Recently in Multimedia Category

I'm working on posting a media-rich for the fall (images, video and text), and I really have a new appreciation for the cheapness of text. What do I mean exactly?

• Text files are much smaller than media files
• Software to edit text files is cheaper
• Far more people (e.g. instructors) can edit text than edit videos/images
• It takes much less time to edit text for the Web than videos/images
• Less time for accessibility is needed because text is almost accessible by default (it's those pesky fonts and colors that cause problems)

A text-only document is almost always easier to deal with.

So why do I bother with video and images? Because they really CAN convey information in a way that text alone cannot. Even the thermodynamics instructor I worked with commented that she couldn't remember how she got through the old thermodynamics books without the "modern" graphs that apparently "only" the Net Gen audience find so useful.

But it's an expensive proposition. That's why crabby instructional designers sometimes ask if the budget is there for that particular graphic – each one takes a lot of time and energy, usually from a rare, skilled specialist. We want to be sure the effort is worth it, and when it is, it's magic!

P.S. 1 – One thing I like about the Digital Commons is that they are geared towards teaching everyone key video skills. But I bet people quickly find out many hours are required – I think most enjoy it though.

P.S. 2 – Borrowing Creative Commons licensed media is great too...when you can find the right file. In one course lesson, I've only been able to borrow directly 3 times, modify 4 times and the rest (25+) had to be created from scratch.

My colleagues commented that some of the sessions were mislabelled (see below), but I was actually satisfied with what I got to see - which were some interesting examples of how new technology is playing out in the classroom

Maps & iPhone

Probably the presentation with the newest tech was Columbia's iPhone project for mapping African American historical places in New York City. This was one which has been evolving over time for them. First that added some text, video and images (borrowing heavily from the NY Public Library archives), then they added a Google Map overlay...and then the iPhone. More interestingly, the entire site was built in Movable Type - but they did a lot of clever manipulation of the templates to make less of a blog and even more of a content managment system.

MAAP: Mapping the African American Past
http://maap.columbia.edu/

Because iPhone already works well with Google Maps, they did not need to add too much to the backend, although they did create a Movable Type template which generates an iPhone friendly version for each page - if you go the Web site on an iPhone, you will go directly to the maps.

I had been seeing educational applications, especially for museums, incorporating mobile phones with GIS data, but this is the first iPhone version. It looks like the iPhone is that smart phone in the U.S. with wide enough acceptance to make it worthwhile for a U.S. academic institution. At Penn State, I know there are a few applications in agriculture and sciences as well as history. At one point, we had been thinking of using a guided tour of Penn State landscape features via a Palm Pilot, but this could be easily ported to the iPhone.

Mapping in the Humanities

As if that weren't enough GIS, I went to the Mapping in the Humanities session lead by a panel of Princeton professors. This was a good panel if you were interested in some of the guts of GIS manipulation. For instance, we got a quick demo of ESRI.

I have to admit that for humanities, the big question is how you handle historical maps. The answer is that you use "custom tiles" from the Google Map API to build your own world. Apparently the historical maps of Venice are too difficult to align with modern Venice satellite maps even though both are fairly accurate.

The most memorable classroom application was a course in which students were able to travel to Venice over spring break and make blog entries about different historical sites. Another semester they got to go to Crete (and report on Venetian sites there). Myself, I'm thinking we can document some sites in Pine Grove Mills or Bellefonte.

Decision Making Seminar (actually Games)

The most misleading label for a session was probably the one about "Decision Making" in different courses (doesn't that sound exciting). Surprisingly this was a session about GAMES (I actually hit the motherload). This presentation was done by a group out of the University of North Carolina Greensboro, who admitted that they had a lot of (ahem) budgetary support from the Provost, so everything was very WOW.

The highlight was a course in economics which was constructed as a game where students in the post-apocopolyptic Earth have to re-establish mini trading economies. Fortunately, they get rescued in the end. One module that was especially interesting was a game where students had to allocate resources to rescue a neighboring community from an incoming hurricane. Clearly, this game could have applications beyond economics, so the group said that they made it portable so that it could be adapted for other courses...good forward thinking.

For a preconference tutorial, I chose to go to the Quicktime Pro (QT Pro) seminar, partly because I have been working with a lot of video material lately. The thing I like about Quicktime Pro is that it has a lot of basic functionality (trimming, extraction, rencoding, captioning, etc) but it costs only $30. I'm not a video professional, but I do sometimes have to go in do some basic media edits. From a budget point of view, it's much easier to justify a license for QT Pro than say for Premiere or Final Cut Pro (although I hear there is Final Cut Express out there....)

In addition to the basics edits, I learned some interesting tricks. As I was so recently reminded, video takes up a heck of a lot of file space, so anything you can do to reduce file space is always a plus. One auch application was a basic slideshow which is basically a built-in script to show a series of JPEGs. The file then is only slightly larger than the sum of the JPEGs - very handy.

I also learned a whole lot about the mechanics of captioning. I'll still leave captioning to the experts, but for a quick fix, know that you may only need to adjust a text file and reimport it could be very handy down the road.

I understand that QT Pro also uses sprites to support custom skins, interactive buttons and so forth. Our instructor even mentioned a solitaire game. QT Pro won't be replacing Flash anytime soon, but at $29.95, it may be a very handy tool for some instructional designers with serious budget issues.

The World Atlas of Language Structures Online (http://wals.info/feature) from the Max Planck Digital Library is a great new resource that maps languages with phonological, morphological or syntactic features.

I wrote it up in my linguistics blog If you've ever wondered which continents have tonal languages, go visit http://wals.info/feature/13.

I love that all the data sources are cited and that you can export map data as XML or KML (for other GIS programs) - I could recreate a version for myself if I wanted. My only recommendation is to shrink the size of the icons to 10.

Given certain recent events, the issue of how to pronounce the name of foreign names came up in the news, so I did some research.

It turns out that the Voice of America has a guide to how to pronounce names in the news with Audio snippets
http://names.voa.gov/DailyAction.cfm

If you need a name from a few years ago, try the search interface in
http://names.voa.gov/

I love the concept of audio (especially iTunes), but I've noticed that there are about 4 volume controls you can screw up in a typical set up.

The minimum number is 2

1) The desktop volume control
2) In the media player (e.g. Quicktime, iTunes)

If either is lowered, then you have no sound.

But if you're a student in a lab, then you have headphones which means you're up to 3 places to troubleshoot. if you're headphones have an independent volume control (that little slidey thing).

1) The desktop volume control
2) In the media player (e.g. Quicktime, iTunes)
3) Headphone volume (little slidey thing)

Or...in my case, my headphones connect to external speakers which have a volume control.

And if I switch to USB headphones for Breeze, I have to go into my control panel to set the input/output correctly. So, if I'm on Breeze on my headphones plugged into my speakers... I have FIVE (5) places to check

Five Places Audio can Die in Breeze

1) The desktop volume control (which will bast sound when laptop is remote)
2) In the media player (e.g. Quicktime, iTunes)
3) Headphone volume (little slidey thing)
4) Speaker volume - so I can have one speaker for 2 computers
5) Control panel for input/output settings

This is a classic usability problem. You should have one master control (I suggest the desktop volume) and that's it.

Now can all the audio controls listen to each other and manage it?

Popular Mechanics has a cool demo of the cutting edge "multi-touch computing" technology from Windows and other vendors (including Apple's iPhone).

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html

Basically it's a computerized table top with a touch sensitive screen that lets you shuffle your digital library collection, zoom in and out on virtual maps and even suck photos from your compatible digital camera. You might even be able to do virtual jigsaw puzzles and board games. In vertical mode, it looks like it can pool off the on the coolest Power Point presentation ever - it would be great for demos.

Educationally, I can see the engineering and digital design folks getting very excited about this. It might be good for some project management tasks as well. If you can implement the digital napkin feature at local restaurants, you might strike creative gold.

As NY Times tech guru David Pogue notes, it won't replace your keyboard or digital pen, but then again the laptop hasn't really replaced my flatscreen TV yet either.

It's definitely the kiosk of the future. I really can see a day when everyone will want one of the smart "card tables" in every house...along with their laptop and cell phone.

This is an online version of Lloyd Rieber's chapter on reviewing research on educational animations and simulations from the Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning.

Although it shows that physics animations can be effective, there are some interesting caveats to consider:

1. Simulations need to be combined with structured explanation (even a short text was better). That is students, especially at beginning stages, may not be able to use discover learning alone.
2. The more advanced students became in one physics came, the LESS they preferred graphical feedback, preferring text instead. In this case, text may have been more "precise" than graphics.
3. It also seems likely that graphics with text together was preferable to placing them in separate locations.