Question 1

What is Screencasting?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes, the best way to learn is by watching someone accomplish a task. Now that so much happens on computer screens, screencasting has emerged as a favorite way to record and share videos of our computer-based skills and ideas. This video explains the basics of screencasting. It teaches:

Why screencasting makes sense for sharing computer-based skills
How screencasting helps professionals share information
Basic features of popular screencasting tools
How screencasting videos can be used to reach a global audience

Video Transcript:

Sometimes, the easiest way to learn is by watching someone else. If you can look over their shoulder and hear them speak while while they chop an onion, you may be able to learn more quickly.

Unfortunately, this isn’t possible when the teacher is a thousand miles away. Thankfully, screencasting can help us use computers to make videos that can be easily shared.

Meet Chloe. She’s an expert in graphic design and she lives in a small town. Recently she noticed a number of people online asking about the same feature, in a tool that she knows well. She wondered - how could she share what she knows? She decided to try screencasting for the first time.

She came to think of it like having a video camera on her shoulder, recording her screen and her voice. In reality, it’s software that records a video of what happens on her screen and can also include her narration.

With the click of a button, she records herself using the feature and walking through each step in the process. When she’s done, she saves it as a video for sharing online. But for Chloe, this was just the beginning.

The most popular screencasting programs have tools for editing the video and audio after it is captured. This way she can cut out parts she doesn’t need.

She can also magnify sections of the screen to make them easier to read and even add text.

For the narration, chloe can either record her voice as she records what’s on the screen, or she can record the voice-over separately.

With a little fine tuning, Chloe is able to create a three-minute video showing exactly how to use the feature people need.

Once she finalizes the video she shares it on her website. Now, when people are confused, she has them covered.

And Chloe is not alone. Screencasting is a powerful tool for sharing all kinds of computer-based information. It turns anything that happens on your computer screen into a video that can be shared with the world!

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 2

What is Smart Grid?

Accepted Answer

This video focuses on the basic ideas that make up the smart grid, which is the next generation of the network that delivers electricity to our homes. It teaches:

What's wrong with the current grid
What makes the grid "smart"
How it will help us reduce the use of fossil fuels
How it will help us reduce blackouts
How smart meters will help us manage electricity usage

Video Transcript:

It’s easy to take electricity for granted. But modern life would not be possible without it. To keep it going, we need more efficient ways to manage electricity.

For over one hundred years, coal and other fossil fuels have been used by power plants to produce the electricity we use every day. The Grid is a network of power lines and substations that carry electricity from power plants to homes and businesses.

Today, the grid has problems. It needs updating and is running at capacity. When power lines break or powerplants can’t produce enough power, blackouts can occur – and that’s a problem that can cause fatalities.

At the same time, today’s grid often relies on a single power source and doesn’t provide detailed information on usage, making electricity difficult to manage.

To address these problems in the past, we simply built new power plants. But now we can work toward sustainability and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by using a smarter grid.

Here’s how…

The Smart Grid means adding sensors and software to the existing grid that will give utilities and individuals new information that will help them understand and react to changes quickly.

Let’s say a tree falls on a powerline and one thousand homes lose power. With the current grid, utility employees often physically re-route power, which takes time.

With the Smart Grid, sensors and software would detect and immediately route the power around the problem, limiting the issue to fewer homes.

And there’s more. The price of electricity changes throughout the day, but we can’t see it with the current meters on our homes. It may be expensive during peak hours and cheap late at night. With new Smart meters at your home, you could set your dishwasher to run when power is cheap. This provides more control of your energy bill and helps prevent blackouts at peak hours.

The Smart Grid also means news ways to use renewable energy. Power generation can now be distributed across multiple sources so the system is more stable and efficient.

It’s this ability to communicate and manage electricity that makes the grid smarter and helps us avoid burning more fossil fuels in the future.

The Smart Grid is still a few years away, but soon we’ll be able to manage our energy bill, help the environment and help the economy by making more informed decisions about how we use electricity.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 3

What is Social Networking (Facebook)?

Accepted Answer

This video teaches the basic ideas behind social networking with sites like Facebook. It tells the story of a woman who discovered how social networking revealed a world that was formerly hidden from view. It teaches:

The ideas and features of social networking websites
Basic privacy settings
The role of status updates
How to build a network
How comments and likes enable communication

Video Transcript:

But in the past, these network connections were hard to use because Oliver’s network was hidden from view. Charles couldn’t see who Oliver knew. These days, the Internet has changed this by making these connections visible on websites – and that makes all kinds of things possible.  

  Meet Maria. She’s been been hearing a lot about websites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Plus, but never thought they would be valuable to her.

  Recently she was invited to a social networking site by her friend Joan and logged in without knowing what to expect. She got started by sharing some basic information and a photo, and adjusting privacy settings.  

She saw that Joan was now her friend on the site, but she wondered – now what?   Within a day or so, updates from Joan started to appear on her page. She saw photos, links, and notices about Joan’s activities on the site and enjoyed following along.  

Then Maria noticed that Joan’s name was a link, so she clicked it and arrived at Joan’s page. Joan was connected to hundreds of people, organizations and groups and had interesting updates on her page.

  She was also using the website to play games, organize events and have conversations with friends. Joan’s network was visible!  Suddenly it became clear. She could have a network like Joan’s – she just needed to connect to more people she knows - Joan’s page was the perfect place to start. 

 So, she found people she knew, clicked their names and added them as her friends on the site. Then she searched for her favorite band and restaurant and clicked a button to get their updates too. Within a few days, her page was full of interesting updates that were useful to her.  

And email addresses didn’t matter - she could always contact her friends using the website.  Soon Maria started to post her own updates. Her friends liked her posts and left comments.  

Instead of being hidden, Social Networking made events, people and media visible and on her page every day.  For Maria and millions of others, it provides online places for her to connect to and build relationships with whom and what matters.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 4

Why is Twitter Popular?

Accepted Answer

This video introduces the Twitter service. It focuses on Twitter's ability to connect people in new ways, using short messages and includes:

Why answers to the question "what are you doing" are interesting
The mechanics of Twitter - signing up, sharing and reading messages
How a skeptical person fell in love with Twitter

Video Transcript:

So, what are you doing? It's one of the first questions we often ask friends and family. Even if the answer is just mowing the lawn or cooking dinner, it's interesting to us. It makes us feel connected and a part of each other's lives.

Unfortunately, most of our day-to-day lives are hidden from people that care. Booooo! Of course, we have email and blogs and phones to keep us connected, but you wouldn't send an email to tell a friend you're having coffee - your friend doesn't need to know that.

Thanks to Twitter, it's possible to share short, bite-sized updates about your life and follow the updates of people that matter to you via the web. Yaay! Here's how it works.

Meet Carla. She's addicted to her mobile phone, reads blogs every day and has contacts all over the world.

She heard about Twitter and was skeptical - she's already overloaded with information. After some of her friends couldn't stop talking about it, she gave it a try.

She signed up for free and saw that Twitter pages look a little like blogs with very short posts. Each page is personal and has updates from friends.

She got started by looking up her friends on Twitter.com. After finding a few, she clicked "follow" to starting seeing their updates on her Twitter page.

Within hours, she began to see a different side of people she chose to follow. She didn't know that Steven in Seattle was a baseball fan, or that Julia in London was reading a new investment book. The little messages from Twitter painted a picture of her friends, family and co-workers that she'd never seen before - it was the real world.

Soon she became a fan of Twitter and posted updates every day. Her friends followed her updates and learned that she recently discovered a passion for Van Halen. They could see Carla's life between blog posts and emails.

For Carla, Twitter worked because it was simple. The updates were always short - under 140 characters each. Plus, she could post updates and follow her friends using the Twitter website, software on her browser, a mobile phone or instant messages. She wasn't tied to one device.

By asking members to answer the question "what are you doing?" Carla found that Twitter brought her closer to people that matter to her - 140 characters at a time.

Find out what your friends are doing at Twitter.com.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 5

URLs (Web Addresses)?

Accepted Answer

It’s easy to take URLs, or web addresses, for granted because they work behind the scenes in helping us jump around the web. By taking a closer look, we can learn about how websites work and what happens when we click. This video explains URLs and teaches:

How URLs are connected to web servers
What each element in a URL can tell us
How to tell if a website is secure
How URLs can represent how files are organized on a server
How anchors work in navigating to a specific part of a page

Video Transcript:

If you’ve used the web, you’ve seen how website addresses, or URLs, help you move from site to site. If we look closely, there’s a lot more to URLs than meets the eye.

When you visit a web page, what appears on the screen usually lives on a computer called a server. The URL, which stands for Universal Resource Locator, tells your web browser exactly where to find the page or file you want on the server.

Imagine you love a dog photo on a web site and save a web page’s URL that looks like this.

You’re probably used to seeing a subdomain like “www” in front of website addresses. It’s a default that usually isn’t needed for links to work. However, some websites use this part of the URL to connect to a separate part of the website, like support.doggopics.com. And subdomains can be confusing. Criminals may try to fool you by adding a familiar subdomain to their website address.

That’s why paying attention to the domain name is so important. It tells the browser where to find the website’s server. It’s like a street address for finding a house.

After the domain name in the URL, there are words, separated by forward slashes.

But that’s not all. This page was designed with anchors, which means your web browser can go to a specific part of a page. The anchor in the URL can be found after a question mark and includes a hash symbol, like this:

This tells the browser to go the domain, find the right folder, the right page and then, the right part of the page.

As you can see, URLs contain a lot of information if you know where to look.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting [EranFunnels.com/software.](https://eranfunnels.com/software)

Question 6

What is Web Conferencing and Webinars?

Accepted Answer

Meeting face-to-face is great, but it can be expensive and difficult to plan. That’s why web conferencing is becoming more popular. These systems allow a group to connect and share information using only an internet connection. This video explains the basics, It teaches:

Why face-to-face meetings are cumbersome and expensive
How web conferencing can be used to accomplish the same goals
How to create a web conference and invite attendees
What features are often used in web conferences
Why web conferencing can be more effective than normal meetings

Video Transcript:

These days, meetings are a time for people to watch presentations, discuss plans and more.

That’s why more people are using web conferencing systems, which open meetings to anyone with internet access. Here, a group of people anywhere in the world can meet online, watch a presentation, have a group discussion in real time, and more. Here’s how it works…

Imagine you work at a business that creates and sells software. Many of the company’s employees and customers work from locations around the world.

With the system in place, you can create a meeting using web conferencing software on a computer or via a website.

When you create the meeting, you can provide details and designate who should join and more.

A few minutes before the meeting time, you open the web conferencing system, upload the presentation you’ll share and test your microphone and audio. You’re ready to lead the meeting!

When showtime arrives, the attendees use the link they received in email to join the meeting.

During the meeting, you have control of what the attendees see and hear as changes happen in real time. Along with the presentation, you may be able to share links, conduct polls and more. The attendees may just watch and learn.

You may also be able to invite other attendees to become the “presenter”, which gives them control of the presentation.

Most web conferencing tools include the ability to record the presentation for future replays.

And this system can work for everyone in the company. Engineers can explain new features, salespeople can educate their clients and HR can share new policies.

Face-to-face meetings are great, and today we have more affordable options that open meetings to anyone with an internet connection.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 7

What is Wikis?

Accepted Answer

Using a story about a group that needs to organize supplies for a camping trip, this video explains the basics of using a wiki to collaborate. It teaches:

Why email is a poor choice for collaboration
The basics of using a wiki to organize a group’s input
How the group edits the wiki to add, remove and edit their camping supplies list
Why adding new pages to a wiki can help it grow and evolve

Video Transcript:

These four friends are going on a camping trip. They need to bring the right supplies because they're backpacking. The group needs to plan and plan well, so coordination is key.

They're all computer users, so they start planning with an email. It's start with one, but then becomes a barrage. Email is not good at coordinating and organizing a group's input. This is the old way - Booo!

The important information is scattered across everyone's inbox. This isn't coordination! Let's start over.

There is a better way. It requires using a website called a wiki. Using a wiki, the group can coordinate their trip better. This is the new way - yaay!

Most wikis work the same. They make it easy for everyone to change what appears on a webpage with a click of a button. It's as easy as erasing a word and rewriting it.

The buttons are really important. There are two that are essential. They are "edit" and "save", and they are always used together. Let's see them in action.

Here are our camping friends and here is a wiki website. Like all wikis, it has an edit button. Clicking this button, transforms the webpage into a document. All you have to do is click it and the webpage becomes a document ready for editing. Editing the page means you can add or remove words or change how they look, just like writing a letter.

Once you're finished editing, you click save and the document becomes a webpage once again, and is ready for the next person to edit it - easy!

Edit - Write - and Save. Using this process, a group can coordinate more easily. Let's apply this to our camping friends, who need to bring the right supplies.

Mary signs up for a wiki site and then sees the new site for the first time. She clicks the edit button to get started. She creates two lists for camping: What we have and what we need. Under "we have" she lists the things she will bring: A cooler, stove and flashlight. Under "we need" she lists items that others need to bring: compass, lighter, water, and food. She finished the process by clicking save and the website now has lists for the camping trip.

Now it's John's turn. John visits the wiki website and clicks edit and the page becomes a document ready for him to make changes. John volunteers to bring food and water, so he moves those to the have column. He also realizes the group will need a knife and rope. Once he's finished, he clicks save and the wiki is ready for the next person.

Henry visits the wiki, clicks edit and he can edit the page. He remembers they need a tent. Henry saves the page and the wiki is ready for Frank. Frank edits the page and agrees to bring the remaining items, completing the process.

Frank saves the page and realizes something awesome. The group has created the perfect camping list - without email - yaay!

But wait! One thing is missing. They need a location for the campsite. The wiki can help with this too, but another page is needed.

John visits the wiki and clicks edit to edit the page. He types in the word "locations" and highlights it. He thens clicks the "link" button. This changes the word "locations" into a link to a new page.

John clicks save and next, Frank visits the wiki and sees the lists and the link to the new page. He clicks on the "locations" link and arrives at the new page. This new page enables the group to use the same "Edit, Write, Save" process to coordinate locations. This process can be repeated over and over.

These three buttons, edit, save, and link make it possible to organize a great camping trip or create the world's biggest encyclopedia.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 8

What is Blended Learning?

Accepted Answer

This video follows the story of a teacher who discovers blended learning and incorporates it into his teaching. It teaches:

A basic definition of blended learning
How the Internet has impacted teaching options
The role of Learning Management Systems (LMS) in blended learning
How blended learning can change how classroom time is used
What factors can ensure success
Why blended learning matters

Video Transcript:

Anyone who attended school before the Internet experienced teaching as a single place, like a building or classroom.

While this is still the case today, the internet means that many students and teachers have two classrooms - online and offline.

This is often referred to as Blended learning because it uses a blend of face-to-face teaching and online, self-directed learning.

To see how it works, let’s meet Alex, a middle school teacher. For most of his career, he would teach a concept in class, assign homework and then evaluate performance the next day during class.

He didn’t have a way to work with students when they were out of the classroom. Those assignments happened without a connection to him.

But now that students have access to the internet, assignments can be completed in a blended fashion, with parts taking place in the classroom, at home, or in another location. This way, Alex can work with students throughout the assignment.

For Alex and other teachers, this happens thanks to new tools like Learning Management Systems that can be accessed on the internet. With these tools, Alex can provide assignments, tools and resources, media, quizzes and discussion spaces in an online classroom.

This online access means that as students complete assignments at home Alex can evaluate their progress and collaborate with the class through online discussions.

Blended learning means that Alex’s class time can be more productive. Because he can arrive with a clearer idea of his student’s progress, he can focus his classroom time where it is needed most.

But this is just one form of blended learning. It can also be a specific combination of offline and online activities, or self-directed assignments where students choose to learn online or off.

Some schools even choose to “flip” their classrooms. Here students access online content at home, and then apply it to assignments or problems in class, with the guidance of their teacher.

Of course, blended learning works best when teachers and students have access to high quality resources and reliable internet connections. Students who are not comfortable with computers may need extra support.

But in most cases, blended learning offers teachers like Alex a way to work with students in both classrooms so his teaching can be more effective.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 9

What is Citations and Citing Your Work?

Accepted Answer

Papers and articles are often a mix of ideas from different sources. By thinking through where ideas originate, we can understand what needs a citation. This video guides viewers through three types of ideas found in papers and explains how to use citations responsibly. It teaches:

Why common knowledge and the writer’s ideas don’t often require citations
Why other people’s ideas deserve special treatment and often require citations
Why citations matter and what role they play in writing and research
How in-text and full citations often work together to make reading easier
Why citations are a service to readers who may want to learn more

Video Transcript:

If you think about it, much of the information that goes into a paper or article can be organized into three groups: “common knowledge” “my ideas”, and “other people’s ideas”. By understanding these groups, we can see why citations matter in our work.  

Let’s start with common knowledge, which consists of well established and reliable facts. For example, George Washington being the first US president is an established fact found in a variety of reliable sources. A year having 365 days is also considered common knowledge.

Next, let’s consider “my ideas”. This group consists of your personal thoughts, opinions, conclusions, and analysis of your topic. If you are conducting your own original research, it would also fall into this category.

And finally, there are other people’s ideas - and these deserve special care. When we research a topic, we’re likely to find and borrow helpful information and discoveries that came from the work of specific individuals or organizations whose work was published in reputable books, journals, articles and websites.  “Other people’s ideas” also include quotes from other writing that support or debate points that you’re making. A paper or project may include all three types of information.

While common knowledge and your ideas don’t usually need special treatment, when other people’s ideas are included in your paper, readers do need to know. This can be done with citations. Using citations shows you’re responsible. You’ve done the research, given credit to the right people, provided the reader with resources for more learning and avoided plagiarism.

A citation consists of two parts that work together. These are the in-text citation and full citations. Here’s how they work…

When you use someone else’s ideas, the reader needs to know, but adding the required information into the middle of your paper would be annoying and hard to read.

So, we need a quick way to indicate when a section is based on someone else's ideas. This is done with an in-text citation. It’s a brief notification within the body of the text that specific words, ideas, figures, or images were taken from other sources.

Often, full citations have all the information needed to find the original publication. These include author names, titles of books or journals, publishers, publication dates, page numbers and more.

Let’s look at two common ways to cite your sources in a paper:  Imagine that you use an idea from a book in your paper and need to cite it.

An in-text citation could might include the author’s last name and year published, author’s last name and page number, or simply a number. These connect the reader to the full citation, which may be in a bibliography at the end of the paper, or in a footnote at the bottom of the page.

Using citations is part of being a responsible student and researcher, but it’s also a service to others. They acknowledge the people whose work helped establish what is known about the world and provides a way for your readers to dive even deeper into your subject.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.

Question 10

What are secure websites?

Accepted Answer

These days websites make security a priority, but it is hard to know when a website is secure, or what makes it so. This video teaches the basics of website security and how to recognize a secure site.

An overview of the most common security threats
How SSL encryption works
How to recognize a secure connection
In which situations security is most important

Video Transcript:

Whether it's buying shoes, managing bank accounts or just connecting with friends, most of us depend on websites. Unfortunately, it's easy be fooled by fake websites that are designed to give your money or private information to criminals.

Thankfully, it's now easier to know when a website is secure.

When you need to use a website to make a purchase or provide sensitive information, there are two big things to think about:

The first is the connection from your computer to the company's computer. Your name, credit card information and other things have to travel from one to the other. This connection needs to be secure. so that criminals can't access the information in route.

The second is knowing that you're working with a company you trust. If you're working with a company you trust using a secure connection, your information is safe. But how do you know?

Knowing what to look for in a browser is a big step to using secure websites. Let’s consider the connection we mentioned earlier.

Secure websites encrypt information before sending it between computers. this makes the information completely unreadable for criminals. Only the computer on the other end can read it, making it secure.

There are two big ways to tell the connection is secure…First is the address bar, where you’re used to seeing "http". Secure websites have an address that starts http"s" for secure.

You can also look for a padlock icon in the browser. If you see the "s" and padlock the connection is encrypted and secure.

But what about the organization behind the website? - how do we know it's not a criminal with a secure connection? Well, a new system makes this easy. Newer web browsers display color and company names in the address bar that help you know the site is trustworthy. It works like this. Organizations that depend on security can have their websites reviewed and validated by licensed unbiased companies called certificate authorities.

These rigorous reviews ensure the organization and website are trustworthy and using a secure connection. If the tests are passed, the site is issued an EV SSL certificate. and only sites with these certificates display the colored bar, including the company name, along with the address.

Green means Go, red means stop.

This review process means criminals can’t obtain the certificate that's required to display the colorful information. So when you see a site with the green info in the address bar, you can be sure it's legit.

Now, if you're reading the news or checking the weather, security doesn't matter as much, so don't be concerned if you don't see the green bar or security information. Security matters when you send sensitive information like credit card numbers, passwords and private info over the Internet.

For instance, if you're about to make a purchase, your browser holds the clues. Look for the "s" in the address and the padlock to make sure it's secure. And if you’re concerned that the site could be a scam, look for the green information.

With these things in place, you can feel confident that your information is safe and secure.

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This FAQ library was created by Eran Bucai. Eran is an online entrepreneur who is passionate about helping people find success building a profitable business online without the high ticket prices and without the marketing hype.

Eran has a tech support membership which you can learn more about here: DotComTruths.com

Eran helps people choose the best software for their business which you can find out more by visiting EranFunnels.com/software.