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Technology
Integration
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Part 4: Multimedia in Projects
(Page 2 of 3)
Tools for
Creating and Viewing Media
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Technology Integration is a four part series on essential
questions, technology integration resources, web page design, and multimedia in
projects. Sections contain relevant opening essays and resources.
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Software Tools, Plug-Ins and
Viewers
The following resources include commercial, free, and open
source solutions.
If you are looking for video-editing software, David Nagel (2007a) notes that
this software comes in professional, semi-professional, and consumer
varieties. Free or cheap solutions might introduce students to editing
concepts and get the job done for K-12 school projects, but "the way those
editors work is not the way professional systems work" (online p. 1). So,
you also need to consider the learning outcome of using the software and that
some software, whether it is for audio or video editing, might not provide the
skills that students would need for college level or professional work.
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What is open source software? What
should you be concerned about?
Open source software is "computer software whose
source code is available under a copyright license that permits users to
study, change, and improve the software, and to freely distribute it to
potential users" (K12opensource.org, para. 1).
More and more, schools are turning to open source
software as a way to cut down expenses associated with commercial
software. Many of the programs provide documentation and tutorials
for their use. However,
support, security, integration with pre-existing systems, and track
records of successful implementations in schools are issues of concern
(Nagel, 2007b).
Fortunately, there are organizations
looking at successful implementations of open source and keeping track
of open source standards, hardware, and the better open source software.
For more information, see the following resources:
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Development
and Authoring Tools
 Nedwolf
maintains a database of freeware for Windows, which can serve as a general
resource. You'll find free web development tools, software for creating
portable media, software for online web applications (bookmarking managers, file
storage/transfer, productivity, collaboration, internet/network tools like
web-based email, online fax, online chat), and more--a real find for everyone,
including educators.
Simply Google is a one page
list of all of Google's products and services, including its many
desirable Web 2.0 productivity and collaboration tools, which can be
used in education.
- Office Productivity:
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Google Docs and Spreadsheets is a free web-based program that allows you to create, edit, and store documents
and spreadsheets online with whomever you choose, then publish online.
For a full one-page list of everything that Google offers, see
Simply Google.
- OpenOffice.org
is a free suite with
programs for word processing, databases, spreadsheets, drawing, and
presentations. See the tutorials at
www.learnopenoffice.org.
- Scribus
is open source desktop publishing software. Great for layout
of "newsletters, corporate stationery, posters, training manuals,
technical documentation, business cards," and creating PDFs, including
interactive PDF forms. Page templates, drawing tools, and several
professional publishing features are included (sec: Specifications).
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ThinkFree Online is free software that is compatible with Microsoft
Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). The word processor,
spreadsheets, and presentation applications are integrated with 1GB of
storage, collaboration tools, publishing to blogs, web pages or
ThinkFree Docs (their library of published files), and PDF creation.
Documents can be created online, or uploaded from your desktop.
Documents stored in your online workspace can also be downloaded to your
hard drive.
- Images:
- Adobe Photoshop
- CorelDraw and CorelDraw Essentials (drawing software
- Corel Paintshop Pro
- Gimp is open
source for graphics editing, and includes documentation and tutorials.
It's equivalent to Paintshop Pro and Photoshop.
- Illustrator
- Inkscape is
open source vector graphics editing software equivalent to CorelDraw and
Illustrator. It includes documentation and tutorials.
- Kid Pix (drawing software)
- Paint.net is
free open source image and photo editing software for computers running
on Windows. It has been compared to commercial products such as
to Corel Paintshop Pro and Adobe Photoshop.
- Tux Paint is free
open source drawing software for children 3-12 (preK-grade 6).
- Audio:
- Audacity
is free cross
platform open source software for recording and editing sounds.
Consider it to record MP3s for your podcasts, for example.
- Cool Edit
- GarageBand for Mac users--record your music, and podcasts.
- Macromedia's Sound Edit
- Video:
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Apple's iMovie
HD (for Mac)
- Apple's Final Cut Pro (There is also Final Cut
Express HD at the semi-pro level.)
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Avid Free DV (free for Mac and Windows. Tutorials available.)
- CamStudio (free
open source streaming video software). From the website: "CamStudio
is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and
create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF
Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly
Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)."
- iVideo (free open source for Mac)
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Microsoft Movie Maker
(for Windows)
- QuickTime5
- Toufee is a free
tool for creating flash videos online, including the how to's.
Create directly using your browser; there is nothing to download.
- 3D and Animation:
- Blender is a
free 3D open source content creation suite: model, shade, animate,
render, and so on--use it for 3D interactive game creation, too.
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Gif Construction Set (also good for file conversion)
from Alchemy Mindworks
- General Authoring:
- Astound
- Digital Chisel
- eZedia
- HyperAuthor
- HyperStudio
- MediaText
- Macromedia Authorware
- Macromedia Director
- Microsoft PowerPoint
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Scratch, created at MIT
Media Lab, is for ages 8 and up. The software is
described at the website as "a new programming language that
makes it easy to create your own interactive stories,
animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on
the web." Create characters that dance, sing, and interact with
one another; images that whirl, spin, and animate in response to
movements of the mouse; integrate images with sound effects and
music clips. Best of all is that the software is a free
download. Using Scratch, students learn math and
computation ideas, the process of design, and other 21st
century skills.
- SuperLink
- Assessment Authoring:
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Hot Potatoes
suite enables you to "create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer,
jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises
for the World Wide Web." It is "free of charge for those working
for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make
their pages available on the web." Others can purchase the
product.
- ProProfs.com has
a free online quiz service--Quiz-School.
Create
and customize your quiz. Then post it on any
webpage, including at your classroom website, or link to it from any
webpage. You can create printable versions, too, add
discussion on the quiz, set criteria for passing, and provide
feedback on what the correct answer should have been. Assign
keywords to your quiz for easy retrieval. The site also has a
section for creating flashcards for free.
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 E-portfolios:
- Digication
is e-portfolio software for students and teachers. There's
also a package for schools and districts.
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LiveText
- Grady Profile
software for grades K-20. This one also shows examples at elementary,
middle, high school, teacher portfolios, and their use in special education.
- Open Source
Portfolio "A portfolio owner is provided tools: to collect items
that best represent their accomplishments, their learning, or their work; to
reflect upon these items and their connections; to design a portfolio that
showcases the best selections of this work; and to publish the portfolio to
a designated audience" (Coppola, 2006, p. 5, sec: What is OSP?).
- VoiceThread has
made its premium account available to K-12 educators for free. “A
VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of
media (images, documents and videos).” The beauty lies in the commentaries
that people can add to the media using a mix of voice with a microphone or
telephone, text, audio file, or video with a webcam., making this a great
tool for collaboration and feedback.
- Hypermedia Authoring:
- Asymetrix Multimedia Toolbook
- HyperCard
- IBM Linkway Live!
- SuperCard
- PDF documents:
- Adobe Acrobat--see
Adobe
Acrobat solutions for accessiblity
- PrimoPDF is
free. Convert your
Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and other application files into pdf documents.
You can download the software or opt to upload files from your desktop
to convert directly online.
- Neevia Technology's
Document Converter Express
converts files to PDF or image without having to download the software.
The documents can be converted directly online for free.
- Organizing, outlining information, concept mapping:
- Cmap Tools is the
equivalent to Inspiration and is open source. It includes
documentation and tutorials/videos to help learn how to use the
software.
- Inspiration (grades K-5) and Kidspiration,
both from the same company, help you to create graphic organizers with text and images.
- Simulation development:
- Macromedia Captivate and Dreamweaver
- JavaScript
Compression Tools
Multimedia files can consume a lot of space on your hard drive. Large
files can be slow to transmit or receive over the Internet or via email.
Compressing files reduces their size by eliminating redundancy. By
compressing files, you also can save more data on your back-up disks or CDs, or
other portable media. Popular compression tools include:
Plug-Ins and Viewers
Plug-ins are needed to view multimedia on the web or in presentations.
Pearson
Education Browser Tuner provides a quick check of what browser you are using
on your computer and checks if you have common plug-ins installed from those
listed at their site.
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Authorware
Web Player
- Live Math
- QuickTime Player
- RealPlayer
- VLC Media Playeris a
cross-platform media player and streaming server for a variety of audio and
video formats, such as MP3 and OGG. Available for Windows, Linux, and
Macintosh. Great player for formats used in podcasts. For more
on the file format "ogg" see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg
- Windows Media
Player
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Macromedia
Shockwave
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Macromedia
Flash
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Microsoft
Power Point Viewer -- The PowerPoint 2007 Viewer lets you view
full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions.
- Microsoft
Office Converters and Viewers (Access, Word, Excel, Outlook, and so on,
including for Macintosh users--Search for specific Converters and Viewers in
Downloads). Converters allow you
to open files created by people using different versions of your Office
programs. Viewers provide a means for people who don't
have Office programs to see your work. You can provide them with the
appropriate viewer along with your Office files.
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Adobe
Acrobat PDF Reader
- Adobe SVG Viewer
--Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a new graphics
file format and Web development language based on XML (Extensible Markup
Language). The viewer, which is available for both Windows and Mac
platforms, will enable your browser to display SVG files.
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Cortona VRML
Client works as a plug-in that will enable you to view and interact with
3-D virtual reality models on the Web.
- Sun Microsystems Java --
Many math manipulatives are written in Java and this plug-in will allow you
to interact with the manipulatives.
- IrfanView --IrfanView is freeware
for educational use in schools and universities. This graphic viewer is for
Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003. Its many features include graphics editing
(e.g., capturing, cut/crop, color depth, effects, lossless JPG rotation),
slideshow support (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD), batch
conversion with image processing, email option, multimedia player, print
option, scan support, and so on. A real find for your classroom!
Online File Storage
If you do not wish to take up valuable storage space on your hard drive,
consider saving some of your digital creations online. Teachers might find
this of value, for example, to store files that can be accessed from any
computer. Services include:
Create and store a website gallery of images at:
Conferencing Tools
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Elluminate's vRoom:
http://www.elluminate.com provides VoIP and is a free, Web conferencing
tool for up to three people. It enables users to integrate real-time
interaction into daily activities, including small group meetings and
training, one-on-one tutoring, interviewing and virtual office hours. It
includes two-way audio, interactive whiteboard, direct messaging,
application sharing, file transfer, live web cam, and more.
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VidSpeak:
http://www.vidspeak.com/
This might be the free solution to your personal multiple video conferencing
needs. "VidSpeak is a new and exciting video
conferencing application, specifically designed for your broadband internet
connection. With VidSpeak you can see, and talk to several people at the
same time, anywhere over the internet. All you need to use this application is a
webcam, microphone and speakers. A headset is recommended."
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Creating Media
The Technical Side to Multimedia
HowStuffWorks
provides
answers to questions of interest regarding multimedia and its production:
If
you involve students in creating multimedia elements, you need to consider
levels of difficulty and time for development. As one person, you most
likely will not have time to learn every piece of software you would like to
use. You might consider assigning groups of students to learn a specific
feature of the software to demonstrate to the class, and having those
knowledgeable students help others in the class to develop media. Arranged
in order (least to greatest), these difficulty levels include:
- text files
- active hyperlinks to sections within the same document or to additional
Web resources
- image files
- audio files
- video files
- animation files
- virtual reality markup language files (VRML). (VRML is a language
for enhancing HTML to make virtual worlds on Web pages, such as you might
see if taking a tour of a house or museum on the Web.)
- CGI-data handling programmed files (For more on CGI and Web programming,
see Ovid's CGI Course at
http://users.easystreet.com/ovid/cgi_course/index.html)
Apple Computer Secondary Multimedia Resources: http://ali.apple.com/als/2ndmult/resources.html
includes a multimedia overview, explanations of multimedia elements, the project
development cycle, integrating multimedia into the classroom, a multimedia
glossary, checklists and templates for developing, planning, designing,
presenting, creating storyboards--all intended to help teachers use and expand
student projects. There are links to hardware and software for multimedia
development.
Atomic Learning:
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/tutorials
has a series of free online tutorial movies on how to use such products as Video
Storyboard Pro (offered as FREEWARE software), Mac OS X, Kidspiration,
iMovie 2 and iMovie 3. Each movie is short, lasting from about one to
three minutes. A subscription will give you access to thousands of
software tutorials.
 Berkley Multimedia Research Center: Creating video with Adobe Premiere:
http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/frame/resources/how_to/premedit/index.html
Cornell University Library's Digital Imaging Tutorial:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/contents.html
The Digital Camera in Education Web Site: http://www.drscavanaugh.org/digitalcamera
includes pros and cons of using the digital camera, applications (e.g, ESE, ESOL,
science, math), how to's, sample lessons, and a series of videos to illustrate
what you can do in 15-seconds.
Digital Studio: http://www.soniacoleman.com/index.htm
contains a number of tutorials, particularly for use of multimedia with
PowerPoint. Don't miss the tutorial on the basics of sound. There
are some free templates for PowerPoint, too.
Digital Hotcakes:
http://www.animationsforvideo.com/html/tutorials.htm contains a number
of free video editing tutorials for Adobe Premier, Adobe Premier Pro, Final Cut
Pro, QuickTime Pro, Pinnacle Studio 9, PowerPoint, and Vegas Video.
GraphicsAcademy.com:
http://www.graphicsacademy.com/index.php contains absolutely free tutorials
on color, image design and capture, HTML and web design. A glossary of
graphics terms and file formats are also provided.
HyperStudio Tutorials from the University of Alberta in Canada: http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/edpy202/tutorial/hstudio/hstudio.htm
HyperStudio is commonly used for school-based authoring.
Internet4Classrooms: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line.htm
contains tutorials for several applications commonly used in K-12, including
authoring. Examples include PowerPoint, Hyperstudio, Word, Excel,
Dreamweaver, Claris Home Page, Inspiration and Kidspiration.
Kids Turn Central: http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/computers/htgraphics.htm
contains a series of articles and tutorials for kids on how to make and use
graphics. The site also introduces students to copyright issues.
Kodak Tips and Project Center:
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2/3/38&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=8702
is the best place to learn to work with digital images. Get tips for
taking better digital photos; learn about cameras, digital basics, printing,
sharing, enhancing and restoring; get ideas for projects. The Support
Center offers product-specific and Easyshare software interactive tutorials.
Learninginhand.com:
http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/index.html Tony Vincent
has numerous resources for handhelds in education. He presents details for
learning to create podcasts: preproduction, recording, postproduction, and
publishing. You can also find existing podcasts, subscribe to them, or
listen to podcasts. Of relevance are his links showing how students, even
at elementary school levels, are creating podcasts.
LInC Online: Graphic, Graphics, Graphics:
http://ed.fnal.gov/lincon/tech_web_graph.shtml
contains everything you wanted to know about using, converting, making, finding,
and saving graphics.
Mac tutorials:
www.mac.com/1/learningcenter/
iPhoto, iMovie, Keynote, Pages, Garage Band, and more.
Microsoft tutorials:
www.microsoft.com/education/tutorials.mspx Word, Excel, FrontPage,
PowerPoint, Visio, and more.
MightyCoach.com PowerPoint 2002 (XP):
http://www.mightycoach.com/articles/powerpoint/index.html has 25 free online
tutorials to help you learn PowerPoint XP. Get the basics, learn how to
work with slides, text, images, and showing your final presentation.
Multimedia Seeds: http://eduscapes.com/seeds/
is designed for anyone who wants to learn more about audio, video, and visual
resources. The project contains four main sections: Collections,
Collection Management, Collection Production, and Collection Use.
PowerPoint in the Classroom: http://www.actden.com/pp/index.htm
SBC Knowledge Network Scanning Tips with links to tutorials: http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/beyond/scan.html
Stock.XCHNG: http://sxc.hu/browse.phtml
is a great resource for free photos on just about any topic. If you use
any images here PLEASE remember to contact the artist using the e-mail address
found on the artists page.
Storyboarding from UsabilityNet:
http://www.usabilitynet.org/tools/storyboarding.htm
Tucows: http://www.tucows.com/
Locate shareware for image, audio, video production and editing, and other top
multimedia categories.
Tutorialfind.com: Multimedia tutorials: http://www.tutorialfind.com/tutorials/multimedia/
Examples include Flash, Director, creating video with Adobe Premiere,
AfterEffects, how to's on animation, editing with Final Cut Pro.
TechLearning: http://techlearning.com
posted How
to Embed Video in Classroom Presentations (March 1, 2004). Author
David Pendery includes the steps with visuals to embed video clips directly into
PowerPoint and AppleWorks presentations.
Ulead Learning: http://www.ulead.com/learning/learning.htm
contains a number of product tutorials, and general information about imaging,
video, and web graphics, including:
Video 101: http://www.video101course.com/300home.html
by Prof. M. Trinklein of Idaho State University is a complete video production
course. Complete content is online regarding editing, video recording,
camera operation, shot composition, the lens, sound, lighting, camera mounts,
the TV camera, and TV graphics. This site was honored by the Broadcast
Education Association.
WebAttack.com: http://www.webattack.com/freeware/freeware.html
contains an extensive collection of freeware and shareware for multimedia
development and authoring, such as Graphics Converter Pro (image converter) or LViewPro 2002,
and ImageForge Pro (graphics editor).
Web Site Estates:
http://www.websiteestates.com/ppoint.html Free Power Point templates for
students and educators.
The Web Project 2000:
http://www.webproject.org/ Updated rough guide to multimedia,
a pdf file,
includes the production process and tools. It is located under the section
called "Applied."
WhatIs.Com: Multimedia and Graphics:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/
This site actually contains an A-Z dictionary of technology terms with
explanations of concepts relating to computing fundamentals, hardware, software,
PCs, networking, telecommunications. There are over 350 terms for
multimedia and graphics.
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Media Collections
Clip Art Gallery on
DiscoverySchool.com
Creative Commons contains
databases of audio, video, image, text, and educational materials that have
terms of use already designated, which eliminates seeking permission to use
copyrighted material.
InterWrite
Picture Gallery for Math will shorten preparation time in developing math
projects with their free images of math symbols, geometry shapes, tools (e.g.,
protractor, number line), shapes used in manipulatives, dice, and money.
These are good for teaching lessons related to those concepts, too.
Stock.XCHNG Free stock images
at this site in Hungary from developers all over the world.
The Freesound Project
contains sounds (not songs and compositions): audio snippets, samples,
recordings, bleeps, field recordings, and so on. Some sounds can be used
for scientific research.
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Comments? Are you finding resources at CT4ME of value?
Contact Dr. Patricia Deubel:
deubelp@neo.rr.com
http://www.ct4me.net/multimedia_in_projects_2.htm
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Last revised
02/28/08
To cite this page, use the following format:
Deubel, P. (fill in year from last revised). Technology
integration: Multimedia in
projects [Online]. Retrieved [fill in date] from
Computing Technology for Math Excellence at
http://www.ct4me.net/multimedia_in_projects.htm
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Multimedia
Resources (Page 2):
The current page
has subsections:
See
other Technology Integration pages: