Another use for Audacity

Rethinking Teaching and Learning is serious business and sometimes a break is needed. Here are some of our participants during a well-deserved tea break at Mont Fleur.

On to something different that I learned while having to do some time-keeping at another workshop. A great way to make time-keeping a breeze during presentations in the absence of a watch, or even if you do have one, is to use Audacity.  YES Audacity! Having a watch just means that you constantly have to monitor it and I found it rather distracting as I couldn't fully focus on the presentations. Find a buzzer sound somewhere (online there's lots) and edit it into the time line depending how long you plan your sessions to be. One can do this by hitting the record button and having it run for however long you wish you session to be. All you then have to do is press the play button each time a session starts and the buzzer will go off after, say 15 minutes. Place it onscreen using a LCD projector and you have a visual representation that keeps the time for everyone during a group discussion for example. Of course you can make a bunch of pre-recorded lengths that you could select to play using any media player and get a similar effect. Have fun!!