My brainshark

My brainshark allows you to upload Powerpoint slides or Word documents or even make podcasts. It's free for signing up and basically it's free of charge. You can add your voice instruction to help your learners to follow your lectures/presentations. The students can also record their voice and listen to their recordings. It can serve to listening, speaking, and would be useful for writing and reading as well.

It allows you to make comments on each slides. It's easy to edit once you understand how it works.

The audience can leave comments, which encourages interaction between the producer and the audience.

Although this is a great tool, as is often the case with other tools, the teacher should spend quite long time preparing the materials and giving feedback to the students.


Here is a powerpoint document I made just to see how my brainshark works. The content is rubbish and my English is rubbish, very embarrassing, but I could somehow manage to make slides with audio guidance. Please be nice and kind if you listen to it!!!


 



Here is the link to my brainshark.

http://www.brainshark.com/mybrainshark


This is the instruction given by Russell Stannard. He can tell you how to use this step by step.

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/video-youtube/mybrainshark-part-1.html

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/video-youtube/mybrainshark-part-2.html

Voki

Voki is a free online language learning/teaching tool (*not fully free). This allows you and your learners to make your own avatar easily. Even novice user of technologies like me have no difficulties to get started. Your avatar can speak, can move its eye glance. The teacher can create a Voki Classroom, upload voice messages, and interact with the learners.

This is especially suitable for young learners but could interest all age groups. As the majority of children today are supposed to play video games, Voki would be a good opportunity to get their attention.

Although creating his/her own avatar is fun and attractive, managing online classrooms requires a lot of work to the teacher, and keeping the learners' attention would be another one.

Here is my first avatar. Some options are not open to those who are not signed in for VOKI CLASSROOM or VOKI PRESENTATER.



Here is the link to Voki.

http://www.voki.com/

Here is the training video provided by Russell Stannard, who is teaching us about the use of ICT in language classrooms.

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/audio-podcasting/voki.html