News, tips and tricks

You might remember our lovely partner school from Haiger, Germany as last semester they were kind enough to write a short summary of their experiences of using our digital solutions. In October 2018 we had the chance to meet their media team in Frankfurt at the annual Buchmesse and conduct a quick interview about how things are going in the school, how kids are doing, and you know, about mozaBook itself.

Do you feel you were able to successfully integrate mozaBook into your daily lessons?

Absolutely. Following our visit to the Mozaik training center in Szeged, Hungary, we gradually integrated many functions into our everyday lessons. We’ve held short internal training sessions so more and more teachers were able to start working with mozaBook. Currently, almost every teacher has access to the program so we can cooperate with each other within the institution.

We use the mozaBook software for various subjects, but most of our experiences come from traditional subjects, such as German, Mathematics, History/Social Studies, or “Sachunterricht” (Sachunterricht in German primary schools covers Biology, History, Physics, Geography, Chemistry).

What’s more, mozaBook is frequently used for teaching small groups of dyslexic students who have difficulties in reading and writing, and in groups of students who need additional support in Mathematics.

In your experience, has mozaBook cut or increased the preparation time for your lessons?

Based on our experience, every new software, textbook or program needs a little bit more time. As a result, the daily preparation was more time-consuming in the beginning, but once our teachers got familiar with the program and gained some experience, their preparation time was greatly reduced.

The illustration and presentation features are especially time-saving. For example, preparing overhead slides is not necessary anymore, plus we don't have to cut or laminate flashcards, and spend hours with searching for images online.

Overall, the use of new or lesser-known functions require more time, but mozaBook helps teachers in other areas. The workflow has changed in the sense that we spend more time on the computer, but less time with other preparation activities.

Do you find mozaBook easy to use?

Our teachers, who had the chance to attend a training in Hungary, find the basic operation of the software self-explanatory and intuitive. Naturally, there are always questions about certain functions and these questions require some further explanation, but the built-in video tutorials are very helpful in these cases.

Overall, in what ways has mozaBook made your work as a teacher easier? Can you demonstrate the topic of your lesson more easily with the help of the software?

Although we see some necessity to adapt more specific content for the primary school level, the demonstration of different topics is much easier with the Media library items. For primary school students, it is necessary to actively deal with the subject matter in order to get to the bottom of a new topic so using 3Ds and videos is a very appealing way of approaching a subject. This way the initial demonstration of the topic is much easier and more effective.

Do you find pupils are more interested in the subject of your lessons since you have been using mozaBook? How often do they work at the board in class?

Students like the visual appearance of the software, for sure. As they work with mozaBook in class, they can quickly learn how to use simple functions and they find it particularly easy to use different pens, colours, and erasers. Solving exercises and practicing with the Test editor are also quick and easy for them, and you can tell how much they enjoy working on the board with mozaBook by the high level of participation in exercises. The frequency of active use of the software varies, of course, as it depends on the structure of the lesson and the learning objective.

"Since we have been working with mozaBook in class, it is easier to keep the attention and focus of the kids. Through the interactive features, students are more directly involved in the teaching process."

Frontal teaching phases have become more attractive, however, the main deciding factor for the motivated cooperation of pupils remained the teacher, and the student-teacher relationship.

Just for fun, could you please name your three favourite features in mozaBook?

Huh, that’s a tough one. Importing PDF documents into the software is certainly a great feature. Once the PDF is imported, we can display, edit and segment the document so quality print materials and new materials can be also used in mozaBook. It’s also great that we can access the Internet within the software so online content can be also quickly integrated into our lessons.

Another popular feature is using images from the Media library and placing them into an exercise book [presentation]. The Test Editor is another great tool to create interactive exercises for students to prepare for tests, but pencils are also very popular as well as the colour palette which is very often used during class.

What is your general impression of mozaBook?

mozaBook is definitely a software we love to use in class. During the process of equipping our primary school with interactive whiteboards, we came across other solutions as well, but none of them convinced us as much as mozaBook. The possibility to present all types of content within one software is simply amazing and makes our everyday work much easier. In future, we would like to further and expand our work by cooperating with German publishers.

(Approximately, 350 pupils attend the Mittelpunkt Elementary School of Haiger and 34 teachers work part-time or full-time at the school. In 2017/18 mozaBook was installed on six interactive whiteboards in six different classrooms, while this year (2018 / 2019) another five classrooms were equipped with an ActivPanel)

King Stephen Báthory Primary School No. 5 in Łodz has been using the mozaBook software since August 31, 2017. After signing the Partner School Agreement to officially establish our partnership, gradually all 32 teachers and all the students registered their user accounts and were granted access to the mozaBook software and the mozaWeb platform. The software is installed on all interactive boards in the school and after a year of using these tools in our everyday work, we can definitely confirm that mozaLearn offers an integrated learning environment and provide our teachers of all subjects with various educational tools such as videos, animations, and 3D models.

An informal group of authentic enthusiasts of the new software has formed who use mozaBook every day in their work. Thanks to them, the school is perceived as an institution applying innovative teaching methods and promoting the use of ICT tools in public education.

Here are the teachers' reflections on the use of the mozaBook software.

1.) mozaBook in Biology and  Science lessons - Katarzyna Kopczyńska - teacher of Biology and Nature

"The mozaBook world is my world now. I have been using its educational resources for about a year, during which I have become the school leader and coordinator regarding the use of mozaBook in our institution. I train teachers, I advise others and I am also learning a lot in the meantime."

"In Science classes we most often use 3D models that help us explore the secrets of anatomy or we show students videos illustrating a given phenomenon. A biologist shall greatly appreciate Microscope tool which  contains a collection of images invisible to the naked eye that can be further enlarged with a slider according to the teacher's needs. LabCamera – the webcam-based laboratory of natural sciences is another real treat for the teachers who are responsible for all above mentioned Science subjects.

With the help of mozaBook, homework management has become a lot easier as we can assign exercises to selected students, classes and groups. After checking the homework online, students receive feedback in the form of an evaluation. Online homework is very attractive for a student who can use the Internet, and not only learn by traditional methods using a textbook or an exercise book. Students themselves ask for homework, due to its attractive form, created with the Test Editor. Thus, a test placed in the teacher's exercise book can become homework assigned to our students online."

2.) mozaBook in Polish, History, Art and Music classes -Anna Kułak-Kułakowska, Polish teacher

"Learning is not boring anymore, it becomes fun. C’mon, it is the 21st century and teachers should not only keep up with their students, they should be ahead of them!"

"I am a Polish teacher. When preparing my lessons with mozaBook, I make use of resources from the Media library. Unfortunately, there are not many typical tasks, exercises, or resources aimed at teaching Polish; so my strategy is to make use of the resources designed for teaching History, Arts, Geography or Music. Thanks to the 3D models, now my lessons about ancient Greece, ancient theater or mythology are actually interesting for students. We can visit the ancient Acropolis, take a virtual walk, take a look at each temple from all sides, read or listen to the most important information about each object and finally solve some exercises to test the acquired knowledge.

A rich gallery of photos helped me create a lesson on the architecture and art. The 3D animation covering the Greek architectural orders was extremely interesting for children who have not come across this type of architecture so far.

I also use the miniMap tool very often, for example in a lesson about the spelling of geographical names. Grammar becomes more interesting if we can see where a given country, continent or city is located on a map. I would also like to dedicate a paragraph to the demonstration tools (eg. Clocks, Calendar, the Scale tool) : there is, for instance, a Musical instruments tool with which students not only visualize different musical instruments, but also listen to them. I use often the Time machine as well – the tool that takes us back in time to present us people and important historical events in chronological order and show these in relation to important events from both science and history.

Furthermore, mozaBook allows me to pin various items of content to my exercise books, such as short excerpts of text and documentary, or animated films. With mozaBook I can use short, well-animated, funny films from the Media library to enrich my lesson and make it even more interesting while discussing Greek myths."

3.) mozaBook in English language classes - Małgorzata Pawełczyk - English and Early School Education teacher

"If you want to change your routine activities and try something new and innovative, give mozaBook a shot. A good lesson is interesting and the more varied tasks, the more information the students need to search and process, the better the results will be."

"mozaBook gives the teacher the opportunity to move away from typical textbook exercises. In my everyday school practice, I use short videos from various fields, audio recordings, 3D models with ready-made quizzes, and language games in my English lessons. I use the rich mozaBoook gallery of images, famous historical figures, avatars, pictures and word cards for a successful vocabulary practice. I often use Puzzle, Lan(g)ame or Word finder as well.

These tasks make learning more attractive and help students to master their vocabulary and grammar. In addition, they bring dynamism to the lesson and increase the involvement of my students."

4.) mozaBook in grades 1 - 3 (Early Childhood Education in Poland) – Anna Aleksandrzak – Early Childhood Education teacher

"At first glance, the materials available in mozaBook may seem a bit difficult or too ”serious” for small children. This could not be farther from the truth. My pupils ask me every day when we are going to do something in mozaBook! They adore 3D presentations, like the rotated African elephant model which also appealed to kindergarten children visiting our school as part of the Preschooler's Academy. Kids were delighted at the opportunity to look at the "stomach" of the elephant, commented on the size of the heart and brain and so on." 

"Personally, I adhere to the principle that it is better to show more, speak more, do as much as possible rather than not using some content because 'you will learn about this in more detail later on'. Therefore, I use all the materials available on the platform and in the software."

"At the beginning of the first educational stage, a set of ready-made tools built-in mozaBook works perfectly well. Children use their finger or a marker to practice how to write letters and this is definitely more attractive than a pencil and notebook which they use at home.

The software offers many simple, but powerful tools for Mathematics as well, which is great because these games can deepen the children’s knowledge of ceratin topics (Chess, Othello, Connect 4 , Tangram).

The tools can diversify our everyday school activities as well. Group work can be summarized thanks to the Evaluation table in which we can write down the teams' achievements. When we're approaching the end of the lesson – well, sometimes we just play with games, like 3D puzzles or building blocks.

mozaBook offers a full range of didactic games – and most of them have a regulated level of difficulty. A popular choice is Number Hero, for instance – the game is based on the well-known arcade game, in which children have to make calculations to overcome obstacles.The software works well during classes for children with special needs, both in the classroom during school time and in afterschool common room sessions. You could argue that it's all somewhere out there on the Internet - yes, but what to look for?! In mozaBook everything is in one place, right at your fingertips."

Six months ago we had the chance to host three amazing German teachers at our dedicated training center in Szeged, Hungary. The media team of the Mittelpunkt Elementary School travelled all the way from Haiger with a clear purpose: learn about the mozaLearn system as much as possible, then implement our digital solutions, mozaBook and mozaWeb in their wonderful elementary school, called Mittelpunktgrundschule Haiger.After successfully completing the 3-day training, the team got equipped with the knowledge that they could pass on to their fellow educators in their hometown school. They downloaded and activated mozaBook on all the five interactive boards of the institution so there was nothing left standing in the way of beginning the real work with the educational software in the classroom.

According to Lukas Hoeser, the leader of the Media team, it was clear from the the very beginning that mozaBook could offer a wide range of possibilities to everyone in the school, no matter what subjects they teach. “After a few lessons, our teachers in the school have quickly realized how motivated and focused the students are in the classroom. All of them are eager to come forward to work with the board and that’s the most important”  said Lukas.In their detailed report they highlight some practical advices and experiences with mozaBook as well that proved to be especially helpful in case of specific subjects. For instance, in Science education the 3D animations have been a huge boost for the kids to understand how external and internal organs work and what certain body parts are responsible for.But they also mention other areas, such as German lessons in the 4th grade, where now the teachers can easily engage the little ones in classroom activities with the help of the subject-related tools in the software and the digitized images from children’s books and short stories. The students got simply hooked on reading and they can’t wait to discuss their ideas and thoughts in the classroom!

As Lukas says “mozaBook has become the part of the everyday life in our school. It spares a lot of time and effort while we’re preparing for lessons; what’s more it motivates not only the students, but also the teachers in their daily work.”In the next couple of months, the leadership of the elementary school is planning to equip the building with even more interactive boards and continue the use of mozaBook and mozaWeb.

From all of us at Mozaik Education, we would like to extend our thanks to all the enthusiastic teachers of Mittelpunktgrundschule Haiger for helping Mozaik to shape the future of education.

It’s just so good to hear stories and positive feedback like that!

Sechs Monate ist es nun her, dass wir in Szeged, Ungarn zu Gast waren. Nach drei spannenden Tagen, in denen wir eine Einführung in die Möglichkeiten des Mozabooks bekommen haben, waren wir davon überzeugt unbedingt mit der Software an unserer Grundschule arbeiten zu wollen.Schon während der Schulung staunten wir häufig darüber, wie innovativ und anschaulich sich Unterrichtsinhalte mit Hilfe des Programms präsentieren lassen. Zurück in Deutschland warteten wir voller Vorfreude auf die Lieferung und Installation unserer neuen digitalen Tafeln. Nach den Herbstferien war es endlich soweit und wir konnten das Mozabook zunächst auf fünf Tafeln downloaden.

Alle Klassenlehrer, die eine Tafel in ihrem Klassenraum nutzen konnten, bekamen von Mozaik einen Zugang, ebenso wie alle Fachkollegen in den betroffenen Klassen. Alle Kollegen, die nicht wie wir vom Medienteam das Glück hatten eine Schulung in Ungarn zu besuchen, bekamen eine Einführung in die Grundfunktionen der Software als Starthilfe. Inzwischen steht das Medienteam als Ansprechpartner für Fragen zu komplexeren Funktionen zur Verfügung. Viele Kollegen begannen direkt in Eigeninitiative das Mozabook in ihren Unterrichtsalltag zu integrieren. Die intuitive und häufig selbsterklärende Bedienbarkeit erleichterte allen Lehrern den Einstieg. Auch die zahlreichen Videotutorials boten dabei wichtige Hilfe. Am wichtigsten war jedoch, dass alle Lehrer schon nach wenigen Unterrichtsstunden feststellen konnten, wie motiviert, aufmerksam und begeistert die Kinder am Unterricht teilnahmen. Jeder Schüler wollte an der Tafel mitarbeiten. Dabei fiel den Kindern die Nutzung der Schreibwerkzeuge und anderer Tools von Beginn an sehr leicht.

Im Folgenden zeigen wir euch einige Unterrichtsbeispiele, die wir in Form von interaktiven Präsentationen in den ersten Wochen und Monaten erarbeitet haben:

Sachunterricht (Naturwissenschaft / Geografie / Geschichte)

Im zweiten Schuljahr fand eine Unterrichtseinheit zum Thema Haustiere statt. Eine Gruppe beschäftigte sich dabei mit dem Hund und konnte anhand des 3D-Modells die Körperteile und äußeren Organe kennen- und bestimmen lernen.

Im Geografie-Unterricht des vierten Schuljahres konnte altes Kartenmaterial des Landkreises digitalisiert werden. Auf diese Weise war es möglich den Schülern auf der Tafel übersichtlich die Grundlagen der Topographie näher zu bringen. Die Kinder präsentierten ihre Entdeckungen zu Flüssen, Städten, Dörfern und Gebirgen, zeichneten diese ein und beschrifteten.

In der Sexualerziehung des vierten Schuljahres waren außerdem die 3D-Modelle sehr hilfreich. Den Schülern konnten so sehr anschaulich die menschlichen Geschlechtsorgane, die Ovulation, die Menstruation, die Befruchtung von Eizellen und die Entwicklung eines Embryos bis zur Geburt präsentiert werden. Teilweise standen sogar nützliche Animationen zur Verfügung, die den 3D-Modellen Leben einhauchten.

Für einen physikalischen Versuch des zweiten Schuljahres zum Thema „Thermometer und Temperatur“ konnte in einer Gruppenarbeit das Versuchsvideo zum Flaschenthermometer verwendet werden. Den Kindern wurden schrittweise der Versuchsaufbau und die Versuchsdurchführung präsentiert. Anschließend experimentierten die Kinder in Gruppen selbständig. Die abschließende Frage im Verlauf des Videos regte zum weiterführenden Nachdenken über die Funktionsweise eines Thermometers an.

Deutsch

Im vierten Schuljahr lesen die Kinder aktuell einen Kinderroman zum Thema „Verliebtsein“. Einzelne Bilder des Romans wurden digitalisiert, um diese mit den Schülern besprechen zu können und das Leseverständnis zu überprüfen. Dies motivierte die Schüler beim Lesen und förderte die mündliche Kommunikation. Außerdem erarbeiteten die Kinder ein Lesetagebuch. Die verschiedenen Aufgaben zu den einzelnen Kapiteln wurden in Tabellenform an der Tafel präsentiert, sodass jedes Kind zu jeder Zeit eine Übersicht zur Verfügung hat.Um im Deutschunterricht des zweiten Schuljahres die unterschiedlichen Satzarten abzufragen, wurden mit Hilfe des Testeditors verschiedene Aufgabenformate entwickelt. So konnte die Lehrerin am Ende der Einheit feststellen, ob alle Unterrichtsinhalte von den Schülern erworben wurden.

Anschauliche Übungen mit Bildern aus der mozabook Galerie für den Deutschförderunterricht. (Hier in Verbindung mit der Tabellenfunktion)

Mathematik

In Mathematik erleichtern und ergänzen die vielseitigen Tools, Spiele und Zeichenwerkzeuge den Unterricht täglich.

Wir hoffen mit diesen praktischen Beispielen einen kleinen Einblick in unsere tägliche Arbeit mit Mozabook geben zu können. In den nächsten Monaten ist die Ausstattung weiterer Klassenräume mit digitalen Tafelsystemen geplant. Die technischen Voraussetzungen werden derzeit geschaffen.

Das Mozabook ist mittlerweile Teil unseres Unterrichtsalltags geworden. Es erleichtert die Planung und Durchführung des Unterrichts und motiviert unsere Schüler ebenso, wie die Kollegen, in der täglichen Arbeit.Das Medienteam der Mittelpunktgrundschule Haiger

When talking about the greatest strengths of our educational presentation software mozaBook, traditionally, science subjects such as chemistry, physics, or biology come to mind - and rightfully so. It is easy to get amazed by the visual content in the media library, since the vivid pictures, 3D scenes and the vast collection of educational videos all help the teacher to illustrate their point or a certain topic creatively, without spending endless hours preparing for the lesson.

However, with some thoughts based on my personal teaching experience, I would like to give you a few tips and emphasize how useful and exciting mozaBook can be in the field of second language teaching and learning.

Every teacher tries to pass their knowledge on to their students, but teaching practices, approaches, and educational methods are varied. According to many, without a thorough knowledge of grammar, one will have a hard time expressing their thoughts in the classroom, not to mention real-life situations, while others are extremely passionate about encouraging pupils to talk to each other in a foreign language already in the early stages of language acquisition and strongly advocate the importance of communication. In my opinion, the best you can do is always seek to find the balance, whether it is a private lesson or a language class in the school. Motivate the students in every possible way, because at the end of the day, our main goal is to make sure that language becomes a major part of their lives outside of the classroom as well.

For this reason let me guide you through some of the most important applications and features in mozaBook that can help a tutor engage students and simply turn, let’s say an English class, into a lot of fun.

Let us begin with some options in mozaBook purely designed for language teaching. For example, have you checked out the language learning related games, like Lan(g)ame or Word class?

After selecting the language pair I wish to practice, Lan(g)ame works like the penalty shootout in football as two students, or even two groups of them, have their own turns during which they try to score as many points as they can by determining the meanings of words in the selected foreign language. You can also pick the “image - word pairing” or the “gap-filling” exercise available in numerous languages, such as French, English, German, or Arabic.

Another important and useful game, called Word class, also needs to be mentioned here since grammar is usually regarded as one of the most sleep-inducing subjects; however, its importance is truly immense in reading comprehension and forming correct sentences. 

As you do with activities in the classroom, make homework assignments meaningful and manageable in mozaBook. The more you emphasize the need to reinforce what is learned in the classroom through independent practice or group work, the more efficient learning and teaching will be.

Among the mozaBook applications you can find several options to improve and expand the vocabulary of the students. Give your pupils the experience of practicing words with the help of customized Word cards that are designed to provide the language learner with a word, part of speech tags, and even example sentences. Teach the proper spelling of longer expressions, or how to use false friends playfully, with the help of fun games or by competing with fellow students.

No matter what your favourite is, these apps and tools are quick, easy to use, and helpful in memorizing not only the meanings, but also the punctuation and spelling of the words.

Next time, I am going to focus on how the Media library content (3D scenes and videos) in mozaBook Multilang software (language of the interface, the applications, and all the media content can be switched any time during the lesson) can serve as a perfect tool in language teaching, especially in bilingual education institutions all around the world.

Mozaik Education is delighted to see more and more schools using our educational presentation software, mozaBook. In this blog post I will tell you a bit more about our work in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is a rather new market for us, but thanks to the excellent infrastructure available to literally each and every school in the country as well as good IT skills among the teachers, mozaBook’s presence and recognition in the country is growing steadily. This success was achieved with the creative input of our local partners -- Vidistry and Bureau Leren. Vidistry is an interactive whiteboard producer and a mozaBook distributor. Their interactive whiteboards can be purchased with pre-installed mozaBook software, which means that Dutch teachers can purchase two amazing and essential educational products from the same provider.  

Most schools also order a training package from a Dutch mozaBook wizard, Niek Scholts (Bureau Loren), who developed an engaging and informative training programme in Dutch. The enthusiastic teachers on the pictures are from the Sterrenboom school in Stolwijk, and recently had their week of training with Niek. You can see them working on student laptops during the “digital classroom” session. Next year the Sterrenboom school will join the league of official mozaBook schools and will start spreading the joy of digital education.

If you would like to introduce mozaBook to your country, please contact office@mozaweb.com. We are open to partnering with textbook publishers, hardware producers, distributors, training centers and schools alike. Let’s promote digital education in your country together!