Using Multimedia Tools
This chapter has two broad goals:
- develop a simple system for classifying student multimedia projects
- describe some of the software authoring tools students can use when working on these projects
Use the following questions to guide your study:
- What is an embellished document, and what are some examples that students could create for a content-area course?
- What is a linear presentation or slide show? What are some examples of assignments that could result in a student-created slide show?
- What is interactive hypermedia?
- What options and issues do you need to consider when you choose authoring software?
- How do students' multimedia projects encourage meaningful learning?
I. A system for classifying student multimedia projects (pp. 244-248)
This chapter differentiates three types of multimedia projects:
- embellished documents
- slide shows
- hypermedia
I.A Embellished documents
An embellished document is a text document that has been enhanced with other multimedia elements. Examples might include word processing documents containing images, charts, or embedded video or web pages.
I.B Linear multimedia or slide shows
A slide show might be used as a self-contained presentation or many be used to support a speech or lecture. The multimedia slide show has replaced the use of overhead transparencies in many college classes. While slide shows can be prepared using a variety of software, the term presentation software has emerged to describe tool applications intended specifically to develop these linear presentations.
I.C Hypermedia
A hypermedia project differs from the others we have described in the complexity of the pathways that are available through the information and the degree of control that users can exercise in moving within this body of content.
I.D Thinking beyond the project structure
The focus on different types of project products should not distract teachers from more fundamental questions:
- Why should students spend their time developing these projects?
- How will students gather and transform information as they prepare to generate these products?
- How will the project involve students with ideas central to the area of study?
- How will student projects be evaluated?
II. Software tools for creating multimedia projects (pp. 248-268)
Learning to use the software necessary to produce project products should not be the focus of the experience. Software should either be easy to use or should be the type of tool students will use repeatedly.
II.A General purpose versus specialized tools
General purpose tools have multimedia capabilities. For example, the AppleWorks word processing tool can be used to create embellished documents (this would be true of most word processing programs), but also can be used to create slideshows and web pages.
Specialization implies that a software tool was developed to accomplish a specific task. Software designed to link a number of pictures together into a slide show is a specialized tool.
II.A.1 Creating embellished documents with a word processor
Most word processing programs are capable of producing multimedia documents and usually web pages.
When generating documents, word processing software offers some of the capabilities of desktop publishing applications. Key capabilities include the integration and positioning of text and graphics. What distinguishes these functions is the opportunity to designate areas of the page to contain text and graphics (see the following image). The process amounts to defining a rectangular frame and then placing content (text, image) within the frame.
The following figure demonstrates use of a text frame (Rabbit in the Rock) positioned beside an image.
II.A.2 Creating multimedia slide shows
Multimedia slide shows can be created using either general multimedia authoring tools or tools designed specifically for linear multimedia presentations.
The material provided in Chapter 7 show how slide shows can be developed with a multimedia tool (AppleWorks) or a dedicated slide show tool (Kid Pix).
Kid Pix Slideshow was designated specifically to generate slide shows. The slideshow tool is part of a suite of tools associated with Kid Pix, a popular and inexpensive paint program designed for younger learners (Kid Pix is described in greater detail in Chapter 9). One use of the slide show tool is to create a presentation by combining a number of images created with Kid Pix. However, the tool can also be used to combine images generated with other programs.
The slide show tool is easy to work with. If you look carefully at the following figure, you will note three buttons below each miniature image. The first button opens a dialog box and allows the student to designate the image to be included. The second button allows the learner to record a segment of sound that will be played while the image is displayed. The third button allows the selection of a transition to be used between the presentation of the present image and the next in the slide show. A "slider" below the series of buttons allows the display time for each slide to be set.
Figure - Kid Pix Slideshow Preparation Area
The slide show displays the individual images against a black background.
Figure - Screen display generated by slide show
Putting KidPix projects online
Presentation Software
Presentation software represents an advanced version of what we describe as a specialized slide show tool. Presentation software provides a set of tools specialized for the purpose of helping a presenter communicate information to others in a way that is structured, forceful, and transitory. Presentation software is seldom totally responsible for delivering information and is intended to support the efforts of the speaker. However, presentations software may have the capacity to perform such functions as saving the presentation as a series of web “slides” which would normally not be accompanied by the auditory message of the presenter.
The visual components of presentation images typical consist of a background, text, and possibly multimedia elements. Most presentation programs allow the generation of a master slide. This slide contains the elements common to all slides and greatly increases the efficiency of creating the presentation.
Often the presenter uses a technique called a build and reveals information items one at a time so the significance of each addition can be stressed.
Here is an example showing the master slide and then several stages in the build. The content in this case happens to be a presentation covering the different areas of emphases of an academic department. The build allowed the presenter to first talk about different areas of departmental responsibility.
Additional information related to the tools we describe in Chapter 7 can be found online.
II.A.3 Multimedia authoring environments for hypermedia
A multimedia authoring environment often achieves the following results:
- Integrates a variety of tools frequently used to provide multimedia
- Allows basic multimedia functions to be included in a product without author programming
II.A.3.a eZediaMX
eZediaMX is the authoring environment example used in Chapter 7.
The hypermedia data file in eZediaMX is called a document. Each document is made up of individual frames. Think of a frame as a screen image. Frames can hold a background and multiple buttons, text fields, multimedia elements (e.g., a Quicktime movie), and special objects to allow the developer or user to perform some specified action (e.g., interactive objects, logic objects).
The following frame contains two text fields, an image, and two buttons.
