Web Authoring for Students - In Search of Authoring Tools.
The trend in web authoring software is toward more sophisticated products. Some of the software options we have previously recommended for K-12 web authoring (e.g., Filemaker HomePage, Adobe PageMill) have been discontinued. Companies have either focused on other categories of software or on their high-end web authoring product. You cannot really blame companies for attempting to offer the larger segments of their market more powerful tools or for continuing to add features so that existing customers will purchase upgrades for the products they already own. However, the move toward products of greater and greater complexity may make the products less well suited for classroom use. Cuban (2001) calls this tendency "feature creep" and argues that it contributes to unnecessary complexity that discourages classroom use.
Some companies have made the effort to design authoring environments for the K-12 environment. This T imely Topic describes a product called MedaBlender from Tech4Learning. Unlike most web authoring environments, MediaBlende does not rely on traditional HTML. MediaBlender is really a multimedia authoring environment designed to allow content to be viewed using the Internet Explorer Web browser. Pages are created and linked within a single file in a manner very much like HyperStudio. When a project is saved, MediaBlender both saves the content file and creates a simple HTML page. The HTML coding is all taken care of by MediaBlender. When a Web browser opens the HTML file, the HTML script directs the browser to load a JAVA applet, which in turn loads and displays the multimedia content. MediaBlender content is designed to be shared using the Web, but can also be distributed to other users on disk or CD.
MediaBlender offers one other capability that is quite unique. The software was written in such a way (using Java) that the authoring software either resides on a single computer or can be accessed through the Internet by an authorized user. Internet access allows students to work on projects from multiple machines (different machines in the school building, computers operating on different operating systems) and multiple locations (home, school). This approach is intended to address some of the practical challenges of developing multimedia projects in a school environment in which students rarely have their own assigned computers.
We have included the following picture to help you understand what it might be like to work with MediaBlender. What you see, with the exception of the content page under construction, resembles the user interface and tool set for many of the multimedia authoring programs we have used as examples throughout this book. To understand how MediaBlender is unique, attempt to visualize working with the program within the content window of a web browser.
Image used with permission of Tech4Learning
Tech4Learning offers a preview copy of MediaBlender (save-disabled).
Our Example (Note - this example will not work in all browsers - try FireFox) - This example is based on content we gathered during a recent trip to Australia. Because you must have the appropriate Java resources installed, first visit the Media Blender site, select the preview software link, and download and run the system configuration softare .
Return to Chapter 9