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A Valentines gift for loved ones: capture their stories

February 14, 2012 in Authors, Education, Interviews, Oral History, Skype, Storytelling by msharpe  |  No Comments

Valentine’s day is a great time to begin capturing the stories of your loved ones to share with family members now and with future generations. Maybe your grandfather immigrated from Poland or Mexico or Japan and needs someone to help him remember his days “in the old country.” Perhaps your aunt not only has interesting personal stories to tell, but also served in the Kennedy or Reagan administrations and has valuable public oral history information to share.

Here are three methods to capture your family’s memories and share them with other family members. They all require some preparation, such as sending a letter or email message with suggested topics and questions.

Method # 1 – Meet with your family member in person. Take written notes or record the conversation. This is often the most desirable approach, especially if you have a close relationship with this family member. You can ask questions and takes notes or better yet, record the conversation as audio or video. We recommend recording in-person interviews using Evoca’s phone or online recorder methods. Evoca enables you to organize recordings in your online account by setting up Albums to which you assign the recordings. You can email links to individual recordings or Albums for playback, all while keeping the recording and Album settings at private. Transcription of audio recordings is possible using Evoca’s transcription service or by hiring another service or getting other family members to volunteer.

Hand-held digital audio recorders can be used, although there can be file formatting issues when later trying to share or manage. And recording into a computer is possible with the free software called Audacity or if you are a Mac user, Garageband. You can email individual files but run the risk of losing or misplacing the recordings if not well organized.

Method #2 – “Meet” with your family member by phone or Skype. Take notes or better yet, record the interview. It should not come as a surprise that many people, especially the elderly who do not get out much, really enjoy talking on the phone. Read more

Capturing the Artist’s Voice: Robert Claiborne Morris

February 11, 2012 in Art, Education, Events by msharpe  |  No Comments

The Telfair Academy, one of the three Museums of the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, is hosting an outstanding exhibition of the Slavery by Another Name: Paintings and Assemblages of Robert Claiborne Morris through March 4, 2012. Morris, a Savannah-based artist, was inspired by the landmark book of Doug Blackmon, his friend and former colleague at the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Murem Sharpe, Evoca CEO, interviewed Mr. Morris at the Telfair Academy, using Evoca’s phone recording service, turning her mobile phone into a web-based digital recorder simply by dialing any Evoca public phone number available to all subscribers worldwide. The recording was instantly saved online to share online on any computer, smartphone, or tablet.  Recording phone interviews of people in different locations is also easy to accomplish.

 

The following is an excerpt from the Telfair’s exhibition description: Robert Claiborne Morris began to re-examine his understanding of race in America after reading an early proof of Douglas A. Blackmon’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Slavery by Another Name.” The revelation that slavery continued until World War II changed the way he saw his native South.

Morris began an odyssey in search of the images, objects and artifacts related to this obscure chapter in American history. From Georgia to North Carolina, he examined the junkyards, flea markets and historical societies, hunting and collecting, in the hopes of finding a medium that could both incorporate found objects and project images to better understand the spiritual darkness of re-enslavement.

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Six Holiday Gift Ideas that Promote Language Skills

December 22, 2011 in Education, Language by admin  |  No Comments

Evoca guest blogger Lynda Stucky, CEO of ClearySpeaking, the accent reduction specialists, shares terrific holiday gift ideas that provide fun and language skills exercise for people of all ages.

Are you looking for a unique gift this holiday season for the board game lover on your list?  Whether it is for a child or an adult, a native English speaker or non-native English speaker, building language skills is important for anybody at any level. How about a game that promotes language skill development or vocabulary building and promises hours of fun and laughter with your friends, family or colleagues!

Like anything else, practicing healthy habits and developing new speech and language skills can escalate self-confidence, improve memory and cognition.  If you were told that this process could be accomplished by playing games and having fun, would it sound too good to be true?  Well, it is true.  Here are a few games that will really bring joy this holiday season and build language and cognitive skills!

Mad Gab – an excellent game for learning the importance of stress in words

Taboo – learn to describe an action, idea, or thing using different words

Cranium – develops word finding, spelling, unscrambling, and vocabulary skills

Scattergories – a game that requires you to express yourself quickly

Balderdash – learn to use creative word expression

Scrabble – an all time classic that builds vocabulary and spelling

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Stonehill College Spanish language instructor uses mobile recording

October 27, 2011 in "How-To" posts, Education, Facebook, Humanities, International, Interviews, Language, Testimonials, Twitter by admin  |  No Comments

Sister Tania Santander Atauchi combines her Spanish language skills and cultural expertise about Spanish-speaking countries to educate her students at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. She expands her students’ educational experience “into the cloud” by enabling them to record their language-and-culture assignments simply by using their mobile phones to record from any location.

Students can record, listen, and re-record. Their audio assignments are saved online as MP3 recordings. Sister Tania emails the recordings, with feedback, to the students, who can listen, download, embed in their own websites or blogs, or even post to Facebook or Twitter to share their accomplishments. Their instructor easily registered the students’ mobile phone numbers to instantly save and store the recordings in her password-protected Evoca account, one of several recording management methods available with Evoca for Educators.

When the Evoca team learned that Sister Tania was applying Evoca is exactly one of the uses for which it was built, we wanted to hear more about her background, her work inside and outside of the classroom, and the faith and devotion she brings to her students. Listen to Sister Tania’s own words.

 

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Best-selling author Jim Kouzes speaks on The Leadership Challenge

October 24, 2011 in Business, Education, Interviews, Public Speaking by admin  |  No Comments

When we learned that Jim Kouzes, renown co-author with Barry Posner of The Leadership Challenge, the award-winning and best-selling book and leadership series, had become an Evoca subscriber, we wanted to hear more about how he and Barry amassed their treasure trove of publications, clients, workshops, and online learning tools. We are delighted that Jim has been capturing leaders’ voices using Evoca’s convenient phone interview recording feature and online transcription service.

To celebrate their 25th anniversary of the book’s initial publication, Jim and Barry are distilling their knowledge into a remarkable fifth edition of The Leadership Challenge. Backed by over 30 years of original research and data from over 3 million leaders, The Leadership Challenge is the foundation of their leadership development program by the same name. Their diverse, global client list includes the American Cancer Society, Caterpillar, Cornell University, Herman Miller, Kaiser Permanente, SAS Institute, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

The guiding principle is evidence-based leadership. For example, The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership resulted from an intensive research project to determine the leadership competencies that are essential to getting extraordinary things done in organizations. To conduct the research, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have collected thousands of “Personal Best” stories—the experiences people recalled when asked to think of a peak leadership experience. Murem Sharpe, Evoca CEO, invited Jim to tell his story. Listen in.

 

Accent reduction increases chances for jobs and promotions

October 14, 2011 in Blog, Business, Education, International, Interviews, Language, Public Speaking by admin  |  No Comments

Fluency in English is not enough to ensure that a speaker will be understood. Lynda Stucky, president of ClearlySpeaking and certified speech pathologist, advocates for clear, professional speech in the global workplace. Her company helps her clients speak more clearly and be understood. Good English pronunciation can provide the competitive edge for a promotion, new job, or sale. ClearlySpeaking offers tele-coaching sessions recorded using Evoca, one-on-one instruction, corporate group meetings, and digital media products.

ClearlySpeaking trains individuals with a variety of communication challenges including accent modification — regional and foreign, care of the professional voice, vocal dynamics, diction, grammar and how to speak concisely. Businesses and groups are educated on effective communication skills, the spoken image and vocal hygiene.

In her phone interview with Evoca CEO Murem Sharpe, Lynda explains, “I work with non-native English speakers who have a great grasp of the English language, but they struggle with intelligibility or being better understood because they are not following American intonations.” She adds, “Our language has a very definite rhythm and melody to it.”  Hear examples about correcting Eastern Indian and “Pittsburghese” accents in the Lynda Stucky interview recorded and shared online using Evoca.

 

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How to create a mobile online language lab

September 12, 2011 in "How-To" posts, Education, Humanities, Language, Skype by admin  |  No Comments

Using a high school student’s favorite companion — the mobile phone — an experienced  Spanish language teacher has increased opportunities for her students to learn Spanish and boost performance in the Speaking section of the College Board Advanced Placement [AP] Spanish Language Exam, 20% of the total score. Teacher Irene Zingg reports,”The kids really, really like it!” Students in Ms. Zingg’s Spanish classes are producing 10 times more practice sessions using Evoca.

The students dial a local number from their mobile phone and start talking. The audio session is saved as an MP3 recording into the student’s online album in the teacher’s Evoca account. The student can listen to the recording on any computer, smartphone or tablet and download it to track progress. Students achieve two key language learning objectives: improve pronunciation and think in the language, fast and efficiently. Another bonus: shy students no longer have to speak in front of the entire class. Their mobile phone is their private online language lab, sharing results only with the teacher.

 

Listen to the interview with Ms. Zingg about how she has created a mobile online language lab.

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Simple English News streams audio on iPhones, iPads and Androids

July 29, 2011 in Blog, Business, Education, Facebook, Humanities, International, Interviews, Journalists, Language, Skype, Social Networking, Twitter by msharpe  |  No Comments

Simple English News [SEN] publishes interesting English language news articles with audio recordings to help ESL [English-as-a-Second Language] learners around the world to read English, listen to the pronunciation, and practice it.

Using Evoca’s universal Evoca smart audio player, a listener can playback audio recordings with any smartphones or tablets – including iPhones, iPads, Androids, and BlackBerrys, and any computer. The Evoca smart player automatically detects the listener’s browser type and streams the right audio player – Flash for Androids and other devices or HTML5 for Apple devices. Three other player widget types are available: Flash, iFrame, and HTML5.

Simple English News Founder Sam Margolis launched the website to make the news accessible to people learning English. Sam operates his global website from his new home country of Hungary with this mission: “Simple English News hopes to be what it says it is. Our desire is to make the news more understandable for those who are learning English.”  Margolis is a journalist, language educator, and former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the small city of Papa, Hungary, where he taught English to high school students. His articles have appeared in The Independent, The International Herald Tribune, Wired Magazine, United Press International, The Globe and Mail, and other publications.

Listen to a Skype interview with Sam Margolis about how his career led to founding and growing Simple English News. Spread the word about how to learn English by posting Sam’s interview to your website, blog with the Evoca smart player and Post to Facebook profile or fan page and Post to Twitter features.

Avoid weasel words in public speaking

June 29, 2011 in "How-To" posts, Business, Education, Public Speaking by admin  |  No Comments

TJ Walker, CEO of Media Training Worldwide, business communications expert and friend-of-Evoca, recommends that business communicators delete jargon and weasel words to avoid sounding like “bureaucratic stooges.” “Going forward,” “If you will,” “As it were,” and “To tell you the truth” are among the least effective words spoken by business communicators. At every meeting of Toastmasters International, renown worldwide public speaking organization, the “Ah-counter” helps participants break the habit of adding useless, distracting words while speaking.

Your goal … is to communicate a message in the clearest and simplest manner possible, while at the same time building your reputation as a strong and forceful communicator. Strong and forceful are relative terms, so if you use all of the same buzzwords that everyone else does, you will always seem mediocre. Many businesspeople acquire their bad rhetorical habits at some point during their second year of business school or after having attended their third annual board of directors meeting.

Here are some of the worst offenders:

“Going forward . . .” What an utterly useless phrase. Use “in the future” instead. You wouldn’t tell your teenage son, “Going forward, please keep your room straight,” so why use it in a speech or interview? The sole purpose for using a phrase like “going forward” in a speech is to create the impression that you are saying something fancier than you actually are. So please, going forward, never use the phrase “going forward.” Read more

Toastmasters International veteran speaks and leads

March 24, 2011 in "How-To" posts, Business, Education, International, Interviews, Language by msharpe  |  No Comments

As a Toastmaster Jane Jude’s speaking and leadership expertise has grown exponentially during her 15 years as a member and club officer. Within her first 6 months as a member, Jane was impressing colleagues with her new speaking skills. Jane continues to participate because she continues to learn. Jane notes “Toastmasters is not just about communications. It is about leadership as well.”

Jane is in good company. In the words of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, “Toastmasters changed my life. They really did. Put me on the stage. I don’t know what I would have done without that positive boost.”

From its founding in 1924 Toastmasters has served over four million people, and today the organization serves over 260,000 members in 113 countries, through its over 12,800 member clubs. 

Listen to Jane’s compelling Toastmasters’ story.

Evoca makes it easy to record your Toastmasters’ speech for practice using your phone or computer mic. It also is easy to email it to your mentor for feedback before delivering it.