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Get Started - Next Level Remote Teaching
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It’s time to upgrade your tech to get beyond boring screen shares and into rich, engaging webcam-based education.
What does this mean?
Today we’ll go over how to
1. Improve how you look on your webcam
Get a higher quality picture, from the right angle, and giving eye-contact
Get a higher quality picture, from the right angle, and giving eye-contact
2. A new type of whiteboard
Draw directly on your webcam, or a blank board
3. A new approach to lesson planning
With a focus on easy planning and crystal-clear delivery.
What do you need?
To follow along, you’ll need:
- A Mac (ideally Apple Silicon, but anything from the last few years should be fine)
- An iPhone
- An iPad
Software to install
Mac: CueCam Presenter (cuecam.app/download)This is free to download from this website.
You don’t even have to create an account to start using it.
Once you start using it seriously, you’ll want a subscription to remove the watermarks from your iPhone and iPad apps, but you can do a lot for free.
iPhone: Shoot Pro Webcam (App Store)This app turns your iPhone into a webcam and more. Don’t buy any in-app purchases just yet.
iPad: Video Pencil (App Store)This app lets you draw on live video, and anything else you want to share on your Mac’s webcam, with your iPad.
1. Improve how you look on your webcam
If you’ve been using your laptop’s built-in webcam, you can do a lot better by using your iPhone’s camera.
This gives you two benefits:
- A sharper, clearer image
- The ability to place your camera somewhere other than unflatteringly under your chin
CueCam Presenter lets you easily use your phone as a webcam by working with Shoot Pro Webcam.
Why Shoot Pro Webcam and not Continuity Camera or Camo?
Because Shoot Pro Webcam is more than just a webcam. It also turns your iPhone into an extra screen and a teleprompter! More on that shortly.
Setting up Shoot
Start off by running CueCam Presenter on your Mac.
Launch Shoot on your iPhone.
You can now select Shoot as your main camera in CueCam.
Now place your iPhone on an adjustable stand to find the perfect position.
You can get your camera level using Shoot’s level guide on the iPhone.
You can use CueCam’s Grid to frame yourself nicely.
You can adjust your iPhone’s exposure, colour balance and crop using CueCam’s remote camera controls.
2. A new type of whiteboard
Start Video Pencil on your iPad.
It connects to CueCam automatically and shows you the view of your webcam.
Now you can draw directly on your webcam.
But wouldn’t it be nice if you had a nice clean canvas to draw on?
That’s easy. Just go down to the Share Bar and select “Blank Board”.
This gives you a resizable area to draw on with Video Pencil.
3. A new approach to lesson planning
Now that you look good on camera, it’s time to unlock Shoot’s teleprompter feature.
But first, we’ll need a script.
In CueCam, use the File menu to start a new document.
A CueCam script is a sequence of cue cards. Each card can be as minimal as a note that reminds you what to talk about, a carefully worded paragraph that you need to speak verbatim, and everything in between.
You can create a script for each of your lessons.
When you press “Start” in the toolbar, you’ll enter presenter mode. You can step through your cue cards by clicking anywhere, or using the left and right arrows on your keyboard.
But more importantly, you’ll see your speaker notes on your iPhone screen, right next to the camera. This gives you better eye contact than most, without having to buy any extra equipment.
This is how you’ll deliver scripts you’ve created with CueCam.
You may have noticed that there are a lot more things you can add to scripts.
You can create slides, share images, videos, a second camera, share your screen and much, much more.
But first, it’s important to map out the key things you want to talk about.
Work with the goal of keeping yourself (and/or your virtual whiteboard) full screen as much as possible, and only use images and short videos where necessary.
Summary
Today we learned about
1. How to improve how you look on your webcam
Use your iPhone’s on an adjustable stand, using CueCam and Shoot to fine tune your framing and appearance.
2. A new type of whiteboard
Use Video Pencil and CueCam’s “Blank Board” feature.
3. A new approach to lesson planning
Create scripts in CueCam Presenter and run deliver them without losing eye contact using Shoot’s built-in teleprompter.
This is really just the tip of the iceberg, but if you have a Mac, you can give CueCam a try for free, right now.