Pure Opinion by KatsVoice

Open Video Message to my Voice Actor Friends on Facebook - Help me to be a better Groupie

kat@katsvoice.com (Kat Keesling - KatsVoice) — 2011-09-14T04:01:17Z

UPDATE:

I learned that the tip may not work for Director / Actor pages, but it has worked for some... who knows why....

IF you are having trouble, change you can try changing your type of fan page to a listing such as "professional services", "Small Business", or other similar page under a "Companies and Organizations" header.

To do so while on your fan page, click the "edit info" at the top (right under your name) and change it there. You can always change it back if the functionality doesn't suit you.

Also, when the link works and your privacy settings are listed to have your employment public to everyone, it is a link that works outside of facebook, like when you are posting on a blog using a facebook interface. It takes the reader right to where you want them in those cases.

Please comment below with your thoughts and ideas. You are welcome to post your fan page and use this as a place to promote it for this post. It would be great if we took a look and gave each other other feedback and make our connections stronger between us.

FYI:

I used the word "wiki" for some reason to describe those pages on Facebook that are created, but not owned by a specific person or business.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Voice-Actor/120234117993836 is an example of such a page.

Also, I used the terms "Friend" and "Unfriend" for Twitter. I should have used "Follow" and "Unfollow". I'm a dork...sorry.

Don't keep my "Like" under lock and key!

Creative Commons 2.5 License Kat Keesling is KatsVoice, Professional Voice Professional specializing in clients who wish to educate, introduce, soothe, or sell.

You fell for us, and we thank you.

kat@katsvoice.com (Kat Keesling - KatsVoice) — 2011-05-27T22:33:54Z

The concepts of sacrifice and bravery are easier to speak of as an observer.

To honor those who have given their lives in sacrifice for my way of life, I thought it best to be silent and highlight images and sounds for those no longer with a voice to hear.

27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000">

Creative Commons 2.5 License Kat Keesling is KatsVoice, Professional Voice Professional specializing in clients who wish to educate, introduce, soothe, or sell.

What if you are asking the wrong question?

kat@katsvoice.com (Kat Keesling - KatsVoice) — 2011-05-12T03:43:37Z

Imagine you are living in another world, a world ruled by logic where you must solve all sorts of equations and logic problems to survive from day to day.

Out of nowhere and without warning, two doors appear, and in front of each door a computer. Then almost without another moment could pass, the ceiling, walls, and floor fill in the remaining space. You find yourself completely closed into a room with no exit, save for the possible escape the doors may allow.

A voice fills the space with these instructions:

" This is your final challenge.

Choose one of these doors, open it and walk through to the other side.

Both doors are identical, unlocked, and free of obstruction through the threshold.

One door leads to continued life of ease and health, and the other leads to a painful death, and you will not be told which is which.

In front of each of the doors there is a computer. One computer is 100% accurate all of the time, and the other is 100% inaccurate all of the time, but you will not be told which is which.

You may ask only ONE question to only ONE computer so you may make an informed decision.

What is your question?"

Post your questions in the comments if you want to give it a try. The first correct answer will receive a nominal gift from my random box of hooey I keep around.

This story is an adaptation of a story I learned in school. It is not very likely that our life would present us with such a scene, but the story illustrates very well the importance of thinking through your questions with care.

We ask questions probably more often than we may realize. Most of them are very direct with a simple solution requested. Such as, "Where is the restroom?"

Creative Commons 2.5 License Kat Keesling is KatsVoice, Professional Voice Professional specializing in clients who wish to educate, introduce, soothe, or sell.

Pre-K Learning: It's one voice style or nothing

kat@katsvoice.com (Kat Keesling - KatsVoice) — 2011-05-12T03:37:37Z

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

~William Arthur Ward

Photo credit: kconnors from morguefile.com

About a month ago, I received an question via email through ecademy .

The note has been abridged to protect the identity of the author as well as the project details.

Do you know of any research findings or experience to show what sort of voice qualities young children (2 to 5 years) prefer to hear as they learn to pronounce words for the first time ?

As far back as I can remember being passionate about books, I read and researched Psychology. The passion began with some Psychology college textbooks left behind by my older siblings. By the time I was in high school I had a subscription to Psychology Today Magazine for my light reading. I read whatever random research I could find whenever I could find it, and have never stopped.

To be sure, this background is a very important reason why my audio recordings for educational items and products hit "spot on". It's not an accident. It is something no voice coach could teach. It is one of my unique niches, and one so practiced that it is instinctual.

Though I thought I knew the answer to the question, I didn't have data supporting it. I certainly did not want to provide information without verifying it. Otherwise it would be from "The World According to Kat". I sought the information I needed to provide cited research and "language" to answer my prospective client.

I tend to sometimes get caught up in analysis paralysis in my research of things and find out I run out of time to share a lot of my really cool findings here on my blog. Since today is World Autism Day (original post date was in April) , I thought it would be appropriate to share some findings since there is information in this article specific and surprising (to me at least) with regard to educating children with Autism.

The Answer

For most children (aged 2-4), the preferred method of speech that is most effective for learning is something called "Motherese".

What is Motherese?

The term "Motherese" is a descriptor for the combination of the higher pitched and melodic delivery of words similar to "baby talk". The tempo / pace of the words is more evenly spaced - more metered than conversational speech.

The tricky part of the use of "Motherese" in learning is in exaggerating the annunciation, while still remaining connected to the words so the delivery is meaningful.

A trained and practiced voice professional has a command of their speech. An audio expert also can speak or manipulate audio in specific frequencies, which brings me to what I learned while I was researching about children with Autism.

In most cases of preschool children with Autism, there is no human voice considered "BEST" for delivery of education.

To clarify: whether the speaker / narrator is male or female, using a soft or loud voice, the majority of Preschoolers with Autism (aged 2-4 ) will prefer non human sounds and will oftentimes turn away from human sounds in a learning environment.

For many children, the preference is a learning method as far from the nuances of human speech as possible.

Of course, parents of children with Autism or Asperger's Syndrome know this.

They know that the learning frequencies matter with their children. That certain frequencies present in the human voice may actually hurt the child. Pain and discomfort are certainly not conducive to learning, and in those cases voiceover should not be used - This includes TTS (Text-to-speech) technologies where frequencies mimic voice.

It may not only detrimental to hire a voiceover to record an eLearning project or online game that targets children of autism, it could very well be painful!

Professional voice actors, audiophiles, and educators, please let me know what you think of this and what your experience has been with this segment.

Also, if you like this post, share it freely! All of my posts are listed under a Creative Commons License.

Suggested Reading:

Autistic spectrum disorders
Isabelle Rapin, John Libbey Eurotext, 2005

Multomodal Signals: Congnitive and Algorithmic Issues: International School Vietri sul Mare, Italy, April 21-26, 2008 Revised Selected and Invited Papers

Psycholinguistics, Critical Concepts in Psychology, Volume 4, Gary T.M. Altmann, Taylor & Francis, 2002

Pre-K Learning: It's one voice style or nothing by Kathleen Keesling, Of KatsVoice is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at blog.katsvoice.com.

Creative Commons 2.5 License Kat Keesling is KatsVoice, Professional Voice Professional specializing in clients who wish to educate, introduce, soothe, or sell.

Are you a bookmark packrat too? BONUS: Free Image Resources Binder

kat@katsvoice.com (Kat Keesling - KatsVoice) — 2011-05-06T23:06:00Z

I'm a bit of a bookmark pack rat.

Actually I'm a hoarder of open tabs and poorly organized bookmarks, to be exact. My husband once asked me how it is helpful to me to bookmark the entire internet. I gave the crazy eyes and he left me alone to open more tabs and continue on my bookmarking quest.

Along my quest, I found a terrific resource for disorganized organizers like me, and I'd like to share it with you.

Image and excerpts from their site, which is in fact made from a LiveBinder

http://livebinders.com/

LiveBinders is your 3-ring binder for the Web

Collect your resources
Organize them neatly and easily
Present them with pride

Best of all, it's free!

In my view, LiveBinders provide a visual way to organize sites that make sense together, or maybe tell a story. Applications for its use could include collections, supporting sites for lessons, or places you just want to check in on every day.

LiveBinder also allows for collaborative efforts and the ability to add editorial content.

This is a thumbnail that leads to my very first LiveBinder :

OER Images and Image Tools

The content inside my binder is my collection of image resources with flexible copyrights.

Most of these resources are licensed with Creative Commons and are compiled primarily for educators, but I hope some of these will help you in your hoarding of images as well!

This binder also contains places free resources for image editing as well as tutorials for image manipulation. It is incomplete as I am working on it. Please be kind with your criticism on that regard.

The Binders are limited to 2 tiers so there are Tabs, and in many cases in my binder, Subtabs.

If you enjoyed my previous on QR Codes (Dinkleheim Squares) read it now, you may enjoy the LiveBinder on the use of QR Codes in education, here:

QR Codes In Education

I would love your thoughts on how you feel a binder may help you. The LiveBinder was obviously created with the educator in mind, but I can see other ways to utilize this.

Some ideas I thought of:

If you are a trainer or coach, this would be an excellent way to share recommended reading
To save your blog roll in this format for your site.. (I'm considering this)
As a way to keep up with your social sites with notes to yourself on when you should update them.
A collaborative device for all in your :group" or "private circle" to share resources.
For presentations and public speaking events. The binder would allow the presenter to flip and forth when the audience asks questions. They may even allow audience members access to the binder to follow along. Thus aligning with many venues on their paperless requirements so popular today.

I would love to hear your ideas!

Also, if you have any image resources you have in your bookmarks that you would like to share, please do so!

How do you manage your bookmarks?

Do you use a place like Delicious? Or, do you have a system?

The recycling image, and the web image below are part of a fantastic collection I found on one of my World Wide Web Quests. If you work in Education, or like me, work for Educators in ESL and eLearning, please visit Karen B.'s site at http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/

She uses LiveBinder too! Here is just one of the binders she authored.

Art: Paint/Draw/Create Online

I am amazed at the resources this woman creates, compiles, and shares with the community.

Thank you, Karen.

Creative Commons 2.5 License Kat Keesling is KatsVoice, Professional Voice Professional specializing in clients who wish to educate, introduce, soothe, or sell.

QR Codes, Dinkleheim Squares, and what they mean to you.

kat@katsvoice.com (Kat Keesling - KatsVoice) — 2011-05-04T16:15:00Z

I make up words A LOT! It's a thing my husband and my kids have taken on as well. I suspect that's mostly just so they can communicate with the Alien I sometimes am.

I take my language out on-the-road because it's part of who I am and also can sometimes generate some fun random conversation. However, some crabby patties give me the "stink - eye" when I use a made-up word. Usually it goes a little like this:

Me: "I have dog food at the bottom of my cart. Will you Dinkleheim that for me so I don't have to put it on the belt?"

Clerk: "Will I do what?"

They usually are sporting a look on their face that's a cross between what someone looks like right when they realize they are walking into a bathroom after someone else had a BM, and a... No, actually that is the exact face.

To me it is perfectly obvious what I'm saying since it is an onomatopoeia. But sometimes I'm walking away looking like a crazy lady. Well, "sometimes" is an understatement.

Anyway, pretty much any laser or recognition device is a "Dinkleheimer" in my world. And, today I would like to talk not about the device, but rather one of the things that a "Dinkleheimer" reads.

The QR Code, or "Dinkleheim Square"

Dinkleheim Square sounds a little like a place to visit, doesn't it?

Some options for content that the Square may include information such as a physical or link address.

The QR Code was invented in 1994 by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave. The idea was to create a method of bar-coding that would include more information in one high speed swipe to reduce the need for multiple labeling on auto parts. The QR in QR code stands for "Quick Response", which was the ultimate goal in its design.

The QR Code is indeed a bar-code. It is in fact a two-dimensional code that is not only able to carry more data but also run simple programmable functions.

Take a look at its anatomy below:

Up to 7,089 characters can be encoded within each Square
The QR code can be read in any direction; it does not need to be right-side up.
The data is two-dimensional and overlaps vertically and horizontally
If the QR Code get's dirty or ripped, it can correctly recover its data provided no more than 30% of it was damaged or removed.
The QR Code is an Open Source project. Denso does not exercise its patent rights
read more on the QR Code Guide site

And, anyone using a current Smartphone or tablet has the ability to read a QR Code.

Check this site to see if your outdated device can read a QR Code

http://www.beetagg.com/supportedphones/

You may already know about some of the uses for the QR Code, such as this one:

This particular QR Code is used to allow donations to be made instantly via mobile device.

Some people are now including the QR Code on the backs of their business cards, which can be especially helpful at a large networking event.

The coolest thing about this code, is that it is flexible to creativity and is quite functional for promotions, coupons, directions, and even can allow your prospect to email or text you.

Pretty much, anything that you can print on can handle a QR Code. Here are some examples

Billboards
- A great use would be for a hotel near an airport. The QR Code would read a promo code to the smartphone or tablet and allow the person to dial the reservations desk hands-free.

Business Cards
- Have a QR Code printed on the back with full contact information and social network links. Also include the ability for the person with the card to send a text for a promotion or special offer as well as portable portfolios/demos.

T-Shirts
- Can be used at Trade shows when your staff or Organization can introduce themselves personally. "Hi. I'm Tom from XYZ Computing. D'ya want to get a byte?" Also allow the person to capture contact information.

Pet Collars
- In cases where a pet is lost, a person can safely read the code from a distance and capture the pet's name and owner information. Plus, it's just darned cute to see one on a collar.

Bumper Stickers
- The "Tramp Stamp" of your vehicle can allow more complex statements than the usual messages, and even link to a survey for others to chime in their opinions. If you are into placing election statements on your vehicle, we can call those your "Camp Stamps". For business fleet vehicles, they could include How's my Driving reporting more effectively as it would be done hands-free and be more convenient.

Car Magnets
(similar to bumper stickers) - These can include impulse buying promotions. Dominoes can have a code that gets the pizza to their home before they get home. This would work for flower delivery services, Grocery services, and even office supply companies.

Invoices
- The QR Code can lead your client to a page to leave a review. In exchange for a review, an instant promo code can be delivered allowing them a bonus on their next purchase.

Tattoos
- ummm ... yeah.

If you are a fellow Voice Actor, take a look at how visitors of this museum are using their Smart Phones as audio guides Speech Magazine Article

Here are some places you can use to generate your own QR Code.

http://www.beqrious.com/generator

QR Droid

http://qrdroid.com/generate#Contact

Create QR Code

http://createqrcode.appspot.com/

I would love to hear your opinions and look forward to what ideas you come up with. Remember: the QR Code can launch websites, videos, audio, and actions such as email, call, text, or subscribe. If you send me codes you have created, I can follow up with a post with that compilation. Doesn't that sound fun?

Everyone can be Dinkleheiming on Dinkleheimer Squares.

QR Code Guide: QR Codes – History and Technical Background [ http://qrcodeguide.org/14/qr-codes-%E2%80%93-history-and-technical-background/ ]

Speech Technology Magazine: Loquendo TTS Powers Museum QR Codes[ http://www.speechtechmag.com/Articles/News/News-Feature/Loquendo-TTS-Powers-Museum-QR-Codes-75060.aspx ]

Saydotcom.com: How Important Is A QR Code Reader? [ http://www.saydotcom.com/blog.php/2011/04/26/how-important-is-a-qr-code-reader/ ]

QRDroid;What Are QR Codes [ http://qrdroid.com/what-are-qr-codes.html]

Zimbio: Confessions of a QR Code Moron [ http://www.zimbio.com/Cool+Technology/articles/mbEeGevRKVi/Confessions+of+a+QR+Code+Moron ]

Google Places Dashboard: QR Code MIA, Good riddance! [http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/03/23/google-places-dashboard-qr-code-mia-good-riddance/ ]

QR Codes, Dinkleheim Squares, and what they mean to you. by Kathleen Keesling, Of KatsVoice is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at blog.katsvoice.com.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mallox.

Creative Commons 2.5 License Kat Keesling is KatsVoice, Professional Voice Professional specializing in clients who wish to educate, introduce, soothe, or sell.

A better response to the "demo reel" payment

kat@katsvoice.com (Kat Keesling - KatsVoice) — 2011-04-30T19:37:00Z

We have all received the offers of work that sound great at first, but become disappointments when realization hits that they include a sob story, an apology, and the dreaded, "but you can have the finished product for your demo reel" offer.

Oh goody....

Well, I receive them a lot and recently received one utilizing a Pay-to-Play site to find a talent for their no budget project.

"I am a student at [blah blah blah] University. I am working with a group of design students to create a TV spot for a class. We are looking for a sincere voice to read just a few lines for the spot. However, we don't have any budget for this project. I was wondering if you would consider taking on this job for free to help us out? We would credit you for the spot, and send you a copy of the final piece. We would greatly appreciate the help.

Thanks!"

They must know we passionately love what we do for a living so much that we would much rather do it for free than do anything else for money.

You don't have to look too deeply into history to find the "starving artist" . Many expect the label as in some way it must prove our talent and gifts, and perhaps make us famous....one day... maybe?

Anyone who knows me knows my generosity with my voice. I lend it out for causes freely when I believe in what I am doing. However, I am not living in my parent's basement or off of a Trust Fund and have struggled with limitations I must work within to keep my time profitable.

What about those clients that claim they are on a tiny budget, working on "spec" or are themselves "starving artists", or "starving students"?

Some of their requests seem valid, but how do you decide whether they are taking advantage of our passions, or simply asking for much needed help?

Plus, starving students aren't usually as starving as they let on to be. I'm pretty sure I'm eating Ramen Noodles because I have to, and they are eating them because they were experiencing the "munchies". I'm just sayin' is all...

It's a pretty easy decision to make when a worthy cause with a 501c3 designation comes along offering a receipt for a donation of voice. I love those and always give them a good look, because they really are offering a monetary compensation, albeit indirectly. But hey, a write-off is a write-off. Provided I don't have a huge disagreement with what I am recording, I'm game to take a look at the project seriously.

How do you justify a "demo reel recording" as payment when most of this work should never be on our demo reels to begin with?

I mean, amateur work on a professional reel leads to more amateur work, right?

Who wants that?

I believe I found a better solution.

Here is my response.

"Hello from KatsVoice!

Thank you for your message. I am particular about how I donate my services, but do so quite regularly.

In order to work together on a no fee basis, your project must fit my criteria.

1. I must have no personal or business conflict with the project

AND ...

2. I must receive a receipt from a 501c3 Non Profit Organization

OR

3. My work and any subsequent adaptations or remixes of my work remains licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Unported Non Commercial, Share and Share Alike license creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

I would also enjoy a copy of your finished piece as well.

[blah blah].com requires the minimum amount for a project listed here to be $100, and does not allow for donations to be sought or discussed on their site (as far as I know).

Therefore, I posted my quote at $100 + $10 Escrow Fee in the event you cannot meet my requirements to be considered for donated services.

If you can meet my requirements, you may not be able to correspond with me via [blah blah].com. For that reason I have included my contact information below.

Feel free and contact me directly with any questions or concerns.

[closing....blah blah blah]"

For those that aren't aware, the Creative Commons Licensing is a very popular tool for collaboration and it works almost like a "Trust" does. The artist has the ability to license their work in a way to allow generosity, but not wind up broke watching people profit from their work.

I have a recent article written about Creative Commons here . In this post I even created a video built off of others' work to illustrate the CC concept.

Since I do a lot of work in the educational arena, I am amazed at the wonderful freedom this licensing allows, and have enough trust to transfer the concept to a more practical approach dealing with donated services.

I am interested in your thoughts on this approach and invite you to post your replies here or by opening discussion elsewhere online.

A better response to the "demo reel" payment. by Kathleen Keesling, Of KatsVoice is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at blog.katsvoice.com.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/shandilee/.

Creative Commons 2.5 License Kat Keesling is KatsVoice, Professional Voice Professional specializing in clients who wish to educate, introduce, soothe, or sell.

Ukrainian Hymns, Newspapers, Conversations.. and Voice

kat@katsvoice.com (Kat Keesling - KatsVoice) — 2011-04-09T03:26:00Z

When she was alive, my Mom would tell me about how she was pretty sure her kids were all so smart because she talked to us when we were in her belly. She told me how she read the daily paper, magazines and anything she could find. She would editorialize her opinions on the happenings of the world out-loud, rather than thinking in silence. And, she would hum and sing... ah, I still remember hearing her sing.

This is a photo of my Mother standing behind my sister, Lynn. I am guessing that since the candles were blown out on her Birthday cake that she was considering her "Big Wish". I am also guessing that this was Lynn's 4th or 5th Birthday, maybe?

Happy Birthday, Lynn!

My Mother sang and hummed melodies throughout our life with her. My Mother didn't sing in English for the most part. She would sing hymns from childhood and church in the Ukrainian language. They were mostly prayers and usually when she was just moving about the house with laundry, or perhaps when hanging drapes, or arranging things. She would just sing and hum doing the average day-to-day things. She would even sing these hymns while driving. She loved to use her voice. <sigh>

It is not at all an unpopular belief that learning begins well before we take our first breath of air. In fact, it is such a popular belief that many play classical music to their baby bumps. Recent research now supports that infants, even at first cry, have melody contours present based on their native languages.

Looking at the image above, you see that the difference between a cry from a French baby compared with a cry from a German baby. This indicates babies already learned something from the sounds surrounding them.

Of course, Mom saw us as smart even when we clearly were not behaving that way. But, that was her job. But she was absolutely correct in her actions; her talking, humming and singing, did in fact make a difference in how early and how well we learned speech and comprehension. I suppose if you connect the dots, if we learned speech earlier, we understood and related to conversation, and this gave us a great start in school.

Mom talking while we were in Utero was most likely in "Motherese". If you read my recent post, Voiceover in Pre-K Education , you recognize the method of speech, and its significance in Pre-School learning. It is also proven that comprehension of meaning through this same "sing-songy" method of speech is a bridge of understanding.

The "Bigger" sounds and more exaggerated speech provide clues to meaning and helps with language learning.

Since she often spoke and sang in Ukrainian as well as in English, it is possible that it predisposed us to learning additional languages later on.

Also, because my Mom sang and spoke to herself often, we learned to do the same. This practice, especially between the ages of two and five, gave practice to the portions of the brain that is believed to be where mastery of speech occurs. The practice of talking out loud helped with reading aloud with a better control over the rises, falls, and cadence of speech. This goes hand-in-hand with better comprehension skills.

Up until the age of two, it is proven that a child will prefer the sounds of the Mother. They respond to adults they are familiar with, such as the Father, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles as early as a few days after birth. However, there are studies that show these babies do not learn from the TV, DVD's or Radio from other characters or other adults.

If you are a parent considering purchasing these learning aids, do yourself a favor and save your money. Read aloud to your children, or record your own voice if you must be away. If you need any help with that, contact me and I'll give you some pointers.

"Talking with a friend is nothing more than thinking aloud." ~Joseph Addison

For anyone interested in listening to what Ukrainian sounds like, feel free and listen to this beautiful Ukrainian Lullaby. Also, since we are in Lent, it may interest some to view the inside of the Greek Catholic Church where my Mother went to school. My sisters and I attended this school for a brief time in our childhood and can attest it to be a very beautiful and spiritually nurturing place.

Most of this Blog post was inspired by memories of my Mother, but portions were also inspired by the movie, "The English Surgeon". This is a true documentary of a surgeon who travels to the Ukraine to help those with Brain injuries and disease with no access to modern medicine. It is incredible and I recommend watching it. Here is the trailer for your review

Ukrainian Hymns, Newspapers, Conversations.. and voice by Kathleen Keesling, Of KatsVoice is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at blog.katsvoice.com.

Certain images, audio, and video, may be under different licenses. Please respect their copyrights. The below References and citations should be included in their exact format and cited with no changes.

References and Citations for deeper reading

Babies' language learning starts from the womb

(PhysOrg.com) -- From their very first days, newborns' cries already bear the mark of the language their parents speak, reveals a new study published online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings suggest that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, and certainly long before their first babble or coo.

For child readers, 'once more with feeling'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Rupal Patel, an associate professor of speech-language pathology and audiology at Northeastern, is developing innovative reading software that helps youngsters learn to read aloud with more expression in their voices via a novel interactive computer program.

Babies raised in bilingual homes learn new words differently than infants learning one language

Infants who are raised in bilingual homes learned two similar-sounding words in a laboratory task at a later age than babies who are raised in homes where only one language is spoken.

Exposure to two languages carries far-reaching benefits

People who can speak two languages are more adept at learning a new foreign language than their monolingual counterparts, according to research conducted at Northwestern University. And their bilingual advantage persists even when the new language they study is completely different from the languages they already know.

Babble Of Baby Reveals Language Skills

Children have a remarkable ability to learn new languages. As little as five hours of exposure to a second language is enough to help infants incorporate characteristics of that language into their babbling according to a new study.

Creative Commons 2.5 License Kat Keesling is KatsVoice, Professional Voice Professional specializing in clients who wish to educate, introduce, soothe, or sell.

Creative Commons Cool Finds with BONUS Spectrum of Rights Video

kat@katsvoice.com (Kat Keesling - KatsVoice) — 2011-04-05T12:17:00Z

Creative Commons is getting a lot of attention lately, especially in the eLearning arena. I am intrigued by the Open Source and Creative Commons Collaborative efforts, and am always delighted to find exciting resources. I am sharing some of those today, as well as a new video I created with existing Creative Commons material (below) explaining the licensing types and how Creative Commons Licensing is used.

Please add your favorite sites in the comments, on twitter to me @KatsVoice or on my Facebook Page, HERE. I will give you a shoutout on my follow-up Blog Post.

Some "cool sites" that incorporate Creative Commons

OpenProcessing

http://openprocessing.org/ : An online community platform devoted to sharing and discussing Processing sketches in a collaborative, open-source environment.

This is an incredible site, especially for the classroom. Teachers of Animation, Design, Programming and Arts will find the Open Collaboration and varying degrees of skill on this site a treasure. You can't tell me the below image isn't a learning inspiration.

Add images to your coursework and classroom blogs easily with embedding code available on all images in the Creative Commons. Citations made Easy!

OER Commons

http://www.oercommons.org/ : This site announces "Learning is Sharing" ; a short statement that speaks volumes. Like the statement, the site speaks volumes. The information and collaboration here is incredible! There are free textbooks, coursework, and other resources for Primary, Secondary, and Post-Secondary learners.

The OER Commons Wiki http://wiki.oercommons.org/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page

is where the work behind the massive library or textbooks, lesson plans, syllabi, and lecture materials.Join in the discussion and become a contributor to this great site,

The OER Commons Wiki is an initiative of

The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education

Creative Commons

http://www.creativecommons.org : It may seem silly or redundant to list the main Creative Commons site as a "cool find", but it really is quite cool. The reason I believe it is cool is because it is not only a terrific hub of information about the licensing options available under the Creative Commons label, it is a search engine for Creative Commons works. http://search.creativecommons.org/

If you need help in deciding what license is right for you, there is an easy form that walks you through the options http://creativecommons.org/choose/.

I can spend all day on this site. (Actually, I have) , and recommend it.

I found the cartoon Spectrum of Rights on the Creative Commons wiki, and Created a new work with it to illustrate not only the content, but practice modifying Creative Commons work while still allowing it to be taken for further collaboration.

Creative Commons Spectrum of Rights Video by

Kathleen Keesling, Of KatsVoice; Neeru Paharia; Ryan Junell; Matt Haughey; James Kirsch

is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at

wiki.creativecommons.org.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsJEObldYkQ.

Creative Commons 2.5 License Kat Keesling is KatsVoice, Professional Voice Professional specializing in clients who wish to educate, introduce, soothe, or sell.