Reflector

Although PowerPoint has ways to annotate the screen, I personally find it cumbersome to draw with the mouse.  I could use a stylus with the bamboo pad  and sometimes there are other input options.

Nothing beats using an iPad: you can see right on the screen what you're doing. I prefer to use a stylus for my finger, but I don't have any specific set method.

But how to get that into a blog?  Sometimes I use the program ExplainEverything for the iPad by itself.  I can just upload that directly into YouTube.

If I want to intersperse PowerPoint presentations  with diagrams and other kinds of modeling, I can use Reflector.  This is not just a Mac program, but I have not had success with it using the PC, which is why I have it on the "Mac" page of the blog.  Reflector accepts video feeds from"AirPlay"(this is an iOS method of sending video and sound to other units, like the AppleTV).  You need to run the reflector program on the computer which is to receive the signals.  I have it running on my laptop. I can use ScreenFlow to capture the desktop image and when I want to show something on my iPad, I can just activate the reflector program.

Another amazing feature is that you can consolidate several video feeds. For example, you can get up to (I think) eight student iPhones/iPad on your screen during class time. I occasionally use this to challenge the students to demonstrate a concept.  I can keep some of the video feeds on a separate monitor and pull them up as interesting things develop.

If you typically use a Windows computer, you could try this program out. Like I said, I did not have luck with this.

You can purchase Reflector from AirSquirrels.

PowerPoint

Microsoft Office is one of the most ubiquitous packages available for organizing and sharing information.  It's most likely you have PowerPoint on your computer.  There are versions for both Mac and PC.

I'm not going into too much detail about this resource:  I assume you're either familiar with it yourself or you can find someone nearby who can create a PowerPoint presentation.

My only advice is that you run through the presentation and figure out what you want to say:  awkward pauses when you search for words or misspeak.  There's a notes window you can use to organize your ideas.  My trick:  when I run through the slides, I turn on voice recognition and create a script to use for when I "go live".

YouTube - Cue the multimedia!

YouTube is perhaps the #1 spot that students go for information that doesn't have to be read.  There's a profound amount of junk out there, but if you're looking for a walkthrough on the latest software revision (when they move around all your controls!), YouTube usually strikes gold.

Once again, I'm impressed with this site being free.  Although Google struggled a bit to monetize this after acquiring the site for $1.64 billion, they seem to have come up with a solution using AdSense revenue sharing.  Content authors get a majority of the revenue, but Google's ~40% take adds up to immense capital!

The software I use typically has a button for automatically uploading my content to YouTube. In fact, most smart phones have sharing options that direct the files directly to YouTube. Uploading can take a little while, but there are good online options in the YouTube world for image stabilization, annotation, and links. I wish I could add hot buttons right into the videos that link to specific sites, but I understand that there is potential for abuse that YouTube is not interested in addressing.