Screen Hero

Screen Hero is a new form of screen sharing which takes collaboration to a new level by allowing two viewers to simultaneously work within one app at the same time.  Essentially Screen Hero lets you work with someone else, like on a Google Doc, but with any application that is shared.  Pretty neat.  So if you want to work with a friend on Excel you can do that.  If you want to pair up with another student and work within iMovie on your Mac...you can do that.  You get the idea.  For more information, check out the YouTube demonstration of Screen Hero below.



Now What?

Screen Hero is a great tool for students to use when collaborating with classmates on a project but also for teachers who want to help students after school.  The only downside (which really isn't a big deal) is that there is a download required in order to use the app.

Screen Leap

If you have ever tried to tell someone how to do something on the computer...then you know how frustrating it can be when they have trouble following along with your directions.  Worse yet, it is almost impossible to try to tell someone what to do when you don't have your computer in front of you.  How do you solve this issue?  Find more computer savvy friends?  No...use the website Screen Leap.  Screen Leap is a site that allows you to share your screen with someone so that they can follow along with your mouse movements and clicks.  The best part about Screen Leap is that there is nothing to install and no account sign-up.  This makes it very simple to use and extremely fast.  For the person on the other end of the "tutorial" you can share a special code and they can vist the Screen Leap site and enter it to see your screen (no limit on the number of people who view it).

Now What?

When I taught computers, I used join.me to share my screen with my class when I wanted to show them something in a pinch.  The issue with join.me is that as the presenter you have to download a file in order for it to work.  However, join.me also offers an iOS app which makes it very handy for use on the go.

Quick Screen Share

Anytime that I post a video where I'm demonstrating how to do something on the computer I am using a website called Screencast-o-matic which is free and simple to use.  Recently I came across a blog post about how that site is now offering users the ability to share their screen with someone else in order to show them something on the computer using what they call Quick Screen Share.  To use this site, you click on share your screen and then enter your name.  Quick Screen Share will then provide you with a unique web address to share with the person joining your screen.  When that person uses that link they will see your screen and your movements...it's that simple!  Another website that I have used that is similar is Join.me which I've written about in the past.

Now What?

Screen sharing websites are an excellent way to show someone how to do something on the computer or share a file without giving it to another person.  You can also help students with something on their computer when a written set of directions isn't cutting it.