e-learning design, development, and trends

Screenr has a lot of potential for online learning. It’s Articulate’s new online screencasting service. Screenr is trendy. It screams Web 2.0—it promotes user-generated content for Twitter, iPhones and web pages, promotes knowledge sharing and it’s entirely in the cloud.

 How It Works;

Screenr works in just a few easy steps,

→ “Sign in using your Twitter account (if you don’t have one it takes you to Twitter to get one)”
→ “Click the Record Your screencast now! button.”
→ “Size the screenr Record window”
→ “Click the red Record button.”The application lets you record up to five action-packed minutes of your computer screen. The result is a decent video capture that is light enough for Twitter. You can see the quality in the video below, but here the size had to be reduced a bit to fit into this page. You can test it out without signing in, but you won’t be able to publish your video.

When you’re signed in and you do publish, it’s a bit of a surprise at first that your finished product is posted to the public stream on the screenr site. Clicking a checkbox sends it through Twitter.

e-Learning 2.0

Screenr is a speedy way to get content out to an audience in an almost real-time capacity. There are so many potential applications, particularly to support learning in its broadest sense. For example, you could use it to:

» Send out short “Getting Started” tutorials to employees when new software is rolled out.
» Send short demos of “What’s Coming” to prepare employees or external clients before new software is launched.
» Embed screenr-casts into a support Wiki for demos.
» Use screencasts to provide on-demand support from a technical team, for internal and external customers.
» Twitter new ideas and designs to potential clients.
» Twitter important screencasts to virtual and mobile employees.
» Collaborate with other designers by screencasting your latest ideas.You get the idea. Any information that requires just-in-time webcasting or any situation that requires quick production and nearly real-time solutions could work with this online service. It’s a force that will push eLearning 2.0 ahead another step.

The Downside

A downside to screenr is that publishing the screencast makes it public. This is an obstacle to all who might want to use the app for anything the world was not meant to see. This aspect is bound to exclude a large number of potential users.

Like other free applications, screenr has limited functionality. There are no ways to modify, edit or enhance the video while online. Also, the size of the window might make it difficult to screencast lots of detail. I haven’t checked with Articulate, but perhaps this is their Freemium version, with a paid upgrade in the works.

Screenr Website: http://screenr.com/