your purpose.

Created with Pikochart 

Easelly

For this project my favorite result was from Easelly. I was able to create a very
visually appealing infographic that gave a final result of something I would happily
claim as my own work and consider it finished. There were a wide range of
FREE options through the site and I was easily able to download my final result,
which I have included. 

Created with Easelly

Canva 

Previous to this project my favorite site for creating flyers and announcements
was Canva. Now, however I have some up with 2 alternatives that can fit my needs,
depending on what kind of results I want. Easelly, Pikochart and Canva are my go
to sites for infographics, flyers and posters.

Created with Canva