Video microblogging in the language classroom: 12seconds.tv

(And yet another web 2.0 app addressing that egotistical niche market of ‘Me and myself + free time’).

Via Nik Peachey’s site, I stumble upon 12 Seconds TV, self-acclaimed ‘twitter gone video’. Indeed, it’s a SaaS focused on our prosumer side, that is, producing stuff and not only consuming it. Users can post 12-second videos to the site -of course via previous registration (otherwise, how can they know they’ve reached critical mass and hit the jackpot? ;)).

So just like Twitter, you have your own ‘channel’, you can add contacts and share and embed videos. What’s more, you can import contacts from your Twitter account. Once you log in, you’re given an email address to send your videos through your cell phone (just like Twitter), which is pretty good if used meaningfully (I’m talking from the pov of teaching and learning) because students can create contents on the go and livestream.

You can find several ideas on how to use this resource in the language teaching / learning process at Nik’s site (probably much more interesting than the tools’ intended usage, i.e. sharing what you’re doing now with the world). Overall, I think 12seconds could have more potential than Twitter because a) it’s visual, and that’s an advantage when learning a language, b) it’s visual, and that’s precisely what today’s youngsters prefer. It helps them keep brief and get to the point of a task (probably the most interesting process is not  the outcome but the negotiation of meaning that happens before that, the way their ideas are organized and how they draft the whole thing).

Some other ideas to be added to Nik’s, which might be useful to practice English as a Foreign Language or Español como Lengua Extranjera, or what have you:

• 12-second riddles (triggering guessing and modal verbs): students record themselves doing something (and since they can record with a mobile, they can choose their own setting), mimicking. No sound in the video. Their classmates go guessing: “what’s going on?”, “what do you think they’re doing?”, “what do you think they’re talking about”?, etc. Then a second video with sound, with the script. Let them compare.
• 12-second riddle on sayings and proverbs: oh, proverbs and sayings in the target language…how difficult, nuances, etc…Each student chooses a different proverb each week. Ask them to mimic the explanation (i.e. to bury the hatchet). And classmates, again, guess.
• 12-second reverse story-telling (something like ‘why have we ended up like this?’, 12-second video showing the end of a story, and the students have to record more videos to get to the beginning of the story, maybe in groups it’s more interesting so different outcomes can be compared).
• 12-second recruitment video (if dealing with lessons on job interviews, careers, etc).
• 12-second video working on an accent.
• Do’s and don’ts of talking to a camera: pronunciation, intonation, gestures.

It reminds me of Viddler, but with Viddler you can’t send videos straight from your cell phone and it’s not integrated with other web 2.0 services such as Twitter.

And yes, definitely the medium shapes the message and current media are “nuggetizing” our communication.

Aren’t they? Oh my.

Compártelo! Share it!