Audacity

Richard E. Mayer, the author of Multimedia Learning, suggests we use narration in multimedia productions because it increases learning when animation is also used.

Audacity is an open source tool to use for recording narration. It offers:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.

In the past, I have used Captivate but the quality is not quite there with Captivate. Audacity provides a easy approach to recording, editing and exporting audio into multimedia presentations.

Skpe

Isn't life about conversations? We converse, we learn... We converse, we grow... We converse, we connect.

I can image the delight people enjoyed when they first used the telephone. Hearing the voice of a loved one far away likely made them feel immediately connected. I feel like I was able to part take in that same feeling of delight just last night when my mother, who lives in California, and I used Skype for free last night. We chatted about our day, plans for Christmas, work....everything we normally talk about except I could see her. My daughter was amazed to see her "Grammy." We even got the chance to see my mom's dog, Chaco, taking a snooze!

Web video conferencing uses technology as a way to converse and connect to the community. I learned that my mom really benefited from seeing me and my daughter as she lives alone in California.

There's really potential for using products like Skype in education, the workplace and personal lives! At work, it would be cool if a learner could use Skype to call me instead of a phone. We could discuss the problem and find a solution f2f in a convenient and efficient way. If this happens, maybe people would begin to see technology as problem solver!