October, 2008

article thumbnail

Filming in Second Life 1

Nik Peachey

Last Sunday, I was lucky enough to make my debut as an educational chat show host on The Consultants-E' s Edunation Island where I interviewed Gavin Dudeney. In an attempt to capture this moment in my personal history I decided to video record the event with the intention of editing it into a kind of 'highlights of' show. Since I posted the first clip from this on my Quick Shout blog , I've had a number of people asking me how I recorded it and what I used, so I've decided to share what I've lea

article thumbnail

To whom much is given …. imagination and poverty

Connecting 2 the World

It’s BAD day (blog action day) around the world and this year’s action revolves around poverty. BAD is a day when privileged people like me, who have access to a computer and the internet, can add fuel to the (sadly only lukewarm it seems) debate on the haves and have nots, on privilege, social justice and responsibility. We sit down, we tap out our opinions, not without some guilt I suspect, as we sip a fresh-brewed coffee made from clean water.

Course 40
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Text to Speech Movies for EFL ESL

Nik Peachey

Yesterday on my Quick Shout blog, I wrote about a new tool called Xtranormal for creating text to speech animated movies. Since then I've had a little time to put together a tutorial video and think about how to use it in the classroom. First I thought I'd show you what extra normal produces. There is quite a range of characters and backgrounds so the possibilities for creating situational dialogues is terrific and you can also build these scenes into a series, so this would be great for longer

Video 40
article thumbnail

Exploiting a Video Viral

Nik Peachey

For a long time now I've been fascinated with viral marketing campaigns and the way advertisers use these to promote their products. What's really interesting about them is the advertisers ability to come up with really novel and original ideas to capture our attention and make us want to share with others. My Fame Star is a great example of this and one that we can use to create lesson materials.

Video 40
article thumbnail

Enhancing Higher Education with Generative AI: A Responsible Guide

Generative AI holds tremendous promise for all stakeholders in higher education. But guardrails are needed. Strong governance that empower instructors are at the core of a responsible approach to using generative AI in academia.

article thumbnail

Exploiting Image Sequences

Nik Peachey

I have to admit that when I first saw Bubblr , I thought it was just a simple tool for adding speech and thought bubbles to images, but when I started to try it out I discovered that it can do far more than that. You can use Bubblr to search through Flickr images, then drag them onto an image line and create a long sequences of images with text /speech bubbles / thought bubbles etc.

article thumbnail

Twitter Guilt (sort of)

Connecting 2 the World

Image via CrunchBase. Feeling slightly guilty … but only slightly. One of my Twitter followers is a schoolboy; we’re an eclectic lot here! His latest tweet, a minute or so after inquiring about the Genius function in iTunes, told us all that he was thanking the deity for headphones. They block out his ’stupid teacher.’ Yikes!

Twitter 40
article thumbnail

Animated EFL ESL Writing Prompts

Nik Peachey

Here's something that's fun for the weekend and beyond. A site with a collection of image and gif generators that you can customise with your EFL ESL students and add their texts to. This is an example one I created with talking flowers giving a warning about the environment. The site also offers talking squirrels Talking cats And a few other things like tomatoes , owls and a wizard.