October 19, 2005
For Release
TechSmith Donates Money for Camtasia Studio 3.0 Software Program; Enabling English Majors to Produce Technologically Advanced Literacy Tools For Students
Greenville, NC - TechSmith Corporation announced a gift donation of $5,100.00 to seventeen English education graduate students who are working on Digital Philosophy of Education Narratives in the College of Education at East Carolina University. Each student will receive a copy of Camtasia Studio 3.0 on Wednesday, October 18th. The premiere full-motion recording software program records screen, webcam video and voice, allowing users to produce professional-quality video presentations with small file sizes to post on the Internet, burn on CD-ROM, or deliver in multiple file formats.
Because of the many distance education courses offered at ECU’s College of Education, English education majors and education professors are particularly interested in Camtasia Studio 3.0’s ability to quickly produce learning modules. Dr. Todd Finley, an associate professor of English education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, initiated the project after researching the burgeoning Digital Storytelling Movement among teachers across the country. Usually, digital narratives last no more than five minutes. Its predecessor is MS PowerPoint, a medium disparaged for recycling traditional teaching via bullet point rather than transforming instruction. Comparing PowerPoint to Camtasia Studio 3.0 is like placing a carousel slide show next to a plasma screen TV.
Techsmith’s computer screen capture technology is easy enough for the lay person to use. Finley will study how the English majors in ENED 6630 produce culture to more fully engage their students in technologically advanced literacy tools.
The students’ Digital Philosophy of Education Narratives will be shown at the end of fall semester during East Carolina University’s Curriculum & Instruction “Sundance” festival. Graduates will take their copies of Camtasia 3.0 into their future classrooms.
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For more information contact Jessica W. Davenport, Director of Communications for The College of Education at 252-328-2179 or at davenportje@ecu.edu; Todd Finley, PhD, Associate Professor of English Education, at 252-328-6695 or finleyt@ecu.edu; or Jennifer Middlin, TechSmith Corporate Communications Manager, at j.middlin@techsmith.com.
