Two female students sitting at a table with a Chromebook

A screencast is a digital recording of the screen on your computer. It's a video, and more often than not, it includes a voice-over narration and/or a webcam video of the person making the video.

Educators worldwide are incorporating screencasts into their classroom instruction because it can effectively and efficiently communicate information to students.

In my head, screencasts are part of a three-tiered hierarchy of visual aids that start with screenshots, progress to animated GIFs, and end with screencasts. When a screenshot isn't enough to communicate what you want to show, you use an animated GIF; when a GIF isn't enough, you use a screencast.

10 examples of how screencasts are being used in education:

How to: This is one of the foundational uses for screencasts. Teachers can make screencasts to show a concept in action, how a particular tool works, or just to explain an assignment.
Instructional Videos: Screencasting lets you be in multiple places at once. If you record yourself teaching a short lesson or explaining a task, a small group of students can watch that while you work with others in the class on something completely different.
Video feedback on student work: Some teachers have used screencasting for "live" grading of student work. This feedback is often more authentic than typed or written feedback because the teacher explains it in more detail and with less ambiguity.
Differentiation: You can differentiate instruction by creating different screencasts for different groups of students based on their needs. Give more support for those that need it, or an extra challenge for those high flyers.
Formative assessment: Video can also be used to help assess student learning. Later on in this class, we will look at how you can add questions to videos to check for understanding.
Topic Trailers: Starting a new unit of work? Why not create a trailer showing some of the things students will be doing in this unit. It can be a great way to generate some excitement.
Video Study Guides: Instead of handing out paper study guides, you can create video study guides that can be watched repeatedly as required to help students master concepts for a summative assessment.
Sub plans: Spend less time explaining yourself to a sub by creating a video that they can show to the whole class, or small groups of students, so they still get the instruction directly from you and with less ambiguity.
Parent Communication: What if your newsletter was a video newsletter? What if the flyer for your next school event was a video? What if you talked about student work with a parent on a video? Screencasting helps facilitate that.
Procedurals: You know those questions that you get asked time and time again every year? Create a screencast for your classroom rules, procedures, and expectations, then post it on your website, Google Classroom course, or on your LMS for students to access at any time.

...and this is just teacher use. Students can use screencasting, too!