YouTube Has Sentenced TV to Death

As I was reading through my mail I stumbled upon this infographic about YouTube and I liked it and so decided to share it with you. It shows how YouTube has revolutionized the moving picture science and how TVs lost terrain  for Live streaming services on YouTube. If you ever had doubts about the importance of YouTube in our life then I invite you to read the infographic and see the stats there and I am sure you will change your mind.

Here is the infographic I have taken from Freemake.com


By Freemake, proud developer of YouTube Converter

Viewbix Easily Add Captions and Titles to Your Videos

Today I am introducing a very practical video tool that you can use with your students in your classrooms. The tool is called Viewbix. It allows its users to add interactive buttons or apps to their videos in order to engage viewers and call for action. It works just with YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook videos which is for us in education  pretty much enough.

"The apps overlay dynamic content on top of your YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook videos to create a rich viewing experience that can be shared across the web, social and mobile platforms."

  Viewbix  also allows its users  to add descriptions and photos that others can view when they click on the buttons shown on the screen. In addition, when you finish customizing your video in Viewbix you can then share it with the world through a unique URL or through a generated HTML code embeddable in websites, blogs and websites.


Teachers can use use Viewbix to create video tutorials where they can include call for action buttons for students to click on. It is a highly effective tool in education and I do invite educators to give it a try and see by themselves.


To start using Viewbix , you need to head over to their main page and open your free account. Once logged then just provide the URL of the video you want to work on from Facebook, Vimeo or YouTube then choose the buttons you want to include and give them a title and a link and there you go. Yes it is as easy as it sounds.

Some features of Viewbix


Here is a list of the main features that Viewbix offers to its users :


It is free
It is easy to use
It has a user friendly interface
It allows users to customize their videos with titles , descriptions, links and many more
You can share your videos via a unique link or through an HTML code
You can save your videos to your Viewbix account and edit them anytime you want
It allows you to include photo feeds, coupons, Google maps, RSS feeds, QR codes and more .


Viewbix can be a great educational tool if used appropriately and I do invite you to give it a try.

Subjot Read Only What Interests You In Twitter and Facebook

Subjot is a great tool for educators using social networking in their work. I know all of us use at least Facebook and Twitter , others use many more than that.  Can you imagine having to stay updated and read the posts your friends and people you follow post everyday in those social websites you are part of ? You might end up having dozens or even hundreds of posts everyday but only few of them are of some interest to you. To sift through the whole bunch will waste you more and more time you might not even have and you might even probably not care because that is way too much than you can handle. Subjot is the solution, It acts as a filter by letting you read only posts that interest you.  

How can Iget started using Subjot ?

Head over to Subjot main page and log in with either your Twitter or Facebook account. Once logged in then you  can choose the subjects that interest you and that you would like to follow. Now whenever you logged in to your account on Subjot you will only see posts from your friends that relate to your specified topics.
Users will also be able to drop comments and follow other  users they like and view their profiles. They can also write their own thoughts and tag them to a specific subject.

Some features of Subjot 


Here are the main features that Subjot offers to its users:

• It is free
• It is easy to use
• It has a user friendly interface
• It lets you log in using either your Twitter or Facebook account
• It allows users to filter posts from their social feeds by focusing only on interested topics
• It lets you follow people of mutual interest and build your own community
• It also allows its users to jot down their own thoughts and share them with others in Facebook and Twitter
• It lets you receive email notifications

I really think that educators need to give Subjot a try and see by themselves. I personally see it as a great tool for personnal and professional development.

Songzilla Stream and Download Songs and Lyrics for Free

Here is a great music site I want to introduce to my readers today. It is called Songzilla. This website is going to be  of great help to those teachers who have trouble finding the appropriate websites where to download music for free.

Songzilla does not put a limit on how much music you can stream for free which many other websites do, so all is free . What is even greater is that you can look for lyrics right inside the site so you can have both songs and their lyrics , your students would love it . It is very helpful for language students who are trying to pick up English.

By using Grooveshark , users can be able to look for specific songs using search criterion such as the artist' name, the title of the song or the name of the album . Users can also use their Facebook accounts to log in to Songzilla and create their own favourite lists where they can mark the songs they like. They can also share songs with their friends and colleagues. I do like this website and I do recommend it for you.

Some features of Sonzilla

Here is a list of the important features Songzilla offers to its users:

• It is free
• It is user friendly and simple to use
• It lets you log in using your Facebook account to log in
• Users can create favourite lists of songs they like and share them with others 
• Users can also use the search options to look for songs and lyrics they like
• It lets users stream and download songs

If you think Songzilla can help you some then head over to its main page and start exploring it.

Google Announced Great Improvements to its Apps

Google is always amazing us with its constant updates and news. Just recently some great improvements have been introduced. It has namely improved Google presentations and introduced a new version of Google docs optimized for Android tablets.


Google Presentations Updates

Google has recently added some awesome features to Google  docs enabling thus its users to build nice looking presentations, among these features we can mention as an example :

1. Users can now make great looking slides with animated builds
2. Google added advanced slide transitions
3. Google Docs has now a better support for drawings, tables and themes
4. Users can now collaboratively create presentations without the need for any attachments
5. They can also work on the same version of presentation and be able to see real time changes being done by their colleagues, they can also chat with them as they work

Google Docs Optimized for Android Tablets

With this new improvement, Google has made it easy and fast for Android tablet users to use Google Docs. The app is completely free and adds several advantages such as :

• Larger screen real estate
• Three panel view that allows users to browse filters and collections, see document lists  file thumbnails, and details simultaneously
• make quick changes to spreadsheets
• take a photo of printed text and convert it to Google docs
• share docs with your android contacts

If you want to get this app , it is free and available in Android Market
You can also visit Google Mobile Blog to learn more

Google Finally Introduced The Digital Bookcase

Google has recently introduced a new experimental product that will really amaze educators and bookworms. It is the digital bookcase. Yes you have a traditional bookcase at home in your living room where you organize your books and now you can have another bookcase that is virtual and will hold as many electronic books as possible , and guess what ? it is much organized than the traditonal one you might have home.

The digital bookcase operates with the latest technology and has an infinite 3D helix.

" The books are organized into 28 subjects. To choose a subject, click the subject button near the top of your screen when viewing the bookcase. The camera then flies to that subject. Clicking on a book pulls it off the shelf and brings it to the front and center of the screen. Click on the high-resolution cover and the book will open to a page with title and author information as well as a short synopsis, provided by the Google Books API. All of the visuals are rendered with WebGL, a technology in Google Chrome and other modern browsers that enables fast, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics right in the browser, without the need for a plug-in. " taken from Official Google Blog

Here is a video to learn more about the digital bookcase





You can also read Google's original article to learn more

Designing an Infinite Digital Bookcase

ClassParrot Free Text Messaging between Teachers and Students

ClassParrot is a website for teachers. It allows its users" to send  text messages back and forth between students, parents, and teachers without revealing anybody's phone number". No need need to fret,  your phone number will not be shown to anyone and you are the only person who can have access to it. This technology is highly educational, private, efficient, fast, and reliable.

Statistics have proved that teenagers or at least a huge number of them prefer text messaging to emails. This is generation Next and they depend wholly on mobile technology to do everything in their life. As educators we need to take advantage of this fact and start implementing this technology in our teaching. They will for sure like it and feel more comfortable working with it.

How can teachers use ClassParrot

Teachers can use ClassParrot to do many things such as :

1. create a quick polling and Q/A platform in and outside the classroom
2. Remind students of their upcoming exams and quizzes
3. Send homework updates and events reminders
4. Interact with parents and brief them about their kids learning and achievement

You might be asking yourself why using ClassParrot when teachers can just go ahead and ask for students' phone numbers and use them directly ? Well this is not a guarranted educational way plus there is no law to cover either you or students when you do so, ClassParrot has even clearly explained this point when it said

" Direct phone-to-phone text messaging presents legal risks for schools. Educators and students exchanging personal contact information create unavoidable liabilities that could potentially cause serious problems in an academic setting. Aside from being unsafe, traditional text messaging becomes cumbersome for educators because it is not intended for mass communication. 
ClassParrot addresses both of these issues. It’s safe: ClassParrot is a closed messaging system where there is never any need to share personal information directly with students. It’s convenient: ClassParrot is optimized for all educators – including teachers, administrators, coaches, program facilitators, mentors and tutors. The system facilitates the enrollment process (for all message recipients) so that educators can effortlessly text one student or an entire class." Taken from ClassParrot

Some features of Classparrot 

Here is a list of some of the best features that ClassParrot offers to its users :

• It is partly free. It offers 500 messages for free but you can invite your peers and get 200 messages more for each one you invited
• Teachers can use any computer to send messages and students will get them right in their phones
• Subscribed students and parents will be able to communicate with the teacher and answer back his messages
• It enables students and teachers to talk freely and " without giving up their privacy or talking on liability"

How can I get started using ClassParrot ?

It is very easy to use. Teachers need to head over to ClassParrot main page and create their own class. When they are done a unique code and phone number will be generated for them. It is this code that they need to share with students and parents who, in their turn, will have to send a text message to that phone number to sign up for notifications for that class.

If you need to learn more about Classparrot then i I invite you to read their FAQ page.