Archive for the ‘e-Learning’ Category

How to Direct Yourself in Your Home Recording Studio

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Workshop: Voice-Over Self-Direction

(I am please to promote an upcoming voice-over workshop to be held in Orange County, California, and facilitated by my VO coach, Beverly Bremers. With her permission, I’m publishing her announcement word-for-word. I am not receiving any remuneration nor benefits for promoting her workshop.)

SELF-DIRECTION

HOW TO WEAR 3 HATS IN YOUR HOME STUDIO

The voice-over industry has changed in these past few years and voice casting on the Internet is one of the main ways to audition and get work. Now acting skills are not all that you’re expected to possess. You need to be able to engineer and direct yourself as well, in that secluded place known as your home recording studio. That means you must wear 3 hats and you must be able to wear all 3 equally well. But not at the same time!

Image of a woman wearing 3 hats.YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO ACT!

YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO DIRECT YOURSELF!

YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO ENGINEER, TOO!

So….Beverly Bremers is offering a workshop to help give the guidance you need to accomplish these tasks. This 2-hour workshop will show you, the voice-over “engineer”, how to get decent sound and edit your auditions and jobs so that they sound professional.

AND she will help you, the voice-over “director”, listen to your work objectively with your director’s “ears”, to produce a satisfying, professional result.

Image of Beverly Bremers coaching a voice over actor.

Beverly Bremers coaching a voice over actor.

Held at Bev’s home studio in Mission Viejo.

If you’ve set up your studio, then this is the next valuable step in your voice-over evolution.

Fee: $40.00.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 3 -5 PM

Email bev@beverlybremers.com or call 949.874.0616 to reserve your place. Hurry – class size is limited to 6 people. Hope to see you!

Bring a USB flash drive to class if you’d like to save your work and take it home.

Also available: Voice-over demos, singing, accent reduction and songwriting.

Visit my websites:
www.beverlybremers.com
www.voicercise.net

~Beverly

Photo Attribution

Maria’s Three Hats by Mendy Texas, used with her permission.

http://mendytexas.blogspot.com/

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Hardware for Voice Overs, Audio Narration

Voice Over Audio Narration for e-Learning

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Blissful Blogging as a Featured Blogger

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

I’m a Featured Blogger

The global learning community collaborates in ways to help us all learn and improve our performance. Locally, Escoe Bliss, a professional resources company in Irvine, California, invited me (and others) to write posts for their “Blogging with Bliss” blog to help their community in many ways. (Note: We write on a pro bono basis; we’re not paid.)

January’s post by me:
Why Use an e-Learning Consultant

February’s post:
What to Look for in an e-Learning Consultant

Collaboration and networking… sharing knowledge… it builds our professional communities. So does knowing local talent and spending face-to-face time with them in this ever-increasing, virtual or social networking world. I know both Adrienne and Jolynn, and they are two of the nicest, and very talented professionals you could meet. So, please do!

Please meet:

Adrienne Escoe, President/Owner

Jolynn Atkins, Manager of Business Development

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PowerPoint 2007: Designs for e-Learning v.2

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

You Can Still Design with PowerPoint 2007

Eleven months ago today, I wrote a post on the new design elements and features in PowerPoint 2007 (2008 for the Mac) that allow you to create visually effective designs and templates for your e-learning courses. You can use these PowerPoint templates in both your Articulate and Adobe Captivate e-learning project files.

More PowerPoint 2007 for e-Learning Templates

A few days ago, a colleague on Twitter posted a link to a simple Web page. When I clicked the link and visited the page, it seemed to speak to me: “Turn me into an e-learning design.” So, I did, and created a brief SlideShare presentation to demonstrate it to anyone who can use more ideas. Now, don’t be fooled by its simple design. You can do so much with the basic framework and modify it to meet the needs of your learners, the business (or academic institution), and the learning content that will fill the screens.

My Samples On SlideShare

My SlideShare.net mini-presentation describes just one design idea. Please note that I respect Copyright issues, and the rights of designers. My mini-presentation simply shows what you can do using only PowerPoint 2007/2008 elements plus importing a few photo image files. (My thanks to Bryan Jones – @elearningArt – for the free image files package!)

Why Give Away Design Ideas?

The global e-learning community gives, gives, and gives again. We all share the same passion, and we share what we learn and what we create with each other. Visit various blogs and Twitter pages authored by e-learning colleagues. Go to the community forums of the various e-learning software tools. If you have some favorites of your own, please share them in the Comments section.

And, my first SlideShare.net presentation on PowerPoint designs for e-learning still exists!

Visit: PowerPoint 2007 e-Learning Screens

“Always learning….”, and I welcome your design ideas!

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Thoughtful Thursday on Twitter

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Learning Resources Shared on Twitter

Thursday, January 7, 2010, was a busy one on Twitter. The learning-focused tweeps I follow tweeted a ton of interesting URLs. I almost couldn’t keep up, even with TweetDeck’s help. So, for my personal learning and for my PLN (Personal Learning Network… you!), I’ve listed the URLs here so I can review them as I have time. I hope they’re valuable to you.

Instructional Design

Designing One Hour of Training

@kkapp

http://www.astd.org/LC/2009/0809_kapp.htm

Designing “meaningful benefit” into Courses

@___ who was it? Ping me and I’ll give you credit.

http://jmajor.midsolutions.org/?p=611

Is this Instructional Design?

@cmalamed Connie Malamed, The e-Learning Coach

http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/is-this-instructional-design/

Predictions for 2010

@elearnmag  e-Learning Magazine

http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=106-1

L&D Still Stuck in the Course Paradigm

@c4lpt also known as Dr. Jane Knight

http://janeknight.typepad.com/pick/2010/01/ld-still-stuck-in-the-course-paradigm-how-can-we-change-things.html

Blogging

@tomkuhlmann of Articulate shared a resource that converts blog posts to audio:

http://hearablog.com/

Graphics: Transparent Backgrounds

As developers, we often need to edit image files by knocking out the existing background to create a transparent background. These Articulate tweeps (Brian and David) shared their screen casts:

@articulatebrian How to use Artweaver

http://screenr.com/T5S

@elearning How to use Aviary

http://screenr.com/9aS

How to Use Icons to Support Content in Web Design

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/03/how-to-use-icons-to-support-content-in-web-design/

Mobile Learning

The e-Learning Guild’s Mobile Learning Conference (San Diego, CA)

@GuildMeister Got the word out to all mobile learning fans

http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.1486

Moodle

MoodleMeet on Ning.com

http://moodlemeet.ning.com/

WritersUA User Assistance Tools Survey – 2010

@stcsandiego

http://www.writersua.com/surveys/tools10/index.html

Giving Back

Last, But Not Least: Microplace.com

@____? don’t remember who. Ping me and I’ll give you credit.

https://www.microplace.com/

You can help others by making microloans to very small, family businesses. Now, that’s a nice way to end this post! :-)

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The Big Question | December 2009

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

What Did I Learn About Learning in 2009?

December 2009’s “The Big Question” at ASTD’s Learning Circuits blog asks learning professionals wbigquestionho blog to go back through our blog posts over this past year and look for any “aha moments” or highlight the posts that were the best/most interesting.

Um, this is a challenge for me. Outside of a few of my local ASTD chapter peeps, I really don’t know who reads my blog. I’ll get a new Commentor or a surprise e-mail message once in awhile, where someone I don’t know writes that they enjoy my blog post very much. I’m taken aback that they found me, and yet humbly pleased that they took the time to write and express their feelings.

So, I enjoy writing for my blog, but I don’t view it as “some big thing”. Therefore, this month’s The Big Question” intimidates me a little bit. But, out of respect for ASTD, I’m going to try. So, here goes.

My “Aha” Learning Moments

  • Voice-over narration, quality narration, is an art that takes coaching and practice. It’s acting, and it doesn’t come overnight. I learned that my coach, Beverly Bremers, can help me be the best I can be with this fun avocation.
  • Informal learning: I’m learning that I need to enhance my informal learning methods by formally capturing those “aha” moments. I’m open to ideas. How do you capture or memorialize your informal learning? Is blogging about those moments enough?

Thanks, Learning Circuits, and an early Happy New Year to the readers!

(Please feel free to write a Comment. I apologize that I moderate, but if you’re not a spammer I’ll approve you.)

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