Thursday 22 March 2012

MyBrainshark -- A Concept of Online Presentation

MyBrainshark (http://www.brainshark.com/)
The interface of the web page

What is MyBrainshark?

My Brainshark is is a free website for you to add voice to your static presentation document, which realises the concept of online and distant presentation.

It is easy to create, share, and track!

Just upload the presentation documents (could be a Microsoft PowerPoint file, a Word document, or pictures, etc. ), then you can start recording your vivid voice explanation and creating your multimedia presentation document.  It's really easy and quick.

What's more, after regiestration, your online presentation can be shared in several ways:
  •     shared through social networking (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
  •     embeded into personal web page or blog
  •     emailed to friends and teachers
MyBrainshark also has a smart capability to track the viewing information of your document. In other words, you can check who/when/where your presentation is viewed. And the detailed information will drop into your email inbox automatically.

The reasons for choosing MyBrainshark
  • It is cloud-based, and very user-friendly.
  • The static documents are enriched by audio explanation, thus self-evident.
  • The students can use MyBrainshark to practice their oral English. Further, they can keep record of every piece of work for tracking their speaking advancement in the future.  
  • It is motivating for the students, especially those introverted ones,  to practise speaking but avoid the embarrassment and anxiety of public speaking.
  • Teachers' presentation can be downloaded and kept by the students, also they can be played and replayed for many times.
  •  With tracking capability, the teachers can check the students' participation condition.
  • The students can comment on each other's piece of work. It is a part of collaboration.
Limitation?
  • The Brainshark presentation cannot video the presenters' speaking. Without 'eye-contact', facial expressions and body langauge, the presenter can easily lose their audience attention. In other words, the teacher cannot check how much the students are engaged in the presentation, even though they can check their physical participation situation by tracking function.
  • It may cost much time for teachers and students to get used to speaking to a machine rather than humans who can constantly give feedback by their nods, eye-contact, or questions, etc.
Suggestions for Teachers
  • The teachers can use MyBrainshark to create their personalised teaching materials.
For example, the teachers can do some vocabulary instruction (with pronunciation, explanation, picture demanstration, etc. ) before the class, and send them to the students, so that they can learn the useful words and expressions before they attend the class.

Also, the teacher can pick up some grammar points ( the key grammar points or the ones which he/she find the students are confused with) and develope them into a Brainshark presentation, so that the students can learn and review them after the class.
  • The teachers are also suggested to ask the students to do their own Brainshark regularly as a record of their life and study.
In this way, the students can practice their speaking frequently, and after a period of time, they can trace their process of language advancement and their life stories. As a 'bonus', through sharing each other's regular Brainshark diary, the students can know each other better and build up their trust and sense of unity through this 'social networking', which benifits their collaborative learning from the perspective of constructivism.
  • In a task-based speaking class, the teacher can group the students and ask them to make a Brainshark presentation as a goup work.
The students can discuss for their language accuracy when they record their voices. And through all they creation, they can negotiate with English, thus their speaking skills and interpersonal skills are practised.


The following is a demonstration of using MyBrainshark to do a self-introduction presentation.

9 comments:

  1. Luna, why not upload your self-introduction as a fantasitic example?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's posted previously Xiameng:). Thanks a lot for your comment!

      Delete
  2. I see. Look forward to more posts!

    ReplyDelete
  3. can't agree with the fact of being unable to check body language and facial expressions. The advantage of this tool, which let Ss hide from the public is also its vunerability. Trikcy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very good comment Xiameng, thanks a lot for sharing your ideas with me.

      Delete
  4. 能打中文吗???fan chang 是哪里

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course you can, Fanchang is a small county of Wuhu City in Anhui Province in China. Thanks for your comments.

      Delete
  5. A very nice life story - lovely photos too. I feel I know you much better now! I'm sure you WILL make a great teacher one day.
    Tilly Harrison

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete