I use screencasts all of the time, mainly on Under Ten Minutes (www.undertenminutes.com) to record how-to videos for a variety of different tools. I usually use Camtasia as I have used it for a number of years and I also have a full license. I love Camtasia and the TechSmith team…but I was researching free alternatives for a thing I’m doing and that led me to a discovery.

Screencast-o-matic (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com) sounds like a made-up product that shouldn’t work. But it does. Brilliantly.

You simply accept the Java plugins, set your mic level and then adjust the box to the size of recording you need. Press go, start talking and then stop the recording when you’re finished. You are then presented with the option of downloading the resulting video or uploading it directly to YouTube. I did that and the result is below.

Screencasts for free, without any installation at all. Genius.