Help me record my explaining
May 8, 2011 3:34 PM Subscribe
What device / technology should I use to record interactive lectures at home and publish them online?
I would like to upload videos online of my explanations on various technical topics. I am a teacher at work and my style is to interact with students during lectures with frequent hand-drawn illustrations on a whiteboard.
Now I do not have a whiteboard at home, and even if I did I could not afford these modern whiteboard-recording devices. So I would like to know what techniques and tools you could suggest so that I could reproduce this lecturing technique at home and record it with a computer?
So far I have thought about:
1. recording videos of me standing before a large sheet of paper and drawing on it. The drawings are not too clear this way.
2. recording the video of me first, then make screen recordings of me drawing things with OmniGraffle or other such graphical tools, and use a video editing tool to merge both. This sounds like a lot of work.
Ideally, I would like to use a device that records my hand drawing and my voice at the same time. Are there any? Would a drawing tablet or the LiveScribe pen be of any use to me?
I am also ready to consider my approach entirely differently. My budget is limited (<500€).
I would like to upload videos online of my explanations on various technical topics. I am a teacher at work and my style is to interact with students during lectures with frequent hand-drawn illustrations on a whiteboard.
Now I do not have a whiteboard at home, and even if I did I could not afford these modern whiteboard-recording devices. So I would like to know what techniques and tools you could suggest so that I could reproduce this lecturing technique at home and record it with a computer?
So far I have thought about:
1. recording videos of me standing before a large sheet of paper and drawing on it. The drawings are not too clear this way.
2. recording the video of me first, then make screen recordings of me drawing things with OmniGraffle or other such graphical tools, and use a video editing tool to merge both. This sounds like a lot of work.
Ideally, I would like to use a device that records my hand drawing and my voice at the same time. Are there any? Would a drawing tablet or the LiveScribe pen be of any use to me?
I am also ready to consider my approach entirely differently. My budget is limited (<500€).
You could try mixing screen input with webcam videos and your voiceover using Jing. It's only for short videos, though - up to 5 minutes.
The other tool that occurs to me is Camtasia. You could produce your "whiteboard" drawings on Powerpoint slides, then animate the sequence of drawings. If you want to use freehand input, you'd need to either scan in freehand drawings or use a tablet as b1tr0t suggests. You can get educational pricing on Camtasia.
posted by Susurration at 5:21 PM on May 8, 2011
The other tool that occurs to me is Camtasia. You could produce your "whiteboard" drawings on Powerpoint slides, then animate the sequence of drawings. If you want to use freehand input, you'd need to either scan in freehand drawings or use a tablet as b1tr0t suggests. You can get educational pricing on Camtasia.
posted by Susurration at 5:21 PM on May 8, 2011
PS - forgot to add that Camtasia allows you to record sequences of PPT slides with voiceover recording. You can also edit in webcam videos etc.
posted by Susurration at 5:23 PM on May 8, 2011
posted by Susurration at 5:23 PM on May 8, 2011
What about a document camera (or a video camera on a gooseneck arm, simulating a document camera)? I've seen some really well-done presentations where the presenter just draws on a sketchpad below a document camera, and projects that video.
posted by Alterscape at 7:30 PM on May 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Alterscape at 7:30 PM on May 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
Sorry for the slow response -- was in transit yesterday. Anyhow, this is a Document Camera. They're typically used in classrooms/lecture halls to video and project pages from a book, or written notes -- think of the digital version of an overhead projector. I suspect you could get a similar effect with a $100 webcam mounted to an old drafting table light's support arm.
posted by Alterscape at 11:58 AM on May 11, 2011
posted by Alterscape at 11:58 AM on May 11, 2011
Response by poster: The livescribe pen ended up meeting the bill of reqs. Thanks to all who answered!
posted by knz at 3:26 AM on June 9, 2011
posted by knz at 3:26 AM on June 9, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Consider recording the actions, editing them, then recording your voice over the video. I really like the screenxxasting application Camtasia.
posted by jander03 at 5:07 PM on May 8, 2011