Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Link of the Week #2 - BrainyFlix

Dictionary's are sooo yesterday!  Welcome BrainyFlix and its quieter side BrainPics which promises to build your vocab repertoire by presenting you with a short video or wittily captioned image to help you build a deeper understanding of the word.  These multimedia flashcards would be a great resource for students encountering new vocabulary, but creating your own is where the fun really starts.



Users can submit their BrainyPic or Flix after a simple sign up or by using Facebook Connect.  Sign-up also gives users access to voting and comments.

BrainyPics asks users choose a word from a drop down menu "word bank",  upload a picture, give credit to the photos source :), and then write a caption using the word correctly.  Flix uses a similar word bank, but videos must be uploaded to a video host like YouTube and then embedded.  Submissions receive votes for being either a "great sentence" or "questionable usage", or users can add comments.



"Don't say anything you wouldn't say to your mom" - may not stop comment abuse but it's a good reminder.

This is a great example of students creating their own learning resources and combines basic social networking features that make the site engaging and collaborative. I only wish I could add the word "repertoire".