Sunday, January 10, 2010
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Using CodeBaby to Create an Interactive Comic
In a previous post I mentioned that I'd won a 2009 LearnX Award for an online course I created for my employer, Telstra BigPond, using the wonderful CodeBaby application.
The lovely CodeBaby people have popped a brief snippet of said course on their site as an elearning case study. Before you skip over there to have a look, I thought I'd just explain, briefly, how I put it all together.
In one sense, it's quite a task for one person to do something like this from scratch in a short timeframe, mainly due to the need for attention to detail and being able to multi-task with different content and apps. On the other hand, using a combination of tools makes it possible for a single developer to produce something quite sophisticated and effective.
Why a Comic?
When you are producing material about expected behaviours it can sometimes make the learner feel a little anxious or possibly negative up front. As this course is about workplace culture and high performance I decided that a comic book story-telling format would immediately generate interest and a compulsion to 'turn the page' to find out what happens, rather than just relaying information.
I'm a big fan of story-telling anyway; providing examples that are meaningful and that produce an emotional reaction is much better than paragraphs of text.
This project is an interactive comic created with a range of different software tools but you can create your own comic using PowerPoint and some clip art or stock photos. If you have Articulate then adding audio is a breeze. But here's what I used:
Ingredients:
It's really important to make your stakeholders understand that this is a detailed production and that you get sign-off on the content before you start development. When you're dealing with audio and animation you really don't want to be going back and making changes.
As this is a story format, the content needs to be written as a script. I simply use Word to set out the storyboard and mark which bits are audio and which are visuals/text/animations. This helps your reviewers to understand the flow and how the end result will 'look'. I don't have time to create mock-ups and I usually develop on my own so I can picture what I want to do in my head, but if you're working with a team you may need to put more effort into this step.
When I start writing I often have a jumble of disparate facts and figures, bits from legals and SMEs. It can be daunting to make a start but I plonk it all into the document, separating each topic or idea into a table cell. Then I can begin to get rid of duplicate or similar information, move the order around and it soon begins to make sense.
Keep the tone conversational and mark words or phrases that should be emphasized when spoken. If you're doing the audio recording yourself, you'll be familiar enough with the content to know what you want to do with it - read it out loud as you write to hear how it will sound. If you'll be handing it on to someone else, you'll need to provide more specific direction.
Flipping Book
Realistic flipping pages are very difficult to accomplish in Flash and require more programming skills than I will ever have so a pre-built component was the way to go for me. I used Flipping Book which is very customisable. Your content is 'pulled' into the component through an XML text file which specifies each page as a jpeg, png, or swf file.
I created the surrounding interface in Flash, including the introduction, conclusion, background music and music controls, and a Flash menu component. Flipping Book just drops onto the stage as its own component.
Audio
First step is the audio. I use a Blue Snowball microphone and portable soundbooth to record each section as separate wave files. Make sure you do your recording under the same conditions - same room, same distance from the mic, same volume - in case you do need to re-record a section. I've tried Audacity and SoundBooth but keep coming back to WavePad; I just like the easy to use interface and it does the job quickly. More audio tips from me.
CodeBaby
Got your audio? Now you can play with the wonderful CodeBaby! It's such a fun app to use and makes you feel like a real director. I use one of the stock characters, but you can have one custom made if you need a particular look, (it comes with quite a big selection of male and female avatars to choose from).
I wanted the CodeBaby pieces to stand out and be reserved for the main character, rather than animate the entire comic. I can't draw so I hit on the (brilliant!) idea of using the other stock characters to create the comic effect by posing them and taking screenshots.
This worked out terrifically well as I could import the screenshots into another application (Comic Life), combining them into scenes, adding speech bubbles etc without having to engage other people for more audio work or spend more time producing complex multi-character animations, which I didn't have time for.
Because I'm going to insert each CodeBaby animation into a separate swf file I produce them individually; import an audio file, animate the character and export as a swf.
It helps to think about your naming conventions when you are handling so many files eg audio01.wav goes into codebaby01.swf which goes into flashcb01.swf and so on.
The extra good news is that there is now a brand new version of CodeBaby that includes captioning and other nice enhancements!
Fireworks
I paste my CodeBaby screenshots into Fireworks to crop, resize or position etc. Saving them as PNGs means I can then import them into Comic Life in a high quality format. I also use Fireworks to lay out pages that aren't in the comic format; these could be graphs or some other illustration.
You're probably now getting an idea of what a detailed process this type of project actually is...
Comic Life
You don't absolutely need Comic Life for this but it does help lay out your non-flash pages and makes it easy to add different kinds of speech bubbles and add text or other effects. You can import backgrounds and the CodeBaby character pngs into 'frames'. I export each Comic Life page as a high quality PNG. Make sure the page sizes match the Flipping Book component page size.
I also used Comic Life to create the comic style headings by taking screenshots of the text and editing them in Fireworks, then copy and pasting into Flash.
Are you getting confused yet?
Flash
It's a bit complex to explain in this post but I created a Flash file that pulled a CodeBaby animation (swf) into an empty movie clip, added a preloader progress bar for each clip, some smarts for checking if it had loaded, and added controls to stop, play or scrub the clip. Looking at the code I'm not quite sure how I managed it, but I did. Again, make sure your page size matches.
Once this file was set up it was just a matter of making a copy and changing the code to pull in a different swf, or move the page contents around for differently sized CodeBaby animations or other content.
Flipping Book XML
I don't complete all the different components before starting to put the comic together as I find compiling it as I go often sparks new ideas or helps me iron out layout issues, find a better page order and so on.
The Flipping Book XML text file makes it easy to pop in new pages as you go or change the order around - it's just a matter of quickly editing and resaving the file.
The Results
There are a lot of other issues and steps in such a project but I hope this overview gives you some ideas of your own. You can see the results in the case study snippet.
The lovely CodeBaby people have popped a brief snippet of said course on their site as an elearning case study. Before you skip over there to have a look, I thought I'd just explain, briefly, how I put it all together.
In one sense, it's quite a task for one person to do something like this from scratch in a short timeframe, mainly due to the need for attention to detail and being able to multi-task with different content and apps. On the other hand, using a combination of tools makes it possible for a single developer to produce something quite sophisticated and effective.
Why a Comic?
When you are producing material about expected behaviours it can sometimes make the learner feel a little anxious or possibly negative up front. As this course is about workplace culture and high performance I decided that a comic book story-telling format would immediately generate interest and a compulsion to 'turn the page' to find out what happens, rather than just relaying information.
I'm a big fan of story-telling anyway; providing examples that are meaningful and that produce an emotional reaction is much better than paragraphs of text.
This project is an interactive comic created with a range of different software tools but you can create your own comic using PowerPoint and some clip art or stock photos. If you have Articulate then adding audio is a breeze. But here's what I used:
Ingredients:
- CodeBaby
- Flash
- The Flash Flipping Book Component
- Fireworks (or other graphics software)
- Comic Life
- Wavepad (or other audio editing software)
- Blue SnowBall Microphone (or other mic)
It's really important to make your stakeholders understand that this is a detailed production and that you get sign-off on the content before you start development. When you're dealing with audio and animation you really don't want to be going back and making changes.
As this is a story format, the content needs to be written as a script. I simply use Word to set out the storyboard and mark which bits are audio and which are visuals/text/animations. This helps your reviewers to understand the flow and how the end result will 'look'. I don't have time to create mock-ups and I usually develop on my own so I can picture what I want to do in my head, but if you're working with a team you may need to put more effort into this step.
When I start writing I often have a jumble of disparate facts and figures, bits from legals and SMEs. It can be daunting to make a start but I plonk it all into the document, separating each topic or idea into a table cell. Then I can begin to get rid of duplicate or similar information, move the order around and it soon begins to make sense.
Keep the tone conversational and mark words or phrases that should be emphasized when spoken. If you're doing the audio recording yourself, you'll be familiar enough with the content to know what you want to do with it - read it out loud as you write to hear how it will sound. If you'll be handing it on to someone else, you'll need to provide more specific direction.
Flipping Book
Realistic flipping pages are very difficult to accomplish in Flash and require more programming skills than I will ever have so a pre-built component was the way to go for me. I used Flipping Book which is very customisable. Your content is 'pulled' into the component through an XML text file which specifies each page as a jpeg, png, or swf file.
I created the surrounding interface in Flash, including the introduction, conclusion, background music and music controls, and a Flash menu component. Flipping Book just drops onto the stage as its own component.
Audio
First step is the audio. I use a Blue Snowball microphone and portable soundbooth to record each section as separate wave files. Make sure you do your recording under the same conditions - same room, same distance from the mic, same volume - in case you do need to re-record a section. I've tried Audacity and SoundBooth but keep coming back to WavePad; I just like the easy to use interface and it does the job quickly. More audio tips from me.
CodeBaby
Got your audio? Now you can play with the wonderful CodeBaby! It's such a fun app to use and makes you feel like a real director. I use one of the stock characters, but you can have one custom made if you need a particular look, (it comes with quite a big selection of male and female avatars to choose from).
I wanted the CodeBaby pieces to stand out and be reserved for the main character, rather than animate the entire comic. I can't draw so I hit on the (brilliant!) idea of using the other stock characters to create the comic effect by posing them and taking screenshots.
This worked out terrifically well as I could import the screenshots into another application (Comic Life), combining them into scenes, adding speech bubbles etc without having to engage other people for more audio work or spend more time producing complex multi-character animations, which I didn't have time for.
Because I'm going to insert each CodeBaby animation into a separate swf file I produce them individually; import an audio file, animate the character and export as a swf.
It helps to think about your naming conventions when you are handling so many files eg audio01.wav goes into codebaby01.swf which goes into flashcb01.swf and so on.
The extra good news is that there is now a brand new version of CodeBaby that includes captioning and other nice enhancements!
Fireworks
I paste my CodeBaby screenshots into Fireworks to crop, resize or position etc. Saving them as PNGs means I can then import them into Comic Life in a high quality format. I also use Fireworks to lay out pages that aren't in the comic format; these could be graphs or some other illustration.
You're probably now getting an idea of what a detailed process this type of project actually is...
Comic Life
You don't absolutely need Comic Life for this but it does help lay out your non-flash pages and makes it easy to add different kinds of speech bubbles and add text or other effects. You can import backgrounds and the CodeBaby character pngs into 'frames'. I export each Comic Life page as a high quality PNG. Make sure the page sizes match the Flipping Book component page size.
I also used Comic Life to create the comic style headings by taking screenshots of the text and editing them in Fireworks, then copy and pasting into Flash.
Are you getting confused yet?
Flash
It's a bit complex to explain in this post but I created a Flash file that pulled a CodeBaby animation (swf) into an empty movie clip, added a preloader progress bar for each clip, some smarts for checking if it had loaded, and added controls to stop, play or scrub the clip. Looking at the code I'm not quite sure how I managed it, but I did. Again, make sure your page size matches.
Once this file was set up it was just a matter of making a copy and changing the code to pull in a different swf, or move the page contents around for differently sized CodeBaby animations or other content.
Flipping Book XML
I don't complete all the different components before starting to put the comic together as I find compiling it as I go often sparks new ideas or helps me iron out layout issues, find a better page order and so on.
The Flipping Book XML text file makes it easy to pop in new pages as you go or change the order around - it's just a matter of quickly editing and resaving the file.
The Results
There are a lot of other issues and steps in such a project but I hope this overview gives you some ideas of your own. You can see the results in the case study snippet.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
CodeBaby and me - LearnX award winning team!
If you had been in my kitchen one Thursday afternoon in March you may have wondered why I was hopping up and down, clapping my sweaty little hands and squealing with glee. Luckily this silliness lasted but a few minutes before my usual calm serenity returned.
You see, I'd just found out in a roundabout way that I had won a LearnX award, to be presented at their April 2009 conference. Considering the fact that I had only entered the previous week, a day before the deadline, the win came as quite a surprise but a pleasant one to be sure. I hadn't even intended to enter, but was encouraged to do so by a delightful man from Symmetree.
Some time last year I persuaded my employer to fork out a tidy sum so that I could get my greedy paws on the fantastic CodeBaby animated avatar software - don't ask me how, they must have just come back from a long lunch. We purchased said software through the Australian supplier, Roland from Symmetree.
Over the following few months Roland would contact me about program updates and interesting bits and bobs (helpful chappy that he is). During one conversation I mentioned how I was using CodeBaby to create an online course in comic book format and he was intrigued. I promised to send him a copy of the finished project. I did. He was quite impressed. In fact, he sent it to the CodeBaby boffins and they were equally impressed. How nice, I thought.
At the time, he made mention of the Awards and that he thought I should enter. 'Pshaw!' I said. (Actually, I think I tittered and said 'Really? Oh well, I'll think about it' and promptly thought no more about it). That was, until Roland called to say that he thought my course was so good that he'd persuaded his company to pay my entry fee if I agreed and would prepare the submission. What a nice fellow!
So, in the end I did enter, I did win the platinum award for my category and a shiny crystal trophy is now gathering dust on my desk. Huzzah!
Wanna See The Course?
You will be able to quite soon because the CodeBaby people, rather happy that their software was a major reason for the win, asked if they could host my files on the Showcase section of their site. They also actually really liked the content and how I had incorporated CodeBaby in a unique way - taking still shots of the characters to create the comic book effect. In the words of their product managers, "It was so interactive and engaging, we didn't want to stop until the very end". Nice.
They are also using it 'on the road' as a nice demo example of how their product can help a developer autonomously create quite a sophisticated elearning experience.
So stay tuned and I'll post a link and a bit more about how I created the module when it's up and running.
You see, I'd just found out in a roundabout way that I had won a LearnX award, to be presented at their April 2009 conference. Considering the fact that I had only entered the previous week, a day before the deadline, the win came as quite a surprise but a pleasant one to be sure. I hadn't even intended to enter, but was encouraged to do so by a delightful man from Symmetree.
Some time last year I persuaded my employer to fork out a tidy sum so that I could get my greedy paws on the fantastic CodeBaby animated avatar software - don't ask me how, they must have just come back from a long lunch. We purchased said software through the Australian supplier, Roland from Symmetree.
Over the following few months Roland would contact me about program updates and interesting bits and bobs (helpful chappy that he is). During one conversation I mentioned how I was using CodeBaby to create an online course in comic book format and he was intrigued. I promised to send him a copy of the finished project. I did. He was quite impressed. In fact, he sent it to the CodeBaby boffins and they were equally impressed. How nice, I thought.
At the time, he made mention of the Awards and that he thought I should enter. 'Pshaw!' I said. (Actually, I think I tittered and said 'Really? Oh well, I'll think about it' and promptly thought no more about it). That was, until Roland called to say that he thought my course was so good that he'd persuaded his company to pay my entry fee if I agreed and would prepare the submission. What a nice fellow!
So, in the end I did enter, I did win the platinum award for my category and a shiny crystal trophy is now gathering dust on my desk. Huzzah!
Wanna See The Course?
You will be able to quite soon because the CodeBaby people, rather happy that their software was a major reason for the win, asked if they could host my files on the Showcase section of their site. They also actually really liked the content and how I had incorporated CodeBaby in a unique way - taking still shots of the characters to create the comic book effect. In the words of their product managers, "It was so interactive and engaging, we didn't want to stop until the very end". Nice.
They are also using it 'on the road' as a nice demo example of how their product can help a developer autonomously create quite a sophisticated elearning experience.
So stay tuned and I'll post a link and a bit more about how I created the module when it's up and running.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
noticed this week (ending 30/11/2008)
Roundup of links from my Twitter feed:
- Free Practical guide - bringing together elearning & student retention; case studies, practical tips activities http://bit.ly/eEoK
- New book: An administrator's guide to configuring, securing, customizing, and extending Moodle http://bit.ly/iOlB
- Flickrin; create a photo montage from Flickr photos, that can be embedded into a blog or web page http://www.flickrin.com/
- Seth Godin: Creating a clearance sale culture; what story are your customers telling themselves before committing to buy? http://bit.ly/56ae
- Twitter: responsibility of tweeting http://twurl.nl/kvfyxl
- Net filters debated by experts at cyberlaw forum ‘the technology will be out of date before legislation ink dries' http://bit.ly/rMv6
- Analysis: Fibre and wireless have their place, but won't replace copper any time soon. http://bit.ly/Dz3U
- Need proof about global warming? http://is.gd/9qVy
- Seth Godin; Don't know what you've got till it's gone If you'll miss a product etc if it disappears, promote it now http://bit.ly/gtRd
- Compilation of YouTube video clips useful for teaching english, including lesson plans http://www.teflclips.com/
- Monty Python's Minister of Silly Walks gets serious about learning, growth, and how to generate new ideas http://bit.ly/14VkD
- Processing is an open source programming language & environment for programming images, animation, & interactions http://processing.org/
- Watch it, Learn it; free video tutorials for all your computer & gadget questions http://www.woopid.com/
- For you naughty apostrophe abusers (you know who you are) http://www.its-not-its.info/
- Adobe Captivate Vidcasts; diff between Demo & Training Sim modes, multi-recording capability, microphones http://captivating.podbean.com/
- Ebook 100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging & Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work http://bit.ly/JuxS & http://bit.ly/FFAx
- Very creative short film from brazil about global warming, Don't Let it All Unravel: http://snurl.com/6vasv
- Please use exclamation points properly!!!! http://tinyurl.com/6j5qmd
- Lunascape5 Genesis the World’s 1st Triple Engine Browser, World’s Fastest, easily customized http://tinyurl.com/6yarvg
- The first of its kind - a digital camera and ZINK™ printer, all in one! TOMY xiao TIP-521 Digital Camera http://www.zink.com/tomy-xiao
- Social Networking Rule No. 1: Don't Be Stupid (http://is.gd/9bE2)
- 10 Essential Tips for Landing Your Next Job: http://tinyurl.com/6dby5n
- Review: 16 tools for prototyping (mockups) http://tinyurl.com/6jk5kt
- Kineo 50 insights; Business case for elearning http://www.kineo.com/elearning-tips.html
- Free online seminar Presentation Zen author Garr Reynolds 16 Dec 9am improve presentation conception/creation/delivery http://bit.ly/3stf
- Free Web 2.0 ebook with chapters from 10 of the leading Web 2.0 Marketing books from peachpit http://bit.ly/ao2L
- Charming; Herb & Dorothy; he was a postal clerk, she a librarian, but have built one of the most imprtant art collections http://bit.ly/7182
- Heat - television special - investigating global warming http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/heat/
- Dec 1-7 Australian Giving Week; make a difference to the community in lead-up to Christmas; great ideas for business too http://bit.ly/rsi3
- MIT Media Lab Announces Center for Future Storytelling; traditional is at risk thanks to attention-deficient lifestyles http://bit.ly/WJcJ
- Broadband" by Australia Telecom (1992) http://tinyurl.com/4bar7m *the future is here!*
- Amazing drawing technique - short clip wait for end surprise! http://tinyurl.com/6och6s
- Short Collection Unconventional Ideas 'Potential is good when you’re 15. After that, you need to start doing something' http://bit.ly/4dfW
- Help write the book Twitter for Dummies by submitting, commenting and voting on topics http://bit.ly/aYwl
- Guy Kawasaki; 10 tiny apps he uses everyday (mac) http://bit.ly/pX9L
- Evaluating performance of concept workers 'googling instead of networking can lead to criticism of your performance' http://bit.ly/elrH
- social exclusion cf digital exclusion "Analysis of Social Disadvantage & Information Society" http://tinyurl.com/6jq23j
- Free guide to Moodle Administration from Kineo http://tinyurl.com/57leok
Friday, July 11, 2008
Get us out of here; the room that time forgot
This week, I went on a short holiday trip to Beechwood in North East Victoria, mountain, wine and gourmet food country. Wanting to save my moolah for the finer things (food), I attempted to find some decent budget accommodation.
Unfortunately the two (budget and decent) did not unite at the chosen establishment, quite an old building converted from its original purpose, a convent and school. I won't name it but will leave it to you to google it based on the clues provided.
Let me provide a ridiculously long list of the disappointments:
Unfortunately the two (budget and decent) did not unite at the chosen establishment, quite an old building converted from its original purpose, a convent and school. I won't name it but will leave it to you to google it based on the clues provided.
Let me provide a ridiculously long list of the disappointments:
- What was described as a 'Miner's Cottage' was a brick-lined room. A room is not a cottage.
- What was described as 'cosy' was small, dark, cold and slightly damp and musty
- The carpet was old and very unplush, stained with ember burns from the open fireplace
- The fire was all set to go and wood provided but the flue was not set correctly; all the heat went up the chimney and provided no warmth
- Warmth of the fire was substituted by a small, dusty blow heater
- Things in general seemed dusty, as though no-one had been in there for some time, or at least as though no-one really cared enough
- Bed was comfortable and sheets crisp but the old, slightly stained cover made you feel icky
- The cushions on the chairs were manky; zip broken, insides poking out
- A strange 'service door' with a simple latch was in one corner of the room; it seemed to be made of plywood, caused a terrific draft and had a round hole which when looked through provided a view of a messy room - some kind of laundry. This was weird and a little bit creepy; we plugged up the hole with a tissue and put the cushions around the bottom to try and stop the draft
- Continental breakfast was okay; cereal packets, fresh milk, bottled orange juice & jam but the bread was ordinary sliced white and brown - not particularly interesting. A nice slice of something grainy and bakery made would have been all that was needed
- The glasses in the fridge were dirty from not being polished
- Tea & coffee very ordinary; stock standard brands and something that looked suspiciously like International Roast in a jar. All you need is a couple of packets of Robert Timms and some nice Twinings to add a touch of 'spesh'
- These, the kettle, toaster and crockery were piled on a table jammed next to the bed; quite awkward and a bit dangerous to have a table with a sharp corner right next to your pillow
- The rug in the bathroom was bright orange and designed in the shape and pattern of a giant basketball, very odd
- The towels provided were obviously well aged and going a bit tatty and bleached
- Two tiles on the bathroom floor were cracked and missing pieces
- Toilet was dripping constantly
- Both soap dispensers were empty
- The shower head was positioned over a small 'hip bath' but not over the centre so all the water splashed over the edge and onto the floor - shower curtain was inadequate
- Noises from the laundry room next door kept us awake; the noise went on well after 10pm
- The room was situated next to some sort of generator that droned on all night long, in a pattern that ramped up, ending with a sort of bang before starting all over again
- The fridge was quite noisy as it cycled throughout the night
- The information booklet was very drab and contained pages of the same information; no local booklets or pamphlets or anything from the last 5 years from the look of it
The upshot is, it really wouldn't have taken much to make this place welcoming and warm, and make us want to stay more than one night. Unfortunately, we couldn't get out of there quick enough.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Audio Recording Tips
I've recently been working on some audio recording and editing for training modules; it's a learning curve to get it right so I wanted to keep a record of some points that are important to the process. This post is more of a reminder to myself more than anything else. Some of these actions I already had well in hand and some are as a result of the 'experience'.
Before You Start:
Before You Start:
- Write a script. I simply do this in Word using a table, with a new row for each recording. My final output in most cases will be using PowerPoint and then converting via Articulate so each row also represents a slide. Keep the sections reasonable in length so that mistakes can easily be re-recorded and the file size kept manageable.
- If the voice over 'artist' is not yourself and they are not recording directly into Articulate, it's a good idea to have the following details for each slide;
- Slide #
- Slide Title
- Description of visuals on the slide (this helps the person recording to match the audio with the visuals - particularly if the visual content is not finalised or they are in another location)
- tick box they can use to help them keep track of where they are up to
- audio track name or number (If they don't have time to do this, you can make a note on the document as you edit each track) - Use paragraphs to separate the content in longer slides; make the formatting simple and easy to read (I use Arial). It's also important to be clear what is to be read, for instance, don't use numbered bullet points unless you want the person to read the numbers out loud. Be careful how your format numbers and statistics; think about how the text will be interpreted.
- The script can then be used for the 'Notes' view if using Articulate or similar applications
- Provide some basic instructions about recording;
- quiet place to record
- how to use the script
- type of microphone
- how to avoid pops, hisses and background noise (pop shield?)
Equipment:
- You don't have to spend a lot of money to get the job done but a decent microphone is a must. Forget headsets and go for a desktop as this gives a more even balance and better control over breath sounds and pops and clicks.
- You'll also want to avoid plugging your mic directly into the mic input at the front of your computer in most cases as this picks up internal noise from the machine. Best to look for a USB option for easy use. Many of these are Plug & Play, no installation software required (of course, you'll need software to record and edit your audio). Often, they'll be labelled as ideal for podcasting.
- If your budget is minimal, a Logitech desktop noise cancelling mic will do the job. If you can afford to splash out a little, there are plenty of mics specifically designed for podcasting which will do the trick. From my research (and because it is so cool) I choose a Blue Snowball USB microphone. The best price I found was through B&H Photographic supplies. I had ordered a portable green screen from them before so already had an account, and their service is just excellent; delivery from US to Australia under a week and that included a weekend. Price? $99US (It now also has a sibling - The Snowflake - which has been designed for portability and is around $60 US)
- The Boagworld lads and The Rissington Podcast Chappies both recommend the Samson C01U mic. The Blue website has some great comparative 3rd party reviews on the main USB mics in the market and these can help you decide which is best for your purposes.
- If popping noises are a problem or lots of people will be using the same microphone, you might want to invest in a pop shield or pop filter. This simply sits in front of the mic and 'shields' it. For the budget conscious, try some stocking stretched over a piece of coat hanger wire, otherwise you're looking at around $25 US.
- A quiet room may be all you need however I came across a brilliant portable solution developed by well known US voiceover artist Harlan Hogan. It's so simple, it's genius! Take one collapsible fabric storage cube and a sheet of acoustic foam cut into tiles that slip inside the cube, place your mic inside the cube and voila! a portable recording booth. Harlan can supply these ready made, but really, it's too easy. I'm quite sure other foam would do but acoustic foam is designed to absorb sound so is the recommended option.
Update: I created one of these in under 20mins. The portable cube came from Kmart ($7) and the acoustic foam from Clark Rubber ($35 for an offcut with plenty left over, almost enough for a second cube). After a few minutes testing, I was impressed; all the background noise is blocked out and the voice audio is beautifully clear and crisp. You'll have much less editing to do with such a set up. You can see some photos of my portabooth on Flickr. - Software? If your wallet is overflowing there are heaps of specialised programs to help you record and edit, or add special effects, fades etc. Adobe offers both Audition (high end professional use formerly Cool Edit Pro) or Soundbooth but many people do just fine with free software such as the well-known and loved Audacity. Myself, I prefer the free version of WavePad over Audacity. I just find it 'nicer' to use, and easier to really get into the waveform of each track and do some fine tuning. I'm currently investigating Soundbooth though and will let you know what I think.
- Another freebie to add to your toolbox is The Levelator; this strange piece of software apparently does amazing things, particularly if you have more than one speaker. Simply drop your audio file onto the program icon and it does its thing.
How to Speak:
- This is where the script is vital. You can practice beforehand but also if you need to record again to 'fix' a section, it's easy to cut and splice separate tracks if the content is identical; ad lib would make it much harder.
- If you stumble - stop and then repeat that small piece and keep going; it's easy enough to cut out such mistakes. Or, by keeping the slide content of a reasonable length, it can be re-recorded if it's a real mess up.
- Try to avoid taking great gasping breaths; these can be edited out but just be aware of their impact. The same with pops and clicks etc. Pops are evident on 'p' words or sudden pushes of air from your mouth. The trick is to try and keep things as even as possible. Also be aware of extended 'f' and 's' and 'k' sounds. You can use your editing program to shorten these to reduce the impact but it's better if they aren't there in the first place.
- Leave a few seconds silence at the start of each track - or insert this using your software. This gives a slight 'rest' before the slide loads and the audio starts but is also useful if you output to say, podcast format - each track then doesn't run into each other but sounds more natural.
- When you are speaking, use a lower tone than normal, speak slower and have a smile on your face. The smile brightens the tone, makes you sound crisper and more friendly. Imagine you're talking to a friend across the table. Listen to yourself and take note of words that you might tend to 'twang', lisp or rush. Practice these until you are happy with the output.
- Don't read in a monotone manner but on the other don't make it sound like Children's Story Hour; you want to sound interested and appropriate for the topic
WavePad Settings:
- The tracks I recently edited were quite 'hissy' with lots of background. I got them practically perfect with the following filters in Wave Pad, in this order:
- Normalise > Normal
- Noise Reduction > Multi-Band Noise Gating (the better quality option introduces strange background distortion which this option does not)
- Equalizer > High Pass (default settings)
My Snowball mic has arrived in the mail today so I'm sure I will have lots of other tips to add soon!
Saturday, May 03, 2008
A Quiet Sunday Morning
So I'm out on the verandah, hanging out the washing and enjoying the peace and quiet when this car drives down the street, not one I've seen before.
It starts up next door's driveway, which is 1 block over because it's a large double block. It seems to be going up slowly when I hear the tyres start to spin on the wet concrete. It gets worse and I hear the engine start to whine, as we say 'revving the guts out of it', with smoke pouring into the air.
I see the car just make it to the top of the driveway, which is quite steep, but then horribly start to slide sideways. It quickly builds up speed and screeches out of view backwards. I then hear a sort of loud bang and then nothing, as smoke wafts away up into the air.
I see someone with white hair slowly moving at the bottom of the driveway, but it's hard to make out who because of the trees and I can 't see the car anymore... I suddenly realise it's the elderly mother of the lady next door, Elizabeth. I don't know the mother's name but I call out 'hello, hello' to try to get her attention, which isn't working. So I yell out, stupidly 'Elizabeth's mum!' - she looks up and I wave at her and tell her we're coming over.
I yell out to S and tell him what's happened and we all run down the drive and along the road. I realise I have a pair of furry cat ears on my head and am running down the road wearing purple slippers with red, yellow and pink bobbles on the front. These are all quickly removed...
The car has gone down the drive backwards and then swung hard round anti-clockwise and is almost facing the other way, towards the road but jammed backwards into the shrubbery. Elizabeth's mum is shaking and has a bad cut on her hand but she's okay. She said she only bought the car recently, which is why I didn't recognise it, and thought it lost power when going up the drive.
I said I thought it was some crazy hoon causing a nuisance, but it was very creative parking. Said could she do it again 'cos he missed all the action.
MarleyBob came over to see what assistance he could offer, including giving the car a good sniff over and checking the shrubbery for small animals, before rolling around on the drive.
They later got the car out of its predicament fairly easily, with not a scratch on it.
We all went home for a nice cup of tea and a lie down... too much excitement for one day!
It starts up next door's driveway, which is 1 block over because it's a large double block. It seems to be going up slowly when I hear the tyres start to spin on the wet concrete. It gets worse and I hear the engine start to whine, as we say 'revving the guts out of it', with smoke pouring into the air.
I see the car just make it to the top of the driveway, which is quite steep, but then horribly start to slide sideways. It quickly builds up speed and screeches out of view backwards. I then hear a sort of loud bang and then nothing, as smoke wafts away up into the air.
I see someone with white hair slowly moving at the bottom of the driveway, but it's hard to make out who because of the trees and I can 't see the car anymore... I suddenly realise it's the elderly mother of the lady next door, Elizabeth. I don't know the mother's name but I call out 'hello, hello' to try to get her attention, which isn't working. So I yell out, stupidly 'Elizabeth's mum!' - she looks up and I wave at her and tell her we're coming over.
I yell out to S and tell him what's happened and we all run down the drive and along the road. I realise I have a pair of furry cat ears on my head and am running down the road wearing purple slippers with red, yellow and pink bobbles on the front. These are all quickly removed...
The car has gone down the drive backwards and then swung hard round anti-clockwise and is almost facing the other way, towards the road but jammed backwards into the shrubbery. Elizabeth's mum is shaking and has a bad cut on her hand but she's okay. She said she only bought the car recently, which is why I didn't recognise it, and thought it lost power when going up the drive.
I said I thought it was some crazy hoon causing a nuisance, but it was very creative parking. Said could she do it again 'cos he missed all the action.
MarleyBob came over to see what assistance he could offer, including giving the car a good sniff over and checking the shrubbery for small animals, before rolling around on the drive.
They later got the car out of its predicament fairly easily, with not a scratch on it.
We all went home for a nice cup of tea and a lie down... too much excitement for one day!
The Imposter
I had a visit on the weekend from a neighbour across the road.
She said 'Do you have a cat?'
Yes - I have two.
'Is one of them a black cat?'
Yes - they both are
'Does one of them have a red collar?'
Well, it's orange really....
At that point I'm thinking there's bad news at the end of the conversation.
'I don't want to complain but I have to let you know he's been waking me up at 3.30am trying to get at the birds in my aviary'
That can't be right - he's inside every night
'Last night I caught him halfway up the cage...'
It must be some other cat...
'Do you know any other black cats in the area?'
Well, no - there's a black and white cat...
'that's mine...'
And a white cat...
'that's mine too..'
I can assure you he's in every night once it gets dark - we have a cat door and lock it once he's in... besides he sleeps in my daughter's room and she always knows he's in'
'I understand they can get out - I just needed to let you know. I get up at 4.30 but 3.30 is just too much... besides him trying to eat my birds!'
All I can say is, we definately keep him in at night and it would be quite rare for him to be out... but be assured we'll be extra careful - but he is always in anyway...
She left fairly happy.
Later on when I told S 'of all the cheek, coming over here and complaining about MarleyBob - he's always in at night, and anyway I don't complain about her stupid white cat coming over here and making MB growl out of the window at him...'
'Actually, one of the cats did get out last night when I got home from the gig...'
Which cat?!
'I'm not sure but I think it was MarleyBob'
What!
'And I think he got out the night before... and the other night after practice... and you know he's so naughty and won't come back...'
Noooooooooooooo...
So now I have to skulk around the neighbourhood in shame. I have replaced the orange collar with a blue one so MB can be incognito and remain innocent...
She said 'Do you have a cat?'
Yes - I have two.
'Is one of them a black cat?'
Yes - they both are
'Does one of them have a red collar?'
Well, it's orange really....
At that point I'm thinking there's bad news at the end of the conversation.
'I don't want to complain but I have to let you know he's been waking me up at 3.30am trying to get at the birds in my aviary'
That can't be right - he's inside every night
'Last night I caught him halfway up the cage...'
It must be some other cat...
'Do you know any other black cats in the area?'
Well, no - there's a black and white cat...
'that's mine...'
And a white cat...
'that's mine too..'
I can assure you he's in every night once it gets dark - we have a cat door and lock it once he's in... besides he sleeps in my daughter's room and she always knows he's in'
'I understand they can get out - I just needed to let you know. I get up at 4.30 but 3.30 is just too much... besides him trying to eat my birds!'
All I can say is, we definately keep him in at night and it would be quite rare for him to be out... but be assured we'll be extra careful - but he is always in anyway...
She left fairly happy.
Later on when I told S 'of all the cheek, coming over here and complaining about MarleyBob - he's always in at night, and anyway I don't complain about her stupid white cat coming over here and making MB growl out of the window at him...'
'Actually, one of the cats did get out last night when I got home from the gig...'
Which cat?!
'I'm not sure but I think it was MarleyBob'
What!
'And I think he got out the night before... and the other night after practice... and you know he's so naughty and won't come back...'
Noooooooooooooo...
So now I have to skulk around the neighbourhood in shame. I have replaced the orange collar with a blue one so MB can be incognito and remain innocent...
The Compleat Doggy Tale
So I'm driving to work, as usual, and stop at the lights of a main intersection.
A slightly ' alternative lifestyle' looking person walks across the crossing, followed closely by a small, perky Jack Russell-type dog, not on a lead.
They both clear the crossing and start off down the path. I glance away.
I glance back and see the man approaching the dog with a large, flowery plastic bag. Hmm, I think, that's being responsible - he's obviously going to pick up something said dog has 'deposited' but what a large bag for such a purpose. I glance away.
But something catches my eye and I flick back - the man does not pick up a deposit, instead he scoops the dog into the plastic bag, holds the bag by the handles and then nimbly hops on to a bus that just pulled up.
The lights turned green but I sat there for a moment doing the classic double take 'what the... did he... was that.. huh?'
A funny tail indeed.
A slightly ' alternative lifestyle' looking person walks across the crossing, followed closely by a small, perky Jack Russell-type dog, not on a lead.
They both clear the crossing and start off down the path. I glance away.
I glance back and see the man approaching the dog with a large, flowery plastic bag. Hmm, I think, that's being responsible - he's obviously going to pick up something said dog has 'deposited' but what a large bag for such a purpose. I glance away.
But something catches my eye and I flick back - the man does not pick up a deposit, instead he scoops the dog into the plastic bag, holds the bag by the handles and then nimbly hops on to a bus that just pulled up.
The lights turned green but I sat there for a moment doing the classic double take 'what the... did he... was that.. huh?'
A funny tail indeed.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
twittering
People seem to be enamoured with facebook and keep sending me messages on my funwall, poking and doing other strange things to me.
I'm not sure why they can't just email me, like they did in the old days. Facebook is annoying - there's just too much 'stuff' and I really don't need to know absolutely every darn thing about every darn body.
I don't mind LinkedIn; that's professional networking and can be useful. I can find people I used to work with and see how their career has moved along.
No, for me, even blogging is a bit much. I'm just too busy.
Instead, I'm twittering my tweets - quick, easy and mostly cheerful!
I'm not sure why they can't just email me, like they did in the old days. Facebook is annoying - there's just too much 'stuff' and I really don't need to know absolutely every darn thing about every darn body.
I don't mind LinkedIn; that's professional networking and can be useful. I can find people I used to work with and see how their career has moved along.
No, for me, even blogging is a bit much. I'm just too busy.
Instead, I'm twittering my tweets - quick, easy and mostly cheerful!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
The month that was...
I can honestly say that life is not dull at the moment. In the last month I:
I'm hoping that September will be a little less exciting...
- Have been in a temporary manager role but...
- Was told all our jobs are redundant
- Received great feedback about leading the team but...
- Heard a comment that if I didn't really want to be a manager I shouldn't have been given the temporary role
- Was awarded one of the company's top performance ratings but...
- Learned that we would all have to apply for newly created roles
- Didn't receive any positive encouragement to apply for the new roles but...
- Was scouted out by another group in the company to see if I would be interested in joining them
- Realised that because of the award I may be nominated for an overseas trip but...
- If I rollover to the other group I would no longer be eligible for the trip.
- Will be presented with an award at the annual company awards night but...
- No one from my group, including myself, is attending so it will be uncollected
- Heard that a senior manager wanted to talk to me about why I wanted to move to another group but...
- Found out that he was then told to 'go and reflect on why he felt he needed to do that'
I'm hoping that September will be a little less exciting...
Friday, January 27, 2006
nifty bubble tooltips
Alessandro is one clever cookie and just keeps coming up with the goods. In this article he explains how to create bubble style tooltips using CSS and a smidge of javascript, utilising the Title attribute of links.
Two classes are used to position a single background image so that the content height can expand or contract as required.
I can think of some good uses in my elearning modules already!
Alessandro's Bubble Tooltips
Tags: CSS Bubble Tooltips Title Link Javascript
Two classes are used to position a single background image so that the content height can expand or contract as required.
I can think of some good uses in my elearning modules already!
Alessandro's Bubble Tooltips
Tags: CSS Bubble Tooltips Title Link Javascript
Thursday, January 26, 2006
pocketmod and printing stuff
Fantastic Free and Fabulous!
Pocketmod lets you set up and print a mini booklet in just about any format - as a calendar, organiser, reference, notebook and more. Even includes an instruction video to show you how to do the folding.
Clever.
pocketmod
In a kind of similar vein, how about being able to print graph paper whenever you need it? Lined, grids, dots - it's all here and it's all free. We love free.
Get it at incompetech
Tags: Graph Paper printable PocketMod diary organiser
Pocketmod lets you set up and print a mini booklet in just about any format - as a calendar, organiser, reference, notebook and more. Even includes an instruction video to show you how to do the folding.
Clever.
pocketmod
In a kind of similar vein, how about being able to print graph paper whenever you need it? Lined, grids, dots - it's all here and it's all free. We love free.
Get it at incompetech
Tags: Graph Paper printable PocketMod diary organiser
Sunday, January 08, 2006
care a little, gain a lot
I returned to work after the christmas break and, even though I had a tonne of stuff to catch up on, I found myself spending 2 whole days fixing up a team member's online modules. Fred (let's call him Fred) had left me a short email to ask for them to be uploaded to be ready for training in 2 days time.
Of course, I checked them out before doing this - I wish I hadn't in someways...
Now, it wasn't that there was much technically problematic with the content. The majority of the errors were to do with grammar, structure, navigation, instructional design, accessibility and failure to adhere to simple guidelines that we have documented. There weren't even any backwards/forwards links from page to page!
Incorrect use of apostrophes, lack of consistency in terminology and format, not altering the authoring program defaults to our guidelines, changing tense in the same sentence, badly written ya da ya da ya da. Instead of me being able to spend the time in looking for ways to improve the actual content, it was all manual, tedious stuff-fixing.
The grammar stuff surprises me as Fred is an instructional designer, but what really gets on my goat is the fact that he is ignoring simple little things that I have drummed into people short of hitting them with a big stick. Appropriate Alt descriptions, correct use of CSS, correct link formatting (please - not 'click here' or 'click on the big blue button at the bottom of the page on the right hand side'...).
I know it's because some people don't care about these things the way I do - it's just not in their blood. Okay. BUT I'd like them to just try to make the effort. Even if they think 'oh my giddy aunt, she does go on ever so...', I don't care. Humour me.
Tags: Grammar punctuation Instructional Design Accessibility
Of course, I checked them out before doing this - I wish I hadn't in someways...
Now, it wasn't that there was much technically problematic with the content. The majority of the errors were to do with grammar, structure, navigation, instructional design, accessibility and failure to adhere to simple guidelines that we have documented. There weren't even any backwards/forwards links from page to page!
Incorrect use of apostrophes, lack of consistency in terminology and format, not altering the authoring program defaults to our guidelines, changing tense in the same sentence, badly written ya da ya da ya da. Instead of me being able to spend the time in looking for ways to improve the actual content, it was all manual, tedious stuff-fixing.
The grammar stuff surprises me as Fred is an instructional designer, but what really gets on my goat is the fact that he is ignoring simple little things that I have drummed into people short of hitting them with a big stick. Appropriate Alt descriptions, correct use of CSS, correct link formatting (please - not 'click here' or 'click on the big blue button at the bottom of the page on the right hand side'...).
I know it's because some people don't care about these things the way I do - it's just not in their blood. Okay. BUT I'd like them to just try to make the effort. Even if they think 'oh my giddy aunt, she does go on ever so...', I don't care. Humour me.
Tags: Grammar punctuation Instructional Design Accessibility
crash course in learning theory - don't miss it!
Kathy Sierra has created a great Crash Course in Learning Theory post in her Passionate Users blog. I think these concepts, while perhaps not new, are laid out here in a comprehensive way that's easy for everyone to grasp and apply in some way.
Obviously you can tweak to suit your own circumstances - a lot of the stuff that I do for instance has to be developed quickly and has to contain important stuff like business rules and pricing information. These kinds of topics often make it hard to be flexible as the legal eagles get very antsy when you mess around with them - they like content to be very black and white and aren't particularly interested in the purty, engaging stuff. That being said, there's plenty in Kathy's article that I'm going to try to incorporate in a more determined way.
Don't miss the second post in her series which includes a PDF summary:
The PDF is actually nine pages, divided into two parts:
1) A seven-page "workbook" with mainly just the pictures, and space for you to make your own notes about what you think each image/concept means or how you'd apply it.
2) The two-page summary (if you're not interested in making notes, just skip to the last two pages).
Great stuff!
Tags: Learning Theory Instructional Design Online Learning Kathy Sierra
Obviously you can tweak to suit your own circumstances - a lot of the stuff that I do for instance has to be developed quickly and has to contain important stuff like business rules and pricing information. These kinds of topics often make it hard to be flexible as the legal eagles get very antsy when you mess around with them - they like content to be very black and white and aren't particularly interested in the purty, engaging stuff. That being said, there's plenty in Kathy's article that I'm going to try to incorporate in a more determined way.
Don't miss the second post in her series which includes a PDF summary:
The PDF is actually nine pages, divided into two parts:
1) A seven-page "workbook" with mainly just the pictures, and space for you to make your own notes about what you think each image/concept means or how you'd apply it.
2) The two-page summary (if you're not interested in making notes, just skip to the last two pages).
Great stuff!
Tags: Learning Theory Instructional Design Online Learning Kathy Sierra
a little moock goes a long way
I'm currently wading my way through Colin Moock's Actionscript 2.0 (O'Reilly). I say wading because I'm finding it particularly heavy going. I really want to read it all but I'm finding that I put the book out on the bench or a nearby table and say 'I'll just do x and then will sit down and tackle you again'... 'Let me finish y and I'll be with you'... 'Really - I'm nearly there'...
I had no problems with his earlier tome, Actionscript for Flash MX, which is a brilliant reference book that I use all the time, but this one is giving me the heebies. I am picking it up, but reluctantly.
It's very technical and has a consistent, annoying approach of 'About Foo: to understand Foo properly, you need to understand Bah. Bah is covered in chapter 999, but here is a section on Foo anyway'.
I'm willing to reserve final judgement till I get to the end (presuming I make it that far) but at the moment I feel really stupid. I mean, I've used Flash for a few years now and written some pretty funky Actionscript considering I've got no programming background at all, but I feel that the writing style is different in this one. It seems to be repetitive without necessarily adding clarity. And so far, up to about page 50, lacking in real world examples - there are examples but they are of the 'ball' type.
I'm not whinging, just sharing how I am feeling at this particular stage of the reading process. I truly want to conquer it. This is going to be my year of finishing all those books and teaching myself all those concepts I've been moaning about not knowing for so long, so it's time to wrap the ninja bandana round my head and strike a pose.
Wish me luck! Hai-ya!
Tags: Flash Actionscript 2.0 Moock
I had no problems with his earlier tome, Actionscript for Flash MX, which is a brilliant reference book that I use all the time, but this one is giving me the heebies. I am picking it up, but reluctantly.
It's very technical and has a consistent, annoying approach of 'About Foo: to understand Foo properly, you need to understand Bah. Bah is covered in chapter 999, but here is a section on Foo anyway'.
I'm willing to reserve final judgement till I get to the end (presuming I make it that far) but at the moment I feel really stupid. I mean, I've used Flash for a few years now and written some pretty funky Actionscript considering I've got no programming background at all, but I feel that the writing style is different in this one. It seems to be repetitive without necessarily adding clarity. And so far, up to about page 50, lacking in real world examples - there are examples but they are of the 'ball' type.
I'm not whinging, just sharing how I am feeling at this particular stage of the reading process. I truly want to conquer it. This is going to be my year of finishing all those books and teaching myself all those concepts I've been moaning about not knowing for so long, so it's time to wrap the ninja bandana round my head and strike a pose.
Wish me luck! Hai-ya!
Tags: Flash Actionscript 2.0 Moock
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Web Developer Toolbar updated - yay!
1. Chris Pederick does it again by updating the Web Developer Toolbar to version 1.0, and it's available for Firefox, Flock and Mozilla. The list of features shows how useful this little doovey is for us developers!
2. Kathy Sierra writes... Learning Increases Resolution: "Learning adds resolution to what you offer. And the change happens not within the product, but between the user's ears. The more you help your users learn and improve, the greater the chance that they'll become passionate.
So, what can you change for people? Or rather, what can you help others change for themselves? How can you increase the resolution of the products and services you offer--without touching the products? That doesn't mean you can take any old piece of crap and by teaching people to become expert, magically transform it into a work of art. But if there's potential for a richer experience--an experience the non-passionate don't see, taste, hear, feel, smell, touch, or ever recognize...why not see if there's a way to help more people experience that?"
3. Very funny competition to win an iPod: design a movie poster featuring Steve Jobs.
2. Kathy Sierra writes... Learning Increases Resolution: "Learning adds resolution to what you offer. And the change happens not within the product, but between the user's ears. The more you help your users learn and improve, the greater the chance that they'll become passionate.
So, what can you change for people? Or rather, what can you help others change for themselves? How can you increase the resolution of the products and services you offer--without touching the products? That doesn't mean you can take any old piece of crap and by teaching people to become expert, magically transform it into a work of art. But if there's potential for a richer experience--an experience the non-passionate don't see, taste, hear, feel, smell, touch, or ever recognize...why not see if there's a way to help more people experience that?"
3. Very funny competition to win an iPod: design a movie poster featuring Steve Jobs.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
nuvvo is groovo!
A Learning Management System for individual instructors - and it's free!
From the Website:
Now it is easier than ever to create your own online learning portal from which to create multimedia hubs for classrooms, post prep. and follow-up for live sessions, or run stand-alone courses online. With simple yet powerful content-creation, communication, and evaluation tools, Nuvvo is broadening the horizons of online education.
The Savvica Development Team wanted to create a way for instructors and trainers to teach online without the massive institutional support required to deploy and maintain an enterprise LMS. The result was Nuvvo, the first LMS for the individual instructor.
Nuvvo is deployed on-demand, and delivered through your web browser. Sign up in minutes at www.nuvvo.com and gain immediate access to your personal online learning portal. Creating an account, setting up your courses, and building content is all completely free. Students can access your course for free too, or you can choose to charge for access using the simple and completely integrated e-commerce tools.
Don't let Nuvvo's compact design fool you. The Personal LMS features enterprise-grade content creation, course management, and grading tools. Use our powerful, usable UI to build courses block by block with rich text, multimedia, and files all integrated on the same page. Grade and record quizzes automatically, or provide extensive feedback. With Nuvvo's easy-to-use, focused interface, you'll see new possibilities and grasp how to achieve them.
From the Website:
Now it is easier than ever to create your own online learning portal from which to create multimedia hubs for classrooms, post prep. and follow-up for live sessions, or run stand-alone courses online. With simple yet powerful content-creation, communication, and evaluation tools, Nuvvo is broadening the horizons of online education.
The Savvica Development Team wanted to create a way for instructors and trainers to teach online without the massive institutional support required to deploy and maintain an enterprise LMS. The result was Nuvvo, the first LMS for the individual instructor.
Nuvvo is deployed on-demand, and delivered through your web browser. Sign up in minutes at www.nuvvo.com and gain immediate access to your personal online learning portal. Creating an account, setting up your courses, and building content is all completely free. Students can access your course for free too, or you can choose to charge for access using the simple and completely integrated e-commerce tools.
Don't let Nuvvo's compact design fool you. The Personal LMS features enterprise-grade content creation, course management, and grading tools. Use our powerful, usable UI to build courses block by block with rich text, multimedia, and files all integrated on the same page. Grade and record quizzes automatically, or provide extensive feedback. With Nuvvo's easy-to-use, focused interface, you'll see new possibilities and grasp how to achieve them.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
clip it - clip it good!
Clipmarks is a new little extension thingy for both IE and Firefox that could be useful.
"Clipmarks are for specific pieces of information on web pages. Just like when you read a magazine or newspaper, sometimes you want to highlight or tear out a specific part of the page, when you surf the web sometimes you want to remember specific pieces of content (like an image or a couple of paragraphs). Clipmarks lets you do that. You can give your Clipmark a title and tag it with keywords so you can retrieve it later from any computer connected to the internet.
Clip and save just the stuff you want from any web page.
• Create your personal online collection of clipmarks.
• Tag them with keywords, add your own comments and share them with friends.
• Search the Public Clipmarks to see what's being clipped and who is clipping it."
"Clipmarks are for specific pieces of information on web pages. Just like when you read a magazine or newspaper, sometimes you want to highlight or tear out a specific part of the page, when you surf the web sometimes you want to remember specific pieces of content (like an image or a couple of paragraphs). Clipmarks lets you do that. You can give your Clipmark a title and tag it with keywords so you can retrieve it later from any computer connected to the internet.
Clip and save just the stuff you want from any web page.
• Create your personal online collection of clipmarks.
• Tag them with keywords, add your own comments and share them with friends.
• Search the Public Clipmarks to see what's being clipped and who is clipping it."
clever paper bookmark corners
Pretty neat idea - little paper corners that you can print from a template and then slip onto whatever book you are reading. Great for those fussy people that you borrow books from who don't like you folding page corners.
If you like, you can also add a few notes about the page onto the bookmark.
Simple idea, nice solution
Tags: paper corners DIY bookmarks
If you like, you can also add a few notes about the page onto the bookmark.
Simple idea, nice solution
Tags: paper corners DIY bookmarks
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
