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Sunday 22 January 2012

MyBrainShark

 MyBrainShark.com

Purpose:
Mybrainshark, originally designed for the business community, has amazing potential for use in the foreign language classroom.
The free version allows users to create, share and track video presentations of their PowerPoints, documents, photos or video clips.

Relevance:
An important aspect of language learning is review/ revision. This tool allows students to make, edit and replay their audio recordings.
They therefore benefit from an increased awareness of their pronunciation and fluidity in the target language.
It would also allow them to track their progress in developing their speaking skills.

Tip:
Outside the classroom, one great way to use this tool to develop speaking skills is by asking students to make an audiovisual presentation on a chosen topic: family, food, favorite hobbies, life accomplishments, vacation, etc and then email the link to the teacher. My video illustrates how this can be done.

In the classroom context, as part of a lesson, students can work in pairs and record themselves conducting an interview, which can then be shared with the teacher or their classmates in a larger online forum.

Limitations:
While the basic service is free, sign-up is required in order to upload documents.

Also, the quality of the content created depends greatly on the teacher/ student’s ability to manipulate the software used, for example PowerPoint.

2 comments:

  1. Excellent! I will use these tips even in teaching Classical Theater.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Jajamuse! Thanks for posting! The great thing about this site is it's versatility, it can be used in any field really. Let me know how it goes!

    ReplyDelete