Crazy Talk!!

  Today we looked at the software Crazy Talk. This software gives photographs and pictures voices and their mouths move in time with the speech. Once a character has been selected the speech needs to be added. This can either be done by recording someones voice or by simply typing in the text then selecting an appropriate automated voice. For the character to look effective when speaking, the face has to be manipulated accordingly in order to suit each part of the speech.

  Teachers could use Crazy Talk to tell stories to their class. Children may be more engaged and interested in the stories if a celebrity they like is narrating them. It may also encourage the participation of children who are usually too embarrassed to talk in front of their peers. They could record themselves speaking but use a picture of someone else to represent them. This activity links to English within the curriculum: "I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience. LIT 2-06a" Children will really enjoy playing around with different pictures and pieces of speech. They will also gain a great sense of pride once they see their end results. The disadvantage of Crazy Talk is that it is quite difficult to manipulate the faces to correspond with each part of the speech. This is due to there being lots of different commands and parts of the face that can be manipulated. Children therefore may find this difficult and may loose interest in the activity.

  We created our own Crazy Talk characters in relation to our groups topic of "People Who Help Us" to put on our Wikispace. I decided to use a picture of a Police woman. My groups topic is targeted towards children in the Early Years therefore I decided that the Police woman should recite a children's poem that relates to the Police. I had a cold so decided to type the speech rather than recording myself saying it. Upon reflection, I think it would have been more effective and engaging had I used my own voice instead of the automated one. In future I would always ensure I had someone to do the voice to make sure it was fun to listen to.


My Police Woman(supposed to be in tune to "I'm a little teapot")


 

Reference

Scottish Government (2009, p4) Learning, teaching and assessment. Curriculum areas. Languages. Literacy and English. Experiences and outcomes. Word file: Literacy and English: Experiences and outcomes (558 KB). Available http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningteachingandassessment/curriculumareas/languages/litandenglish/eandos/index.asp [accessed 21/3/11]