Jing

http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

What is this?

Jing is an incredible tool allowing you to record your voice and your screen simultaneously! Actually, you can record everything happening in front of the screen. You are able to get 2GB storage by registration. You are then free to record anything on your screen and share that with others.

How to use it?

1. Go to http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html and download Jing, you have to register using the Google email or email address. It takes a while for the download. 

2. After the download, click "capture" and then drag the area you want to capture, you can choose functions like Image, Video and so on. 

3. Click "Capture a Video" and start to record.

4. When you finish, click "Share via screencast.com" (which is on the left-hand corner, it is quite small) to upload the video and you will receive a link of your video from Jing.

The following is my own example of using Jing:

http://screencast.com/t/i0VRnOXW8t

Below is a very excellent tutorial video given by Russell in his teachers' training video website on how to use Jing:                http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/Jing/index.html 

You can also view the official tutorial video given by Jing for complete understanding.

Why is the content good for language learning?

1. clearer, more precise: teachers can show the instructions or correction of the assignment to students 
2. formative and summative 
3. showing the emotion of teachers: the voice of teachers is recorded, this highly increases and reflects the authenticity of speakers, making the conversation more interactive 
4. multimodality: with the image of screen, the voice of speaker, the writing from typing all contribute to the idea of multimodality 
5. impact: the impact on the one who receives the video is impressive when multimodal elements are involved 
6. more elaboration: we often give more details in speaking than writing, since voice is recorded, the explanation of a particular point of view and some details of a piece of assignment can be discussed in great details by teachers 
7. more engagement of teachers, more interactive: it is like teachers are talking to students directly, students are more engaged in gaining feedback from teachers 
8. stylish (explanation usually comes along when in speaking) 

How might you use it in a language teaching context? 

1. in essay marking: teachers can give feedback using Jing, showing the mistakes students have and they explain the mistakes orally 
2. in talking about Timeline: students can give their presentation to teachers even they are away from teachers after school, students may talk about their best friends or pets or family as their presentation. After that, teachers can send their feedback about the presentation to students through Jing again. 
3. teaching activities can be carried out outside classroom: teachers can use this tool in distant teaching, having extra classes before public exams, giving writing assignment to students (which I have done as an example in Jing above) 

Limitations 

1. teachers need to be capable of controlling computer in order to be able to master the techniques from Jing 
2. it increases the workload of teachers when feedback takes place in Jing 
3. the maximum time of video is only five minutes, this may hinder 
4. the feedback giving by teachers or presentation by students