Screencastify is a suite of video-creation tools for the classroom, from the company of the same name Chicago. It is used in K-12 classrooms around the world, for teachers and students, to create instructional videos, record presentations, and give better feedback, and to support remote learning.
$15
per month per user
ScreenFlow
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Telestream in Nevada City offers ScreenFlow, a video editing and screen recording application for Mac boasting a range of editing tools, graphics and effects, and easy video sharing.
Screencastify is great for beginning video creators or teachers who need a tool to quickly record a screen. For those with a budget, the paid features offers basic editing and the ability to embed questions, which can make for a more polished and meaningful video. Screencastify is not for users who want to create a more polished video with an introduction or other media that needs to be included, such as background music or other images. My go to - if it's quick and easy, use Screencastify. If I want to make in-depth edits, use another solution.
When training others to use a software application, I find this is amazingly helpful to accomplish using screenflow. The application allows me to video what I am doing in the application while explaining it in details. There are other uses of course, one that I found was to capture myself talking through students' research papers/thesis and explain where changes need to be made. Of course, MS Word has the tracking changes option and a professor can go through sentence by sentence - the downfall of this is that students #1 - do not always understand what is being suggested as we all cut back on words when typed out versus spoken. #2 - students do not always read the added comments thoroughly. Viewers watch the video and listen to a voice quicker than reading remarks. The viewing and voice, in my opinion, are the greatest part of the end product provided to viewers. This tool can assist anyone's work that trains others...be it industry or educational fields.
Screenflow easily records your desktop video and/or audio, with functionality that works even across multi-monitor setups.
The program has really incredible features for basic cutting and editing of the capture within screenflow once it is done.
The program has an impressive amount of options for expecting different formats of video and audio. I'm most impressed by the lossless audio and uncompressed video formats that give the best possible quality for importing into video projects.
Be able to open working projects in other editing software like Premiere. In cases that editors want that flexibility or someone doesn't have access to ScreenFlow but needs to work on projects that use it
Only available for Macs. Some of our teachers have PC and prefer to work on that or used to it. Only reason we switched to another screen recording application
It's simple to set up and use. The editing features are laid out in an easy to understand way making it the perfect go-to tool for a novice video editor and an advanced one. I will use ScreenFlow at times over other bigger tools like Adobe Premiere because it's quicker to make changes to videos.
It works well and fits into my workflow. The tools are much easier and straightforward to work with. Other video editing tools like Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro are simply too complicated for this type of task.
Loom and Screencastify are the most direct comparison. They both are Chrome extensions that have a low learning curve for beginner users. Loom offers a pro license free to educators, which allows for unlimited numbers of recordings and a 45-minute cap on recording length, perfect for lessons. Screencastify's pro features are paid for but are also more in-depth. Their editing is more robust, allowing users to trim in the middle, not just the edges. Users also get unlimited recordings and no cap on video length, and some storage depending on the tier purchased. Screencastify also offers volume discounts, which can help reduce the cost significantly. Educators can also create assignments in Screencastify, which is unique to this product. Camtasia is a full-fledged editor and screen recorder, so a full comparison isn't fair, since the products have two different intended uses. Camtasia offers robust features to make a polished final video
We looked at things like Loom and all those other screen recorders, but Screenflow is just so much more powerful. It can do everything we want it to and more, even things like Chroma Key (green screen), text on video, transitions, all that. It's a pretty great software for making videos.
This is a low cost license, so the output is almost entirely to the upside
Years ago, we determined it was essential to have a video representation of our products and services. ScreenFlow has enabled the development of these and many other videos as well as our training programs for employees and clients. All this has been accomplished with a relatively low cost to entry.
