【Vocaroo Voice Message】: The voice recording service

What is Vocaroo?

Vocaroo- The premier voice recording service

Vocaroo (http://vocaroo.com/) is an easy and free service that allows users to create audio recordings for use in slide shows or in blogs and websites without the need to install any software. You do not even have to create an account to use Vocaroo. All you need to provide is a microphone.

How to use Vocaroo?

To create a recording just go to Vocaroo.com, click record, grant Vocaroo access to your microphone, and start talking. After completing your recording, Vocaroo gives you the choice to publish it or to scrap it and try again. When you press "publish" and embed the code in your website, you will see a lovely little player which you could click to play your voice.

Step 1:  Go to Vocaroo webpage, and when you are ready,
press on "Click to Record" button to start your recording.

When you have finished your speech, press "click to stop".

Then it lets you to rerecord again if you are unhappy with your recording.
If not, click the link to save.

Ok, it's now pretty much done.
Now you can copy the code and embed
into your blog or website that you would like to.

Below is an example of audio file I have recorded:

           

Audio and voice recording >>

Why do teacher and students like Vocaroo?

1. Free and Easy 

Vocaroo has a clean webpage and it allows teacher and students to start recording straight away without having to sign up to be a member or install any additional software. And the instruction in its website is clear enough, even first time users can definitely understand how to use it. Vocaroo also allows users to download the recorded audio and save it as MP3. 

2. No fixed limit on message length 

This means that teacher and students can use Vocaroo to record as long message as they like. However, people have to be aware that even brief internet connection outages can cause recording to be stopped or to fail, and with longer recordings the chance of this increases. Despite of these, I still believe that no fixed limit for recording time is always the biggest benefit of Vocaroo.

3. Time Saving

Teacher and students can use Vocaroo at home to record their speech beforehand and directly play it in the classroom. For example, teacher can assign a task for students and have them to respond through Vocaroo at home and embed the link of their responses into their blogs. The students do not have to stand up one by one and tell the teacher their stories. Besides, if the teacher was unable to come to school on a particular day, he/she can also inform students to listen to his/her pre-recorded Vocaroo file from the class blog so that they won't miss the content of the class.

How can Vocaroo be used in a language learning context?

1. Story Telling

The teacher can start the lesson by showing an example to students- telling them a story, for example on the topic of "the most happiest day in my life". After that, teacher has students divide themselves into groups of 3 to 4. This is to provide them more practising opportunity later on when they narrate their stories to the group members before recording. Then, the teacher can offer students some stimulus by asking them some guiding questions such as "What has happened in the day?", "Which situation made you so happy?", "Who was in the scene?" and so forth. After that, teacher can have students to record at home, either in pair or individual and post it in class blog. Then teacher can provide feedback to students on the pace/organisation/grammar of the story. The students with the best stories can also come in front to present to the whole class in the next lesson.

2. Information gap activity

Teacher starts the lesson by giving the students an extract (the beginning part) of a story in the class blog. Or another way to provide the students with stimulus is by showing students some pictures. Then the story continues to go on by having a student to record a short piece of story recording everyday. The teacher can have students to draw lot before starting to decide the students' sequence of continuing the story. This activity is kind of engaging and motivating because there is an information gap and the students feel curious and they want to know how other students are going to continue the story. In this way, their interest and motivation are aroused. And at the same time, their oral skill are trained because they have to organise their ideas and sentences as well as to choose the right words so that they message can be conveyed effectively.

SOME LIMITATIONS OF VOCAROO

1. One limitation of Vacaroo I have found out when I compared it to Sound Cloud- another audio recording tool (https://soundcloud.com/) is Vocaroo does not have the ability to allow the teacher or the listener to provide feedback by tying it at the exact second which Sound Cloud can do. This turns out causing the teacher to face some difficulties if he/she wants to give precise feedback on one particular moment at which the students say a point incorrectly, use the wrong words, or to praise a students for saying some points particularly well. 

2. Besides, Vocaroo does not have voice graph like what Sound Cloud has. I personally think that the voice graph would be very helpful for students when they are practising pronunciation and intonation as the graph allows the students to see their own rhythm of speech clearly and therefore, teacher can tell them which part need to be emphasised or lowered.

The Voice graph which Sound Cloud possesses but Vocaroo doesn't have it.

【MyBrainshark】: Video Presentations at Anytime, Anywhere

What is MyBrainshark?

Homepage of myBrainshark

MyBrainshark (http://my.brainshark.com/Home.aspx) is an application that provides the opportunity to make instant creating, sharing and tracking online and mobile video presentations. With MyBrainshark, users can quickly turn an ordinary voiceless file into a voice-enriched presentation which can be accessed any time and anywhere. Additional features such as polls and quizzes can also be added. The final work can then be delivered via a Web link or can be embedded in a Web page, and users can track various statistics, including who viewed the presentations and time spent viewing it, and receive reports and alerts of viewing activity.

In brief, these are basically the five contents that you can upload to myBrainshark. They are PPT slides, Words Documents, Videos, Photos and Podcast (MP3/Voice Recording).

How to use MyBrainshark?

Generally, people can use myBrainshark to:

• present tutorials, 
• narrate products demo,
• share experience, 
• tell stories, 
• describe a biography 

and many things more that you can actually think of. 

Besides, this webpage is free of charge and generally require only 20-30 minutes to create it depending on the length of content you would like to present. ALL you need is access to the internet and the sound enabled on your computer. That's it! However, do bear in mind that you actually would need to sign up before using it.

So, in fact, there are just few simple steps to create a myBrainshark presentation, as you can see from the chart below. You can also click here to view the step-by-step tutorial presented by myBrainshark or here for the tutorial by my lecturer, Russell Stannard. 

Easy peasy steps of using myBrainshark

After you have finished producing your presentation, these are the things which you can do:

• Editing your presentation by adding /deleting slides 
• Add in some questions (polls/survey) at the end & have the viewers respond to you. 
• Download the whole presentation to your computer/phone for free. :)

The following is an example of MyBrainshark final outcome:

WHY IS MYBRAINSHARK USEFUL FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS?

 1. Motivating and engaging (Autonomous learning)

Students get the chance to decide on the content and the organisation of their own presentation. Then they are also encouraged to speak in target language at their own pace without feeling as tension as presenting a PPT presentation by standing in front of the classroom. In fact, using myBrainshark may be a better idea for students who just started practising doing oral presentation because they might not be able to use language so spontaneously and myBrainshark allows editing and it provides students opportunity to draft their speech first before presenting!

2. Students acquire Organising and Speaking skills

Since students need to upload files into myBrainshark and use voices to narrate it, students would have more room to practise using their voice to convey messages, such as they need to speak clearly and at a favourable speed and intonation. Moreover, they can learn how to organise the sequence of their points so that the viewers can make better sense of their speech by linking it to the slides shown.

How to use myBrainshark in an ELT context?

Individual work:  

Teacher can suggest students some topics to be discussed (eg: About me, the book I love the most, the nicest place that I have been to & etc.) and have them vote for their favourite one. Then teacher can monitor students' progression and give them a hand throughout the preparation stage of the presentation.

Pair work:

Teacher can post a couple of images on the class blog and have students download them and create a story themselves by arranging the images based on their own will. Teacher can let the students to create the drafts of their story lines in the class first, then they upload the images and do the recording at home by themselves.

Group work:

A video can be used to replace the images, and have students record their own videos (perhaps record during role playing in the class) as the continuation of the first video. This activity might be time consuming, but it actually depends on what are the aims & the learning outcomes the teacher opts for. 

SOME LIMITATIONS OF MYBRAINSHARK

I couldn't actually find out the exact limitations of myBrainshark. However, I have seen some of my colleagues' pages comment on these following points:

• MyBrainshark only allows for voiced-based presentation, so students may have the script prepared and they just read it aloud. Therefore, its activities are kind of unsuitable to be used for language speaking skills assessment. 

• Making a voiced presentation is a time consuming process and it often creates lots of noises, hence it is not suitable to be carried out in class.

However, in overall I do not feel that those have been mentioned are big problems because I believe that the effort which have been put in and the frequent practices which have been carried out by the students are far more valuable than the final result. And, I think it is very worth while for teachers to spare more time on students in scaffolding and guiding them to solve problems patiently. In fact, students' creativity cannot be forced as well, it is similar to what the saying has said- Rome wasn't built in a day~ :)

【Intervue】: The video recording tool for Q&A.

What is Intervue?

This is the homepage of the Intervue website.

Intervue (http://intervue.me/) is a website which allows people the opportunity to post questions about topics online and have people record their own 60-second video as a reply to those questions. The link of the questions can be posted to anywhere and assigned to whoever the author wants. It is done in an involving manner as this site favours the recording of video replies as the way in which insight and knowledge is shared. 

How to use Intervue?

Intervue has a very clean and clear webpage. One who has some basic technical knowledge will definitely know how to start using this website without much assistant. The following are five easy peasy steps to start setting up questions based on a particular topic:

This is the look of the page after you have set up your questions.

Next, in order to respond to a person's question in Intervue, you must have the link for the question. Once you have logged in to the question's page, a screen will appear and your webcam will be activated and is preparing to record. Click on the RED button at the bottom to start your recording. While responding to a question, you can watch you own facial expression from the screen. And bear in mind that, the maximum recording time is just 60 seconds. That is the end of  the recording after 60 seconds as the video will stop automatically by then. Therefore, it is very important for the responders to keep the answers concise.

This is how your monitor screen will look like when you are making
a recording of yourself answering a question.

Why do teacher and students like Intervue?

1.  Intervue has provided people an opportunity to have real live communication on the Internet. It motivates people to exchange ideas beyond the face-to-face tradition, which this could be the more relaxing one because it is not a direct live video. Intervue is a kind of private platform for people to communicate without feeling tensed or shy. Many people will still find Intervue a rather new and special way to interact, therefore they will feel more than happy to do so. 

And once a video reply has been posted, then other people can proceed to comment on it and remark how accurate that particular answer has been. Plus, each and every video reply that is posted can then be downloaded as a MP4, taken on your thumb drive and consulted when you are offline.

2. Students can practise their oral skill when the teacher has posted up some questions and have them answer the questions at home. As the students know that there are teacher and other students will be their audiences, they will organise their ideas to make sure that all can fit in 1 minute as well as will practise several times before sharing the one which they feel most satisfied with others. Besides, they can also be aware of their facial expressions and eye contact as well.

3.  It is of a higher possibility that students' oral skill is getting better and better every time they practise speaking by using Intervue. Therefore, Intervue can also be used as an e-Portfolio for teacher and students to keep an eye on their own progression of language speaking.

4. More expert students can also set up their own questions with the guidance from teacher and raise a discussion on a particular topic in a group manner. It is kind of motivating when students can come out with own questions which they feel curious about how the other students are going to respond to. This provides students a sense of ownership and they will feel happy when they get the reply from other students.    

How could Intervue be used in a language learning context?

1. Set up a topic and several questions

To start to use Intervue in most language learning context, a teacher can firstly suggest some general topics to students. For example, holiday, musics, festivals, free time (typical good day), role models, dreams and so forth. The topics covered have to be associated with something which have been taught in the class. Then, the right of topic choosing must be with the students because they are the people who are going to respond to the topic. Hence, the topic must be something which is appealing to them and can bring up their interest. The teacher can have the students vote for the best topic that they would like to respond to and set up questions together with them.

2. Do preparation before recording

Students can be guided by the teacher to create a framework/note on what to say in the video recording. For example, the questions is describe about your role model, and teacher can ask some guiding questions like "what has he/she done?" or "what values does he/she have?" for the students to make the people their role models. In addition, the teacher can also write some vocabulary items on the board to help the students in their preparation. After that, the students can practise saying to their partner first before starting the real recording. Teacher might also do an example before they start their recording.

** Speaking is the most cognitive activity to do, therefore with more speaking practices carried out, the students' capability to think fast would be enhanced.  .

3.  Responding to classmates' videos

Teacher can encourage the students to view each other's videos and have both teacher him/herself and other students to comment on them, perhaps from the content or grammatical point of view. The videos offer students a chance to share their stories and opinions with other students and the comment feature is a way to allow the students to express their ideas on the videos and provide the speaker some feedback so that he can make the speech better next time.

Some limitations of Intervue

1. Intervue needs a rather fast internet connection so that it can perform its function to the fullest. Otherwise, the video might be just stuck at the middle of playing or recording.
2. The video recording is always not spontaneous if it's used in a language lesson, as students are allowed some time to do preparation and perhaps make a list beforehand. However, I think this should not be a big problem because students' effort to practise and their improvement in speech and cognitive thinking are much more worth while.