Excellent Tool to Enhance Students' Reading Comprehension

4:32 PM    

November, 2014
Rewordify is a great web tool that you can use with your students and kids to help them read difficult passages. Rewordify simplifies complex passages and render them reader-friendly. Students can paste in difficult sentences, paragraphs, or whole chapters and then click on "Rewordify text". They will then get a paraphrased version of their text with a simpler and easier vocabulary.The reworded words are highlighted which means that students can click on them to hear and learn the origin harder words.



Rewordify also allows you to obtain a simplified version of any web page. Just paste in the URL of the webpage you want to read in the yellow box and hit 'Rewordify'.Watch the video below to learn more about how Rewordify works.


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A Great Free Tool for Formative Assessment

4:15 PM    

November, 2014
Plickers is a wonderful web tool that allows teachers to collect real-tine feedback from students without them having or using any device. All they will use are cards with numbers and alphabets on them.


As a teacher you use Plickers to gather data to use in your formative assessments. You can use polls, multiple questions, quick checks for understanding, true/false questions and many more.As you collect data from students, you can also view it together with them in the form of a group snapshot in a graph.

 The great thing about this app is that students do not need to use any computer or device. You will have to open an account on Plickers, download the app and  create a class. Once the class is created , add your students by typing their names. A card number will automatically be assigned to each name you type in. These cards are what your students will be using for answers in the class. Plickers is free and is available for both iOS and Android devices.

Watch the video below to earn how to use Plickers with your students.



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5 Ways to Use Google Reverse Image Search

10:39 PM    

November 30, 2014
Google reverse image search allows you to use your images to search for similar images in the web. This is a great way for students to search for information about images they have. They can also use it to identify and learn about objects they pictured in a field trip."Search by image works best when the image is likely to show up in other places on the web. So you’ll get more results for famous landmarks than you will for personal images like your latest family photo."



There are five  ways to use Google reverse image search:

1- Search for an image from your computer:
  • Visit images.google.com or click the camera icon camera icon in the search box on any Images results page.
  • Click Upload an image.
  • Click Choose file.
  • Select the image from your computer.
2- Drag and Drop
If you’re on Chrome or Firefox 4+, you can also drag and image from your computer into the search box.
  • Visit images.google.com.
  • Click the image on your computer you want to search for.
  • While holding down the mouse, drag the image into the search box.
3- Search using the image URL
On any website, right-click an image and select Copy image URL.
  • Visit images.google.com or click the camera icon camera icon in the search box on any Images results page.
  • Click Paste image URL.
  • Paste the URL you copied into the box.
  • Click Search by image.
4- Right-click an image ( Chrome and Firefox only)

A- Chrome
  • Right-click any image you see on a website or in search results.
  • Click Search Google for this image.
  • A new tab will open with your results.
B- Firefox
  • Download the Search by Image extension.
  • Right-click any image you see on a website or in search results.
  • Click Search Google with this image.
  • A new tab will open with your results.
5- Search for an image from a website using your phone or tablet (Chrome only)
  • Touch the image you want to search with to open a larger version of the image.
  • Touch and hold the image.
  • Touch Search Google for this image.

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Excellent Google Search Tip to Use with Kids

10:12 PM    

November, 2014
One of the powerful features I like about Google is Safe Search. SafeSearch can help you block inappropriate or explicit images from your Google Search results. The SafeSearch filter isn’t 100% accurate, but it helps you avoid most adult content.

YouTube also has a similar functionality called YouTube Safety Mode. This is an opt-in setting available on the computer and mobile site that helps screen out potentially objectionable content that you may prefer not to see or don't want others in your family to stumble across while enjoying YouTube. You can think of this as a parental control setting for YouTube.

Here is how to turn SafeSearch on or off

  • Visit the Search Settings page. 
  • Find the "SafeSearch filters" section.
  • Turn on SafeSearch by checking the box beside "Filter explicit results." When SafeSearch is on, sexually explicit video and images will be filtered from Google Search result pages, along with results that might link to explicit content.
  • Turn off SafeSearch by unchecking the box. When SafeSearch is off, we'll provide the most relevant results for your search and may include explicit content when you search for it.
  • Click Save button at the bottom of the page.



To prevent others from changing your setting, like your kids or anyone who is borrowing your computer, click Lock SafeSearch. Learn more about locking SafeSearch.


Check out Google help centre to  learn more about Safe Search.

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The Best 30 Educational iPad Apps in 2014

3:47 PM    

November 28, 2014
I am not sure if you have seen this or not, but our colleagues in Teachthought have created this wonderful list featuring some of the best educational iPad apps in the year 2014. The selection attempts to provide teachers and educators with powerful apps to help them perform a variety of digital tasks including : note taking, PDF marking, file sharing, video and presentations creating and many more. I have actually spent some time sifting through its content and found it really worth bringing to your attention. Have a look and share with us what you think of it. Enjoy





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The Popular Math App 'Zombie Fish' Is Now Free

9:40 AM    

November, 2014
The popular Math game Zombie Fish Bits is free today for a limited time. It used to cost $5. This game is particularly designed for ages 5 and up. It is built in such a way as to empower kids' natural ability to think mathematically as they try to save 'Icy Bits" before they are eaten by Zombie Fish.


Zombie Fish covers a wide variety of mathematical concepts including: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, composing and decomposing qualities.Through the imaginative world of Zombie Fish, each learner will explore, discover, and build. They acquire a logical and meaningful understanding of the most important math fundamentals.

I learned about this deal from My Hullabaloo.

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An Important YouTube Tip for Teachers and Educators

9:25 PM    

November 28, 2014
Here is a nifty little trick that is often overlooked by many teachers. I got an email the other day from a teacher asking about some tools to crop YouTube videos. I thought, why would you use a third party tool when YouTube has a very powerful built-in cropping functionality. Unless you want to use a tool that both crops and removes surrounding content, I think YouTube's cropping service is what you definitely need. The only inconvenience with this tool is that it allows you to specify only the start time  of the portion you want to crop.

 For instance, you watched a YouTube video and you want to share the part of the video that starts at minute 10. Just click on the "share button then select "embed"  under the video as shown in the picture below




Then tick the "start time" box and set the start time to 10. Then copy and share the link through email or via social media websites.



The video will automatically play at the exact moment you have set. Try out this link to see this example.

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A Wonderful Note Taking App from Google

8:09 AM    

November 27, 2014
Google Keep is an excellent tool to use for creating digital sticky notes. You can use both text and images to capture and share your notes.  You can also use it   to create to-do lists and bookmark content from the web.It has an intuitive and user friendly interface that makes it way simpler to navigate and control than is the case with several other note-taking apps out there.


 Since its update a few weeks ago, Google Keep added a wide variety of new features. Here are some of them:
  • You can now color-code your notes and lists so you can easily find and edit them.
  • Google Keep now supports collaborative editing. You can  share your notes or to-do lists and assign privileges to your collaborators so that they can view, edit, and even invite further collaborators. All edits can be seen in real time in each collaborator's account.
  • You can now add reminders in your notes and to-do lists
  • Google Keep has a search function that facilitates looking for notes and content. You can filter your Keep content by  list, image, audio, or shared content.
  • Finally Google keep is available for the web, as a Chrome app, and as Android app.
Watch the video to learn more about Google Keep



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A Useful Edmodo Cheat Sheet for Teachers

9:33 PM    

November, 2014
Edmodo is a web-based platform that provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. It is like Facebook but in a safe and  controlled environment appropriate for school.
Edmodo provides you with a secure environment where you can create a classroom group for your students. In this virtual group you can :
  • Place digital resources on Edmodo for students to access or download,
  •  Create polls for students to vote online.
  • Write short summaries of lessons for students who were absent from class (better yet: get your students to write the summary).
  •  Post homework information
If you are new to Edmodo and want a quick visual guide of the different features Edmodo provides to its users, this cheat sheet created by Monique Dalli is a good place to start with. This visual is available in PDF format  for free download from Dalli's webpage where you will also find some good resources on Edmodo.

Source:http://goo.gl/3y0s9

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Flipping The Classroom Using Blendspace

6:52 PM    

November 26, 2014
Blendspace is an excellent free tool to create flipped lessons for your class. You can create a class on Blendspace and invite up to 35 students to join it. The maximum number of active lessons you can have for free is 100. Besides sharing lessons with the class, you can also use it to collect web sources in a single place that you can share with students with just one link.



Blendspace offers built-in quiz functionality that allows you to create quizzes to test your students' comprehension. It also allows you to monitor student progress and adapt to students needs in real-time. Below is a set of video tutorials to help you learn more about how to use Blendspace and the different ways to use it in class:

1- Flipping the classroom using Blendspace



2- Digital Storytelling on Blendspace



3- Creating collaborative research presentations




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Three Effective Ways to Look for Educational Content in Twitter

9:10 PM    

November 26, 2014
Twitter search is a great alternative to the conventional ways of searching the net. This socially-based kind of search allows students to access content and resources that are both timely and relevant. And most importantly, students do not need to have Twitter accounts to search its database. Below are some of the ways students  can leverage the power of Twitter search to  look for educational content:



1- Twitter Search Operators
similar to Google search operators, Twitter search  provides a set of powerful operators that students  can use to conduct focused search queries. They can use a combination of search operators to look for tweets from specific persons, sources and locations.  Check out this cheat sheet to learn more about these search operators.

2- Use Hashtags
Hashtags are a good way to gather people around content. There are hashtags for almost anything: news, events, conferences, you name it and you will probably find a hashtag for it. Students can search for content using a specific hashtag. For instance if they are looking for resources on educational technology they can run a search query in Twitter search using the hashtag #edtech. Here is a cheat sheet with all the educational hashtags out there.



3- Use Twitter advanced search
Twitter advanced search provides some powerful features to help students refine their searches and access relevant resources. Here is some of what they can do with it:

A- Words section



The Word's section in Twitter advanced search allows students to specify the terms, and phrases to be included or excluded from the tweets to be returned in result pages. It also lets them search for tweets that include a given hashtag. They can also specify the language of their tweets and choose from a wide variety of languages provided there.

B-People

Students can use this section to look for tweets coming from, sent to, or mentioning a certain account or multiple accounts.

C- Places



This is a great feature that students can use to look for trending tweets and news in a particular place. To use this functionality, they need to click on "add location" and Twitter will automatically add their location or they can choose the location they want.

D- Dates



This feature  enables students to look for tweets and resources shared within a specific period of time.

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Twitter Search Operators Teachers Should Know about

3:40 PM    

November, 2014
Twitter search platform  is a powerful search engine that is often underused by our students. Often times, the info you will find on Twitter search is way more precise and relevant than the results you will get from conventional search engines. At its best, Twitter search allows you to search trending topics and resources others are talking about and sharing both synchronously and asynchronously. And one better way to tap into the full educational potential of this tool is to use search operators.

Search operators allow you to refine your search and make it more focused. For instance, you can use these search operators  to look for tweets shared by a specific user, tweets containing particular words or phrases, tweets containing links, tweets from a particular news source, and many more. Below is a useful chart created and shared by Twitter featuring a number of search operators together with their explanations.



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Excellent Chart Featuring 6 Reading Comprehension Strategies

2:43 PM    

November 25, 2014
Here is a great resource on reading comprehension strategies I came across today in my Google Plus feeds. This is basically a chart created by the folks in Scholastic and is available for free download in PDF format. The chart features 6 major reading comprehension strategies that students can use to improve and enhance their reading comprehension skills. These strategies are:

1- Making connections:
Encourage students to make connections between what they are reading and their personal experiences. They can relate it to events, people, issues and other things in their life.

2-Visualizing
Students can use this strategy to help them create visual pictures of the meanings they uncover from  the text.

3-Asking questions
To actively interact with a text, students need to be able to ask questions related to the text like what the message of the text is, what value does the text add to me? Why is the author saying so…etc

4-Inferring
Students need not only contend themselves with the visible textual output but should delve deeper into the hidden layers of meanings drawing on external clues and inferring meanings  that would not otherwise be exposed.

5- Determining importance
Students should be able to determine main and topical ideas of the text and be able to understand and articulate them clearly

6-Synthesizing
This is where students use their analytic skills to create a coherent and meaningful body of ideas drawing on both the information they have garnered from the text and their existing knowledge.

Click HERE to download the chart



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Some Good Ideas and Activities to Teach Coding in Class Using Hopscotch

9:04 PM    

November, 2014
Here is another great free guide from Apple specifically designed for teachers and educators. Hopscotch Lesson Ideas is a free guide available for free download in iTunes. And as I said in an earlier post, this work is part of Apple's "Apps in the Classroom" series whose aim is to provide teachers with ideas and tips on how to integrate apps into daily classroom instruction.


HopScotch Lesson Ideas features a set of activities and tutorials that you can use in class to teach students about coding and creative thinking. For those of you not yet familiar with HopScotch, this is among the most popular iPad apps for teaching kids to code. Hopscotch teaches kids to code using simple, intuitive building blocks. Kids can create games, animations and other programs in this colorful, interactive environment. Program your characters to move, draw, and collide with each other, and use shaking, tilting, or even shouting at the iPad to control them. Hopscotch was inspired by MIT’s Scratch and gives kids a creative way to learn the fundamentals of computer programming.

Click on this link to download Hoptscotch guide and read it on your iBooks in iPad or Mac or in iTunes in your computer. Enjoy


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A New Tool to Search for Images Licensed for School Use

7:25 PM    

November, 2014
Photos for Class is a very good web tool that you and your students can use to search for and download Creative Common licensed images. The search engine of Photos for Class uses Flickr safe search to return results that are licensed for school use.


What I really like the most about this web tool is the fact that it makes it easy for you to properly attribute images particularly for printed or presented materials. Any picture you download from Photos for Class will have a watermarked section that contains the name of the author, the name of the photo, a link to the original photo, the name and type of license along with a link to read it. No worry about plagiarism or stolen work any more.

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Easy Way to Add Subtitles to Videos in Google Drive

7:03 PM    

November 24, 2014
I have just come across this excellent Google Drive tip and want to bring it to your attention as well. The tip is about adding subtitles to videos in Google Drive.This time it is not an extension or third party tool to add to your Drive but simply a short text file that you will have to tweak a bit to validate it. The process is very easy and won't take you more than a couple minutes. I have just tried it on a video on my Drive and it works really well.

I learned about this tip from Google Gooru. Watch his video tutorial to learn how to add subtitles to videos in your Drive.



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Excellent Activities and Lesson Ideas on Using Explain Everything in Class

4:46 PM    

November, 2014
Explain Everything Lesson Ideas is a free eBook created and provided for free by Apple. This work is part of Apple's" Apps in the Classroom" project that aims at helping teachers make the best of educational apps in their instruction. Each of the guides included in this project centres around a popular educational app and provides examples and ideas on how teachers can use it with their students in class. Today's guide is on the popular screencasting and whiteboard app Explain Everything.


Explain Everything Lesson Ideas is a short interactive guide that offers a wide variety of ideas and tips on how to use Explain Everything app with students in class. It actually outlines 6 basic activities that span different age ranges and subjects: Literacy, Science, Mathematics, and History. These activities are designed to help students leverage the power of this app to think in new ways. They also help them take a creative approach to applying and demonstrating what they are learning.

Explain Everything Lesson Ideas is available for free download from iTunes. You can read it using iBooks in both iPad and Mac. Enjoy


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3 Good Educational iPad Apps That Are Free Today

8:21 PM    

November 24, 2014
Several powerful educational apps have gone free this week most notable of them all is the popular creativity app Puppet Workshop ( it's no loner free now). I have looked into some of these apps that are still free and pulled out the three titles below. I learned about these apps from  Apps Gone Free. Again, these deals are valid at least here in Canada and the States, I am not sure about other places in the world.

1- Language lab
This exciting app will address all four language objectives to help early language learners as well as children with expressive language delays who use augmentative and alternative communication methods.
2- Preschool Learning: Activities, Books and Puzzles

This app combines videos, sing-along songs, mini-games, puzzles, and e-books to create a fun environment where young children can learn while playing: colors, shapes, counting, the alphabet, animals, science, music and more!
3- Over
Over is the app for adding text and artwork to your photos. Designed with mobile creatives in mind, Over features standard and custom-made fonts and well-crafted artwork combined with a sleek design, easy-to-use functionality, and immediate sharing ability.

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6 Good iPad Apps to Turn Pictures Into Cartoons and Comics

8:01 PM    

November 23, 2014
I spent sometime this weekend curating and working on  the list of iPad apps below. These are apps that students can use to create beautiful cartoons to use in their multimedia projects or in activities that involve comic strips, digital storytelling, presentations and many more. All of these apps are easy to use and do not require any advanced technical skill. Some of the things students can do with these apps include: take pictures and turn them into cartoons, capture cartoon videos,  draw cartoon sketches, customize and add different effects to pictures, convert photos into cartoon avatars, and many more.

1- XnSketch


XnSketch allows you to turn your photos into drawing, cartoons or sketch images. It provides 19 effects easy to use with full control. Save your creations and share them with your friends through Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, and Email.
2- Sketch Cartoon Me


Sketches Cartoon Me is a easy to use and funny app that lets you convert your photos into sketches or cartoon avatars by applying up to 14 different image effects.
3- My Cartoon

My Cartoon is an iPad app that lets you turn your photos and videos into beautiful cartoons. Photos can be taken directly from caera or photo album. My Cartoon also lets you add amazing and funny captions to your cartoons before you share them via email or through popular social media websites.

4- ToonCamera


ToonCamera is an amazing video and photography app that turns your world into a live cartoon. Apply real-time cartoon and art effects to your camera feed, record video, snap photos, and convert existing video and photos from your albums to create instant works of art. Save your creations and share them with friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube, all from within ToonCamera.
5- Manga Comics


Manga Comics enables you to create manga style comics using a wide variety of filters and effects. You can also use built-in library to select and add manga graphics or add your own captions and when you are done you can save your work to your photo library, poste it on facebook,twitter or instagram.

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2 Good iPad Apps to Teach Kids Handwriting

9:05 PM    

November 23, 2014
Below are some excellent iPad apps that you can use with your kids to teach them handwriting. The apps simulate the paper and pen writing in that they provide a large white paper where kids can trace, draw and write letters and numbers.Check them out below and share with us if you have other suggestions to add to this list.

1- School Writing

As a kindergarten teacher, and parent of a kindergarten and preschool child, I love this app! It teaches D'Nealian, which is an introduction to learning cursive. I love that there are thoroughly thought through lessons to break writing into chunks for students. Leaves that student in the exact place they left off, awards the student stars for job well done on each part of the lesson, and gives immediate feedback if a student needs improvement. Brought this to my Assistant Principal to use school wide.
2- Home KG
Home KG is an amazing free learning app for preschoolers to teach your children how to write alphabets, numbers and recognize shapes. This Kids app is a free teaching tool for toddlers and young children. It includes all English alphabets, digits from 0 to 9 and 10 different shapes. This preschool learning app works as a training guide where children can explore their creativity while learning at the same time.

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4 Excellent iPad Apps to Create 3D Models and Pictures on iPad

8:52 PM    

November 23, 2014
In today's post I am introducing you to a set of powerful free iPad apps to use with students to create 3D models and artefacts.Students can use these apps to sculpt and paint  3D shapes, make 3D printable designs, transform pictures and images into interactive 3D models, and create 3D characters. The digital artefacts students create through these apps can be used for a variety of scholastic tasks from creating 3D models for  science experiments to designing 3D characters for digital storytelling. All of these apps are created by the popular Autodesk.

1- 123 Design

Create amazing 3D printable designs, right on your iPad! This is how it works:
  • Get started by choosing one of the basic shapes and then edit it to be just what you want. 
  • Easily connect one shape to another to make more detailed creations. Objects snap naturally to the centers of faces. 
  • The included parts and example projects are a fun way to play around with design ideas or get acclimated to design concepts. 
  • Chose from one of the example kits and start building. Each part is editable so you can try out different ideas and make them your own.
  • Save your creations to My Projects, where you can easily access them in the 123D Design web and desktop apps.
2- 123D Catch

Use your camera to capture the people, places and things around you as amazingly realistic 3D experiences. Capture friends, sculptures, buildings or anything else you can photograph. Automatically transform them into interactive 3D models that can be shared with friends, family, and an ever growing community of 3D photographers.
3- 123D Sculpt

It’s easy to get started. Choose a shape from the library of creatures, humans, vehicles, and more. Then push, pull and paint to make the sculpture your own. When you are done, take snapshots in the camera room or create animated QuickTime turntable movies to upload to YouTube or email to friends.
4- 123 D Creature
Create fantastic 3D characters like a pro with Autodesk 123D Creature. Design your creature, then sculpt detailed features and paint on skin, fur, feathers, or whatever you imagine. Export your finished creature as an image or 3D model, or have it 3D printed into a real sculpture!

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6 Great iPad Apps to Grab Text From Pictures and Turn It to Digital Characters

8:05 AM    

November 22, 2014
Below are some good iPad apps for optical character recognition. Using these apps will allow you to convert the text contained in an image or photo into digital characters that you can then edit, copy, or/and share. The way this technology works is pretty similar in all of these apps. First you hold your camera towards the picture till the app recognizes the text then you can immediately extract text from it. There is also the possibility to translate text into different languages.


Google Drive also supports Optical Character Recognition(OCR). Here is a handy tip on how to convert scanned PDFs or any image that include text in it into text documents using automated computer algorithms in Google Docs. Once converted, you can then edit and annotate the text as you like.
1- Translate Photo Free
TranslatePhoto app extracts texts from any printed sources: documents, books, signs, instructions or announcements and allows to immediately translate them to any of 70 languages. Take a picture of the text and after the text is recognized, you can immediately edit, hear, translate, share it on Facebook, Dropbox or simply send by email.
2- PDF Pen Scan
With PDFpen Scan+, use your iPhone or iPad to scan and OCR multi-page documents to create searchable PDFs. Scan directly with your iPhone or iPad camera. Crop and enhance the scan. Perform OCR. Copy OCR text. Email, export, and share PDF documents.
3- Prizmo
Prizmo is a universal photo-based scanner app that lets you scan and recognize text documents, business cards, and images, and then export them as PDF/Text, vCard, or JPEG/PNG. Prizmo relies on state-of-the-art technologies, like a highly accurate OCR, real-time page detection, and beautiful image cleanup. Using iCloud, you can even shoot the picture on your iPhone, and finish editing on your iPad or Mac.

Pixter Scan OCR is a combination between Pixels (your pictures) and text (what you will get) by Optical character recognition usually abbreviated to OCR which is the mechanical or electronic conversion of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text.

TextGrabber + Translator easily and quickly scans, translates and saves your chosen text from virtually any printed material. Simply take a picture of the text and immediately edit, hear it spoken aloud via VoiceOver, translate it into over 40 languages, send your text by SMS or e-mail, or share it quickly on Facebook, Twitter or Evernote.

CamScanner helps you scan, store, sync and collaborate on various contents across smartphones, iPads, tablets and computers. Some of its features include:scanning and digitize all kinds of paper documents, cropping and auto enhancing, printing and sharing documents in PDF or JPEG format with friends via various ways.

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