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Economists from History Talk about Their Lives

Bringing famous economists and their ideas to life can be a challenge for teachers of economics. Many students, particularly those under the age of 20 years, have little interest in reading about or learning from the giants on whose shoulders the rest of us economists stand. Yet the discipline of economics is rich with great thinkers and characters who have changed the world. The aforementioned Web site allows students to hear some of the greatest and most famous economists describe their lives and their ideas. Students simply click on images to hear economists talk about themselves and their work in accents that closely mirrors what they might have sounded like. The images are animated in line with the audio, giving a real sense that the characters have come to life. Each clip is only two to three minutes long, allowing students to have their interest piqued but without causing those raised on sound bites to become disinterested. The talks are also available as YouTube videos via a link on the main page. The images were animated using Adobe Photoshop and Reallusion Crazy Talk. The audio was recorded and mastered using Audacity. The video was edited using Avid Liquid. The resource is presented using Adobe Flash. Those persons selected for the voice-over audio were chosen with regard to how well they approximated the likely accent of the economist concerned. When students learn a particular economic concept they tend to relate to it better when they have an idea of whom the person who formulated it was. Feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive.