Screencasts vs. vodcasts

There was a great question on the Project Play blog this week:

Would you YouTube videos be considered screencasts?

This is the answer I came up with, and I thought I'd post it here, too, in case some of you are reading this blog and are missing the comments on the PP site.

Screencasts simply record actions taking place on your screen. Some screencasts might be made available on YouTube, but not all videos available on YouTube should be considered screencasts.

What?! I consider most of what is available on YouTube to be “vodcasts.” (We’ll take more about that next week here on the PP blog.) They go beyond recording screen actions and include video of people, places, things, activities, etc.

I hope that explanation helps!

I created a screencast for Week 10 of Project Play, which will be about mashups. I thought Screencast-o-Matic was easy to use and pretty fun. I'll be playing with Camtasia Studio 5 while I prep the 'casting kit for the LSTA grant we were awarded. It'll be fun to compare the two products and see which one I like the best. If you're curious about the 'casting grant, visit 'Casting @ OWLS for more information!