Jing, screen capture and podcasts

I've already tried out and blogged about screencast-o-matic for Cam23 things, so was keen to test out Jing to see how it compares. I liked Jing's sun tool, and found it easy to use for both screenshots and screencasting. However I was a bit put off by the fact that you seemed to need to sign up for screencast.com for sharing a link to your capture (even if you didn't want to share, it seemed there wasn't an option to continue without it), and to edit the capture needed another tool to be downloaded.

Screenshots - Jing vs Lightshot
I will probably stick to Lightshot for screen capture, as this offers the same facility to share your capture via a generated link, but without the need the register with another product. Lightshot can also be edited without having to download or sign up for another product. Both Jing and Lightshot were equally slow to upload screen captures for sharing.

Screencasting - Jing vs Screencast-o-matic
There isn't much to choose between Screencast-o-matic and Jing in terms of features or ease of use. The main difference seemed to me to be whether you prefer the cursor to be shown (Jing) or replaced by a yellow circle (Screencast-o-matic) when viewing your screencast.

For my thoughts on podcasts, see my earlier post. Thanks to cpd23 for pointing out the arcadia@cambridge podcasts and Careers Group University of London podcasts – both look interesting and useful.

Pictures, podcasts and creative commons #cam23

Since I last used flickr, the layout has changed a bit, but I'm glad to see the Creative Commons licensed images are still there, and easy to find via a tickbox on the advanced search. This is such a useful feature! Talking of useful (my favourite thing to look for in a web 2.0 tool) Imagecodr really makes it easy to ensure the image is properly attributed, so here is my first shot at using it:

  by  alexbrn 

I also find the preview function on Imagecodr very helpful - so far, I think I'm a fan.

I don't use podcasts very often, but in a university and/or library setting they can be great for things like inductions, video tutorials and lectures. A student friend of mine finds podcasts a good way of spending time while he sits supervising an experiment - as they are in short bursts, they don't require a long time concentrating (which is good when you want to keep an eye on your experiment and make sure nothing is going wrong). Podcasts are probably useful for people who are short on time or who have short attention spans, or want to fill time while on journeys etc.

I hadn't explored the CILIP communities podcasts before, but there are some interesting sounding ones there, so it's worth remembering. I haven't subscribed to it, but may go back and search for information on a particular topic. As I have just got an iTunes account, I searched there and came across http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/los-angeles-public-library/id280972438?ign-mpt=uo%3D4. I'm sure there are other public libraries who put on talks and speeches who do this too, but it struck me as a nice way of making the library more visible, reaching out to those who missed the talks, and making the most of the effort that has gone into putting on the talks.