123ContactForm may not sound like the kind of tool that would be of interest to educators, but as I discovered when they asked me to review their online form creation tool, they offer quite a range of features that can solve many of the problems we have as 21st century teachers.

We can use it to:

• Create surveys to do research and action research
• We can create interactive materials based around multimedia objects
• We can eve use it to sell our materials or services online and take payments

The tool itself is browser based and so doesn’t require any downloading or installation and that in itself can save a lot of hassle if you work in an institution that has very restrictive practices regarding the installation of software.

To get started you just need to go to the site and register at: http://www.123contactform.com/education-forms.htm

Once you have registered you get access to the dashboard and this is where you can start creating your forms. You just need to click on ‘Create New Form’.

You will then get a choice of different types of form to create. It’s a good idea to click on ‘Other Forms’ this takes you to the online educator forms.   If you have a look at some of the templates and educator forms that have already been created it will give you some idea of what the platform can do. There is an Education section with some ready made templates in.

When you are ready to create your own educator forms, you could start by clicking on ‘Blank Form’. Call your form ‘My first activity’ and then save it and look at the different types of interactions you can create.

You will see the basic interactions you can add to the page. Clicking on them will add the interaction type to the page.

Then when you click on the interaction type you can edit its features.

Some of the advanced interaction types are particularly interesting, especially the html feature which enables you to embed interactive media objects such as videos or digital books into your forms and then build interactive activities around them.

You can also add social buttons to enable users to share your activities through social media channels. 123ContactForm does also have a Facebook app so once your activities are complete you can post them directly into Facebook pages or groups for users to do from there.

This video shows you how to use all the main features of the forms.

You can also check to see who has submitted answers to the questions and see the record of what answers have been given in the ‘Reports’ section. This is one of the best features of the site as it turns it into a form of LMS (learning management system) where you can collect and analyse students responses and generate graphs of the results.

The site also allow users to add and customise the theme of the forms, so if you want them to blend into your site or blog, then customising the look and feel of the forms is quite easy and you can even add your own logo.

This video shows you how to customise your form.

• We can create action research forms and get detailed and anonymous feedback on our teaching
• We can create multimedia materials for learning or assessment and track our students responses. This is particularly useful if we a creating homework assignments and we need to assess these and know that our students have done them.
• We can create learning objects to embed into online courses that track and assess students’ performance.
• We can make fun engaging quizzes based around images.

As ELT professionals

• We can use the forms to create surveys for research.
• We can start selling materials, self published books, or private online classes and collect payment in a safe and secure way.

What I like about 123ContactForm

• It’s a very versatile platform and really does enable a lot more than the name suggests. In fact it’s a pretty sound way to create online learning materials with a built in LMS.
• It’s a great tool for freelancers who want to start making money online by selling their own products and services in a user friendly way.
• It runs in the browser and is pretty simple to use.
• It’s easy to produce something that looks very professional.
• I’ve said it already, but the tracking capabilities are great.
• The company runs on a freemium model, so although it is a free service, there is also a business model there to support the site so it’s less likely to suddenly disappear or fold.

What I’m not so sure about

• As I said the company runs on a freemium model, so many of the best features are the ones they charge for.
• On the free subscription you can create 5 forms and collect up to 100 students’ responses each month which is probably enough for the individual teacher to use it with a class, but it would be nice to have a few more of the premium features available to the Free subscriber, such as the html embed to enable the use of video and multimedia in the activities.
• You have to be on the Platinum account to be able to enable payments and that costs $29.95 per month, which for a company or school is not much, but for a teacher / freelancer who wants to test the waters with selling their own products or services, it might seem like quite a big risk when they are just getting started, but you can cancel your subscription if things don’t go well and 123ContactForm does offer a 30day money back guarantee. It’s also worth mentioning that if you are a teacher or teacher trainer and you get in contact with the company, they are offering a 35% educational discount, so that can help to reduce the risk and the cost.

On the whole I think this is a really good product, particularly for a small school that wants to venture into online teaching or blended learning, then a platinum account at $29.95 per month is quite a small risk. For a teacher thinking of going freelance it might be a good option if you are confident that you can make enough through online sales to justify the monthly outlay. As a teacher working in class, then it’s a nice way to get started with creating some online learning with a degree of interactivity, but it would be much more attractive if the html embed functionality came as part of the free subscription.

123ContactForm has plenty of potential for the online educator or anyone wanting to create blended learning, so it’s well worth checking out, and when I get my book finished I may well be using it myself. I hope you find it useful too.

Related links:

• Learning technology news portal
• Web Tools for Learners
• Creating Social Polls and Questionnaires Using Urtak
• Survey Creation Tool for Students
• Create Quick Online Polls
• Create an ESL EFL Video Quiz
• Make your own chat room

The second plus phase of Vande Bharat Mission to bring home Indian nationals stranded abroad will start today. Around 140 flights from Gulf countries have been added in this phase of the miss

123ContactForm may not sound like the kind of tool that would be of interest to educators, but as I discovered when they asked me to review their online form creation tool, they offer quite a range of features that can solve many of the problems we have as 21st century teachers.

We can use it to:

• Create surveys to do research and action research
• We can create interactive materials based around multimedia objects
• We can eve use it to sell our materials or services online and take payments

The tool itself is browser based and so doesn\’t require any downloading or installation and that in itself can save a lot of hassle if you work in an institution that has very restrictive practices regarding the installation of software.

To get started you just need to go to the site and register at: http://www.123contactform.com/education-forms.htm

Once you have registered you get access to the dashboard and this is where you can start creating your forms. You just need to click on \’Create New Form\’.

You will then get a choice of different types of form to create. It\’s a good idea to click on \’Other Forms\’ this takes you to the online educator forms.   If you have a look at some of the templates and educator forms that have already been created it will give you some idea of what the platform can do. There is an Education section with some ready made templates in.

When you are ready to create your own educator forms, you could start by clicking on \’Blank Form\’. Call your form \’My first activity\’ and then save it and look at the different types of interactions you can create.

You will see the basic interactions you can add to the page. Clicking on them will add the interaction type to the page.

Then when you click on the interaction type you can edit its features.

Some of the advanced interaction types are particularly interesting, especially the html feature which enables you to embed interactive media objects such as videos or digital books into your forms and then build interactive activities around them.

You can also add social buttons to enable users to share your activities through social media channels. 123ContactForm does also have a Facebook app so once your activities are complete you can post them directly into Facebook pages or groups for users to do from there.

This video shows you how to use all the main features of the forms.

You can also check to see who has submitted answers to the questions and see the record of what answers have been given in the \’Reports\’ section. This is one of the best features of the site as it turns it into a form of LMS (learning management system) where you can collect and analyse students responses and generate graphs of the results.

The site also allow users to add and customise the theme of the forms, so if you want them to blend into your site or blog, then customising the look and feel of the forms is quite easy and you can even add your own logo.

This video shows you how to customise your form.

• We can create action research forms and get detailed and anonymous feedback on our teaching
• We can create multimedia materials for learning or assessment and track our students responses. This is particularly useful if we a creating homework assignments and we need to assess these and know that our students have done them.
• We can create learning objects to embed into online courses that track and assess students\’ performance.
• We can make fun engaging quizzes based around images.

As ELT professionals

• We can use the forms to create surveys for research.
• We can start selling materials, self published books, or private online classes and collect payment in a safe and secure way.

What I like about 123ContactForm

• It\’s a very versatile platform and really does enable a lot more than the name suggests. In fact it\’s a pretty sound way to create online learning materials with a built in LMS.
• It\’s a great tool for freelancers who want to start making money online by selling their own products and services in a user friendly way.
• It runs in the browser and is pretty simple to use.
• It\’s easy to produce something that looks very professional.
• I\’ve said it already, but the tracking capabilities are great.
• The company runs on a freemium model, so although it is a free service, there is also a business model there to support the site so it\’s less likely to suddenly disappear or fold.

What I\’m not so sure about

• As I said the company runs on a freemium model, so many of the best features are the ones they charge for.
• On the free subscription you can create 5 forms and collect up to 100 students\’ responses each month which is probably enough for the individual teacher to use it with a class, but it would be nice to have a few more of the premium features available to the Free subscriber, such as the html embed to enable the use of video and multimedia in the activities.
• You have to be on the Platinum account to be able to enable payments and that costs $29.95 per month, which for a company or school is not much, but for a teacher / freelancer who wants to test the waters with selling their own products or services, it might seem like quite a big risk when they are just getting started, but you can cancel your subscription if things don\’t go well and 123ContactForm does offer a 30day money back guarantee. It\’s also worth mentioning that if you are a teacher or teacher trainer and you get in contact with the company, they are offering a 35% educational discount, so that can help to reduce the risk and the cost.

On the whole I think this is a really good product, particularly for a small school that wants to venture into online teaching or blended learning, then a platinum account at $29.95 per month is quite a small risk. For a teacher thinking of going freelance it might be a good option if you are confident that you can make enough through online sales to justify the monthly outlay. As a teacher working in class, then it\’s a nice way to get started with creating some online learning with a degree of interactivity, but it would be much more attractive if the html embed functionality came as part of the free subscription.

123ContactForm has plenty of potential for the online educator or anyone wanting to create blended learning, so it\’s well worth checking out, and when I get my book finished I may well be using it myself. I hope you find it useful too.

Related links:

• Learning technology news portal
• Web Tools for Learners
• Creating Social Polls and Questionnaires Using Urtak
• Survey Creation Tool for Students
• Create Quick Online Polls
• Create an ESL EFL Video Quiz
• Make your own chat room

In the month of May 25 in 1899 a great patriot as well as a poet was born in Burdwan District of undivided Bengal which presently comes under West Bengal. He was none other than Kazi Nazrul Islam. Due to his powerful writing mainly through his poems reflecting Hindu-Muslim unity and patriot feeling British was always scared of him as sequel imprisonment him several occasions. Nazrul’s father Kazi Faqeer Ahmed was an Imam and caretaker of a local mosque and mausoleum and his mother Zahida Khatun, was a house maker. Kazi Nazrul Islam studied up to Class X and then joined in army in 1917 at the age of 18 years but left the army in 1920 and settled in Calcutta (present Kolkata), and involved in journalism. . He assailed the British Raj in India and preached revolution through his poems “Bidrohi” (“The Rebel”) and “Bhangar Gaan” (“The Song of Destruction”), as well as his through his publications in “Dhumketu” (“The Comet”). His continuous support in Indian freedom movement antagonized the British and often led to his imprisonment by the British authorities. On April 14, 1923 he was shifted from Alipore jail to Hooghly jail in Kolkata and he began a 40-day fast to protest against ill-treatment by the British jailer. Nazrul broke his fast more than a month later and was released from prison in December 1923. He composed a large number of poems and songs during this period of imprisonment and many his works were banned in the 1920s by the British authorities.  

      He never tolerated any fundamental activities. In his ‘Kandari Husiar” poem he specifically wrote, “Hindu or Muslim should not be an issue. We should fight to save our motherland”. He was a secular and broad-mined person and married to Pramila Devi, (belonged to Brahmo Samaj), on April 25, 1924. Nazrul wrote an editorial in Joog Bani in 1920 about religious pluralism, “Come brother Hindu! Come Musalman! Come Buddhist! Come Christian! Let us transcend all barriers, let us forsake forever all smallness, all lies, all selfishness and let us call brothers as brothers. We shall quarrel no more”. In another article entitled Hindu Mussalman, published in Ganabani on 2 September 1922, he wrote the religious quarrels were between priests and Imams and not between individual Muslims and Hindus.

     He was also feeling for the women and poor echelons of the society which is reflected in his poem ‘Daridro'(Poverty). Few lines may be quoted here (keeping in view of the meaning are translated in English).

“O my child, my darling one
I could not give even a drop of milk
No right have I to rejoice.
Poverty weeps within my doors forever,
as my spouse and my child.
Who will play the flute?”

      In those days in Bengal dowry, exploitation of women etc., were also major issues and keeping in mind of these issues he wrote the poem Nari (Woman), where he has mentioned, “I don’t see any difference between a man and woman. Whatever great or benevolent achievements that have taken place in the world half of that was by woman and the other half by man.”

         His secular feeling is reflected in many of his songs and poems where he explained lucidly about the power Hindu God and Goddess. His poem ‘Indrapatan’ is a marvellous one. In addition, he wrote and composed many devotional songs like Shama Sangeet (about Goddess Kali Mata), Bhajans and Kirtans and while listen these songs by any Hindu person, the person will be astonished whether these are written by a Muslim or a Hindu poet. He equally gave importance to Islamic songs where he explained importance of Islamic practices like Namaz (prayer), Roza (fasting), Hajj (pilgrimage) and Zakat (charity). His poem ‘Eid Mubarak” is awesome creation.  Nazrul’s secularism is reflected in his personal life when he kept his sons name keeping in mind both Hindu and Muslim background-  Krishna Mohammad, Arindam Khaled(bulbul), Kazi Sabyasachi and Kazi Aniruddha.

    Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Narul Islam had special likings to each other. Tagore called Nazul, “the mutinous child of the Goddess of the Universe”. Nazrul had also special respect for Rabindranath Tagore and was shaken by the death of Rabindranath in August 1941. He composed two poems in Tagore’s memory, one of which, “Rabihara” (loss of Rabi) was broadcast in All India Radio during that time. After creation of Bangladesh, then Government invited him with his family members where Nazrul and his family moved in 1972, and he died on 29 August 1976. He is officially recognized as the National poet of Bangladesh and his song “Chal, Chal, Chal” (move, move, and move) is the national song of Bangladesh. As a mark of respect for his death, Bangladesh observed two days national mourning, and the parliament of India observed a minute of silence.

Dr. Shankar Chatterjee

Former Professor& Head (CPME)

NIRD &PR (Govt. of India),

Hyderabad-500 030

Telangana, India

Email <shankarjagu@gmail.com>