Vacaroo

A platform for students to talk about anything they like. They can record their voices and send it to teachers for feedbacks.This tool could develop students speaking skills and build confidence in speaking.

What is special about Vacaroo?

• Free and easily accessible.
• The recording procedure is simple and easy.
• The recorded voice is clear.
• Record voices, send them to teachers for assessment or feedbacks
• Used to practise speaking skills

Limitations of it?

• Dependant on internet connection. No internet, no Vacaroo.
• Limited for 5 minutes recording. Any recording more than 5 minutes should be done many times.

How it can be used in class?

I would suggest that teachers ask students to Vacaroo everyday and listen to their own recordings and their friend's recordings too to build their confidence in speaking.
Teachers could set a topic for the students to speak on or ask the students to make daily recorded journal.

Hello Bubblr!

Again! A simple and easy way of learning English language.

Bubblr is a tool to create presentation by adapting Flickr.com photos! Just search any related images that you want to put on your slides and add bubbles to them. Then, just type on anything to describe the pictures and press go! As simple as that. This tool also will save your work into the archive, only after you are done with the slides and save them. If you happen to leave the page, you can just pay archive a visit and re-search your own slides. Like Dvolver, Bubblr can directly be emailed to yourself and anyone and be embedded into blog. So, your work will not end on Bubblr only, it can be spread to and shared with all people around the world!

How to use it in class?

Teacher could ask students to do the task individually. Give freedom to students to choose their own topic according to their own interests and preferences as this could motivate students to be more anticipated with what they are doing. Then, teacher could ask students to present it to the rest of the class which means this can be some sort of oral test or preparation for public speaking to the students. Perhaps, teacher could ask students to post it on blog and vote for the best video.

It can also be used in pre writing stage where the students can brainstorm or make mind map in the version of slides. This is to encourage students to write better on the following draft as they have already outlined some ideas before writing.

Advantages

1. An easy and quick way to do a simple slides presentation. It is undoubtedly FREE!

2. There are plenty of beautiful and fascinating pictures to be put on the slides. There are three different bubbles that can be embedded on the slides to describe the pictures or add dialogue into them.

3.  It can be shared with others through email or on blogs.

Disadvantages

1. The slides cannot be rearranged. Once they are set up accordingly, they cannot be moved alternately.

2. The shapes of the bubbles are limited.

3. The bubbles can be enlarged by in a limited size that the description of the pictures cannot be too long.

4. The saved slides emailed sometimes does not turn out as the same as the original one.

5. No animation or slide transition and sound effects.

I personally think that Bubblr is just useful to get students to start writing. It is suitable as warming up stage or brainstorming ideas. This is because there is nothing much that the students can do to show their state of language, which means there is not much performance of students that teacher can use as evidences to assess the students work especially in terms of writing skills. However, it can be employed for speaking tasks that the students can utilise Bubblr to make a quick presentation to be presented to the class.

Oh, myBrainshark!

Turning your existing presentations and marketing materials into powerful, voice-enriched, trackable video in seconds?

myBrainshark has the solution for you!

It is a free online video presentation. It enables you and you, the users to upload your Powerpoint presentation and add voice into it. myBrainshark makes podcasting easy. Add audio to your blog and build a following using myBrainshark and a telephone or computer mic. Your video links can be shared with contacts & social networks via email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more. Your website or blog could be now enhanced with an embedded video using myBrainshark. It is as easy as cutting and pasting! Also, post myBrainshark videos to YouTube with just one click of your fingertip. 

Advantages

1. It is free- it can be used by all users.

2. It is good to practise before presenting.

3. It is good for students to keep their presentation and see how they can develop their presentation. teachers can give feedback too. From the feedback, students can improve and make amendments on their presentation to make a better presentation. 

Disadvantages

1. It is one-to-one communication. Knowing that the teacher will not be able to look at the students face-to-face, the students may not be spontaneous. They may prepare their own texts and just read directly from the texts.

2. Virtual audience reduces the students' nervousness of public speaking, It does not really prepare students for a real presentation.

2. Body language, gestures and facial expression are not available. This hinders the connection between the audience and presenter.