Documentary Heaven Free Documentaries for Educators

Documentary Heaven is a free website that provides free documentaries. It has a wide library that contains up to 2100 videos and will soon have more for its user base is growing up fast. After going through some of its features I decided to add this video resource to The Best Free Educational Documentary Websites I have been compiling here.
Documentary Heaven  is free and does not ask for any software download or installation. Users can start browsing straight away.Just like most of the documentary websites I have covered before, Documentary Heaven organizes its content into a wide range of categories such as Educational Human Rights, Archaeology, Psychology, Health, Evolution, Environment, Economics, Mystery, Nature, Philosophy and many more. The videos are sourced from different video platforms including, but not limited to, YouTube.

Documentary Heaven also allows its users to contribute with their own videos. There is a tab in the upper bar called ' submit ' which can be used for this purpose. There is also a Forum where users get to ask questions about documentaries or the like and get answers from others.

I do recommend Documentary Heaven to educators and teachers. Give it a try and I am pretty sure you will find content to include in your future lesson plans.

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iPad VS Textbooks Which is Best for Education

With the start of 2012 Apple announced two major products geared towards education. The aim is to provide digital textbooks and probably replace traditional textbooks forever. iBooks ( a virtual library where users can read and download ebooks they want ) and iBooks Author ( an app that allows users to create their own textbooks ) have been making the news for a while now. The educational Technology experts have welcomed this move towards the digitisation of education but have also expressed some of their fears or let's say setbacks that would stand against the implimentation of Apple's ideas in education.

Read the infographic below to learn more about the obstacles facing schools and teachers when it comes to choosing between iPads or Textbooks.


Created by: Online Teaching Degree

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FreePhoto Educational Resource of Photos for Teachers and Students

FreePhoto is a website that provides a large collections of images developed by Ian Britton. It has over 132516 images with 182 sections organized into 3639 categories. Some of the photos in this website are free and others are under a licensing fee.
Students can use this library to look for photos to include in their project works provided that they adhere to the Student Use Guidelines. FreePhoto allows its users to look for photos using either the galleries or keywords. Galleries have images organized under several headings such as the location where the photo was taken, Subject ( sunset, season ) and many more.

"Also non-commercial users may download our web size images to use off-line in school projects, church services, cards, leaflets, etc. Basically if your off-line use is not commercial you can download our web size images for free."

Head over to FreePhoto and give it a try.

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Documentaryz Free Video Resource for Educators

Documentaryz is a great web resource for educators. It offers thousands of  documentaries for free. I have just discovered this website today and after reviewing it I think it is worth including in The Best Free Documentaries for Teachers list.

Documentaryz has a good user interface and is very easy to navigate. The videos included in its library are basically YouTube videos but there are also videos from other video hosting platforms. There are several categories that you can browse through to find your content such as Art, Animal and Nature, Business, History, Biagraphy, Military, Media, Funny, Music, Psychology, Environmental, ..and many more.

Documentaryz is free of charge and does not require any installation or software download. You also have the choice whether to open a free account or just use it as a guest user. If you register with them you will have added features such as being able to track your history of videos watched, organize playlists and interact with the community.
If you are a teacher and want some media resources then consider Documentaryz you might find something interesting you can share with your students.

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Masher Create Videos from Photos, Text and Music

Masher is a popular video service that allows its users to create videos by mixing together video clips, music tracks, and photos. You can also use text throughout your videos.The process is very simple and easy to use.Using drag and drop, your video will be ready in a matter of few minutes.
If you feel like not creating a video of your own then you can check Masher library for videos uploaded by others. Masher features a large collection of video clips from some very known services such as BBC's Motion Gabllery and Rip Curl video. It also has a large music library, and video player skins.

Some features of Masher

Here is a list of the main featuresbthat Masher offers to its users :

• It is free
• It is easy to use
• It has a user friendly interface
• It lets you create videos out of images and audio clips
• You can add music, text and special effects to your videos
• You can share your created videos with others via posting them in sites such as Facebook, MySpace, or through email

Head over to Masher and give it a try

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Stupeflix An Easy Way to Create Videos

Stupeflix is a great video tool for educators. This is a service that allows its users to easily create awesome video montages using images and audio clips. Stupeflix resembles Animoto but has some different functionalities not found on the Animoto. The only thing I do not like about this new service is the limit they put on free videos. You will have only 60 seconds for each video you make for free.

Stupeflix enables its users to  add audio clips to their images to make awesome videos. Images can be uploaded right from your computer or via image hosting websites such as Flickr and Phtobucket. The same goes for the sound tracks, you can either use a pre-provided sound clipcs from Superflix library or upload your own. Once your video is ready you can then share it on Youtube or via the other social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Again Free users will only be able to share videos on Youtube and Facebook , no download  is availabel for them.

Some features of Superflix

Here is a set of the features that Superfilx offers ot its users:

• It has two plans one is free and the other is pro
• It lets users create videos out of images and audio clips
• Users can share videos on social media websites or download them into their computers
• It offers beautiful video themes
• It lets you add maps to your videos

Head over to Stupeflix and give it a try.

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mySchooNoteBook A Great Educational Note Taking Tool

mySchoolNotebook is a web service that allows its users to easily take notes and customize them the way they want. Besides being able to edit and format notes, users can also add or insert videos and images into their notes. This is a great tool for teachers and students and has a free version that offers generous features.

To start using mySchoolNotebook you need to register and open a free account there , you can use your Facebook account to login. Once logged in you click on " New Notebook" on the main page. The picture of the notebook will appear and you can rename it according to your wish together with the name of a teacher. Click on the " Add Topic" button in the middle of page to add your topic and start inserting content such as text, videos , and images. When your topic is ready you can then share it with your ffiends, colleagues or students using the share buttons or publish it to the web and let others find it in their search queries.

 As I said earlier mySchoolNotebook offers two different plans that you can choose from , one is free and the other costs $2 per month. The free plan does have some limits but still has some good features such notebook sharing, mobile access and offline access.

mySchoolNote is also available for mobile devices. If you have iPhone, iPad or Android then you can download this app from the relevant app store and you will be able to enjoy all the features of mySchoolNotebook right from the palm of your hands.

Head over to MySchoolNotebook and give it a try.

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