Eyejot

== = = == = = = = =EYEJOT – an attention-grabbing video email tool =

“Ever have someone interpret your email differently from the way you had intended? Without facial expressions and gestures that happens often. With Eyejot, your friends, family and business contacts won't have any trouble whatsoever understanding what you mean.” 1
 * == Description ==

A simple, easy to use and effective tech tool is a must for busy teachers. Eyejot is such an easy video mail tool that does not require anything but a browser and a webcam. Eyejot requires no special program to download. Eyejot makes it possible for everyone to create a video clip and send and receive it in a matter of a minute. All you need is:
 * A Web Browser (Safari, Firefox, IE, etc.)
 * Adobe Flash 9 (usually already installed on a computer)
 * A webcam
 * A microphone (if your webcam doesn't have one built-in)

Eyejot is an attention grabber. Your Eyejot email will surely grab the attention of a student who might be multitasking in front of a computer. A video clip is a more powerful message than a text message. Whoever receives an Eyejot mail will pay attention to the message.

The beauty of video mail is that a video clip is a much richer message in how much information it carries. Often times, the recipient of the text message is left to wonder what the sender really intended to mean. Facial expressions, tone of voice, and other non-verbal cues that are ordinarily available in face-to-face interactions are not visible in a text message. The recipient of a video mail will not have to guess between-the-lines. Eyejot mail can also include a text message in the window provided. The recipient of an Eyejot email can have both text and video messages in one mail.



Furthermore, Eyejot is not only a video email but also a micro video creator. You can record your message, and download and upload it to your favorite social networking site, or make an embedded link to your website. Eyejot can be integrated into your social networking sites with Ping, iTunes (iPod), and iPhone via Safari browser. Eyejot announced on Septeber 20, 2010 that //Native iPhone application for Eyejot// is currently under development and will be also available on the new iPhone Touch.

Eyejot allows for you to record an up to one minute video clip for free and up to five minutes for $29.95/year with Pro version. $99.95 allows you to attach ordinary files (Word, PhD, JPG, etc.) with the video mail.

//Tokbox// offers a similar service to Eyejot. Tokbox offers a synchronous multi-party video chat platform, while Eyejot is an asynchronous video email message platform. Tokbox shut down its video message service in July 2010, and offered their video message service to Eyejot. The video message customers of Tokbox are now directed to the Eyejot website. With the coming release of native iPhone app for Eyejot, Eyejot is expected to leap to popularity in the coming months.

Most of our daily email message can be conveyed in a one-minute video clip. By using both text email and Eyejot video mail (free of charge), we can effectively communicate with students, colleagues, friends and family members. Eyejot can also save our time that we spend on attempting to create a text email that is not misleading and polite to the reader. January 31, 2007 David Geller and Daryn Nakhuda launched Eyejot in Seattle December 2007 Eyejot is TRUSTe certified May 2008 Eyejot nominated for the AlwaysOn Global 250 List July 2010 Welcomed Tokbox users September 2010 Native iPhone app for Eyejot is under development Text email communication done in the past among teacher and students, and students to students can be easily made into multi-media (text, voice, visual) that will highlight the content of the message. The video message will have impact on students’ memory of the message content. This would promote student learning and a better rapport among teacher and students. Also, Eyejot can be more helpful for the people who have difficulty reading text messages; people with eye sight difficulty; those who are learning how to read. A text message that is placed on the side window of the same webpage will aid their reading. Eyejot can revolutionize email exchange. Teacher can use both modes (text only or Eyejot or Eyejot with a text) depending on the context; if a non-urgent ordinary announcement, text email would be used; if the message is important, Eyejot might bring it to students’ immediate attention.
 * == History ==
 * == Impact on Teaching and Learning ==
 * == Practical Applications ==

The teacher can create an easy face-to-face oral question and answer session with Eyejot. Eyejot is more than a video email. Eyejot can be integrated with iTunes, so can be used as a Podcasting for students to review the day’s lesson.
 * == Demonstration ==

media type="file" key="Eyejot - Keeping in touch with Business Colleagues [www.keepvid.com].mp4" width="300" height="300"  Currently Eyejot is not friendly for the international users. Eyejot does not support two-byte languages like Japanese in the textbox. The Japanese text is shown as garbage characters. This is an area that Eyejot needs to address in the future. The Eyejot’s contact import capability is limited. It can directly import the contacts only from major email accounts Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, Outlook, Plaxo. The address book of other email account needs to be downloaded as a .csv file and then uploaded to the Eyejot address book. If contact information is encoded in non-Western character, the user must enode the file in the UTF-8 format before uploading. Eyejot has been on the market for the last three years. The delay in the international usability can be an issue in the fast moving global VoIP competition. The strength of Eyejot is also its weakness. When we send a text email, sometimes we intentionally leave the matter ambiguous, leaving the interpretation of a message to the recipient of the mail. In this way, a sender can stay diplomatically and politically correct and can evade certain issues to save the faces of both parties. Text email allows us to accomplish this more easily than a video clip email. Also, we often send out business/professional text emails late at night while wearing comfortable, but unprofessional attire. We will not be able to send an Eyejot mail casually in a professional context. However, Eyejot gives us another option to send an email, this time, in a much more powerful way.
 * == Areas of Future Improvement ==
 * == Conclusion ==

Eyejot website: [|http://www.eyejot.com] Tokbox website: [|http://www.tokbox.com] Truste website:[| http://www.truste.com/] Wikipedia entry for Eyejot: []
 * == References ==
 * == External Links ==

Reviews of Eyejot
PC Magazine Very good 4/5 stars []

CNET Review @http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9681547-2.html

Entertonement Audio Review Five Ways to Use Eyejot Video Mail with your Online Volunteers - Narrated by Online Volunteer Peter Drew #nonprofit (7:15 mins) @http://www.entertonement.com/clips/nrdpgrjvbz--Five-Ways-to-Use-Eyejot-Video-Mail-with-your-Online-Volunteers-Narrated-by-Online-Volunteer-Peter-Drew-nonprofit


 * About the Author** -- Claire Hitosugi, PhD is a Japanese instructor in East Asian Languages & Literatures at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. This is her project for ETEC602 Fall 2010 by Dr. Curtis Ho in the College of Education. Dr. Hitosugi is interested in the research on language (Japanese) teaching and learning in the digital environment. She can be reached at hitosugi@hawaii.edu. This page was created on September 30, 2010.