Screencastify is a versatile screencast recording tool that I’ve used over the years to create many kinds of instructional videos including Common Craft-style videos and virtual tours. As I write this blog post, I still prefer Screencastify to the new built-in recording option in Chromebooks. That said, it should be noted that Screencastify has just introduced some significant changes to their free plan. 

Here’s What’s Changing in Screencastify

The new free version of Screencastify increases the recording time for your videos from five minutes to thirty minutes. That’s a huge change! The trade-off is that you now can only store ten videos in your free Screencastify account. That’s also a huge change! The previous free version allowed unlimited videos as long as they were under the five minute limit. You can still export all of your videos as MP4 files. So if you find that you bump up against the ten video limit, you can export one or delete one to get back under that limit. 

Ways to Use Screencastify in Your Classroom

Build Interactive Questions Into Your VideosBlur Faces and Objects in Your VideosAdd Comments to Google DocsCreate Common Craft-style VideosRecord Virtual Tours