LT 731: Multimedia Production
 

Multimedia Production is a course that focuses on principles of visual design, use of sound and color, and hands-on production of text and animated resources.   These resources are for use in educational and training materials for development of interactive multimedia and hypermedia lessons and presentations.

Listed below are but a few examples of different products available.
 

Concept Mapping: Concept maps take information and present in graphical form.  Many students learn better when they can see the connection between different ideas in graphical form. I used Inspiration and Microsoft Word 2007 to create example concept maps.

1) Inspiration Concept Map  - The first concept map that I created I used Inspiration.  Projects created in Inspiration can range from very simple to being very complex.  The concept map I created was designed to show a user new to Microsoft Office what each of the specific programs could be used for.  A new user to Office should be able to look at this and recognize how each program is different.  This would be used in a computer class. 

2) Microsoft Word 2007 Concept Map - This concept map was created using Microsoft Office 2007.  A new feature in the 2007 version is a tool called SmartArt.  This allows the user to create concept maps of different layouts and shapes and also to edit these concept maps.  This particular concept map is designed to help the user determine which ribbon they can use in Microsoft Word 2007 to find different features.  Office 2007 has changed and used ribbons instead of the usual menus and toolbars that were present in previous versions of Office.  The concept map that is provided can not be edited because it was saved back to be compatible with previous versions of Office.

 

Animated Screen Recording: - Video tutorials are beneficial in helping people learn how to accomplish a task if they have little or no prior knowledge of how to complete the task.  Video tutorials work well because they can provide the information in more than one way, for example both sight and sound.

1) Camtasia: Camtasia is a program that allows the user to create video tutorials.  One way it can be used is for screen capture where the user can record what they are doing on their screen and narrate what they are doing as well.  In my example, I look at some of the basics of a what a wikispace is.  This was my first chance to play around with Camtasia and struggled with what extras to add to my video so I kept it simple.  The file size is pretty big as the video is around 11 minutes long so please have some patience when trying to view the video.

 

Photo Editing - Photo editing is a task that has really grown in popularity as digital cameras have become common place.  There are many different options when it comes to software for photo editing.  Two of the more popular software programs are Photoshop and Fireworks.  Fireworks was once made by Macromedia but both programs are now made by Adobe.  Below are some sample pictures that have been altered using one or both programs.  Each of the pictures below is a thumbnail to a bigger picture.  Simply click on the thumbnail to get the full size picture.  All of the pictures also had their file size reduced in order to facilitate faster loading when used on a webpage.  The editing done to the pictures are all examples of principles that I teach in the high school computer classes that I currently teach.

I edited the picture below by selecting the one flag girl and then changing the rest of the picture to black and white so that she stands out. 
I also saved this picture so that the file size went from 120KB to 24.6KB.



Original



After Editing

The picture below was cropped and converted to black and white. 
The file size of this picture was reduced from 121KB to 27.1KB.



Original



After Editing

This picture was cropped and the picture size was also reduced.
 The file size was reduced from 808 KB to 110KB.
 



Original



After Editing

This picture was reduced in size. 
The file size was reduced from 1.38MB to 430KB.



Original



After Editing

 

 

Video Editing - is also a huge hit in software creation right now.  Once again, there are several programs that allow you to work with editing from imovie to movie maker.  Shannon Palmlund and I created a movie on a couple of the problems that we see faced at LP for our teaching staff.  1) How to change the battery, 2) How to turn internet on, 3) How to locate and know what ports are for what. (This movie is fairly large - even after attempting to zip it - so give it some time!)

 

In addition to the above, Mrs. Palmlund and I have created a Wiki space.  We intend to use the Wiki space as a helpful website for teachers to go when they have troubleshooting questions.

Wiki Spaces - A Wiki is a collection of webpage's designed to allow anyone to contribute to and modify it using a simplified language.  Wiki's are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.  It is a helpful space that allows several to collaborate via the internet.