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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Nine Free Video Editing Tools You Need to Know

I have been receiving several emails from teachers and educators who are faithful readers of my articles in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.They all ask me to provide them with video tools that would enable them to edit and customize video clips to be included in their lessons. There are many out there but it would take some time to go around looking especially with the growing spam content  many websites offer to its surfers.

I have already covered some video tools in my previous articles and all these tools can be found under the label Free Video Tools. If you look to the right side you see a widget called Categories, scroll down and you will find this label. Anyway today I decided to assemble the maximum possible of these tools in one article. So I will not be covering the tools I already talked about in the past articles but will particularly include new video tools. Using these tools you would be able to edit your videos the way you want. You can for example cut off certain scenes, add background music, integrate animations and many more. Well not all the these tools offer the same features but the basic functionalities like uploading , editing, and sharing are present in all of them. All the tools covered here are free.

Here is the list:

1- Magisto

Magisto is a cloud based video editing tool that allows its users to :

• Edit videos without the need for any advanced editing skills
• Tag people in videos
• Share videos in different social networking websites
• It is free and easy to use

2- WeVideo

WeVideo is another video editing tool that enables its users to :

• Edit videos online
• Share edited videos with friends in social networks
• It offers 1 GB storage space

3-  CellSea

CellSea is a free video editor and converter that does a number of things:

• It lets you add videos from your computer or from anywhere online
• It allows you to download  edited videos in 3GP, AVI, MOV, MP4, and FLV
• It is free and easy to use
• It has a very user friendly interface
• It requires a registration

4- Stroome

Stroome is an online  collaborative video editing tool. It offers several features :

• It lets you connect to a community of online video editors
• You can search and find clips created by the community members and use it in your own projects.
• Real time video editing either alone or with friends
• You can tag clips for archiving

5-  Kaltura

Kaltura is a " Wikipedia of video, audio and animation". It offers its users :

• The ability to create easy to use platforms for video projects
• Users can create their own personalized video pages and invite others to add or edit it
• Users can embed their collaborative projects anywhere online.

6- VideoToolBox

VideoToolBox is a video editing program. It allows its users to :

• Upload videos and edit them the way they want
• You  can mix videos, add or  change audio tracks
• You can also add watermarks, paints and text notes etc
• You can convert,  cut , crop, demux, and merge several video files into
• It is free and easy to use.

7- PhotoBucket

PhotoBucket is a very famous video platform. It allows its users to :

• Upload videos from the web or from their computers
• It offers several editing options such as adding text, titles, music to the background
• It also lets you cut and crop videos and add transitions effects
• It allows you to embed and share videos on video sharing sites and social networks

8- Overstream

Overstream is a great video editing tool. It allows users to :

• Add subtitles and comments in any language  to videos
• Easily create and synchronize subtitles to any video
• Store the edited videos on Overstream server and send the link to your friends to see it
• It supports most of the video providers

9- Lightworks

Lightworks project offers a lightweight, free and open source video editing software that offers the same features other pro softwares offer such as CutPro. Adobe Premiere, Avid Video Premiere.











As I said before There are many other important video tools that I have covered previously in this blog. I invite you to check the category labelled Free Video Tools to learn more about other tools.

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Eclipse Crossword Easily Create Crossword Puzzles

Eclipse Crossword is a web tool that enables its users to create engaging puzzles instantly and with no charge at all.This is an important tool for teachers teaching languages. They can use it to review vocabulary and drill some items covered during the lesson. Other teachers can also find creative ways to use Eclipse Crossword in their classrooms. It is a proved fact that students love challenging games and would definitely enjoy working on assignments in the form of puzzles. Their logical, critical thinking will be largely enhanced and their spelling errors will also be minimized.

Some features of Eclipse Crossword

Here are some of the important features that Eclipse Crossword offers to its users:

It is free
It is easy to use
It has a student friendly interface
It requires a download but this takes only a couple of minutes
Crosswords can be printed or uploaded into other websites or blogs.

Head over to Eclipse Crossword main page and give it a try.

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Online Safety Tips and Tools to Protect Kids and Inform Parents about Internet dangers

Internet safety, privacy issues, cyberbullying are but some of the major concerns of today's parents. It is true that the web revolution has positively affected many facets of our life, yet its downsides are equally devastating. We are in front of a double edged weapon that requires meticulous attention when using it.
It is impossible to imagine a house without internet connection. The web has crawled into our social texture to the point that we become dependant on its use in our daily life. Besides sending and reading emails, chat and socialising which are basic tasks users would constantly  perform, some people are using it now for e-commerce to buy and shop online, to read ebooks, to run businesses but regardless of the reasons why we have internet at home we should always pay heed to who shares with us this connection especially when it comes to kids.

Kids when unmonitored can have free access to the net and surf in dangerous places , meet strange people and even learn new bad things we never thought they would. And because of their immaturity, innocence and predisposition to easily trust others, . children are the most vulnerable category to cyber bullying and in many cases abuse. Do parents know about these alarming facts ? Of course the majority ,if not all of them know, but the thing is that  they feel helpless and lack the necessary education on the preventive measures they need in order to seamlessly monitor what their kids do online. This ignorance, shortage of insight or call it whatever you want is no longer excused. Parents need to seriuosly address this issue and to help them do so, I have laboriously worked on several resources to compile a list of some of the tools that parents need to be equipped with to face this looming danger that threatens our kids safety.You do not need to be a technology geek or have advanced computer skills to be able to use these web applications. They are mundanely easy and can be used by anyone with the basic internet skills which all of you possess since you are here reading this post.


1-Creepsquash

Creepsquash is a  web based monitoring tool that allows you to seamlessly monitor your kids Facebook activity without invading their privacy. Here is a short video to show you how to do it




2-  MinorMonitor

MinorMonitor is another web application that helps in  monitoring kids activity on Facebook. It can :
Provide you with your kids' details such as status updates, friend lists , photos, and checked in places
Automatically analyzes and identifies possible bullying, drug use, sexual references, solicitation, profanity and more.
Watch this video to learn more





Yahoo Safely

Yahoo Safely is the official Yahoo security tips website. It provides Internet safety tips for both parents and teenagers. It contains sections designed specifically for parents and kids to teach them how to use the internet carefully and responsibly.


Family Safety Centre

Family Safety Centre is a portal made by Google where it aggregates a huge number of Internet security tips, videos and articles. Besides the tools offered by Google services, users can also watch videos made by other parents on how kids can use the internet safely. Family Safety Centre also provides ways for parents on how to report abuse or inappropriate content on its services.






NetSmartz

NetSmartz is a great website that educates its users on Internet Safety for kids. It addresses parents, teachers, teens, educatos, law enforcement . This is what it says about parents :

Wired Safely

Wired Safely is another fantastic website that teaches about online  kids safety. It covers topics such as: cyberbulling, cyberstalking,cyber crimes, online harassement , identity theft, email safety, malware and adware, phishing, downloading music safely and online gaming safety.





SafeKids

SafeKids is much more of a blog than a website. It covers internet safety for kids and has several  articles all of which tackle the issue of kids surfing the net safely.








Cybersmart

Cybersmart provides activities, resources and practical advice to help teens, kids and parents safely use the internet. It also offers training and resources for schools and materials for library staff.







Solos

Solos is another website that offfers education on internet safety for kids and parents.

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