Read Aloud Screencasting

I was recently asked what the best program is to record a read aloud.

This got me thinking about one of my favorite read aloud follows on YouTube, Glenn Malcolm. He does read alouds for his grandson and posts them to YouTube. I like how his face is on the screen during the read aloud in a moveable "dot". The only program I know that can do a circle webcam like that is Loom.

Luckily Loom is offering their full account FREE (forever) to educators.
I recorded the read aloud below to test the program. I used a children's book that I found online in one of four places I have access to online children's books:
- Hoopla Digital (offered through our local library)
- cloudLibrary eBooks (offered through our local library)
- Sora (our district's online library for students)
- Epic (library website that is free for teachers to use in the classroom)

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I could have snapped pictures of each page or used a webcam but for me it was easier to use a book that was already online.

The program is limited editing wise (you can clip out the beginning and the ending) but you do get a link that you can easily share (and to my surprise an embed code!). I found that you can hid the controls on your webcam and as long as my mouse wasn't on the circle the dot's size options won't show.There were some glitches moving the circle around but I found if I kept the movements limited (one movement max per page) it worked better (but that could have been a buffering issue on my end).

Overall I was pleased with my sample read aloud. I think students will like seeing their teachers face inside the book which helps with the social emotional connections that we are all trying to establish as we start the new year.

If you use Loom, or another program to record your read aloud, please feel free to share either in the comments below or tag me on Twitter @atechcoachlife.

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Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

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