Animated GIFs are a lightweight way to deliver a ton of information, which is why I use them in my lessons all the time. Take this one, for instance. It’s a 90kb image, so it loads in a snap, and it conveys exactly what I need it to: that Lessonly makes dragging and dropping a cinch.
If you want to create your own animated GIFs for your lessons, check out LiceCap, a free, oddly named Mac and Windows app that makes creating and exporting animated GIFs a breeze. Before LiceCap, my workflow for creating GIFs was über complicated. Now, I just frame my shot, hit record, hit stop, and voila—a GIF!
Hat tip to Mike Preuss for the find!