I just heard about an online, free screen recording application called ScreenToaster so I thought I’d test it out. It works pretty well. The best thing is it doesn’t require any software to be downloaded to your computer, it’s totally online.
What is it?
“ScreenToaster is a free web-based screen recorder designed to capture screen activity in real-time to rapidly create and share tutorials, demos, training, lectures and more.”
Pros:
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Cons:
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Why use screen capture software?
- Create demonstrations
- Great for teaching math or science equations
- Create video “talking head” with PowerPoint slide
- Record lecture
These are only a few. If you have others please add them via the comments area. I’m always looking for input.
Compared to Jing
Some of you may have heard of or are using Jing which is a screencast program created by TechSmith. I’ve been using this program for awhile and really like it. However, the problem I have is that it only saves the files in .swf format and that is not easily converted for further editing. Jing is an application that runs from your computer so it may produce smoother video captures since network speed isn’t an issue (although I’ve not tested this).
| Jing | ScreenToaster | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free but fee-based if want all the features | Free |
| Account Required | No | Yes |
| Software Required | Yes – must download Jing | Yes – Flash is required |
| Allows for audio voiceover | Yes | Yes |
| Allows for video voiceover | No | Yes |
| Allows for text captioning | No | Yes |
| Allows for easy upload | Yes to Screencast.com | Yes to YouTube and ScreenToaster.com |
| Allows for easy download | Yes to .swf only | Yes to .swf and .mov |
| Editable later | No | Yes |
| Allows you to append a recording | No | Yes |
| Allows audio voiceover after the initial recording | No | Yes |
| Takes still screenshots | Yes | No |
