2016-17 #1) Thing 8: Screen Sharing

For my first Thing for Cool Tools 2016-2017, I chose to explore more about screencasting and screen sharing.  For my role, I am often trouble shooting computer or website issues over email/phone as well as making short videos to show people how to do things.  I rely on ScreenCastify for making my videos, the snipping tool for sending screenshots, and I needed to find a tool to quickly/easily share my screen.  

I was very interested in ScreenLeap; I read about it and was intrigued by the fact that it said no downloads!  After reading more and trying it out, there actually is a download for the person sharing their screen, but not one for the person viewing a shared screen.  For me, that is fine, I can download things to my machine, but I am not sure that other teachers in the district would be allowed to do that.  I will have to investigate that with a few colleagues and see if they can download or not!  However, since I was able to, I shared my screen and had 2 people test it out for me.  It was so easy!  I just sent them the link via text message, they clicked it and immediately were viewing my screen, right on their smartphones!  Obviously for trouble shooting, viewing it on a smartphone it not ideal, but this was just a test.  You could easily send the link via email for them to click and view on their computers.  I was really impressed with how easy this tool was and I am glad to have found it - or should I say that Cool Tools found it for me!  There was no account creation for any of us- my sharing my screen or them viewing my screen and that is very nice!  Now, with that said, there are some limitations.  Without creating an account, the limit is 2 people viewing your screen and 30 minutes.  Those are not really problems for me, as in most cases when I would need to use the tool, it would be one on one with a teacher and would not even go close to 30 minutes.  Besides, the time limit would be easy to work around - if you needed it to go longer, just start another one.  If you create an account, and choose the free plan, the limit is then higher - 8 people and 1 hour.  There are then a few different levels of paid plans.  Plenty for everyone to  choose from, but the free plan is certainly perfect for what I need as a technology resource teacher!

I am really glad that I learned about this tool!  I had never heard of it before and know that I will be using it from now on!  On a side/personal note, I will also be using it to help my mom for all the times she calls  me to help with her computer!  I will download it on her machine for her, them show her how easy it is to start and give me the code I need to view her screen!  This will make helping her so much easier!!