Presentation with emotion: Movenote

           

Introduction:

This post aims at English teachers of middle schools or higher level of students. It involves 6 parts:

1. What is Movenote

2. How does it work? (with my example)
3.How is it linked to ELT

4. How is it used in English teaching

5. Limitations of it
6. My ideas

7. Sources of information

What is Movenote?

Similar to Screencast-O-Matic I blogged about a few weeks ago. Movenote is an online recorder. It can record your webcam as well as the documents. This is slightly different from Screencast-O-Matic, as Movenote doesn't record the screen while Screencast-O-Matic does.  That's why it is also called "Presentation with Emotion". Actually, it can go without "emotion" as well. You can disable your camera before/ during the recording.

How does it work?

Compared to Screencast-O-Matic, Movenote is unbelievably easy to use.

1.Sign up at Movenote with google or facebook or Linkedln or Movenote account.

2.Then you are brought to a page where the recording can be started right away. See the picture below.

3. You can add slides on the left column by clicking on the "+". On the right side of the page, you can disable the webcam by clicking on the "disabled camera" sign.

4.When you are ready,  click on the big round button to start and stop recording. One difference worths noticing between Screencast-O-Matic and Movenote is that you can pause and resume the recording in Movenote while you can't do it with Screencast-O-Matic.

5. Click "done" when you want to save the recording and make no changes.

6. Below is a video I made with Movenote. In this video, I will tell you the basic function of Movenote, some notable differences between Movenote and Screencast-O-Matic as well as the reason why I decided to introduce Movenote.

How is it linked to ELT?

Listening and Speaking: When Movenote is provided by teachers,  learners will have to listen to the speakers possibly without visual aid. In this case, their capacity of listening can be improved. When students use Movenote to present their own idea, their oracy is also improved.

Motivation: Reasonable amount of video used in class has been found to be beneficial to English teaching as it motivates the learners more with the sound and images.

Language anxiety: The use of movenote in students' presentation might decrease their language anxiety as they might be able to prepare script before hand, which reduces their chance of making grammar mistakes. When they know the possibility of them making mistakes is lower, they might be more relaxed when using English.

How is it used in English Teaching

Just like Screencast-O-Matic, Movenote is widely used for online English classes. If you search on youtube, most online classes with slides and webcams are made with web tools like Movenote.

In class, teachers can present other English teachers' presentation to explain a grammar point or to teach a skill. For instance, when I teach vocabulary of fashion, I will show a Movenote that links the picture of a garment with words.

Outside the class, Movenote can be used as an additional help for students to understand a grammar point.

Limitations

1. It is not interactive and students might not bother to watch it at all if it is given to students after class.

2. Movenote can only show the slide whereas some other apps can capture the whole screen or partial screen, which is harder for teachers to show material on websites.

3. It is a web-based tool so you cannot record a class when you are offline.

My ideas on using Movenote in English teaching

I would like to give out a suggestion on the use of Movenote outside the classroom and this idea is targeting Form 3 students who aged 13-14 in Hong Kong. Teachers can adjust activities in accordance with the need of different age group.

Due to the non-interactive nature of Movenote, Students are reluctant to watch the video at home.  I think it would be better to make watching a Movenote as homework. And to ensure students have watched it, students have to answer 1-2 questions given by the teachers using Movenote as well. Students will make a short 3-4 minute movenotes video in response to questions raised by the  teachers in the video.

Besides asking students to give out answers, instructors can also require learners to write down the summary of the video, which also improves learners' writing.

However, I highly suggest teachers not to give too much homework along with this video assignment as making a video can be time-consuming if students try to make it perfect.

Sources of information

The website of Screencast-O-Matic: http://screencast-o-matic.com/

The website of Movenote: https://www.movenote.com/

My blog on Screencast-O-Matic: http://cindydramaticelt.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/record-your-screen-screencast-o-matic.html