Item: Two Quick Tips on Using Audacity

Category: Audio Recording, Editing & Resources

At a recent eLearning conference, I spoke to a colleague who said that his office had purchased an audio recording/editing software package.  I asked how he liked it, but it turns out he never opened the package and was still happily using Audacity.  While I am sure there are projects and applications that may need more advanced features, there is not a lot I can think of that can’t be done with Audacity.  The only minor drawback may be that some of the features in Audacity may require additional plug-ins or technical knowhow to do some of the tricks that paid software may handle “out of the box”.  If you are not already familiar with the product, take a look at the brief overview (I wrote some months back—not to mention the tons of information available online).

If you are already familiar with audacity, but haven’t yet “looked under the hood”, here are two quick tips to show you

1. How to set up Audacity for use with MP3 files, and
2. How to make use of the Noise Removal effect

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Item: Firefox Environment Backup Extension

Category: Utilities

It’s not something you often think of but a pc is not just a computer, it’s personal computer.  Think about it:  How easy or difficult would it be to log in and get your work done on a colleague’s machine?  We’re not talking about defeating the password, just being a to figure out what is installed, where files are saved and with what defaults the various programs are set.

While I don’t know of a universal “reconfigurator”, I do know of a great utility that will allow you to move you personal browser settings easily from one machine to another, or reinstall them easily on your own:  The Firefox Environment Backup  Extension.

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Item: Bulk File Renamer

Category: Utilities

I was fortunate to be able to get out of town with “Mrs. Free eLearning Tools” for a few days before the beginning of the new school year. Of course, getting away no longer means leaving the digital world behind. In fact, in addition to our usual day-to-day electronic gear, we also had our GPS and digital camera—the better to find the touristy spots and take pictures of them!

Once the pictures were taken, we had dozens (if not hundreds) of digital picture files—all named “DSC001, DSC002, etc, etc.” As memorable as some of the photos might be, the file names don’t exactly bring “Summer 2009 Vacation” to mind. It’s easy enough to change a single file name, but changing hundreds requires either lots of time and patience, or…something like the aptly named Bulk Rename Utility. (more…)

Item: Pixton – Interactive Web Comic Creator

Category: Graphic Tools & Resources

I never had more than a passing interest in comic books when I was growing up, but several years ago I picked up a book called “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art,” by Scott McCloud.  Fans of the genre will recognize the name, but at the time it was random reading material to me.  As I discovered, the book is an excellent explanation of the form, function, and history of comic art – done entirely in the graphic format it so aptly describes.  It really made me appreciate the art and efficiency of the medium.

What does this have to do with eLearning?  Well, many of the challenges are the same:

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Item: GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

Category: Graphic Tools & Resources

GIMP is an open-source, freeware image manipulation program developed on the GNU/Linux Operating System.  That is to say, GIMP is a free, Photoshop-type program that works on multiple computer platforms.  It wouldn’t even be fair to call it “Photoshop-lite” as it is much more than that.

To put it in context, I recently attended a “Photoshop for Beginners” workshop.  While it was only a two-hour session geared towards the basics, the fact is that I actually used GIMP in the class.  There were a few minor instances where I had to hunt for a tool in the program, but otherwise I was able to complete the same exercises as easily as the folks using Photoshop.

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Item: Twitter

Category: Microblogger /Short Messaging Service (SMS)

For those (one or two) of you who may never have heard of Twitter, take a moment and go to www.twitter.com to have a quick look.  It shouldn’t take you very long to look around the site, so I’ll wait here until you get back.  For the brief overview, click on the [What], [Why], and [How] links on the home page.

Done?  I have to admit, when I first saw Twitter my reaction was, “so what exactly would someone do with that?”  After trying it out for a few weeks, I’ve come to appreciate that Twitter’s intentionally narrow focus is actually part of its charm. (more…)