Bookemon Easily Create Digital Ebooks for Free

Bookemon is a great website for educators. It allows its users to create, read and share books online. It is basically a " personal, digital and professioanlly printed book creation and sharing utility." Users can easily, without the need for any HTML coding or any other advanced technological wizardry, upload their graphics, documents, photos and turn them into awesome books. If you are looking for a free platform where you can get free tools to create your books and also host them then Bookemon is the right solution for you.

Bookemon features a bookstore where you can save your digital productions. You can also use their libary to look for books you want to read but you will have to pay to purchase one.If you think  that you have a book worth selling then go ahead and put it for sale on Bookemon, you can even get an ISBN number and barcode for it. With this ISBN number you will be able to advertise ,market and sell  your books to the world through major book sellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and Borders.

Bookemon requires registration for you need to become a member to start uploading your content. The membership and other utilities provided in this website are all free and the obly thing you will need to pay for is when you decide to order bookstore quality books that have been published by you, your firends or other members.

Head over to Bookemon and give it a try.

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Free URL Shortening Tools for Teachers

Using the shortened form of URL is a great way for you to advertise and share web contents. Sometimes long URLs get broken causing people who click on them to cut and psate them back. This is not practical at all given that we are living  in an age that is ripe with awesome web 2.0 tools that can help you perform almost anything you want.

Being educators and teachers you might also be in need of URL shortening services that will enable you to securely shorten your URL and share it with your colleagues or students. Below are Some of the most popular URL Shorteners.

I have included these tools in a presentation that you will find below. You can download, save and share it with your colleagues.

Fur.ly
This web tool lets you place up to 50 URLs . It also allows its users to link multiple web sites to a single URL.

Google URL Shortener
 This is one of my favourite shortening tools and probably the best online. It not only shortens  your URLs but also keeps track of the history of your shrotened links and provides you with analytics on how many people clicked on them and so forth.

TinyURL

This is also another great free  tool that makes posting long URL easier. You can drag and drop its bookmarklet to your toolbar. It works on all major web browsers as long as your bokmarks and favourites allows javascript.


Bit.ly

This service allows its users to shorten as many URLs as they want. It also lets them share and track analytics of their links.


Cli.gs

This is a short URL service that shortens long links for easier sharing with friends on Twitter and Facebook, over email or IM.


Snip URL

this tool allows users to shorten many URLs at once.You can also drag its bookmarklet to your browser for easy use. It does require a sing up.


Is.gd

This is another great short URL service. It does not require a sing up


V.gd

This one here is like Is.gd for they have the same features and almost the same platform.


Tweetburner

This tool lets you shorten URLs and track what happens with links you share on Twitter.

Here is the presentation in Google Docs







Here is the same presentation in Issuu

Open publication - Free publishing - More url shorteners

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Libreoffice A Free Great Alternative to Microsoft Office Suite

Libreoffice is a free open source office suit software that you can download and install for free. This is my favourite office suite and  I even prefer it over the Open Office. Libreoffice has a set of writing and editing tools that resemble  Microsoft Office.So if you already know how to open an office and write a document or spreedsheet then you will find Libreoffice way easier.

Libreoffice is free and there is no fear of copyright infringements. It works on almost all the major operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux ( Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse,...)

Some features of Libreoffice

Here is a set of the main features that Libreoffice offers to its users :
It is free
It requires a download
It is available in several languages
It has LGPL public license
It is user friendly
It has an intuitive interface that you can easily customize
It is compatible with all major competitor file formats
It lets you import files from Microsot  Word, Excel and PowerPoint and many other formats, and can easily save to Microsoft Office and other formats when needed.


Head over to Libreoffice and give it a try

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TagMyDoc A New Way to Share Documents

TagMyDoc is a new web platform that changes the way people share documents.As teachers move from paper to digital and strive to find easier way to distribute documents to smartphone savy classrooms,  TagMyDoc will help make the learning experience easier and more fun, while finding much love in and out of the classroom and on the campus.

TagMyDoc merges the power of the QR code with a cloud based infrastructure,
enabling you to automatically add a tag to a document from our user-friendly web interface. 

When you want to share that document, perhaps after a keynote presentation, during class, or in the midst of a project, simply have your friends, co-workers, or students scan the tag and it will automatically download on their devices. Simple, easy, and fun. 


Watch this video to learn more about TagMyDoc

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Soapbox A Free Tool to Increase Students Engagement

Soapbox is a new beta web service that allows teachers to get their students engagement and develop their interaction. Saopbox provides a platform for the presenter's audience to give their feedback and participate in the discussion in real time. With Soapbox " speakers are able to transform traditional lectures into lasting conversations by integrating audience thoughts and opinions without any interruption."

Some features of Soapbox

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

• It is easy to use
• It is free and has a good user interface
• It lets students get engaged in the discussionby addding and voting for questions
• It has a confusion barometer to let students indicate their areas of confusion
• It lets users easily create polls
• It has a smart filter to prevent duplicate submissions
• It has an archive for answered questions
• It allows users to have co-moderators help them managing the session

Watch this video to learn more about Soapbox




Head over to Soapbox and give it a try.

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Map Your Data for Free Using World Map

The World Map is a great service provided by the Centre for Geographic Analysis ( CGA ) at Harvard univerrsity. It allows users to publish, explorre, edit, and visualize geographically referenced information. World Map is easy to use and can be a great help especially to Geography teachers but everyone else can use it to present visually appealing mapped data.

Woreld Map stores more than 1800 data sets for users to use. These data sets are accompanied in most of the times by illustrations and explanations on how to use them. Users also have the option to upload their own data sets and customize their maps the way they want. Once finished, you can then embed your map in your blog or website, print it out, or view it in Google Earth.

Watch this video to learn more about World Maps.





Head over to World Maps and give it a shot.

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Reminder Guru Get Free Reminders via Email, SMS, or Phone Calls

Reminder Guru as its name suggests is a web service that allows users to get reminders. I know probably most   of you use reminders of some sort to mark important events and remember crucial dates  be it on the computer, smartphone or calendars but Reminder Guru is completely different from the tools you know. It lets its users get reminders through phones via text messages or in the form of an email to their inbox.

Reminder Guru is free and easy to use. Just head over to its main page and sign up with them. Once you are signed in you can start setting your options to create a reminder. You can choose whether you want the reminder to be a one time deal or recur on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis. The next thing you do is to provide your email address and phone number. You will be then directed to select the way you want to get your reminder . you can choose from three ways : through email, a text message, or a phone call. There is a security code that you will have to type in to finalize your reminder. Reminders can be viewed and easily deleted from your account anytime you want.

Head over to Reminder Guru and give it a shot.

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A List of Free Web Tools to Create Disposable Email Addresses

If you are an active web2.0 user and always trying new technology tips, installing new softwares and trying new web tools then your inbox will definately be cluttered with emails most of them are confirmation emails. This is not a problem so far, for as long as you find what you are looking for in  the website you registered with then it is worth the subscription but unfortunately it does not always work this way. Sometimes you would would go through all the registration process and seriuosly provide all the information asked from you and once you are registered you find out that you have been a victim of spam sites. You will start getting all sorts of emails into your inbox to the extent that you can no longer filter your friends emails from the spam ones. I hope you are not into a situation like this because I have gone through it and I really hate it.

 You always need to be careful when submitting your email address to others. There are several websites that sell your email addresses to advertising companies especially that are into pornography and sexual materials ( like Viagra, herbal medicine...ect). Have you ever got an email from a company telling you about a magic recipe to grow or make bigger your genital organs and staff like that? I am sure you might and might even wondered where the hell they got my email. It is from spam sites you have registerd with or being tricked to submit your email address to.

Luckily there is a solution for this. There are many online free services that offer disposabe or one time use email addresses. You can use these emails to test whether the website you want to register with is really what it claims to be or not without having to risk your inbox. I have collected some of these free tools for you to keep and bookmark . Try the followings:


1- Disposable

 Disposable is a free web service that allows its users to create multiple email addresses easily and for free. It does not require any sign up and you can immediately check the inbox upon the creation of email address.


2- Mintemail

Mintemail is another free disposable email service. It generates a disposable email address for each visitor. You can use this email address with fishy web forms and sign ups.


3- 10Minutemail

10Minutemail as its name suggests is a free to use web service that provides its users with disposable email address that lasts just for ten minutes. But if you want more time you can click on the timer and add another ten minutes.


4- WhySpamMe

WhySpamMe is another free service that lets you create disposable email instantly. What make this website different from others is the fact that once you create your own disposable email with WhySpamMe then all the messages sent to your disposable address will be forwarded to your real email address. So when you think the emails are spam then you can quickly delete the disposable address and you are done.


5- Dudmail

Dudmail lets you create your own disposable email address and provides you with a URL. This is the link you can use to check the messages sent to your disposable email address. You can also sign up with Dudmail using your real email address and all emails sent to your disposable address will be forwarded to your real email, and like WhySpamMe, you can delete your one time address whenever you want.


6- TrashMail

TrashMail is a free web service that provides its users with disposable emails to be used in sign ups. It works in the same way Dudmail and WhySpamMe do with only a slight  addition which is that TrashMail also allows users to set a life span for their disposable email address and when this is over then the email is expired too.

7- BugMeNot

BugMeNot lets you get disposable login details for a number of popular news,reviews, download websites that normally require users to register. This is a good service especially for those who like to read online newspapers. Sometime you are reading an article say Washinton Post then suddenly a window would pop up with a message prompting you  to register to continue readin which does not make sense because once you register they will flood your inbox with their daily news. In cases such as these you can use BugMeNot to solve the problem.


8- GishPuppy

GishPuppy is a free disposable email service. It provides users with disposable email addresses to use in unsecure sign ups. It works like WhySpamMe and other tools in that it forwards emails sent to disposable address to the real email and once a user thinks that he is a victim of spam then he can delete the dispoable email address instantly and stop receiving spam emails in his inbox.

9- Mailnesia

Mailnesia lets you generate your own disposable email address that you can keep as long as you want. It also provides you with an account to check for emails sent to your disposable email. Emails can stay there as long as two months after which they will be deleted.

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Extract Email Addresses from Docs and Web Pages Using Easy Email Extractor

Easy Email Extractor is a desktop application that lets you extract email addresses from files, folders, documents text strings and web pages. Can you imagine how hard it is to pick up emails from a long document with several paragraphs? It can be a real time consuming task and we , educators , highly value our time and will not just waste it on trivial chores that technology can do at the tip of a click.

Easy Email Address is a free service that works on Windows and is sized under 1MB. It is down to earth easy and does not require any technology wizardry. Just head over to  Easy Email Address main page and download the application. Do not worry the file is not heavy and will not take so much space from your RAM. Once downloaded and to better use this app all you need to do is to direct it towards the source from which you want to fetch email addresses and it will automatically carry on the task required. It is really amazing how easy it is and how much time you will save using it.

Easy Email Address is completely free with a friendly user interface. Download it and give it a try to see by yourself.

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Detect Fake Emails Using Block Disposable Email Address

Block Disposable Email Address ( DEA ) as its name suggest is a web tool that allows its users to detect whether emails are fake or valid. This is a great tool for web masters and bloggers. If you are running a forum and have a section for subscribers then you can use DEA to filter subscribers' emails and block fake ones. I do not think this tool can be of much use and benefit for teachers and educators but I would say those of you who have their own personal websites can try this tool. I am using this tool here in my blog and I do not accept subscribers with one tine emails.

Block Disposable Email Address is very easy to use and you do not need any advanced technology skills to run it. Just head over to the main page, provide the email you want to check and you will get the result in text format .

If you liked this tool and you want to try it then head over to Block Disposable Email Address.

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DeadFake Send Fake Emails to your Friends

DeadFake is a fake email service. It is a tool to prank your friends online. The idea behind this service is to make your email look like it is coming from someone else with his or her email for instant ( obama@whitehouse.gv ). The service is all fake and can be used to make fun at your friends. This tool does probably not mean anything to you as educators being used to come to my blog to read articles related to technology and education. But the reason why I am including this tool here is to draw your attention to the spam mail you might be getting in your inbox in the form of emails coming from people you know and as soon as you open them you become a victim of phishing or your computer crashes or run the risk of loosing your private information like pin codes and passwords.

Now that you learnt about DeadFake, you can use it to have fun with your friends but nothing more. Remember the principle behind it is to always scrutinize your emails info before you click on any links included in them. Always make sure to check the headers in suspicious emails. The legitimate email will always have the " from" email address in the " sender" field.

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Send Anonymous Emails using The Free Send Email Service

Send Email is a cool service. I just learnt about it today and want to introduce it to you in case you do not know it. Send Email is  an anonymous emailing service. It allows its users to send emails anonymously. This service is free and down to earth easy. It does not require any sign up or software installation.
I am including Send Email here in my blog because there are many teachers who do not prefer to use their email addresses with their students, well at least some have told me so. Now they can use this service to do the same job their 'official '  email address would normally perform. No more excuses for not integrating technology into education .

How can I get started using Send Email ?

It is very easy to use. Just head over to Send Email main page and scroll down . Fill in the three boxes as shown in the picture below. Provide the email address to which you want to send anonymous email, write the subject and then proceed to the body of your email. When you finish , write the captcha and click send and that's it.

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Email yourself Content from Web Pages Using CC: to me

cc:to me is a cool web application. It allows its users to send notes, pictures and videos from any website right into their email inbox. This is a really handy tool for educators for they can now share content of web pages or just part of it with their students or colleagues instantly and all for free. I have tried cc: to me and found it great and therefore I am recommending it to you.

How can I get started using cc:to me ?

It is very easy to use and does not require any advanced technological skills.All you need to do is head over to cc:to me and sign up for a free account. The service is still free till this moment and pro accounts will soon be available too. There is a bookmarklet that you can drag and drop into your browser. Whenever you stumble upon a good article and you want to share part of it be it a video, text, image or all of them just drag and drop the part you want and that's it. Yes it is that easy , watch this video to learn more.

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Listbrew Easily Make Lists, Take Notes, and Stay Productive

Listbrew is a great website. It, as its name suggests, allows its users to create different lists about what they want to keep track of. Many people ( I am one of them ) live on lists, a list of grocery shopping, a list of to-do things at school, a list of upcoming events , a list of interesting tv shows to watch..etc. They just feel like they can not control their everyday life without containing it in a stream of lists.

Arranging lists and organizing them into different categories  means that one is serious about what he/she is doing. This is even perfect for us in education. Our time table is full most of the time and unless we keep reminding ourselves about what is coming up we would very easily miss many important things. Listbrew can help you make lists of whatever you want and you can even  add notes to them. Since Listbrew is web based then you can access your lists from anywhere with an internet connection.
If you think that Listbrew can be of any good to you then head over to its main page and sign up. The service is all free and only requires a quick registration. Once logged in you can then start noting down your lists.

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