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At Mozaik Education our main goal is to have a comprehensive system that supports all participants of the learning process. mozaBook, therefore, is updated every 6 months just before the start of a new semester.

Today we are excited to introduce you to the new 4.5.8.305 release of mozaBook Classroom application! Beyond huge amount of background development which increases performance and stability, we highlight the most important improvements and changes in the new version for you:

Mozaik Teacher and Student user-based licence activation in mozaBook

Our new user-based licence types Mozaik Teacher and Mozaik Student can be activated directly from mozaBook via a mozaWeb in-application process. After creating a new user on mozaWeb and downloading mozaBook, user-based licence holders can activate their licences in mozaBook.

Tests included in books or exercise books as interactive extras can now be sent as homework assignment

Beyond having the option to choose from tests created by or shared with the user, now already prepared test within exercise books or textbooks can be directly sent as homework to the students. 

Free-hand drawing option on any window

In every open window within mozaBook (eg. a tool, game, 3D scene, browser) users can now freeze the screen and draw freely by clicking on the pencil icon (upper right corner). All drawing tools can be used in the drawing/explanation mode from the pencil case except the geometry tools. By clicking on the pencil icon again, the drawings are deleted and the window continues to function interactively. 

Adjustable density of pre-set lines and square grid 

Within the page properties (long click on an empty space on the exercise book > Page properties) users can set the density of the lines and square grid of the preinstalled page backgrounds. 

Gallery optimisation

1. Selected images on a page can be added into a new gallery (G A L L E R Y Tool) by simply clicking on the image gallery option on the drop-down menu.
2. Selected images from the media library can also be added to a gallery with right-click > drop-down menu > Image gallery
3. Images sent to students through classwork can have free-hand drawing marks included when collected back by the teacher and can be added to an image gallery with student names 

Simplification of slide arrangement in ‘pages’ side-window

Users can rearrange the order of pages as well as they can select, copy and move multiple pages of the exercise books with simple drag 'n drop in the ‘Pages’ side-window

Return to the last saved state option

Users actively editing their presentations during the lessons with drawings, added items or texts for example can simply return to the last saved state of the given page in the presentation by clicking on the Quick menu > Last saves state option. 

Added filtering options for internet-based search

Internet-based search function enriched with additional filter attributes to find the relevant images and videos more quickly

Other new features/updates:

• PDF can be generated from the exercise book without an external PDF printer installed on the user’s device
• Automatic line-smoothing can be switched off
• It’s now possible to open a browser tab in mozaBook, have it detached from the tab-bar and use the standalone window for easier drag’n drop of items to your exercise book
• Steps and commands defined as part of the animation of items are now also included in the scope of undo-able / redo-able steps
• Shortcut menu added to pencil case recycle bin to delete all non-locked items from the active page
• Full HD and 4K optimization option available in Settings

Make your voice heard! 

We are constantly looking for feedback to optimize and make mozaBook better. Write us on your contact sheet and don't forget to use the inbuilt mozaBook feedback feature to directly communicate with our developers.

How to send feedback in mozaBook (error, bugs, improvement suggestions):

Best regards,

mozaBook development

The Frankfurt Book Fair, which has traditions spanning more than 500, is the biggest book fair in the world and is held every year. However, due to the pandemic, it was canceled last year. This was a symbol of a huge blow not only for business but more importantly for social relationships as well. All of us were very glad that this year’s book fair was held because we finally could get to meet one another again and to get to know in person those that we have been in contact with during the pandemic.

The pandemic is still with us unfortunately, but social responsibility and regulations have proven effective and this is a small price to pay for all the advantages the book fair had to offer. For the first 3 days we had met other companies from all around the world, and as always it was great to finally have meetings and discussions in person. From time to time we could even grab a cup of coffee together. We happily recognized that despite the situation a lot of people attended the fair. 

Especially during the last two days where all the people were allowed in to browse through the booths. We received huge help from the Mittelpunktgrundschule in the form of a couple of teachers. It was mesmerizing both for us and the audience to witness actual teachers use our solutions. We are really grateful to them for these spectacular presentations that we highly recommend a previous blog post if you are interested in the school’s experience with our digital solutions.

All in all, Frankfurt has shown us that being present and socializing with other people is an unexpectedly important aspect of our life, even if we have access to all the modern communication solutions. And once more a shout-out to the Mitterpunktgrundschule from Haiger for participating together with us.

Mozaik Education and the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology of the University of Szeged (SZTE) have developed a next-generation, interactive, 3D anatomy platform with VR support that can be used for educational purposes.

We are proud to present this short article that was written by Glenn Carter who is a teacher at Ingleby Mill Primary School in the United Kingdom. The school is one of our partner institutions, which means that they are using our solutions actively in education, therefore they have first-hand experience regarding their real-life application. Please welcome her short report.

We have been using mozaBook for around two years now at Ingleby Mill Primary School and have found it to be an exciting, engaging and useful piece of software. The staff have access to it in all classrooms with an interactive whiteboard which makes many of the features in mozaBook even more useful.

One of the elements that we have enjoyed in particular are the Tools and Games which engage the children tremendously. The variety of tools across a range of different subjects means that there is usually something for every lesson. The interactive and customisable Board Games are fantastic at helping the children to remember key concepts and knowledge in a fun and exciting manner. The fact that you can add in your own questions and pictures, along with a variety of different question types, means that we can tailor the content to suit our own topics.

The MiniMap is another favourite tool as it allows us to highlight key geographical concepts whilst making the experience interactive. Adding our own quizzes and labels onto maps that can then be saved and reopened is a huge timesaver that allows us to easily revisit content to consolidate it.

We also love using Mozaik’s 3D scenes to help bring a lot of our curriculum to life. Using these for history, geography and science means that many difficult or abstract concepts are made concrete and clear. The ability to rotate the scenes and hide or show labels means that we have control over how we use them. We have integrated a lot of these scenes into our planning right across school, from KS1 to KS2, meaning that the entire school has access to them.mozaBook has become the fundamental piece of software in my own teaching and for many others across school as the volume of content, interactivity and accessibility make it an essential part of mine and many other teachers’ classrooms in school.

At Batory Primary School No. 5 in Łódź, we have been using mozaBook software and the mozaWeb platform since November 2016. The system has been installed on all school interactive whiteboards, providing our teachers with an extensive database of educational materials on all school subjects. 

The software gives us an opportunity to break teaching routine and enrich our lessons with spectacular interactive content. It allows us to create our own materials for each class, depending on the students’ needs. It helps to develop learning interests among talented students, and supports our work with students who have learning difficulties.In the school year of 2020/2021, we managed to create a lot of new pages of our digital exercise books from subjects such as: Polish, English, History, Biology or Integrated Teaching. During Science classes, we often exploit the media library, graphs, 3D scenes, educational videos, as well as skill-development applications or virtual laboratories. We use the in-built test editor and pre-defined question templates. Our students, in their free time or during extra classes, have fun with applications such as "Othello" or "Connect 4", they create Maths and Physics games, build circuits, weigh, measure, use a microscope or a motion simulator. Hall of fame, time machine or the Euklides tool are also very popular and practical.

A number of prepared exercise books from the Polish language subject support the study of subsequent literary periods and the books from the school reading list. An extensive Biology exercise book, divided into three levels, is a constant element of numerous lessons, especially in the fields of Anatomy, Physiology and Genetics. In History classes, mozaBook takes the students to different ages, brings various historical events closer to children and helps to explore discussed topics.

Extensive software resources work well and are very effective during Integrated Teaching classes. Tools such as Riddles, Puzzle, Logical Blocks, Tangrams, and the possibility to interact with the 3D models arouse amazement and enthusiasm among the youngest. Every child wants to become the NumberHero or the King of the Chessboard!

The program is perfect for activities aimed at developing and equalizing educational opportunities, during substitutions, but most of all, during distance learning. In addition to mozaBook software, we find the resources available on mozaWeb very useful. We also exploit digital books offered by Mozaik Education and public exercise books of other teachers, we share our own publications as well. Throughout the school year, we implemented a nationwide project called "Share a smile" which was under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Education. The project concerned the prevention of tooth decay among school-age children. In order to organize and conduct the necessary lessons, we used materials related to the topic of the project available in mozaBook, which was emphasized in many reports. 

In March, all over Poland, we celebrated "Days of new technologies in education". Our school prepared classes with the use of mozaBook and a crossword generator called "Masters of the skies - birds". We used all available bird-related resources. Children tried to recognize different species of birds and their songs, and watched the migrations of birds. The lessons aroused great interest and inspired children to become interested in ornithology. The classes included bird species recognition competitions and a contest for the most interesting crossword puzzle. In May 2021, via the Teams application, our school prepared an online training devoted to teaching methods. The lecture was held at the Teacher Improvement Center and Practical Training for Teachers. As the audience was mostly in-service and future teachers, it was an opportunity to present mozaBook to a number of potential users. At the end of the lecture, we were asked to organize more of such online meetings presenting the software and our experience in using it. The potential of the software made a huge impression on the viewers, incomparable with any other ICT tool.

In the school year of 2020/2021, our school teachers wrote an article about our experiences in working with mozaBook for the nationwide educational magazine called "School Director". In the article, we presented the platform's resources and described good practices of how to make use of the materials during lessons. The article states clearly that mozaBook cannot be replaced with anything else, and the lessons conducted with the use of the software give better results of our students' work, which was reflected in the school diagnosis. The available tools, interactive and thematically cataloged add-ons have no competition in the accessible Internet resources. No applications or online materials are comparable, in our opinion, to what your digital software offers. Our students, having at their disposal a number of ICT applications, invariably choose lessons based on mozaBook. 

We cannot imagine working without mozaBook, thanks to which, our school stands out from other schools by promoting non-standard ICT solutions in education.

Teachers were so satisfied and confident with the software that they even wrote an article about it in the national educational magazine Dyrektor Szkoły. You can access it through this link.

Throughout our current topic on Ancient Egypt, I have used Mozaik3D in most lessons to try to engage the children and bring the ancient world to life. For me, this has been, by far, the greatest resource during this topic for multiple reasons:

• The range of 3D scenes has covered most lessons
• The detail within them has captivated the children

The discussions we’ve had as a class from them have helped the children to see just how significant the Ancient Egyptians were as a society.

After our first lesson on the Earliest Civilisations, we then moved onto the Egyptians, their timeline and their place on the world timeline. We used the ‘Legendary Ancient Empires’ scene to ascertain that Egypt’s history was more than just itself, but that of other empires too who had conquered it, helping the children to realise that there may have been significant changes throughout these thousands of years depending on who had invaded and what kinds of culture they had brought.

The next lesson focused on Ancient Egyptian achievements and we of course had to look at the pyramids! We started off by looking at the ‘Pyramid of Djoser’ to see how the first Egyptian pyramids were built. We then compared these to the Pyramids of Giza and identified the size, structures, purposes and general wonderment of them. This helped them establish what an incredible achievement these structures were for people who lived thousands of years ago. We also looked at the ‘Rosetta Stone’ to investigate Egyptian hieroglyphics and understand how exactly we came to unlock the secrets of Ancient Egypt. The ability to zoom in on the stone and the reimagining of the entire piece helped the children to understand how significant this artefact was in understanding Egypt’s history.

Following on from this, we looked at a typical Ancient Egyptian settlement, guiding us through their positions along the Nile, the types of layouts that might have been found, the materials used and various other features that provided interesting comparisons with today, such as wells and border walls. This then led us into a somewhat typical Egyptian house where we could explore the functions of different rooms and identify the similarities and differences of Egyptian homes with those of previously studied civilisations and those of today. This really helped the children to understand the different lifestyles that people in the past may have had and the reasons behind these.

A few days later, we had finished some of our English a little sooner than anticipated, so we looked at an Egyptian sailing boat to understand one of the most important means of transport that they had. We studied the Eye of Horus on the sail and what that meant, the construction of it and the potential lack of wood to build with, the adornments at the front and back and the type of person that this particular boat may have belonged to. This helped the children to see how significant boats were in everyday life and the skill that the Egyptians had to make them.

Next, we moved onto Egyptian society. By studying the various levels that made up Ancient Egyptian society, we began to understand how different aspects of life seemed to be more important than others in their world. We looked at an Egyptian pharaoh to see what they might look like and looked for clues that showed their power and status. We then looked at typical Egyptian clothing to identify what poorer and richer people may have worn, including jewellery and perfume. This enabled us to develop discussions about the differences between clothes back then and now and why many people wore very little clothing. Although the role of the 3D scenes in this lesson was fairly minimal, it was certainly more interesting than just looking at a picture. 

The following lesson was a massive hit due to the 3D scene!

We started to look at Ancient Egyptian religion and began focusing on their gods and goddesses to understand the nature of their religion. Using the ‘Ancient Egyptian Deities’ scene, we spent a good 30-40mins just watching each deity pop out of the wall and discuss their form, gender, appearance, what they represented and even discussed them carrying the ankh (the Egyptian symbol of life) except for Anubis who was god of the underworld, so therefore didn’t need one. The children were mesmerised and we could have continued with this for longer, but we needed to compare their gods with Roman ones to see how they differed and whether their religions changed. The 3D scene created an immense hook that had the children excited to explore more and produce detailed work that showed that they understood not just which gods and goddess they had, but the nature of the religion and its impact on daily life.

At the end of the half-term, I wanted to do an art project as I knew the children were flagging (as was I!) so we collaboratively painted a picture of Tutankhamun’s death mask in the style of Chuck Close. Before we painted though, we used the ‘Tutankhamun’s Tomb’ scene to investigate the Valley of the Kings, the tomb itself, the sarcophagus and the mummy, as well as the death mask. The children were enthralled by this and were amazed to see how many layers there were to his sarcophagus. We also used the scene to investigate the different elements of his face mask to understand why they adorned it in such a way, which helped them understand the significance of finding an artefact such as this.

The next lesson was all about mummification and the afterlife, but unfortunately there weren’t any scenes linked directly to it. What we DID use afterwards though was the scene of the ‘Temples of Abu Simbel’  which absolutely blew the children’s minds! Through this, we investigated how this magnificent site was constructed by carving into the rock, the role that it played in intimidating Ramses II’s enemies and positioning him amongst the gods plus the sheer scale of it.

Finally, we looked at the role of food and the importance of the Nile in giving life to Ancient Egypt. To do this, I used the ‘Ancient agriculture in the Nile Valley’ scene to show the flooding of the Nile, the deposit left over, the irrigation systems installed and the use of the shaduf to move water from one place to another. This visual representation was essential in allowing the children to see how advanced the Egyptians really were when it came to agriculture and how fundamental the Nile was in allowing the Ancient Egyptians to thrive as a civilisation. 

Without Mozaik3D though, I really would have struggled to have brought all of these lessons, concepts and history to life, all of which stopping the children from truly understanding the significance of Ancient Egypt.