Viewbix - Empowering Videos

Address: http://www.viewbix.com/

Viewbix is a new website utilizing videos and interactive apps to engage viewers and call for action. As of January 2012 there is no educational platform but this site definitely can be used as a Web 2.0 teaching tool for teachers and their students.

Creating players - videos with interactive apps - supports active learning and can integrate with the Flipped Classroom model.
Videos can be loaded from YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook. You can customize videos with a title, description and links. Videos can be embedded on other websites or shared via a unique link.

Currently the site is free but will soon add premium features for a fee. As of this writing (January 2012) the Basic free plans let you have create 5 players (videos with apps). Apps available on the Basic plan includes additional YouTube videos, Twitter feeds, flickr RSS streams, Picasa RSS streams, Google maps, Yahoo weather, Facebook photos, and stock quotes.

The website states that Document Upload will be coming soon as part of the PRO plan at $19.95 a month. Obviously there's plenty still to come at this website, but it definitely has lots of potential for the classroom.

21st Century Skills

Whether students create an original video to use or locate one on YouTube or Vimeo, they can strengthen communication skills by building content onto the video and sharing withclassmates or the community. Critical thinking skills are utilized by students as they decide on the appropriate apps and links to use as they create their player.

In the Classroom

Add content to clarify a video or to build content upon a video.
Link a video to a quiz or poll for assessment.
Use a video as an introduction and then link to a student's research on a wiki or glog.
Link a book trailer to student reviews, the author's website, or an excerpt from the book.
Spotlight a topic with a video and link to a bibliography of websites and resources in the school library for more information on the topic.

Click on this example to view a Viewbix player about polar bears created for a lesson on biomes.

Tutorial

Overview Video Tutorial

Safety Concerns

An email address is required to create an account. If using student email addresses is an issue at your school, consider using Mailcatch which is discussed on the "Other Helpful Tools" page.
Actual names are not required for accounts. Email addresses are used as the username along with a password.

Comments can be posted on the Viewbix website and are not moderated. Players can be embedded on other websites for viewing.

Return to the Communication page.

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SBI!