Here’s how:

Have any other effects you’d like to see? Leave a comment below.

Learn more about Camtasia for Mac

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The post Create Custom Spotlight Effects in Camtasia for Mac appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube!

You can learn more about Nancy Duarte by connecting with her on her blog, Facebook or Twitter.

During this episode I mentioned that you could have a chance to win a copy of one of Nancy’s books – Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences or slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. Send us an email at theForge@techsmith.com with your biggest take away from the interview with Nancy. I’ll randomly select a winner for each book the first week of June.

Plus, we want to hear from you. What would make the Forge even more useful and valuable to you? Do you want more episodes, hardware reviews, how-to’s, longer shows, shorter shows…? We are going into our fourth season – with 29 episodes down – we want to make the next season even better! Let us know all of your feedback by sending us an email. Get creative and we’ll send you one of our AWESOME custom Forge shirts with the Forge Crest

The post The Forge: Episode 29 Presentation Tips with Nancy Duarte appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

Saying “we’re excited” is a bit of an understatement – we’ve been using some of our lunch breaks to collectively catch up with the Bluths, eagerly anticipating the new season while chowing down on cornballs, ice cream sandwiches, and frozen bananas.

So, when aspiring actor and favorite character, Tobias Fünke, released this series of green screen clips for James Cameron, we went a little bonkers here at TechSmith HQ. Green screen, you say? Camtasia Mac is BFFs with green screen!

Dear Tobias, even if that James Cameron fellow doesn’t want to use your clips, we’re gonna – and we’re gonna have a ball. As a bonus, we’ve got all the tricks – illusions? – to do it yourself!

Resources for Making Your Own #InsertMeAnywhere Video

• Don’t Have Camtasia Mac? How About a Free 30-Day Free Trial?!
• How to Remove a Color – Green Screen/Chroma Key Tutorial
• How to Make Your Own Green Screen
• How to Successfully Add Music to Your Videos

Some notes about the videos:

• We had trouble downloading the video files from insertmeanywhere.biz…so we captured them from the screen with Camtasia (handy, eh?)
• The explosions and fire effects are video files that already have an alpha channel (transparency); you can find some by googling for them, if desired
• We used Camtasia for Mac for all three videos, but to pull off the effect of Tobias getting squished we used AfterEffects

The post Fun with Tobias Fünke And Camtasia Mac Green Screen appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

Humble Beginnings

While UNINETT was founded in 1993 under the Ministry of Education, eCampus is a very new development. The program was influenced by demand from Norwegian institutions. UNINETT already provided the physical network and a division for centralized administrative systems for academic institutions among other services, but its reach was limited to the outer brinks of education— it was time to delve into the classroom.

“An important point of eCampus is preparation for the inevitable change that is happening in the global education landscape,” said Simon Skrødal, Senior Engineer, UNINETT eCampus. “Norway does not want to be left behind, but rather provide world class ICT infrastructure and services for the promotion of research and higher education in Norway. While institutions do compete for students, there is also a strong push for cross-collaboration and sharing. Centralized tools and services are important mechanisms to achieve this.”

Inclusion of Camtasia Relay

Prior to the eCampus pilot program of Camtasia Relay, some institutions were already running their own licenses of Camtasia Relay while others were using Camtasia Studio. Some institutions had neither program but still wanted to publish their educational content.

“Camtasia Relay is a great service that serves a great purpose,” said Simon. “It is very easy to get up and running quickly and at a relatively low cost. It was an easy decision to provide the service.”

According to eCampus, the pilot program of Camtasia Relay was amazingly popular among more than 30 institutions. UNINETT did not actively advertise the new program, yet were contacted directly by more than 800 individual lecturers and students asking for an account. They have experienced more than 500,000 hits on lecture recordings in less than a year.

Most of those using Camtasia Relay have been faculty members that are keen on sharing information. They make use of Relay to record their lectures and many use the accompanying mobile app Fuse, which allows faculty and students to create content outside of the classroom.

“Its simplicity opens up so many opportunities,” said Simon. “The faculty loves it because it is so simple to get started and use. The students love it because the quality is superb yet the file size is low, not to mention it works on mobile devices. We love it because it puts us in touch with a completely different user base than most other tools.”

Benefits

By centralizing the services that UNINETT offers, the Ministry of Education, and thus the institutions save money. Some institutions, for example, are saving up to 75 percent of their running costs of Mediasite by moving over to the central solution. Aside from saving the institutions money, eCampus saves them time. The program makes it easier for institutions to get started with technology in the classroom, as a number of them don’t have the knowledge, capacity or budgets to start these by themselves. Even students are campaigning for more lecture capture around the country, and UNINETT is ready with several feasible solutions, catered to specific needs.

“A few weeks back, the principal at one of the largest universities in the country was challenged by students in a campaign for recorded lectures,” said Simon. “The next day, we were contacted by said university and asked to speed up the process of getting the Relay production service ready as a matter of urgency. It goes to show that students very rapidly embrace these types of services and, in turn, they become mission critical to the institutions.”

Results

Norway’s activities are being observed by their Nordic neighboring NRENs who are now approaching them for information on how their respective higher education sectors can start using the services that UNINETT provides with eCampus.

In regard to Camtasia, eCampus has opened for the very first test users on the Camtasia Relay production service. The permanent installation will replace the pilot and is implemented on a technology platform that offers a more robust, scalable and secure service. A number of “spin-off” services around Camtasia Relay are also being developed by eCampus, e.g. self-service account registration for staff and students that utilizes their federated identity. While the pilot was 100 percent sponsored by eCampus funds, the production service will require institutions to share the cost for hosting and storage.

“We’re in the early stages of rolling out the production services of Relay,” said Simon. “And we’re bracing ourselves for a huge uptake now that access and sharing hours of education information can be done with the click of a button.”

The post UNINETT Spreads New Technologies Across Norway With eCampus Program appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

If you’ve watched any of our video tutorials, you may have noticed that we usually include a clickable link to surveys or other tutorials.

Well, as long as your videos are delivered through the TechSmith Smart Player, you can do the exact same thing!  You can do even more with a little creativity – like use hotspots to break a video into sections or create a custom table of contents.

In the video below, I’ll walk you through adding a clickable hotspot, and explain what it looks like in the Camtasia editor when we set ours up. When you’re done watching, feel free to ask us additional questions in the comments below or tell us about your experiences with hotspots at feedback.techsmith.com.

Can’t see the video? Watch it on screencast.com instead.

Learn more about Camtasia Studio

Check out more free product tutorials.
Want us to make a tutorial about a specific topic? Post your idea at feedback.techsmith.com.
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The post Camtasia Studio 8: How We Use Hotspots appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

The four day conference begins on June 23rd and ends on June 26th, focusing on advancing and improving education through the use of technology. Not surprisingly, the whole concept is something that we’re thrilled to be involved in. Will we be seeing you there?

In the weeks leading up to the event, we’ll be sharing presenter profiles, like the one below, to help you get better acquainted with the people who will be presenting at the TechSmith booth. Be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss any updates, and check our archives for past profiles if you’re just now joining us.

Presenter Profile Number 2: Rob Zdrojewski

Rob Zdrojewski (Follow @MrZtechTV) is a NY State certified K-12 Technology Education Teacher at Amherst Middle School and Adjunct Professor in the online Education Technologies and Emerging Media Program at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. Since 2001, he has enjoyed working with students and teachers using a project-based, blended classroom model that combines both face-to-face and online instruction.

As the founder of SchoolTVmadeEasy.com and RobZtraining.com, Rob has published numerous training DVDs and offers professional development and consulting services on digital video production. He presents at state and national conferences on topics such as greenscreen school TV production, screencasting and safe online video hosting for schools. He serves as an educational consultant and beta tester with companies such as SchoolTube, TechSmith and Edmodo and has been published in educational technology journals such as T.H.E. Journal and the Hechinger Report.

Rob is passionate about project based learning and is a strong advocate for the use of mobile devices in the classroom. He is excited to pursue a leadership role in Educational Technology with his recent completion of a second Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and Administration at Canisius College with an emphasis on digital learning.

Student Screencasters – Why Let Teachers Have All the Fun?

Creating screencasts doesn’t just have to be the job of the teacher anymore. Why not flip the direction of teaching and put students in the driver’s seat? Learn how Amherst Middle School Teacher Rob Zdrojewski “flipped” the professional development model with his “Teaching the Teachers” Screencasting project. Teachers nationwide have visited MrZclassBlog.org to learn from his student’s “Tech Under 90 Sec” tutorial videos on topics such as best practices for using Google docs and Gmail. Join us to learn how you, too, can leverage the power of screencasting for your classroom and beyond.

Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube!

Watch this presentation

Monday: 10:30AM, 1:00PM
Tuesday: 11:30AM, 3:00PM
Wednesday: 11:00AM

An Interview with Rob

What will you be presenting at ISTE 2013?
I’m presenting 2 sessions at ISTE: one on using Sooo-crative.com as a free alternative to student response systems and the other session is on Digital Storytelling using the Videolicious app on iOS devices. I actually used the Videolicious app to produce the video that you can watch above. I’ll also be presenting in the TechSmith booth in the exhibit hall, where I’ll showcase the student screencasting projects we’ve done in my classroom. It’s an awesome project where our kids are actually producing tutorial videos that their very own teachers are learning from.

What were the benefits and results of having your students make screencasts?
The biggest benefit is that the kids fully take on the role of a teacher, which is very empowering to them. Kids love to teach others when given the chance. We begin discussing that to be a good teacher, you first have to be a good student and learn the material inside and out. Since the kids are creating screencasts that live online forever and become part of their searchable digital footprint, they really want to make sure their screencasts are something they can be proud of for years to come. As a result of our student screencast projects, we’ve received awesome feedback from teachers both in our own building, across town and even across the country! We now put all of our student screencasts online at MrZclassBlog.org so anyone can view and learn from them.

Can you tell us about a typical day in your classroom?
I use what’s known as the “flipped mastery model” with my 7th and 8th grade Technology courses. Since we use a project-based curriculum approach, my students can be seen working on different steps or even completely different projects all at the same time. They move on to the next project once they’ve mastered something (student-centric), instead of the teacher or a calendar dictating when we move on (teacher-centric). That might sound a bit chaotic, and it was at first, but I stuck with it and now I’m a firm believer that classrooms should be places where kids are fully “in the driver’s seat”, building their

knowledge by working on projects together and taking ownership of their learning. Of course there will be times where I gather the whole class together and deliver information the traditional way (lecture), but that’s no longer the primary way I teach. Since we now have digital tools like Edmodo, iPads, and screencasts we can leverage these technologies and use class time more productively. I love the fact that I can spend the class period circulating among the kids and work with them in smaller groups, instead of lecturing to the masses at the front of the classroom. This benefit alone has improved my ability to build relationships with my students that otherwise couldn’t be done in the traditional lecture-based classroom.

What challenges did you have to overcome in order to successfully flip your class?
The biggest challenge for me is having to “unteach” the students. Many kids have come to expect that teachers lecture while the students sit silently and take notes, so they do well on the test. It disappoints me to see that some of our kids have disengaged and now just passively “play the game of school.” I want my students to know what it means to take true ownership of their own learning. I want them to be excited to come to my class and be active, not passive. If kids are not given the chance to explore, question, and create, I believe they miss out on true learning opportunities. This also is why we need to consider the standardized testing movement invading our schools if we want to produce kids who can think on their feet and work collaboratively together.

What kinds of special skills does this teaching method grant your students?
I feel that having kids both create and consume screencasts completes the cycle of learn–teach–learn. By using screencasts, my students are able to learn what they don’t know at the pace that is most comfortable for them, and then turn around and teach others what they’ve learned. This promotes an active verses passive mode of learning, while giving kids credibility and a well deserved self-esteem boost at the same time!

How does the flipped class model allow you to personalize your teaching style?
Personalizing the classroom environment is right up there on my list of teaching priorities. I never want a student to feel like he/she is just a number. Since I teach over 350 students each year, it becomes challenging to form individual relationships with students. I’m now a believer in leveraging technologies such as screencasting to deliver new content. I combine that with a learning management platform like Edmodo to help me keep track of student progress. Through these tools, I’ve been able to change how I interact with my students. I spend much more time working individually or in small groups because I am no longer tied to the front of the classroom delivering the same information to a room full of kids with varying needs and capabilities. When used wisely, the technology can help take care of the more routine tasks of any classroom and create opportunity for MORE, not less, face-to-face interaction. One of my favorite quotes is “to remain relevant, teachers need to provide kids with what Google cannot.” I think that really sums it up best!

The post ISTE 2013 Presenter Profiles: Rob Zdrojewski appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

As I looked closely at the feedback, I could see the learning and the conversation evolve. One student would respond with an an idea, another would chime in. The only problem was that the student who made the original video didn’t know that comments had been left.

Problem solved.

With the latest version of Ask3 (released 5/10/13), we keep the conversation going. We are notifying you and your students when new videos are made, when others respond to you or ‘star’ your videos or comments as being helpful.

Even if the app is closed, we’ll subtly notify you of relevant conversations.

The upgrade is free. Enjoy and let us know in the comments what you’d like us to work on next!!!

The post Circling Back: Notification of Ask3 Responses appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

To many, the idea of history is enough to make them tune out. The idea of family history seems even more snooze inducing. Many of us immediately think of older relatives excitedly flipping through albums of faded news clippings and old photographs.

But Lisa Louise Cooke has a completely different view of history and genealogy. To Lisa, genealogy is a window into the past where we can learn how and where we fit into history. Lisa recognizes that others might not feel the same way about genealogy, so she tries to inspire interest by showing people the mysteries and stories they can uncover.

As an avid Snagit and Camtasia user, Lisa is constantly finding new ways to present the information she uncovers in her research. From processing data to recording family timeline videos in Google Earth, Lisa is making genealogy exciting and engaging for her followers around the globe.

Making research better

Lisa has years of experience sifting through census records, tracking down relatives and sharing her experiences with others. She knows all the tricks in the book and can do her own family research quickly and efficiently. But what might take her a few minutes can seem like a herculean effort to others.

“I use Snagit to do my research more efficiently,” said Lisa. “When I’m doing research on my family, I’m moving quickly. Snagit allows me to grab search results and old photos without stopping my workflow. I can add notes to reference later and highlight important information all before I even save it to my hard drive. Snagit makes the research process incredibly easier.”

Lisa has earned a name for herself in the genealogy community through her Genealogy Gems Podcast. Through her show, she shares experiences, tips and resources with her listeners to guide their research. After building a dedicated base of listeners, Lisa started speaking at genealogy conferences.

“A lot of those involved with genealogy aren’t sure how to simplify their research with technology,” said Lisa. “So I try to show people how much more they can do with all of the websites available to them today. Snagit is a great to tool to help capture genealogy information because it’s so simple to use, yet it has the ability to do so many things.”

Lisa understands it can be easy to lose track of where you found data when you are having fun finding your ancestors online. And yet source citation is a cornerstone of good genealogical research.

To avoid forgetting what her findings mean, Lisa uses Snagit to mark, categorize and automatically archive information, making the research process that much more efficient. Even if she only has a few minutes to look around her favorite genealogy resources, Lisa is able to draw arrows to important information or add a quick note about why she thought the information was interesting. All with only a few additional clicks of her mouse.

Bringing the past to life

Many genealogists struggle with what to do once they have found information about their family. Lisa challenges genealogists to break out of the mold of photo albums or family history books. She notes that tools like Snagit and Camtasia allow family stories to be shared in completely different ways.

“I’ve done a few tutorials on how people can use Google Earth to show their family history,” said Lisa. “Google Earth is an amazing tool that allows me to present the history of my family as it spans across the globe. By capturing the presentation with Camtasia, I can create an engaging movie that shows my relatives where we came from and how we got to where we are today.”

By capturing images with Snagit, Lisa is easily able to add content to her Google Earth presentations and Camtasia videos. This allows her to round out the information much better than she could have done in a book or photo album. Not only is she able to point to a spot on the Google Earth globe, she’s also providing birth and death certificates, photos of family members and newspaper clippings indicating what was happening in the world around her relatives at that time.

Lisa has created a library of information on how to research, collect and present family history information. She shares this information through seminars around the globe and on her website.

“I don’t care how much you love genealogy, you can only sit through so many PowerPoint presentations and lectures before you start to doze off,” said Lisa. “By pulling screen captures and screen recordings into my presentations, I am able to show my audiences exactly what they can expect to see when doing their own research. And I never see a head start to nod off.”

As with most things, it’s important for genealogists to walk before they run. Lisa offers plenty of tips and tricks for family historians of all experience levels. She also shares interesting stories through her Genealogy Gems Podcast that inspire others to find and share similar stories.

“One of the great joys of genealogy is the chance to be a detective,” said Lisa. “Family history is like one big mystery with little clues that pop up here and there to give us a better understanding of our place in history. That’s what it’s really all about. Everybody benefits from finding out where their place is in history. And if you don’t know where you come from, it’s hard to tell where you’re going.”

To learn more about Lisa and genealogy, visit Lisa’s website, listen to the Genealogy Gems Podcast or download the Genealogy Gems app.

The post 21st Century Genealogy: Snagit and Camtasia Help Family Historians Bring the Past to Life appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

On the January episode of the Forge, we talked with author and visual thinker Dan Roam about visual thinking and how it helps make our ideas and communication clearer.

Dan let us know about an upcoming opportunity. He’s hosting a Visual Thinking training this summer in London and Berlin (Sorry for everyone in the US, but if there’s enough interest, maybe we can convince him to do one stateside. Or you can check out our interview with Dan or his Napkin Academy).

Register for Dan’s training

London June 13 | Berlin June 18

If you use the coupon code NAPKINCADET, you can save £/€100 off the standard fee.

Dan made this video with Camtasia Studio to share what participants will learn during the training.

(Can’t see the embedded video? Watch it on YouTube.)

Even though I can’t go to Dan’s training, this is a pretty cool video. If you want make a video like it, I’ve gone through and pointed out some of the things that Dan did right in making it.

Analysis of Dan’s video

1) As the video starts, you see Dan front and center. This is actually a great way to connect you to your audience.

2) Notice the subtle zoom out during the first 10 seconds. It’s actually a really smart thing Dan is doing. He’s keeping things moving, which should help keep your attention. Someone recently suggested that your screen should be changing every 6 to 8 seconds. For advertisements and marketing type videos, this is pretty good advice as long as the content makes sense. If you’re doing step-by-step training, you might actually want to opt for the screen changing and moving less.

3) Drawing on your screen. It’s interesting and Dan is a master so it works well for him. I think, given his topic, it makes total sense. He uses the drawing tools in PowerPoint, so nothing fancy. If you do something like this, I’d recommend that you use the clip speed feature to speed up the drawing process.

4) At 0:53, Dan includes camera video from one of his presentations. Again, this is a great way to get your audience to connect with a speaker. Dan is also using the clip from his talk to further illustrate what you’re going to learn from attending his session. If it makes sense to include camera video, it can be engaging. It also helps establish himself as an expert. As you watch him speak, you can see he really knows what he’s talking about.

5) As Dan continues through the rest of the video, notice how often things change on the screen. No one clip or video stays up too long. He keeps it moving. And as he goes, he is tying together a story. It’s not a story with big plot arcs and the typical protagonists and antagonists, but a story that says basically:

• Great thinkers draw.
• People freak out when they are asked to draw.
• Drawing doesn’t have to be scary or hard.
• Drawing is fundamental to being human.
• By learning what Dan teaches, you’ll be able to think more clearly by using visuals and drawing.

Its not Goldilocks, but it does flow and helps you see the problem and how there is resolution to the problem.

I think it’s really to important to understand the value of story in screencasts. The story helps to convey the message and move the viewer toward their goal. Even simple stories can help do that. Think through – what’s your story? What flow is going to help you convey your goal?

6) Finally, it’s subtle, but did you hear the music he uses. I didn’t really notice it at first, but he uses it to keep things moving along. Notice that throughout the video it dips in and out depending on the point of the video. The music never overwhelms the narration (which is critical). At some points it actually cuts out completely to emphasis the narration or the speaking. Sometimes it feels a little rushed, but Dan’s got the fundamental concepts right. And as much as I didn’t first notice the music, his talking stands out when it’s not there. Get some tips on editing your music in Camtasia Studio.

What do you think? Any great videos you’ve seen lately that inspired you?

The post Dan Roam’s European training – Plus an analysis of his video appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.

First, use video capture to record the entire process up front. Then, play it back to figure out what screenshots you need. Once you’re done, use the Capture Frame feature in the Editor to snag the screenshots. Then, start building your documentation!

Need to see it in action? Take a few minutes to watch this short video, then start thinking about what you’re going to do with all of your extra time!

Can’t see the embedded video? Watch it here.

The post Using Snagit for Process Documentation appeared first on TechSmith Blogs.