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. 

Bubblr- Visual Presentation

LINK: http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/

WHAT

PimPamPum Bubblr is tool to make a photo strip, using images from Flickr. It is a website that help us putting bubble of words on the selection of pictures from Flickr, and present it in the form of photo strip. It is beneficial for students to create a visual presentation and may include writing activity.

It is an activity that should be considered because it is simple and students do not waste much time looking for a picture in Google image or arranging the slide for presentation. All they have to do is type the keyword and drag the bubble to put words.

This activity encourage descriptive writing because they have to describe the picture, and also use a simple but precise vocabulary to give the message. Any writing activity give students more control of language because they have time to think and put the meaning into words.

EXAMPLE 

Topic: Brighton

... or maybe you may want to click to this link below, and it will direct you the website! Brighton is cool by Liyana.

HOW

• Search picture - Type your desire picture in the search box (eg. beach) , and it will provide you to a plenty selection of  beaches from Flickr.

• Add the bubbles - drag the bubble to anywhere in the picture and start typing. 

• Publish - you will be asked to write your name and the tittle for the visual presentation. 

• Send - You could send it to an email address and also posting it to your blog, by clicking 'blog this'. 

ADVANTAGES

1. It is easy and free - Students and teachers would be able to assess this easily without any complex steps.
2. Enjoyable - It is enjoyable for students to choose picture and create words bubble on the picture. 
3. Writing and Speaking - It encourages writing and speaking if students are going to present their work. 
4. Free from copyright. 

DISADVANTAGES

1. Time consuming - Due to plenty of pictures, students may take time searching for right image. 
2. The use of language - Students may not use the target language while preparing the slide, and have a tendency to write a shorter sentence. 

SIMILAR TOOL - BOOKR

Besides bubblr, another similar tool is bookr (click here) where it use the same concept except it is in the form of e-book.

The most important aspect of these website is, it is a quick and easy tool for image description and used as an alternative of traditional image presentation in classroom.

CONCLUSION

I find this an interesting website because it is very simple for a quick presentation. The topic should be wide like 'beach', 'mountain' or 'waterfall' rather than focus on specific place like 'Amazon rainforest'. Simplicity is the best policy. :)