Screen recording and production software is required for capturing writing, typing of text, or animations and producing them in a format for the web, CDs, or portable devices like the video iPod, Pocket PC, Palm, or Sony PSP.

Windows:

1. Voicethread -  records annotations on images you upload where you and others may annotate and add your voice and writing.  Our new By Grade mathcasts library is built on the use of VoiceThread (and TechSmith's SnagIt for image capturing).
2. Jing - free from TechSmith.  Easily record and share screen captures or screen recordings of up to 5 minutes.  Share them either by using TechSmith's screencast hosting service - Screencast.com or simply embed the Flash (swf) or image files it creates in Smart Notebooks.  You can learn how to use Jing in less than 5 minutes.
3. TechSmith Camtasia Studio - by far the best software for this purpose. About $150 for an individual license for educators, but the price goes way down for multiple user licenses (e.g. $99/license for 5-9 licenses all the way down to $40/license for 100-249 licenses and still lower for 250+ licenses). The full version is available as a 30 day free trial. Camtasia Studio 4 has the ability to produce files for the video iPod and upload files automatically to Screencast.com which makes distribution of mathcasts and other screencasts extremely easy.
4. Kinoma Producer 3 - for producing mathcasts for the Palm Kinoma Player (free version or Kinoma Player 3 EX).
5. Macromedia (Adobe) Captivate (formerly RoboDemo) - can't recommend for creating mathcasts.

1. Jing - free from TechSmith.  See notes under PC above.
2. The SMART Notebook recorder on the Mac records movies in QuickTime (.mov) format.
3. iShowU, by ShinyWhiteBox or SnapZ Pro X by Ambrosia Software for recording and production (to QuickTime movie format).
4. If you'd like to see a Mac version of TechSmith Camtasia Studio let them know.