Teaching Tools- YouTube

What is YouTube?

Founded in 2005, YouTube is one of the most popular video sites on the Web today. Millions of videos have been uploaded and shared here, ranging from movie trailers to amateur videos of cats - and everything in between.


Anyone with an Internet connection can share content on YouTube, whether they are organizations with large budgets or an individual with a video camera. YouTube is owned by Google, and is one of their most popular peripheral properties. YouTube was the first large-scale video sharing site on the Web, and  it is available in nearly every country and over fifty different languages. Anyone can upload content here, which makes for an utterly astonishing array of watchable content.

How To Watch Videos On YouTube?

In order to get personalized results, create playlists, or comment on other videos, users must create a YouTube account or associate an existing global Google account with the new YouTube account.


This is so YouTube can "learn" your preferences; for example, say you look for videos that help you learn how to play the guitar. The next time you visit YouTube, if you're signed into your Google account, YouTube will automatically serve up more videos that teach you how to play the guitar.

This feature helps YouTube personalize what they show to users so they offer a more relevant user experience. However, if you would rather that YouTube did not save your preferences, simply do not sign in to your Google account when using YouTube (learn more about what signing in to Google services means at How Much Information Does Google Have About Me?).

There are multiple ways you can find what you want to watch on YouTube, including:

• Browse via keyword or keyword phrase.
• Find videos in topics and categories.
• Filter results by date and popularity.
• View the charts ranking the Most Popular videos in any given category.
• Read the trending topics word cloud found at the bottom of most category pages.

If you find a video that you like, you'll notice that there is also a comments section right below the video. Most videos have a comments section where users can leave their thoughts, as well as a thumbs up or thumbs down icon to record their support (or lack of). Some video owners choose to disable this section; this is up to the individual YouTube user to do so.

Teaching Tools- Excel

What is Excel?

Microsoft Excel is a software program included in the Microsoft Office suite. It is used to create spreadsheets, which are documents in which data is laid out in rows and columns — like a big table.


Due to its extreme versatility and power, Excel has become one of the most-used software programs in the business world since its launch in 1985. Indeed, the personal computing renaissance of the 1980s and 1990s was largely driven by the many uses of Excel and other spreadsheet software.

What is a spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet is a special way of organizing data into rows and columns to make it simpler to read and manipulate. Here's a screenshot of a blank spreadsheet.

The image above, of course, represents a very simple spreadsheet. More complex spreadsheets can contains hundreds or even thousands of rows and columns, the combination of which can represent millions of cells. These cells can be linked together with calculations and formulas to perform complex mathematical logic simply and easily.

What is Excel used for?

That's all well and good, but what are spreadsheets used for? Almost everything. Spreadsheets are extraordinarily powerful tools, and are used frequently in the business world to store and manipulate data.


Throughout the course of these tutorials, we'll be following SnackWorld, a fictional company, as it uses Excel to track data about its business. Here's one example of how SnackWorld uses Excel in the workplace:

As you can see, SnackWorld has used the above Excel spreadsheet to keep track of its sales numbers by item sold. The tabular format of a spreadsheet is the perfect way to measure this complex set of data — it would take a long time for SnackWorld's managers to write this out by hand! And Excel's formulas and functions, which we'll learn later on in this module, allow employees to easily pull out specific pieces of data to answer managers' questions.

Here are a few examples of other ways a company might use Excel. Remember, though, that these are just examples. Excel is infinitely flexible, so the possibilities are endless:

• Keep track of sales by customer from month to month;
• Monitor customer payments to ensure that none are late;
• Keep track of expenses and assign them to particular employees;
• Calculate hours worked per employee for monthly payroll;
• Calculating monthly payments on the office mortgage;
• Creating graphs or charts to explain company performance over time;
• Estimate monthly sales for the next three years based on historical data; and
• Assign projects and tasks to employees in a centralized location.

How to learn Excel?

Teaching Tools- Microsoft Publisher

What is Microsoft Publisher? 

Microsoft Publisher is a graphic design application that is similar to Microsoft Word but differs in the fact that its emphasis lies more on page layout and design, and less on word composition and formatting. It provides easy-to-use and less expensive publishing options for creating designs and logos for small businesses, where using other high end applications may not be feasible.

Microsoft Publisher is an entry-level graphic design program included in some versions of Microsoft Office. It is considered ideal for small business because it is user friendly and does not demand prior knowledge about the application or graphic design in general. Publisher includes templates for many types of common business needs, such as business c
ards, brochures, address labels and calendars. Microsoft offers the options to directly mail the file, export it as another file type or upload it to the cloud and publish online.


Overview of Microsoft Publisher Benefits

• Create polished, professional layouts without the hassle. Precisely lay out and style text, pictures, borders, calendars, and more. In Publisher everything you add stays exactly the way you’ve designed it, in print, online, or in an email.

• Easily design unique, specialized materials for any purpose. Create everything from simple greeting cards and labels to professional newsletters and marketing materials using Publisher’s wide range of pre-designed templates.

• Publish in the way that suits your audience best. Share pixel-perfect printouts, send professional-quality email publications, or export to industry-standard non-editable formats.

The Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Publisher

Teaching Tools- Powtoon

What is Powtoon?

PowToon is Web-based animation software that allows you to quickly and easily create animated presentations with your students by manipulating pre-created objects, imported images, provided music and user created voice-overs. PowToon is used by businesses to create engaging, creative presentations that capture attention, and can be similarly used for educational assessment and content delivery.

Quality and Effectiveness

PowToon can be used by educators to create animated presentations of content for students to view. Educators can also use PowToon as a form of assessment by asking students to create their own animations. Using Audio/Video rather than standard presentation tools moves users away from over-reliance on text to convey ideas and users are able to create more engaging experiences for their audience. The provided objects and music are high quality and varied enough to allow for flexibility and creativity. The added ability to import images and create voice overs allow users to add their own touch to the animation.

Ease of Use

Creation of an account is easy and straightforward, and getting started is easy as well. There is no software to download, as PowToon is web-based. PowToon provides many customizable templates for beginning users, as well as a blank canvas for the more daring. Learning to use PowToon is as easy as learning any other presentation tool, but the end product is much more exciting. Simple drag and drop of text, props, characters and markers makes creation quick and easy.

Suitability for Use in a School Environment

Teachers can use PowToon in place of traditional presentation tools for multiple purposes, which means that it can be smoothly integrated into the existing curriculum. PowToon can quickly and easily be implemented by teachers as a content presentation tool, and by students, as a form of assessment. Students will be more engaged in teacher created presentations, as well as in creating their own as a form of assessment.


Powtoon Tutorial for Beginners

Teaching Tools- Edmodo

What is Edmodo?

Edmodo is an educational website that takes the ideas of a social network and refines them
and makes it appropriate for a classroom. Using Edmodo, students and teachers can reach
out to one another and connect by sharing ideas, problems, and helpful tips. A teacher can
assign and grade work on Edmodo; students can get help from the entire class on Edmodo.
It is a safe environment. There is no bullying or inappropriate content, because the teacher
can see everything that is posted on Edmodo. Also parents can join the class to bring a level
of transparency that is difficult to achieve without technology. All in all Edmodo is a grat
companion to just about any class.

You do not need a computer lab to use, you don’t have to have laptops in the room, it is something that will complement your teaching and allow you to improve methods of communication with your students outside of class. More communication usually means less confusion, better work, and more time to engage and focus on those higher level essential questions.

Why do I use Edmodo? What I really love about Edmodo is their dedication. I also love the fact that Edmodo is constantly updating to make the site more powerful, easier to use and just better overall. Edmodo can be applied to your classroom, your school, or even your district.

Teaching tools - Prezi

This week i am going to review on the educational teaching tools, Prezi.

What is Prezi?

Prezi is a web-based tool for creating presentations (called prezis for short). It's similar to other presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint, but it offers some unique features that make it a good alternative. In recent years, it has become popular in schools and businesses. If you're looking to create a presentation that's a bit more eye-catching and engaging.

How does a prezi work?

Most types of presentation software use a slide-based approach, where you move back and forth between individual slides, kind of like pages in a book. Prezi, however, uses a canvas-based approach. Instead of using slides, Prezi has one very large canvas that your presentation moves around on, zooming in and out to view various frames.

This is the video of the Prezi tutorials for beginners. Hope it can help you to understand how does Prezi work.

Prezi also offers the ability for students to collaborate in class when using the program
online. Up to eight people can edit the Prezi at the same time. For those in larger classes, this could be accomplished by dividing students into groups. This allows for a construction and presentation of
students’ knowledge, which could appeal to different learning styles. Prezi is made more accessible for students and instructors through its free online format. Students can view the Prezi during and after class by using an online link.

Teaching tools- Kahoot!

This week i am going to review on the educational teaching tools.

What is Kahoot and how does it works?

Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform, free for teachers of awesome and classroom. play, learn, have fun and celebrate together. Kahoot! is a tool for using technology to administer quizzes, discussions or surveys. It is a game based classroom response system played by the whole class in real time. Multiple-choice questions are projected on the screen. Students answer the questions with their smartphone, tablet or computer.

How to Use Kahoot?

You can get stared with Kahoot simply by creating an account; it’s free for everyone, be it a teacher, student or any other user. Users just need to fill the basic information in order to complete the profile. You just need to follow these simple steps:

• Visit GetKahoot.com
• Choose your role
• If applicable give your school
• Put username, email and password
• After filling click on ‘create account’

With Kahoot, you can:

• Ask thought provoking questions
• Students, take control of their own learning
• Easy-to-use, inclusive & highly engaging

Using Kahoot in the Classroom

This is a game-based platform where students are encouraged to be leaders by researching, creating and presenting quizzes. They conduct research themselves on a given topic and also encourage their classmates to learn.

Kahoot saves the result of every quiz played over the platform.  When learners start quizzing they need to enter their nickname and their recorded scores are saved in their profile. This unique feature makes Kahoot an engaging platform.

So, in my opinion, Kahoot is the teaching tools that can help the learning process for the students nowadays. It's such an effective alternative to encourage the students to having fun while learning.