Friday 24 July 2009

Record Online WebCam Interviews with Wetoku

I've just been trying out a great new tool called Wetoku. Wetoku is a video conferencing tool which enables one to one live communication which can easily be recorded and then saved for comment or embedded into blogs or websites.

Here's an example of what the finished product looks like. This was a quick interview I tried with Graham Stanley of the British Council in Barcelona. (The width of the player is 514 pix so it doesn't fit so well in my 400 pix content column)


You can see the compete video here on the Wetoku site

Creating an interview is really easy. You just log in to the Wetoku site (still in beta at time of writing) Click on 'Start Your Interview' add the information about who is being interviewed etc. Then click 'Next'.

You should then go to the interview interface and get a link to send to your interviewee (by email).

Once the click the link they'll appear next to you and you just need to click on the record button and start your interview.

When you are finished, stop the recording and watch it. you can then either record it again or click 'Done'. When you click 'Done' you'll see the interview and be able to share it using the URL or embed code. Visitors to the site can also leave comments on the interview.


All your video interviews are stored in your profile and it is possible to go back and edit the information on them, but not the video itself.

How can we use this with students?
This is a fantastic tool for setting homework or distance learning assignments for our students.
  • They can interview each other in pairs then post the videos and you can leave feedback for them in the comments section.
  • You can record short video tutorials with them and they can watch afterwards and review.
  • You can create interviews for them to watch and comment on them.
  • They can create their own interviews for their blogs
This ability to record and watch the interviews again / comment on them makes this a really useful teaching tool. The sound quality is pretty good so students can really hear them selves quite clearly. This is an ideal tool for getting them to reflect on and try to improve their performance.

I hope you enjoy this tool and please feel free to leave any suggestions or links to interviews you create below.

Related links:
Best

Nik Peachey

1 comment:

Wetoku Dave said...

Nik, that was a great how-to with some good tips. Thank you for pointing out that our video player doesn't fit in your blog theme -- it just made me think of a feature that we should add. We should have a re-sizable video player where you can enter the desired dimensions, or stack vertically, or superimpose a smaller video over a larger one.