As a teacher, I often use a screen recorder when correcting and commenting on writing assignments, thus combining oral and written feedback to students. It is also a very handy device for making “how to” clips that can be embedded in blogs, wikis, or other web spaces.

How to choose one? Well, the editors at CNET’s download.com have just published an informative comparison of four such products. The tools range in price from free to not so free, and include Camtasia Studio, My Screen Recorder, Tip Cam, and Jing. (Another popular program, CamStudio, was not included for some reason.)

I regularly use Jing and Camtasia Studio, and would certainly recommend either. Both are designed and offered by the creative team at TechSmith. (Note: Teachers qualify for a 50% discount on most of their products, including Camtasia Studio — a huge savings if you need the extra bells and whistles it offers.)

What is your own personal favorite, and how do you use it?

Leave it to the BBC to come up with something as clever and enjoyable as this lighthearted spoof on the classic movie The Wizard of Oz.

A video as creative as this one begs to have an English lesson created around it.

If your students have TVs at home, they’ve probably seen the original film in their native language: “The Wizard of Oz is the most watched film in history” (Library of Congress). If so, students will have the necessary background knowledge for any number of language tasks.

If not, you might consider putting together a story summary from sources including Wikipedia articles on The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (book), or from the IMDB. A 92-page abridged version of the book, aimed at 9-12 year olds, is also available from Amazon.

Here are some possible lesson approaches:

Listening: Create a gap-fill exercise in Word or interactive format and use the clip for dictation practice.

Discussion: Prepare a list of questions based on the clip to stimulate conversation. Examples:

• Who are the main characters in the story?
• What does each one want?
• What is their order of appearance? Does it match the original movie?
• In this clip, dogs are “good guys” while cats are evil. Why do you suppose this is so? Is this the case in real life?
• The dead witch’s ruby slippers are obviously valuable. What is their power? Do they “symbolize” something? If so, what?

Writing: Provide suitable writing prompts, such as:

• Describe what happens in the video clip and give three examples of how it differs from events in the original movie.
• What would YOU ask the wizard for if you visited the Emerald City, and why? Justify the reasons for your request.
• Why do you suppose the original movie appeals to all ages, not just children? Give at least three reasons to support your opinion.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately surrounding the power of Skype in the classroom. Joe Dale wrote some reflections about it here in connection with Silvia Tolisano’s ambitious Around the World in 80 Schools project, itself a tremendous resource for creative teachers using technology.

Regardless of how you or your students employ Skype, at some point you are going to want to record and preserve student conversations for evaluation, making podcasts for class or student blogs, or whatever. In this post we’ll look at several programs that help you do this.

Assuming that you’ve already installed Skype on your computer, the easiest place to start is the Tools menu within Skype. Click on Tools, then Extras. In the menu, notice links to two separate sound recorders, CallBurner and Pamela.  Clicking on them will allow you to download and install the needed plugins to enable recording.

If you choose the CallBurner route, no purchase is required to record Skype-to-Skype calls IF the other party has also installed CallBurner. If not, be prepared to pony up $49.95 per computer — yes, per computer — for a license that includes updates for 12 months. A bit pricey for me, and restrictive.

Pamela comes in three flavors actually — free, call recorder (plus), and premium. The free version limits call recording to 15 minutes and has fewer features than the others. Noticeable is the lack of a plugin to save recordings as podcast-friendly MP3 files. Pamela’s default WAV format is much larger, requiring a separate audio file converter to compress and convert your files to MP3. The free Audacity program will handle this but bear in mind that  time is required to complete this additional step. Upgrade to call recorder (plus) for about $20 (no expiration) to remove the time limitation and get the save-as-MP3 feature.

Other sound recorder options include CallGraph (free but ad supported), Call Recorder for Mac ($14.95), and my personal favorite, MP3 Skype Recorder.

Here’s what I like about MP3 Skype Recorder:

• Simple, straightforward interface
• Saves recordings to MP3 by default; no need for separate file converter
• Selectable recording mode (mono/stereo) and bit rate
• Impressive sound quality using external or internal microphone
• Free unlimited use without ads

Whichever recorder you eventually choose, make sure Skype is installed on your computer first. Then install the sound recorder and launch it. Depending on the plugin, at some point during its installation or launch you will be prompted for permission to connect with Skype. Make some test calls, play with the settings, and have fun recording your conversations.