#6 My Brainshark

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: IT IS WITH REGRET THAT 'MY BRAINSHARK' IS CEASING WITH EFFECT FROM 4 JANUARY 2016. THE VIDEOS INCLUDED IN THIS MOST-READ TOPIC ON THIS BLOG WILL NO LONGER WORK AFTER THAT. I HAVE DOWNLOADED THE VIDEOS to YOUTUBE AND SHOULD BE AVAILABLE HERE - http://bit.ly/1Hd5wbr. (PHIL NOV 2015).

What is it? What does it do?

The Easy, Free Way to Make Online Video

My Brainshark, the free version of  'Brainshark' is a fabulous tool which enables different kinds of content to be uploaded and shared online, but with the added feature of being to add a narration.  By use of a reliable 'cloud computing infrastructure', the uploaded content can then be accessed securely anywhere with an internet connection. 

My Brainshark allows a powerpoint presentation, a document, a PDF or even a video to be uploaded.  A photo album or podacast can also be generated using the tool.  It provides an opportunity for teachers, but more interestingly for students, to practice their speaking and presentation skills using an editable format.  This can then be embedded, if desired, into another site, like a blog, as I show below.

Once your presentations are viewed, you can also track the viewing details, including who viewed, what they looked at and where they accessed it from.   It has a very clean design and neat interface with plenty of options. The ease-of-use, apperance and versatility is impressive. Narration can be recorded, discarded, saved, added or deleted at any time. The site converts whatever is uploaded into a useable, separately recordable slides. Importantly, as with all of these web tools, most of the main features are entirely free to use. 

an 'edit presentation' screenshot

It is perfect for getting learners to practice their speaking skills, give a presentation or do a voiceover for a presentation.   It can also be used to add commentary to a film.   The finished output can be kept very simple or, with the 'edit presentation' feature, something more complex can be produced.  Video can, in other words, be mixed with photos or a PPP and built up to a more integrated piece of work.

re-ordering photos

For a straightforward photo album with commentary, I uploaded 50 photos from my archive in one go, and these were converted automatically.   Although I had sequenced my photos beforehand, this could easily be done using the re-order tool, if you need to present the photos in a chronological order.



My first thoughts:
 

*image taken from http://tinyurl.com/875ylvb

 Relevance to language learning?

My brainshark is clearly relevant to the often under practiced speaking macro skill as well as improving presentation skills.   It can also be used for listening activities as there are a number of presentations already uploaded to view.  

Getting students to speak and more importantly to be able to practice and perfect speaking skills is not something that is frequently or fairly done in class time.  All language teachers know that in any given class some students are more capable/willing to speak than others and, if not careful, a teacher can be drawn into relying upon the same bunch of students each time.  Like a number of tools I shall look at, such as the more straightforward podcasting ones, this remarkable piece of software, enables students to practice and spoken English until they get it right or as good as they can get it.  

It can be used individually - for single students to give personal reviews of an event or holiday - or for group work - a combined presentation draws upon collaborative working skills, with integrated elements.

Again, constructivist principles can be used with this tool in the development and negotiation of meaning through collaboration.   It also allows reflection as learners get a chance to produce, present, edit, re-present, re-appraise during a further presentation.  Reflective commentaries can show what a learner thought of a process after that process has taken place.

For presentations, the organisation and connectivity of multi-texts, such as pictures, audio and written text, linked together, could have a relevance to schema theory.   According to Nunan (1993):

schema theory suggests that the knowledge we carry around in our heads is organised into interrelated patterms.  These are constructed for all our previous experiences and they enable us to make predictions about future experience.'

Although this theory is more usually associated with 'mind-map' software, it might be applied to a presentation where a combination and the interconnectivity of texts is displayed.

 How can it be used?

Although initially aimed at corporate business, the website acknowledges how the software can be used by trainers and to deliver 'eLearning' content.  It claims it can be used to 'measure student retention and participation'.  But really it can be used by anyone involved in teaching and there are numerous ways it could be put to good use in ELT.

'Recording Audio' screenshot

Teachers could pre-prepare materials to show so that mistakes in delivery can be avoided during the lesson.  An induction for new students or a guide to a course syllabus could be a start.  In addition, an absent teacher could ask a substitute teacher to show this or a link could be sent direct to students' email.

Students could provide a running commentary.  This could be similar to the commentaries that are attached to TV shows or movies as an extra feature on a DVD.   I like the idea of students not only making a short film as part of a project but adding a commentary.  They could, for example, detail information about how the film was made, where it was filmed and why they directed it in a certain way.   It is worth noting that because sound is being added, the original film needs to have no or minimal sound.  Background music might be fine, as a voiceover may not 'clash' with that soundfile.  For my 2nd attempt at using Brainshark (see below) I re-edited a video I already had with reduced sound levels so that I could narrate without there being a clash of soundfiles.

Students could upload pictures, video, a powerpoint, a document - anything they have worked on - or a combination of items, to in order to share these with the class.  For example, students can describe what they did on their holiday with actual photos from the trip.

Students could introduce, present or describe their work in a number of ways. They could give a slide-by-slide / frame-by-frame account of what it is being shown or they could give a general oral narration with the presentation playing in the background.

 

What limitations are there?

The only real limitations are the teachers and the students' creativity.  This tool is very versatile.  However...

You can't officially download the full presentation (video + audio) as a file to own yourself.  This option is only available on the pay for Enterprise version.   You can, however, use screencast/screencapture software to get round this - see entry #12 entry on Jing and #16 entry on Camtasia.

If you upload a word document and add a narration, you can't actually see the document on the screen as you do it, so ideally you should print a copy of the document beforehand.  The document does appear in the final playback.

As with all of these tools, internet access needs to be available.  A microphone input is required, preferably a headset with attached microphone rather than using an in-built one so as to get the best audio quality.  Sound quality in general needs to be thought about, just as with recording any podcasts.  Existing audio that is imported cannot be edited within the tool so the quality and volume of that audio has to be taken into account if adding another soundfile.  As with other uploads, copyright issues have to be considered.  But there are plenty of freely available recordings licenced under Creative Commons or similar. For example, try dig cc mixter where you already have permission to use the audio tracks. 

 

My first attempt (using an existing PPP):

My second attempt (using video):