Sure, we know that Jing videos can be great for quickly and informally showing someone a process or giving feedback. But what about for really important things like sharing and explaining your favorite game at the moment?

I'll share a game that I was addicted to for a few weeks. You can get it for iPhone or just play on the web. It's called Shopping Cart Hero and our former Jing Mac Developer introduced it to me. (Thanks Don...I'm over 400 jumps on my iPhone somehow!) Instead of trying to explain it, I made a 1-minute video for you.

Now that I've "beaten" Shopping Cart Hero, I clearly need another game! What do you recommend? Don't just link me to the game--show and tell me why you like it in a Jing video.

Note that if you have the free version of Jing you'll record videos in SWF format which are not as good at capturing motion and can lead to large file sizes. Nonetheless--I'm sure it'll get the point across.

Here's more information about the difference between SWF and MP4, and here's some information in case you wanted to try and capture system audio (the sound that comes from your speakers). You can see in my video I just turned my speakers up so I could narrate and you can hear the sound in the background.

Marilyn K. McClelland is a Professor at North Carolina Central University. She wrote a thorough article describing how she piloted Jing as a means to deliver frequently asked "Show me How" questions. Students could watch the videos prior to class or office hours.

I especially love this article because of the ways Professor McClelland tracked views, gave surveys and incorporated other data to provide a compelling story. We often hear anecdotally that students appreciate and watch the short Jing videos, but I was (pleasantly) surprised to see some of Professor McClelland's findings.

"This is a startling 1,498 hits during the semester by 31 students! The Blackboard tracking lets me see the number of hits by day and by student. I can see that students often watched the video multiple times on the same day, and several students came back to watch the video again, even after the test."

Having been one of the students described here, I can really relate to this quote as well:

"I know that for every student who comes to the office to ask, many don't ask, or will not ask until they understand the answer."

The great thing about video is that it doesn't judge--watch it as many times as you want until you really master the material.

I also like how Professor McClelland provides a description of her environment and insight into her recording and delivery process.

I hope others interested in Jing and education find Professor McClelland's article published in Educause Quarterly valuable as well!

I had to pull out something important from my Jing History the other day and couldn't help but notice the range of Jings that spanned the "Work-Related" and "Shenanigans" types. After all, Jing is for adding visual elements to all sorts of conversations.

That said, here are some examples of some funny Jings I've seen lately.

• Here's the one I use for when I need to express my approval: http://www.screencast.com/t/lh2dLB7ymMQ
• Don't even ask, I don't know what this is: http://screencast.com/t/Yjk1ZmE0
• Space bumper sticker? http://screencast.com/t/MmFhYWRhNTIt
• You can do videos too, don't forget! http://screencast.com/t/2OmoEPhX

Do you have a Jing or two in your History that shows a lighter side?

Well, we have 5 Jing shirts in need of good homes! (Large and XL only--sorry!)

1. Post your fun Jings in the Comments.
2. Do it by Thursday March 11, 2010.
3. We'll randomly pick 5 winners post the results on Friday.

Note: Use your real email address when you submit a comment because that's how we'll get in touch with you if we need to ship you a shirt.

This article is cross-posted from the Visual Lounge, the official TechSmith blog. Every week, a new user-created screencast is featured. Thanks for the great post, Betsy!

This week's Screencast of the Week is actually a series of Jing videos (Jingcasts) from introNetworks! You can see all the videos here. I liked these Jingcasts - they're quick, personal (introNetworks CEO, Mark Sylvester, introduces himself in the Jingcast) and, I like Mark's new slang word - 'Jingspeak'!

I asked Mark about his experience using Jing and here's what I heard from him:

Jing = EASY as anything I have ever used. We use it EVERYDAY. I love the interface on my Mac and because it is so simple I tend to think in Jingspeak - meaning, can I do something in 1 min on Jing that would take 5 min in an email, answer is usually yes! Using it to show clients and prospects the nuances of our platform in bite sized chunks of five min has been incredibly effective.

Any nominations for next week's Screencast of the Week? If so, then please leave a comment on the Visual Lounge. Thanks!

Cross-posted from: Academic Technology @ Keene State College. Thanks to Judy Brophy for this great article.

Let's imagine that you're correcting a student paper and you note an error. You wish your student was right there so you could just talk briefly to her... but you can't, so you pick up your pen and start to write in the margin. You note her mistake and ask a few probing questions to try and help her for her next version of her draft.

STOP! You can provide meaningful auditory feedback to your student by using Jing desktop video tool. You can record your comments (you will need an external microphone or your computer must have a built in microphone) and upload the video with one click. Your student will get her paper with a url embedded as a comment near the the area that needs attention. Now she can hear your feedback in the context of the problem.

Jim Glading, adjunct professor at Southern NH University and Daniel Webster College used a Jing video to give feedback to a student who needed help with a citation for a paper.

Read the rest of the article and watch the video interview with Jim Glading here.

Over the weekend, one of our users sent us the following question:

I'd like see how many views my links are receiving. Is that possible?

Yes, it is! Here is how:

1. Go to Screencast.com & sign in using your account info.
2. In your library, locate the Jing folder. This is where all your Jing captures are stored.



Tip: Did you know that you can send Jings to other folders in your Library?

3. Select Details View in the upper right corner.



4. The number of views for each item will now be shown in the right side column.



Tip: You can sort your captures using various criteria, including from most viewed to least viewed.

Check it out and see what your most popular Jing is!
I hope this post was helpful. Until next time!

I thought this post on Inside Higher Ed was quite interesting. Joshua Incorporates a neat idea about using #hashtags with Twitter and Jing. While it has an EDU perspective, I think it could apply just about anywhere.

Here's a snippet from one idea. Read the rest on the Inside Higher Ed blog.

"Give your class its own #hashtag. ... Then require your students to tweet anything relevant to the curriculum of the course. Part of this relevant tweeting could be doing voice-over screencasts using Jing where the students talk through why the link, site, application, article (whatever) is worth the classes attention."

Speaking of Education, did you know TechSmith has an education-focused site?

Cross posted from The Visual Lounge Blog

I 'met' Chris Petescia, the VP & Director of User Experience at Carrot Creative, on Twitter when he was talking about Jing. I don't think I've heard from anyone using Jing more than Chris and in some very creative ways including creating a whole site dedicated to something he calls 'Jing Art'! I love all the different ways he and Carrot Creative are using Jing and I had to share that with you!

I sent Chris some questions and here's what he shared with me...

1. How have screenshots and screencasts changed your own communication at Carrot Creative for the better?

Shortly before we stumbled across JingProject.com (the debate rages on here as to who gets credit and whether it was guidance from an Obi-wan at Hoth-like spirit vision, or just plain luck), we used another (now defunct) screenshot-to-web service. While the ingenuity of auto-uploading any screenshot taken- to a URL & clipboard- amazed us, we soon learned there was a far more vastly-featured and elegant tool to do this and more: Jing. The day we installed Jing was for Carrot, the day we landed in Oz and opened the door into so much vibrant possibility. We'd been living in the dark ages and didn't know it until then... one click onto the yellow Brick Road pop-bubble and there was no looking back. Jing immediately became valuable to us in all departments, especially to me with frequent travel and need to review/ communicate/ share visual ideas at odd times. iChat screen share never really worked anyway, so Jing made sharing easier across all needs, particularly those we hadn't previously identified.

2. Are your screenshots used internally or externally? What is the viewer response to them?

We use Jing internally, externally and if there was a third option, that way too. Internally we share anything from financial notes among my partners and I to notes on mockups and code/CSS bugs during project QA... and of course humor (see: JingArt.us). Externally, it has quickly become a favorite way for us to communicate with clients during all steps of a process. Some clients are very hands on and involved: regular walkthroughs with screencast videos (including voice notes throughout) allow us to demonstrate and clarify. There is very little confusion regarding client perception and expectation of a project, when we can walk them through a workflow or design. Many of these clients have adopted Jing to communicate back to us as well, and with their other persuist I'm sure, as is the case with our friends at MLB.com. Other clients are only involved where milestones of a project are concerned, but for them Jing is a great way for us to send individual screens and video overviews. We use it to demonstrate usage and get feedback about their experiences before launch. Additionally, Jing is a great tool for reporting analytics and data to clients. Whether for a formal weekly report or just to illustrate user engagement on their site, page or social feed, Jing does it for us.

3. What do you use Jing for primarily

Because we use Jing daily for so many things, I actually had to check my Jing "History" to get perspective on where it is used most. As the head of our design and production team, my History is flooded with design mocks: my review thoughts on our team's work with suggestions, as well as my own design work with video or text notes and questions to get feedback and guidance for our developers as they build it. Jing has smoothed this entire process of design concept to tweaking to producing to reviewing production.

4. Anything else we should know? How did the idea for Jing Art come about?

Aside from the day-to-day work of a digital agency and production shop, Jing has been useful for the unplanned pitfalls that come with our field: Photoshop or Illustrator locking up or most recently a plague of sporadic crashes that Snow Leopard has blessed us with. In these times, Jing has more than once allowed us to quickly grab a screenshot as the pinwheel of death spins it's cheery and spiteful rainbow, signifying an impending crash. If nothing else, we get a reference copy via quick Jing'ing to refer to as we re-build (:grumble:) Jing Art came about by chance, as one of our creatives was taking a web-browsing (info snacking, we call it) break and came across a photo of a Russian Developer... or, as our Creative saw it, a potential Jing-Jedi Knight. One Jing arrow added to his perfectly posed hands and internal Jing humor was born at Carrot Creative. While we certainly don't mock clients by any means, the variety of projects and circumstances we deal with allows us to laugh and enjoy our jobs a lot, and Jing has become an integral part of sharing that among ourselves. I think there was one day when we were Jing'ing one another's Jings and adding comments until it just got out of control :)

Chris Petescia is a co-founder of Carrot Creative, located in the Digital District of DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY. Chris works as a mix of Art Director and Designer, focusing on the User Experience side of Carrot's projects. He is enthusiastic about Star Wars, gets excited about pixels and enjoys a good lolcat photo as much as the next web geek. When he's not attending a live show at one of NYC's numerous music venues, you'll find him scrabbling to last.fm/dmbpride, posting to chrispetescia.tumblr.com or tweeting from twitter.com/chrispetescia

I was also lucky enough to meet Mike Germano, the President of Carrot Creative at the Blog World Expo and he shared with me how they are using Jing at Carrot Creative. The video runs less than 2 minutes. See why Mike is 'mad' at his team for using Jing! Quite the funny story!

Big thanks to Carrot Creative for sharing with us how they're using Jing.

I hope you'll submit to Carrot Creative some Jing Art of your own! Here is the Jing Art I'm going to submit. What do you think?