mailvu video email and keek

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hello everyone!! today i've been introduced to a very cool website which is called mailvu video email. 

WHAT IS

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ever heard about it before??

THIS IS SOOO COOL. It is a website where you can record a video of you and you can share it with your friends by sending them an email.

the caption of this website:

Kinda cool, isn't?

This website is free and it has a 14 days free trial. What's the difference then?
the free version:videos can be emailed to others but can't be embedded onto other websites
the paid/14 days free trial version:videos can be emailed to others, can be embedded and many more features available.
 so, take this chance! sign up! record your video! send it to your friends! 

to use this one, you have to sign up an account, but if you want to use the free version, you don't need to sign up.

LET'S DO IT!

go to HERE, then click learn more about free account

then sign up (if you want to try the 14 days free trial version)

 choose free plan.try first before you upgrade it to business plan, then click sign up

after you've sign up, this is your dashboard. click on pictures for bigger view. 

if you want to record a video, you MUST allow access to your mic and webcam, if you deny, you can't record a video

a recording window will pop out and you can start recording.there is time remaining stated there, you can replay the recorded video. you can send it to other people or you can share it with others

send it to your friends

if you want to upload a video from your computer

you can also view you saved videos, you can either send it or delete it

this is how it looks when you got the invitation to view the video email. just click on the PLAY button

then, it will direct you here. you can reply the video or create your own video mail.

As a language teacher, I think I can use this tool in my classroom. How??

• I can ask students to decide the most favourite item that they like to use (eg:shampoo, toothpaste etc), record a video of the students promoting the item and persuade their classmates to buy the item. *students get to learn different skills:the use of persuasive language, personalisation is involved here as students describe the item that they like, enhance speaking ability*
• ask students to describe the unique/strange experience in their life and record it at home, then send it to the teacher's email. this can be done as a homework *less formal so students can express themselves in front of videocam,personalisation since the topic is about students itself, lower affective filter (Krashen,1987) because students don't have to talk in front of the class, so motivate them to be more confident*
• ask students to record an interview with a friend  by asking them a set of personal questions about your friends. *This can make students motivated because they have purpose for listening and asking (communicating meaningfully) and they can communicate using authentic language. Moreover, students will be more relaxed because it's a communication between two speakers.*
• asking students to record a video of a student sharing things that they are good at (eg:cooking, wearing scarfs with different styles, make up tutorials and etc). This can be done monthly. *this kind of thing really help students not only in terms of language ability, but also in terms of content; expand students general knowledge by sharing and exchanging opinion about different things*
• can be used to do a listening activity  as well, where teacher could record a video he/she talking about a topic, play the video in the classroom, and give students a set of questions to answer/ask them to write an essay/discuss about the topic in groups *students' listening skills can be improved, writing skills too, or communicating skills if they are asked to discuss the topic with friends*

I LIKE IT. WHY??

• by using this, there are changes in the types of homework, not only writing in a book, but recording a video, and I think this what makes it cooler! students don't have to submit it by hand, rather just by email
• it can connect the practise that students did in classroom with homework. So this is one of the connected classroom activities. In my opinion, it is more effective way of learning because when they go home they won't feel the burden of a homework, rather they will feel that it is something fun to do (because i think students nowadays love internet sooo much)
• the files can be sent to people, can be deleted and saved in your own account
• if you get an invitation to view others' video, you can reply it by using the same way
• you can embed it to the other websites
• you can share videos with other people and this will encourage a lot real interaction, so your speaking skills as well as listening skills can be improved

THINGS THAT I HATE ABOUT IT.WHY?

• sometimes there are some technical problems happen; eg: i) when you press backspace key whilst you are filling the details to send the email to whom, the page will suddenly disappear, and you have to fill in the recipients' details again, ii) when a problem occur, the video can't be recorded even after you've refreshed the page. this might also be because there are many people using this website as the same time *it happened to me many times before*
• people who get invited can only view the video, but they can't download it. the only person who can download it is the video maker
• it is not free. Only free for 14 days.so after 14 days you have to buy it in order to use it
• the duration of recording is limited to 10 minutes

THERE IS ANOTHER WEBSITE THAT IS QUITE SIMILAR TO MAILVU, WHICH IS CALLED

IT IS QUITE SIMILAR to MAILVU in terms of:

-the way it can be used in the classroom

-the way of how it works
-the application is available for iPhones and smart phones' users

BUT, THE DIFFERENCES ARE:

-it's FREE but you have to sign up to use it

-it can be embedded onto the other websites and can be emailed to others as well
-it only allows 30 seconds recording

SO THESE ARE SOME SNAPSHOTS FROM KEEK:

homepage

steps to record a video

your profile. people can comment by videos or written comment

your dashboard

SOOO???

SIGN UP! RECORD! SEND!

GOOOOOO!!

.that's it.

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zimmer twins

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Let's be a Film Producer!!

WITH ZIMMER TWINS!!

Do you like animation? Have you ever created your own movie before??Do you want to try it?

YES!!! now you can DO that!!

Click HERE.

ZIMMER TWINS is actually a website tool where people can watch animation movies created by other people who has a Zimmer Twins account, people can create their own movies, or continue other people's incomplete movies. 

HOMEPAGE OF ZIMMER TWINS

 let's zoom in a bit!

click on WATCH A MOVIE and then you watch a movie (many movies created by others)

if you click on MAKE A MOVIE, you can create your own movie or continue others' incomplete movies

If you don't know how to make a movie, click on HOW TO MAKE A MOVIE. This is actually a screen snapshot taken from the demo videos. There is an audio on how to create a movie. DON'T WORRY!!! it's not that difficult =)))

you can type your dialogues as you please.choose your own characters, movement, emotions and ending. you can organise it according to your preferences

this is my short movie example, when you've finished, click on SAVE MOVIE at the top

OPPSSS!! MAKE SURE YOU SIGN UP OR LOG IN, if not your work will be deleted after all that hardwork =(

Then, insert the title of your movie and describe it a little bit

this is your profile.after your movie has been saved, this page will appear. your latest movie will be at the very left handside of the page.

click on the movie you want to watch. You can delete it, comment it, share it with others by sending them a n email or you can mark it as your favourite. You can also rate it!

POST A COMMENT to improve. you yourself can comment as well as others

CAN ZIMMER TWINS BE USED IN CLASSROOM?HOW?

• Ask students in pairs to discuss and come up with their own stories (can be based on their experience) and then ask them to send it to teacher's email. Then teacher can ask students to present/role play the story to the class (both students have to participate in the role play/presentation). This is good because it's personal to the students, students' affective filter will be low so they will be more confident to express themselves. this can help students in many ways: i) building students' confidence level, ii) improve students' speaking skills/presenting skills
• (for intermediate/higher intermediate level's students) can be used as a pre-writing activity where teacher shows her/his movie, and then ask students to discuss the movies in groups and then later ask them to write a narrative essay about the story or continuing the teacher's movie
• (For lower intermediate students) as a writing activity where students can practice writing short sentences (dialogues) in the movie making. The use of language here is authentic because it is an everyday conversation, so students will be more relaxed and motivated

DO I LIKE IT?WHY??

• the quality of the videos are actually quite good
• we can write our own dialogues, in any language
• it's fun, beautiful and interesting because you are working with animation (an important step before making a real movie.LOL)
• it's not difficult to use, plus it provides a demo video on how to use it
• you can actually continue other people's movies, or you can watch movies created from different people in the world. (most of the stories are quite funny). You can see how people from different places are thinking
• it allows creativity especially when people are designing their own movies, where they have to choose their own background, action and etc

I DONT' LIKE IT BECAUSE:

• You have to sign up or else you can't save your movie
• limited characters available (only three characters). it would be good if we can change the names of the characters according to our preferences at least
• sometimes it is slow (VERY) and the worst of all, your work might be disappear suddenly before you really save it
• the word limit is quite small, so people can't really write long sentences/dialogues
• not all actions contain dialogues/chat box
• the characters don't have voice to talk, only background sound
• you  have to pay for more features

TRY IT!!! IT'S FUN!!

trust me =))

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brainshark

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arghhh..my brain is eaten by a sharkk!!!


HOho. this week, i've learned about brainshark.WHAT is IT? it is a website where you can create and publish your own power point presentation or other types of documents and add your voice or sounds while the presentation takes place. it usually used as a mean of classroom connected activities where students don't have to meet their teacher or lecturer to listen to a lecture. For example:

this one is mine!! =)))

pssss: i don't like my own voice recorded. it sounds like i have a congested nasal.LOL 

HOW TO USE BRAINSHARK??

Firstly, you have to sign up for a new account. DOnt' worry, it won't cause you even a single penny. =)) hAPpy?

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As a teacher, i find that this website is very useful to be used in my teaching. How?

1. as a tool of presenting lesson or ideas or information to students, for example my presentation about me. it is a great way to present the lesson for your students even without your presence because you can upload your own power point presentation, then you can add your own voice or sound in order to make the presentation becomes more interesting. In addition, you can add pictures or music to make the presentation become more lively
2. it's not only useful for teachers' presentation, but to students as well. Students can create their own presentation to present it to class both individually or in groups, so this might help to improve students' speaking skills and increase their confidence level
3. it is useful as a listening activity where students can listen to what their teacher's presentation and then answer questions based on the presentation/maybe an extended activity like further discussion after listening to teacher's presentation

What I like about Brainshark??
1. it's free, of COurse! we just have to sign up and have an account. By doing this all our work can be saved as well.
2. you can make it private or public. it depends on you. if you make it public, everyone can view your presentation and and if they are interested they can share it with others
3. we can add other things to our presentation, eg:notes, audio, background music
4. many kinds of format available to be uploaded, not just power point presentation, but document words as well


What I don't like??:
1. after you've uploaded the power point and added the voice, you can't edit it (if there's a mistake about your point). If you want to, you have to start all over again.
2. the presentation cannot be downloaded
3. you can't know who's viewing your blog unless they leave some comments

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