Mail VU -Connected Classroom

Greetings to all!

Have you heard the term of 'connected classroom'? I believed all of us know what is classroom, but connected classroom? Well, it actually a way of connecting or extending the activities in the classroom to the outside world by doing another tasks at home. One of a great tool for this purpose is MailVU, a video mail that others can view! It is a pretty simple tool to use, even people who are not familiar with technology can use this easily! What you need are a microphone and a webcam to record a video and send it as an email.

The video can be recorded for the maximum of 10 minutes and if you are not satisfied with the recording, you can always record again and again because it is free! There is no need for you to sign in for you to use this tool, which is absolutely great!

Teaching recommendations:

I will absolutely use this tool for my future teaching context if there are enough equipments at my schools. MailVU is good because it can help teachers to create a new speaking task and make it as a homework! Students may be asked to record their own video at home and send them to teachers for evaluation. In fact, teachers can reply those emails with the similar video which will make the feedback process is much exciting.

So, how does the connected classroom will work? I give an example where teachers can ask students to work in pairs in the classroom and conduct an interview about their family members. The questions can be about their parents' occupations, or the background of their siblings. As homework, they are required to record a video using MailVU and introduce their family members and tell a brief story about thier family (based on the interview in the classroom). Once finished, they should send the video to the teacher for evaluation and further feedback.

MailVU is very suitable to encourage students to practice their speaking fluency because the video is recorded without others are watching it live. It reduces students' affective filter and makes them confident to speak, especially for those who are quiet in the classroom. Teachers however should provide some key vocabulary or language structures in the classroom before students can do the recording at home.

Why I like this website:
1. It is a new tool that can be used to set up speaking activity as homework now! The form of homework is not only in the books or papers.

2. Very easy to use by all level of students. There is no need for you to sign in or register in order to use the tool. and It's free!

3. A great way to practice speaking and fluency. And it is a fun way to use the language!

4. The file can be sent and share with your friends via email.

Some considerations:
1. Teachers need to consider problems such as computers equipment and background noise if they want to do the recordings in the classroom because the quality of videos may be affected.

2. The videos that you have recorded cannot be downloaded into computers and can only be viewed online.

My Brainshark!

Hello guys!

I was introduced to a new, cool and brilliant website by my lecturer that allows us to have our own voice in the power point presentation. It is MyBrainshark! What is it actually? Well, it is a software for creating, sharing and tracking online and mobile video presentation. This is a good news for teachers because you can transform a static content such as a power point document into voice-enriched presentations that can be accessed any time.

And how this software can benefit both teachers and students? I should say that this is a new way for teachers to present their lesson if they were away and they can use this as a speaking activity. For example, students can be asked to make a power point document about their personal life, or even about a topic such as pollution and so on. After that, teachers can show them how to upload their presentation into MyBrainshark and add narration into their slides. It is like they are recording their presentation for others to listen to. Once they are happy and satisfy with their recordings, students can send them to teachers for assessment.

The descriptions below are some guidance on how to use this software. First of all, students need to register as users for FREE so that they can benefit the content. Just click on the 'Sign up for FREE' button to register.

Once you have registered, you can now upload your file by clicking on 'Upload Content' and it will appear as below:

Starting from this page onwards, there are clear instructions on how to narrate the presentation and I believe it is user-friendly. Students can record their voice for each slide and even re-record it if they don't like it. For more helps regarding this software, please have a look at these two videos:

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/brain/index.html

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/brain2/index.html

There are a few advantages of this website, which are:

1. It is good for students to practice speaking skill. Their anxiety level can be reduced because there are no one watching them speaking and from my experience recording my own presentation, I didn't feel nervous!

2. The videos can be shared publicly or users can make the videos private. If it is available to public, then students get chance to be commented by people who view their presentation. It is a good way of improving their way of presentation and speaking skill.

3. It can become a communicative activity since students are required to narrate their presentation.

4. It is FREE!

The downsides of MyBrainshark are:

1. Users need to have sufficient equipment such as computers and microphone to record their presentation. It won't work out if users do not have any equipment at all!

2. We cannot download the file once we complete the narration, and it can only be seen online. It will become a problem if there is no internet connection at schools or even at home if teachers make it as a homework.

3. The speaking activity may not authentic since students can prepare their own script before hand and just read  and record the video.

Well, II guess that's all for the time being. Here is my short presentation about myself, as a prove that i had used this software. Enjoy!