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

??

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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audioboo

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boooooooooooOoo!
=))

i need you boo... i gotta see you boo...

when i was typing the title of this post, i suddenly remember this nice song by chris brown. let's listen to this song while reading this post. SHALL WE??

so, let's get back to audioboo. What is the meaning of boo really? to be frank, i still don't know. when i look up in the dictionary, it says that boo is a sound that people make when they don't like a person. I know that sound, but i can't see the connection with audioboo. haha. WHATever!

Below is my audioboo. Listen to it if you want to. As usual, nasal congested-like behaviour sound.

HOW TO USE IT??

go to the page HERE. 

this is how the homepage looks like. easy, right? they've got an audioboo application downloader for smart phones. Firstly, of course, SIGN UP/LOG IN if you already have an account

don't forget to tick the small box before joining audioboo

you can either follow friends or invite friends to view you audioboo

random audioboo that can be listened to, recorded by people from all over the world

your profile. you can upload your photo, record new audio, or listen to the previous audioboo that have been recorded

THESE ARE THE WAYS/QUICK STEPS TO RECORD AUDIOBOO:

 

you can either upload your own files, or just record a new audio directly. if you are not happy with the recording, you can restart another recording. then gives it a title. You can add pictures, location or some descriptions if you want to. published audioboo will be saved into your profile

this appears when you click on one audioboo file.here, you can edit your audioboo, you can publish it on tweeter, like it on fb, embed it onto your blog, or email it to someone

dropping comments in two ways: i) written and ii) audio comment

when dealing with files and sounds on the internet, we'll always connect it to the word podcasting. What is it really? Based on the online dictionary, podcasting is a series of digital video files that can be downloaded through web. In my opinion, podcasting is VERY USEFUL to be used in learning language, especially in improving speaking skills. 

of course AUDIOBOO is one of the podcasting tools that can be used by students and teachers in the web.

the question here is:
  HOW AM I GONNA USE IT IN MY CLASSROOM??

• I can ask students to record their reflection on certain issues in about 2-3 minutes long at home and email it to me. This activity is suitable to be done monthly, for lower intermediate level of students. So teacher can assess their students' performance/improvement in speaking. As for students, they can express themselves more compared to when they are learning in the classroom. *this is because audiboo only record your voice, not your face and not in front of the class, so students will be more relaxed and confident*
• Students can practice their own speaking skills every week in which they can record their own voice talking about a topic per week, then compare it to each other at the end of the year. So here the students can evaluate their own improvement. *I think this can be a good practice for students as when they are doing the recording by themselves and get familiar with it, they won't feel shy or afraid to make mistakes because there's no teachers' control (Willis and Willis). This will also encourage autonomous learning where students will be independent
• students can be exposed to different ways of people using English from all over the world, so they can learn not only about language difference, but in cultural aspect too. So, this can help them to be more lenient towards the use of English in their daily life
• can be used as a materials to improve listening skills as well, where teacher could ask students to listen to people from different culture speaking in English and make them familiar with it. From this, i believe that students' listening skills will improve. They can grab difficult words faster as they are familiar with how certain people from certain cultures pronoun certain words.

I LIKE IT BECAUSE:

• it can be connected to other pages such as tweeter, iTunes, facebook, blog and email it to your friends
• it offers application for smart phones, so the audio can be recorded and uploaded by using phones as well, not only laptop
• it allows people from all over the world to share information
• it's easy, quick, free and effective (it doesn't give people headache)

I DON'T LIKE CERTAIN THINGS ABOUT
AUDIOBOO, WHICH ARE:

• it is limited to 3 minutes only, and because of that students can't talk much
• it can't be downloaded
• it doesn't have real life interaction (one way of communicating only, absence of distruption, backchanelling, etc)
• can't be done frequently because it will discourage students to be more active, brave and confident enough to talk in front of the class (though it may help, but it is a long term result)
• requires access to internet connection

IF YOU STILL HAVE TROUBLE USING AUDIOBOO, GO TO THIS LINK BELOW:

Help Videos for Audioboo

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

.that's it for today.

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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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bookr and bubblr

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HI! This week Russell shows me two new websites. They're interesting! They are called BOOKR and BUBBLR

Between these two, i choose bookr because the presentation is more interesting

What is it??

this website is a website where you can made your own slide show presentation by using pictures taken (borrowing sounds more right) from flickr. Click HERE to know more about flickr. In this slide show, you can add your own captions, dialogues or stories about the photos.

How to use it???

this is the bookr home. FIRST you have to write the keyword of the pictures you want to search in the tag box, then click GO. Then a set of 17 pictures will appear. SECOND, select the pictures that you're interested in. If not, click the next button to view the other 17 pictures.

 the photo that have been selected will be pasted into the bigger box. Then you can write the caption in the smaller box by using your own words. Then go to the next page. do the same thing until you've finished the slide show. You can add how many pages you want to. Then you can send it to anybody or embed it in your blog.

As an English teacher, I think this website is quite useful to be used in my future teaching context because:

1. firstly because this website is free and students don't have to pay for it
2. this website is funky and easy as well. Students get to borrow many pictures from flickr and they can create their own presentation
3. it can encourage language learning activity which involve both speaking and writing activity
4. teacher can use it for group presentation in classroom
5. students will be able to work on their own and it creates personalisation in which students will be more motivated
6. it encourages students' creativity to design their own slide show presentation
7. it is good to attract students' attention because it involves visuals and suits students' own interests
8. by borrowing flickr's photos, students will not break the copyright so it is legal

What i don't like about these website are:

1. the pictures of our choice might not always be there
2. it is time consuming and distracting because there are too many images to view and to choose
3. the pictures chosen sometimes can't really fit the page, so this cause students to spend more times on choosing pictures rather than writing the captions
4. the work can't be edited after you've saved it
5. the website is quite slow sometimes, and it will make students distracted and bored
6. without teacher's guide, students' writing don't really use the language as teacher want it to be (so in this case, teacher should guide the students by telling them what are they expected to write)

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