MailVU - A video email

LINK: http://mailvu.com/

WHAT

Email is a the fastest way of mailing another person. Evolution of mailing system is increasing rapidly where email is not for an electronic letter, but video as well. Let say, writing a letter is too time consuming, why don't you just send a video of yourself speaking? MailVu is the website that allow you to send a video of you speaking (rather than writing) to the receiver's email adress. The receiver could reply using the same method, thus creating an enjoyable interaction. Simple enough?

Another speaking activity that could be done, in a more interactive way. Imagine video call, it use almost a similar concept, it is just that the conversation is delayed. Teacher could come out with different activity to encourage students to record themselves speaking. (explaining about students personal life, interview etc).

What best about this website is, it directly send it to the email adress, a very common way of communicating electronically. So, if teachers want the students to use target language during long holiday, ask students to send their video mails in English informing of their well being. Teacher could give feedback in the same way, to encourage communicative language. 

HOW

1. Sign up (optional) - Basically, you do not really have to sign up and pay but still enjoy sending video mails.
2. Allow access to video and microphone.
3. Click record - start talking, :)
4. Send - send to the receiver emel adress
5. Share - it will provide you with the URL link of the video

ADVANTAGES

1. Interesting - rather than writing an email, students could send their video. If you see the video of the sender, facial expression, hand gesture is visible as well.
2. Speaking - teacher will be able to assign homework that get the students to speak the target language outside classroom. 
3. Promoting objects - Students would be able to share some solid object to the senders, rather than describing it in term of words. 
4. Pronunciation - students would be able to practise pronunciation and discourse making, in order to make their speaking understandable.
5. Free - It is simple and free so that students could use this easily. 

DISADVANTAGES

1. You have to pay for better applications provided.
2. It is not downloadable - it stay forever in the internet. 
3. The limited time of recording.

CONCLUSION

I would definitely suggest this as one of the activity in classroom because teachers do not necesserily apply this during teaching but as a homework. Rather than writing an email (which is also a good activity), teachers and students or students and students could exchange real communicative language.

myBrainshark - making video presentation

LINK: http://www.brainshark.com/mybrainshark

WHAT

myBrainshark is another fantastic tool for teachers and students to be used as one of classroom activities. myBrainshark is an online mobile video presentation, where you can transform any document, for example Power Point presentation into video presentation. Our voice for each slide is recorded by using this online software.

It is benefecial in language teaching especially for speaking activities where students could create and share their own presentation online, making it assessible to everybody, anywhere.

The key concept of this idea is getting people to communicate through video presentation  that could be accessed anytime by target audience. The idea is useful in classroom activities and save teaching time where a student could make a presentation without having a face-to-face interaction. Instead, the presentation is accessible at home, by students, and also by teacher for evaluation.

It could also lower the anxiety and make student focus more on speaking fluently and carefully pronounce the word. It will also help students in discourse to make the presentation flow nicely. They are all important skills in language learning 

EXAMPLE

Topic: A video presentation about myself

Presenter: Myself

HOW

1. Sign up - It is free
2. Upload - upload your content (power point, document, PDF file, videos etc)
3. Add audio - to your presentation (through telephone or recorded via microphone)
4. Create - Create  the video presentation and save it to your profile

ADVANTAGES

• Free and easy to use. 
• Save time - What I mean here is, teachers do not necesserily did the presentation in class where it can be time consuming, but speaking can still be evaluated. Besides, it is possible to play few video in class and have the students to talk about it.
• Lower the anxiety of the presenters - What I like most about this website is it could lower the anxiety of having to speak the target language in front of others. Students will be more confidence to record their presentation, rather than presenting it directly to their peers.
• Reviewable - Since it is recorded, it can be reviewed by the teachers. Teachers could make a thorough evaluation of students' speaking ability by reviewing the video presentation. Unlike the live presentation, teachers may miss out important points.

DISADVANTAGES

• Technical problem - Student may not have an internet access or computer at home.
• Audience participation - It is a one-way communication where the presenters may not be able to respond directly to the audience for any unclear points or imformation. 
• Tendency to read from a script rather than giving a presentation - Students may have high tendency of writing the script in advance and read from it. It may be useful for beginners to lower their anxiety but not for communicating practice.

CONCLUSION

Regardless, myBrainshark is a useful website that is anticipated by teachers for their language activities. It could save time and might be of high interest among students because they could overcome the direct presentation which could affect their speaking. I would strongly suggest this as one of the classroom activity and teacher would provide more oppurtunity for students to practise speaking. 

Dvolver - Creating interesting comic!

LINK - http://www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/make.html

WHAT

Dvolver is a fantastic website for English teachers who look for variety in their language teaching. It is a video making website that include a cartoon comic strip where we choose from few themes, characters, and backgrounds given. In brief, learners could create their own dialogue and present it in the form of movie, depending on their own creativity.

Rather than asking the students to create dialogue on paper, in pairs or group, Dvolver promote a more interesting and fun way of creating dialogue. Due to its colourful and animated nature, students will have more interest and feel excited to create a dialogue. If they are excited about it, it is more likely that they will remember what is being taught and language is processed effectively.

The activity of creating comic strip also contribute to cognitive development, especially when students have to create a scene that suit their intended dialogue.

HOW

• Select background and sky

 

• Select the plot. It has four plots. 

• Choose the character.

• Type in the character line. 

• Choose the background music. You may want to add a new scene, depending on your story line. 

 

• Select the movie title and include your name too. 

• You can preview the movie, and send it to anyone through email. You could also choose 'back' button to make some changes. 

 

EXAMPLE

Title: Teach me dvolver

Author: myself

ADVANTAGES

1. No sign up - It is easily accessible where you could start right away without signing in. 
2. Choices - There are choices of background and theme as well as characters, which are interesting and able to encourage dialogue making. 
3. Free - This website is totally free. 
4. It is simple - You just follow the instruction and you could always go back to the previous step if you made some mistakes. 
5. Allow creativity - It is a good practice of English because learners will come out with their own idea while performing the task. 

DISADVANTAGES

1. Choice - The limited choice of theme or plot. It means, learners may not possibly come out with a broader theme aside from what is given.
2. Speakers - The maximum speakers are two, which is also limited. 

CONCLUSION


The fact that multimedia is always an interesting tool for anyone regardless age and gender make Dvolver a powerful website. Everyone would favour a comic dialogue, especially when it is simple and easy to make. Language teachers will not escape any opportunity to create another classroom activity that apply this concept. For that reason, I do not fine any limitation not to use this in classroom or as homework or project. Though they might be issue of technical problem (lack of computers / no internet access), it can still be done with careful plan. Good Luck