Online Presentation

The growth of the technology has led to the emergence of online learning tools. Teachers become more interested in using the online learning tools as an approach in their teaching. Online teaching and learning refers to the delivering of instruction via the internet which involves real time, anytime, and anywhere interactions. One of the web tools that teacher can use to present the input online is through MyBrainshark.

Link: http://www.brainshark.com/mybrainshark

 

General Description

MyBrainshark is a free web tool that is created for easily narrating and sharing slide presentations online. It allows users to upload PowerPoint, photos, video clips, and documents such as PDF and then record a narration over them to create a video presentation. To get started, the users need to register for an account. Once it is done, they can simply upload the presentation slides that they have created, and then they can start to record their voice over each slide. The voice can be recorded either by in-built microphone or a phone. Presentation created can then be shared by linking via email or social media, embedded in website or blogs, and viewed anytime, on demand from desktop or mobile devices. The best feature of this tool is that it allows the users to have a background soundtrack as well as narration track.  Another great thing about this tool is that it allows the users to track the viewing details (who, what, when, and where). Watch the following embedded video for an example of multimedia presentation using MyBrainshark.

Level and Age

MyBrainshark is applicable to be used for students at intermediate and advance level. It may not be suitable to be used for beginners because the tool might be difficult for them to use as it requires a slightly higher knowledge of multimedia skills and technology in general. Therefore, this tool may not be appropriate to be used by primary school students, but would be great to be utilized by upper secondary school students (16-17 years old). Nevertheless, if the teachers are creative in devising activities using Mybrainshark according to the levels of students’ proficiency, it can be used with beginner students.

How To Use MyBrainshark For Teaching English?

In my opinion, there are four ways that teacher can use the tool with students:

1.        Speaking: Students can develop their competence in speaking skills by presenting the slides online. Teacher can ask students to practice speaking by asking them to present their creative writing, valuable reading piece, or photo album.

2.    Writing: By creating the presentation slides such as a simple digital story, students can practice and develop their writing skill. They will have an opportunity to learn how to use the language appropriately so that ideas or content can be presented in a concise and precise manner. This activity can also be done in pairs or group, and hence develops the communicative environment among the learners as they need to discuss for group presentation (collaborative learning).

3.   Listening: Teacher can create some listening activities that will be put in between slides. For example, after the students listen to the video presentation from two slides, they will be displayed with listening activities that have to be completed before they move on to the next slide for continuing the listening.

4.   Grammar: MyBrainshark is suitable to be used for practicing sentence pattern drills. Teacher can present the rules using the multimedia presentation and then ask the students to view the video at home as a learning model. After that, they will have to proceed to the main task, where they need to create presentation slides presenting the same rule but using their own examples, and of course they have to record their voice over the slides.  

Evaluation

Advantages

1. MyBrainshark helps students to develop their communication and presentation skills since it requires students to talk though their presentation slides. This is in turn, helps them to improve their competency in speaking skills.  A study shows that students’ presentation skills are improved when the video presentation technology is used in their online teaching and learning environment (Kuzma, 2011). 
2. Students who are afraid to talk in front of the class can practice their speaking skills using this tool because it lowers students’ affective filter and thus reducing their anxiety level. By this way, they can practice to speak in the target language without worrying too much if they make mistakes.
3. The input can be shared to others. Therefore, it helps students to share their thoughts and ideas with others students around the world. Besides, teachers can share some additional inputs to their students online and hence reducing overloaded information during the lesson in the class. This can foster the development of learning communities, where ideas can be exchanged freely. 
4. Input presentation by teachers that is shared online can serve as scaffolding to the learners. This is because they can view the slides and take notes on some valuable information. Scaffolding is important in the process of developing skilled learners as it helps them to get improved gradually.
5. This tool also helps students to improve multiple skills such speaking, listening, writing, and grammar. 
6. Besides, MyBrainshark provides variaties in teaching and learning. This helps to increase students’ interest and motivation for learning.

Disadvantages:

1. The narration process can be time consuming. Therefore, it might not be suitable to be used in limited time classes, but it would be great for homework. 
2.         The written text may not be authentic as students might just write a topic that is not occurred in real world. Similarly, the speaking activity will lose its authenticity if the learners just read the input from the screen without providing some additional input by heart.
3. The presentation can only be viewed online and cannot be downloaded to the computer. Hence, it may cause problems if there is no internet connection.

Reference:

Kuzma, J. (2011). Using Online Technology to Enhance Student Presentation Skills.[pdf]. Available at: <http://www.worc.ac.uk/adpu/documents/WJLTIssue5ReportsJKuzma.pdf>  <Accessed 16 November 2011>