Last week (with the approach of Mother’s Day) I decided to have my students draw their mothers using Sketchcast and add it to their blogs.

Sketchcast is a drawing tool that records each step in the drawing process in real time.  The tool provides the creator with three choices of line width, an eraser and an endless assortment of colours.  You can also add labels or other text to your picture and record yourself talking as you do it.  You just click record, and start drawing.

The students loved that they got to “make a movie” and wanted to watch themselves drawing over and over.

Here are some things I found that helped the process work smoothly:

• I had the students use my account.  There were no difficulties with multiple computers using my account at the same time.
• Before they began drawing, I showed the students one of the featured videos on the home page. It showed them not only what a finished product would look like, but how someone used colour and line to create texture and shadow in a drawing.
• It can take a veeeery long time to watch the finished product.  You can speed it up by dragging the cursor across the bottom of the screen.  The next time we use Sketchcast, I will have them pause the recording when they switch colours or pause to think.

I had used this tool successfully a few years ago, but when I went back to it later, it seemed to have “died”. My account and the student’s work from that time has disappeared.  Thankfully, it has apparently come back to life.  Besides simply drawing, it offers great possibilities for students to record their learning in lots of different ways.  I have plans for the students to use it again soon to illustrate some science concepts and possibly some math problems.  Teachers could also use it to demonstrate concepts for their students.  It’s worth a look.