News, tips and tricks

From the perspective of teachers, with all their responsibilities, there can be an ambivalent attitude toward incorporating new technologies into the classroom.  I know because I am a teacher.  I have been in the meetings and seen the frustrated faces of those thinking:  “Not again.  Another big idea from the administration which will only mean more work for me…” or “There goes my lunch break!”  However, with mozaBook and mozaWeb there is no need to reinvent the wheel.  With our simple drag and drop function, you can seamlessly integrate your existing lesson plans onto our platform and transform them into exciting, interactive publications or presentations.  If you have a lesson plan in PDF or pptx. format, which is tried, tested and effective, you can simply upload the file onto our software and begin using mozaBook and mozaWeb to supplement your lessons.

Each student acquires information differently; be it visually, verbally, via movement or tactile means.  Our software facilitates differentiated instruction by presenting each new concept in a variety of modalities and gives you back the command of your classroom.  Not every student is engaged in a lesson simply by auditory means.  Does this mean teachers should stop speaking?  Of course not… However, when you are standing in front of a visual learner, lecturing about how an aqueduct works, it is no wonder that they are looking out the window for stimulation as you’re speaking.

Simply lecturing to a visual learner is no different than not speaking to an auditory learner.  We need to speak their language in order to engage them in our ideas.  They need to see the water wheel and aqueduct!  For instance, here is our 3D animation of Syrian water wheels from the 13th century. Two anticipated questions regarding this concept are 1) What makes the wheel move?  2) How does the water not spill from the moving buckets?  Don’t simply explain these phenomena, allow your students to see the damming process and the effect of kinetic energy in action.  Show them the buckets releasing the water only at the top in order to demonstrate this elegant, yet simple design.  Allow your students the benefit of direct experience rather than forcing them to reinvent the wheel in their own minds!  They need to watch it work in order to understand its purpose, relevance and significance.   

Visual learners convert words into pictures in their minds.  While they are more skilled at this than most, it requires a lot of energy and they can tire easily.  With Mozaik’s software, you can give your students a break and demonstrate important concepts with one of our 3D drawings or photos from our digital library.  You will see your visual learners perk up and their eyes get big as you show them one of our 3D drawings, because our 3D pictures are so real, they practically jump off the screen and grab your student’s attention.  And that’s the point, your students will love it.  When students are engaged, they are learning.  

All students learn by doing.  Allow them the opportunity to reinforce what was learned by playing one of our engaging and interactive games. The focus of a professional development seminar that I attended on solidifying skill mastery showed that students must practice a skill 7 times, on average, in order to obtain mastery of that skill.  Therefore, practice really does make perfect.

As our understanding of the educational process evolves, we realize where our approach to teaching and understanding of the learning process had been lacking.  When students are engaged, they are learning. When students are learning, they aren’t being disruptive. When students aren’t disruptive, but rather focused on the lesson, the teacher has the freedom to address the content and actually teach.  The more modalities you can present to your students, the higher percentage of them will be engaged in the lesson and the happier a teacher, you will be.  

With the functionality of Mozaik’s software, you can address the variety of your student’s understanding and play to their strengths rather than the conventional ‘one size fits all’ approach to teaching.  

Do you have the perfect lesson to teach phonics to young readers?  Great!  With a few clicks you can add it to our software and begin the process of making our software work for you by adding customized, interactive letter cards or random exercises to your favorite phonics lesson.  It’s time to make phonics phun.  Simply import your lesson and you can add 3D models, cool exercises or interactive games from our media library. Not only that, but with Mozaik, collaboration is a cinch! With our software, you can upload and share your favorite lesson plans with your colleagues or upload them on mozaWeb so your students can practice at home with their parents.  We want teachers to be able to make technology work for them in the classroom, not the other way around.  This is why we also offer an incredibly user-friendly, easy-to-use platform (essentially, your grandma could use it), and even offer to train teachers in using our software!  

At Mozaik Education, we believe that technology is meant to make the teacher’s life easier, while simultaneously making the lessons more engaging, interactive, and effective for your students. We know how difficult teaching is. Many of us are teachers. Our goal at Mozaik Education is to make your life better and give you the most benefit from the software, without ever missing a lunch break.   

Happy Olympics to you all!

The Olympics are a time of tremendous pride for us at Mozaik Education.  Not only are we proud of all the athletes representing Hungary in the games, but we are also reminded of how proud we are to have your support.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for supporting us with your likes, comments, shares, and just for reading.
 

Linking History to Today
...Did you know?

Practice makes perfect

On the surface, it would seem that a single moment in time defines “greatness” for Olympic athletes. However, the truth is, that this moment of truth is not a single moment, but the culmination of years of practicing and perfecting skills. This is precisely why we say people achieve greatness. We don’t say people are born into greatness or are given greatness.  In the Olympics, people don’t strike gold. They earn it.
 

Let’s Get Motivated!  

Training for the Olympics is a lot like preparing for a high school leaving exam, when you think about it.  Here is a list of 8 similarities that I’ve compiled to emphasize this point:
 

The only real difference between the two is that during the Olympics, millions of screaming fans, from all over the world, are watching athletes compete and cheering them on. Whereas, in a leaving exam it will most likely be so quiet you can hear the clock ticking and your thoughts tormenting you.

Let mozaWeb get your students in shape during the off-season

How to build mozaMuscle:  

• Work the core...curriculum! mozaWeb is like hiring your very own personal trainer, who never sleeps, and is available anywhere there is internet connection.

• Competition is the fuel for greatness:  Not enough people to get a game started?  mozaWeb brings the court/field home to you so you can compete against your personal best, your classmates, or both!

• With access to over 1,100 3D models, 700+ educational videos, and more than 75 thematic tools and games, mental pushups have never been this fun.  

• mozaWeb makes practice simple - just login, lace up your shoes and get moving

• It is absolutely free to try. (My mozaTrainer has just informed me that excuses are unacceptable… So you better just get to it.)

We hope to see you on the court!  

What does the average day at the office look like for you?  

At Mozaik Education, testing is a big part of our days. Our team of programmers work tirelessly to ensure that the end user experience is smooth and functional. They are constantly responding to user feedback and improving upon the system. As a part of our employee training, our business development team creates unique information sessions on the new features available in mozaBook and presents them to our colleagues. Not only are we allowing each individual the opportunity to demonstrate their creativity and show us some innovative ways to use mozaBook, but we are also testing the software in real time (just as a teacher would present a lesson to the class). And of course, we have fun while doing it, because mozaBook is not only fun for students!

Our mozaBook testing sessions

We are constantly thinking about things from many different angles - testing, updating, developing new content, and re-creating situations - in order to continually improve upon the solutions we offer. We think about things from the teacher’s perspective (i.e., is it easy to use and does it save time?), the student’s perspective (i.e., is it interactive, interesting, engaging and fun?)... We think about things from inside the box, then outside the box, then we open our 3D model of a cube on mozaBook for still another perspective! Let me introduce to you, the third way to think about about a box...

Using mozaBook to demonstrate the third way to think about a box.

Our ultimate goal is to make teachers more effective by giving them the tools and solutions they need. The mozaBook interface is intuitive and anyone with a basic understanding of computers can begin creating lessons on mozaBook almost immediately. The icons are designed simply making them easy to navigate. However, the software also has tremendous depth and, for those who want to dive deeper, we also provide numerous training sessions. These sessions give participants the opportunity to see how the software can best suit their needs, and provide answers to their specific questions. They also build teacher confidence prior to using the software in the classroom. In other words, teachers also may need to do a little bit of homework (a huge understatement). However, these training sessions are always interactive, fun and informative for everyone involved.  We hope to see you at the next one!

Would you like to join our next partner training? Want to visit sunny Szeged in the summertime? There are still spaces available for August 23 - 25 in Szeged. If you would like more information, visit our Facebook page.    

Want to see more 3Ds? Not a mozaMember yet? Let’s register a free account now.

Peter Torok, our deputy CEO and certified mozaWizard, was recently invited by Uchebnik Center ("Textbook" Center), Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, to the international scientific-practical conference in Astana, Kazakhstan. This year’s conference was titled “Modern educational resources and the effectiveness of the educational system”, and took place over three days beginning June 28th. During his stay in this beautiful capital city, Peter presented the unique features, design and capabilities of mozaBook and offered some mozaWisdom in his presentation titled: “The 5 Pillars of Successful Educational Systems: The Essentials to Graduating Competitive Specialists.” Peter also held a master class titled: “The efficient application and use of digital education content and tools as an extra to the existing educational materials in the 21st century classroom.”

Pictured above are conference members, notably: Beybitkul Karimova (third from left), CEO of Uchebnik, Peter Torok (center), deputy CEO of Mozaik, and Duysebek Adilhan Telegenuli (center, right), deputy CEO of Uchebnik.

The purpose of this conference was to assess the role of educational technology in the overall educational environment. It was also a great opportunity to showcase new and developing educational solutions to the Kazakh people. Along with our partners at Interactiv Kazakhstan, Mozaik presented mozaBook as well as our companies’ educational philosophy and forecast for future educational environments.

From all of us at Mozaik Education, we would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to our partners in Kazakhstan for their kindness and hospitality, and for helping Mozaik to shape the future of education.  We look forward to hosting you in Hungary soon!

Mozaweb is now available in China!  In January 2014, our Mozaik team attended the BETT expo in London England where we encountered a great producer of educational content in China, Yuanlai. This was the beginning of Mozaik’s presence in the world of Chinese education.

Chinese students enjoy a Mozaik 3D model of the Globe Theatre in London.

At a recent expo, Yuanlai presented one of Mozaik’s 3D models about the Globe Theatre in London, England to students in Wuhan - Jiang’an District.  If you would like to watch the Globe Theatre video, and see just how much information we can cram into a 2 minute lesson, you can check out the 3D model here.  Before you can gain access to our library of free content, you will need to register an account at mozaweb.com.  It is free, easy and takes only seconds to complete.  After registering, you will be able to sample our 3D scenes, videos, and other online content.  Also, we promise there will be no spam associated with your registering, so no worries there.

Various young learners enjoyed exploring the interactive digital components of the “Secrets of our Environment” series

Wuhan Yuanlai Education Distribution Company Ltd. produces and distributes educational videos and other content, and even has their own educational television channel!  For two years, we have enjoyed a great working relationship with Yuanlai and are proud to announce that mozaWeb is now available in China!

Outdoor big screen displaying mozaBook at Shandong Book City, China.

Mozaik Education has licensed the use of 12 of our books to be used by the children in China, including the complete “Secrets of our Environment” series.  This is a printed book series which includes an activation code which can be entered on mozaWeb and the students are given complete access to the books in the form of online digital content, via our educational platform. In other words, the book is also made available to them, in its entirety, online. Since this time we have been proud to offer our printed books and mozaWeb to the people of China and salute our partners at Yuanlai for their dedication to excellence in education.

After almost two years of successful and mutually beneficial collaboration, there are plans to license new books in the near future and Mozaik’s books are also available now from a variety of bookstores, online distributors and retailers.

Academics' Choice Awards™ aims to help teachers and parents search for the best educational software, toys and books. Highly qualified academics, parents, homeschoolers and teachers evaluate the product on its ability to develop cognitive skills of students. The products are examined on their success of building higher order thinking skills, ability to engage students, positive influence on character building of the students etc. Only the true “mind-building” products can survive the rigorous scrutiny of the Academic’s Choice Awards team.

We feel honoured to receive this award and are very thankful for the positive feedback we received from the reviewers. One of the teachers on the committee said: “My students loved watching the 3D panoramic images and presentations on our whiteboard. I loved that they were actually paying attention! Not only can I assign homework and design new lessons using the powerful tools, mozaBook even has a built in browser so I can point students to more content that loads right in mozaBook! It's much more than a presentation software program, it's a make-me-look-good as a teacher program that's actually effective!”. It makes all the numerous people who put effort into creating mozaBook extremely happy to see that teachers love our software.

To see more quotes from the Academic’s Choice Awards committee about mozaBook or to check out the list of all the winners please visit the website of Academic’s Choice Awards.

If you haven’t tried mozaBook yet, you can download the free demo version here and build your own interactive lesson plans enriched with spectacular 3D and video content.