How to Record Screencasts in Gmail

Nimbus Screenshot is a Chrome extension that I've featured in the past as a good tool for creating annotated, scrolling screenshots and for creating screencast videos on Chromebooks. The latest update to Nimbus Screenshot added the ability to record screencast videos directly from your Gmail inbox. 

With Nimbus Screenshot installed in Chrome you will see its icon appear in the composition window whenever you're composing a new message or replying to a message. Simply click on the Nimbus icon and you can start recording a screencast of your browser tab, a specific window, or your entire desktop. When your recording is finished it will be automatically inserted into the body of your message. 

Watch this short video to see how you can record a screencast in Gmail by using Nimbus Screenshot.

Applications for Education
Nimbus Screenshot in Gmail provides an easy way to reply to requests for tech help. Creating a quick screencast video to answer a student's or a colleague's question about how to do something on his or her computer can be a lot more efficient than trying to write step-by-step directions.

How to Link Within Google Earth Projects

Google Earth in all its forms has been one of my favorite educational technology tools for well over a decade. The web version of Google Earth has improved significantly since its launch five years ago. One of the relatively new features of the web version of Google Earth is the ability to link to places within your projects (AKA tours). 

Linking within your Google Earth tours allows you have guide viewers of your tours to specific places without them having to click through every stop of the tour. In other words, it allows them to skip around without having to navigate sequentially. Watch my new video to see how this works. 

Applications for Education
One of my favorite ways to use Google Earth is to have students develop tours based on a series of events. They add a markers for each event on the places the events happened. Within each marker they write descriptions of the event including its connection to other events. By including links in the place markers students can more accurately connect the series of events in their Google Earth projects.

Learn more about Google Earth in A Crash Course in Google Earth & Maps for Social Studies.