But first I’ve briefly reviewed each of 15 other contenders, in each case outlining it’s pros and cons – and pronouncing a verdict on it.

In this post I’m going to recommend the screencasting tool that I think is the best for the majority of teachers. We talked with TechSmith's reps at the booth and a video of the conversation is in the 2nd half of this post.As an edtech consultant, a common question I’m asked by teachers and school leaders these days is “Which screencasting software is best?” Encoding MPEG-4 does require a bit more horsepower, so the minimum CPU for Pro is a 2Ghz Core 2 Duo Intel processor. You can also skip the Jing ad banner placed on snaps created with the free version. The Pro build is capable of capturing full-motion video off your screen, putting it in the same league with tools like Vara/Telestream's $99 Screenflow. Jing Pro, for $14.95/year, offers users H.264/MPEG-4 compression in addition to the FLV files produced by the free version these videos are ideal for upload to YouTube or other online services (in fact, the Pro version includes a Send to YouTube button).

Jing's free offering continues to provide easy and quick screen snaps with tight web integration and handy SWF video capture, but the new announcement here is the introduction of Jing Pro, a new paid plan with additional features for heavy screencasting use.

Although Camtasia Studio, the pro-level screencast offering from TechSmith, is still a Windows-only affair (hopefully not for too much longer), the company is present on the Macworld Expo show floor with a booth highlighting the website and Jing, one of our favorite screen capture tools.

Techsmith screencast