Jing - An Unbelievable Screencast Tool

What is Jing? What does Jing do?

Jing is an unbelievable screencasting tool which can be used to record everything happening on your screen. By registering for free, you are able to get 2GB storage. After finishing the video, you can store, download, or share it online.

How to use Jing?

    1. Link to www.techsmith.com/jing.html, download Jing, and 

        sign up.

    2. Then Jing will appear on the top of screen. Click 

        "Capture" to decide which area on the screen will be      

        recorded.

    3. Click "Capture a video" and starting to record.

    4. After finishing, you are able to save the video or share online. 

        Click "Share via Screencast.com" to upload the video, and 

        then Jing will send back a link of your video. 

The following link is a self-made Jing video about giving feedback to Ss. (The author of the article is my previous student, who is now an eight grader. She sent me her article, and it only took me less than ten minutes to give her feedback. Amazing, isn't it?)

http://screencast.com/t/gEcsiF2sD

Why is Jing Revelant to language teaching?

    1. It provides a good way for Ts to give detailed and personal 

        feedback on writing. Reflecting my previous experience, I 

        used to correct Ss' works or give feedback only by writing, and 

        sometimes I only provided something very general. By using 

        Jing, Ts can give both visual and audio feedback, and Ss can 

        understand T's suggestions more clearly. Besides, using Jing to 

        give Ss feedback is helpful for protecting Ss' 'face'. They can 

        watch feedback privately instead of being corrected in public. 

        Moreover, Jing video will be stored for a long time, which 

        means Ss can watch their feedback again and again.

    2. Ss can use Jing to do presentation. It will make the preparation 

        work more interesting, and it is also helpful to promote Ss' 

        motivation.

    3. It's extremely easy to use. There are more possibilities in Jing 

        than in paperwork.

How can Jing be used in / outside class?

    1. T can give feedback on Ss' writing by using Jing. During the 

        process, it is not necessary for T to correct all the errors for 

        Ss. Instead, T can just mark the error and ask Ss to think about 

        it then revise a new version.

    2. Ask Ss to do presentations (individual or group) or storytelling. 

        The presentations or storytelling will become more attractive 

        with both visual and audio effects.

    3. After doing some activities in class, T can provide an overall 

        feedback to all the Ss by sending each S the link.

    4. Ts can implement Jing in different teaching activities. For 

        example, explaining grammatical concepts, introducing 

        new vocabulary, providing supplementary or distant teaching.

What limitations are there?

    1. The maximum of video is only five minutes. Sometimes the 

        time limitation is not enough for Ts to give all the feedback at 

        a time.

    2. It requires users' speaking ability. Also, there is no way return 

        after pressing "record". So if the user makes mistakes all the 

        time, it will take a long time to finish a video.  

    3. It is time-consuming for Ts to give each S feedback by using 

        Jing. Take myself for example, I can finish checking a short 

        article in five minutes; however, the whole process of using 

        Jing may take me more than ten minutes. This factor may 

        result in Ts' unwillingness to use it.