Multimedia in the Classroom

EDKU: 9072Presentation by: Lucas SouthertonAug. 1 Sept. 1, 2014Professor: Rich Kicker

Topic 1: Using Images and Photography

Most Useful Tools:Creative Commons: I've always had trouble finding a good website that my students could use for free legal pictures. This will work great!http://search.creativecommons.org/

GIMP Image EditorA powerful image editor available athttp://www.gimp.org/

PhotobucketA free photosharing website available at http://photobucket.com/

My Photo Projecthttp://s1292.photobucket.com/user/LucasSoutherton/library/KniveMaking?sort=6&page=1My Photo project was created to explain a little bit about my knife making hobby and to showcase some of my favorite knives.

All photos were edited using GIMP Photo Editor. I found that the learning curve was pretty steep, but after I learned how to use my favorite commands, I was able to repeat them quickly and effectively. Listed below are some commands and techniques I used:Crop, Adjusting Brightness and Contrast, Applying Filters

I've had previous experience with Adobe Photoshop and found GIMP to be very comparable.

I had some difficulty finding a good photo-hosting website. Prior to this class, I shared photos with friends and family using Facebook, but obviously this wouldn't work for sharing photos with students.

I first tried to use Picasa (http://picasa.google.com/ ), but that was not available for my operating system. On my home computer, I am running Linux Ubuntu.

I then tried Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/) but was unhappy when I discovered that they did not accept G-mail accounts.

When I discovered Photobucket (http://photobucket.com/ ), I was pleased. I found it to be very user friendly.

Topic 2: Using Audio and Web Streams

Most Useful Tools:Pandora Internet Radio: I've used this before and love it!

http://www.pandora.com/

Online Audio Cutterhttp://mp3cut.net/

I have a hand held audio recorder that I've used over the years and each track starts with all sorts of unpleasant noise as I adjusted the microphone. I will use this to shorten the tracks to just the parts I want.

AudacityPowerful audio editing and recording program.

Available for download at: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

My Audio ProjectI'm a little bit of a musician. I play guitar and banjo and even write a song from time to time.

For my audio assignment, I used Audacity to record multiple tracks to a song I wrote named, Feelin' Good. I had vocals, guitar, banjo, bass vocals, and percussion.

I was able to adjust the volume of each track to get a good mix.

I was able to cut bad parts.

I was able fade out at the end.

I wanted to post my song online, but had much difficulty and never really succeeded. Website such as www.datafilehost.com and www.Filedropper.com appeared to be free. In fact, you could post your files there for free, but then they wanted you to pay for a program to view them. I ended up posting my file directly in Moodle. You can listen to it by clicking the link below.

Topic 3: Creating Videos with Generators

Most Useful Tool:Animotowww.animoto.com

Online Video Generator

Very intuitive. . . something I could do with middle schoolers!

My Video Generation

http://animoto.com/play/tg2Vc6BocPvsjp8ybB560gI made this video to commemorate the birth of our daughter Clara, which happened just a few months before taking this class.

I was very pleased with how easy the website was to use and how easy it was to share. The only downfall seems to be how limited the program is; there were some formatting things I would have liked to change. That said, the more options they provide, the more complex it would become. I think they struck a great balance.

Topic 4: Posting Original Videos

Most Useful Tools:YouTubewww.youtube.com

Easy Posting

Options to enhance your video or stabilize a shaky camera.

Available via password at my school.

OpenShot Video EditorAvailable for Linux Operating Systems at http://www.openshot.org/

My Original Video Projecthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D2HTo_crIg

I made this video to show some of the things that I do at my home to be more environmentally friendly. I've often told my students these things. . . now I can show them.

In the video, I successfully stitched together multiple video clips, shortened most of them, created a fade in between most of them, embedded a still image, and embedded an original audio file I produced using Audacity. Once in YouTube, I took out the shaky camera moves and fitted my image to the screen size used by YouTube.

I took most of my video with my point and shoot digital camera. A problem I encountered was that my video didn't start until about a second after I hit the record button, therefore many of my clips start too quickly and I even lost a bit of dialogue. Armed with this knowledge, it won't be a problem in the future. A bigger problem I encountered was that my computer was very bogged down by trying to process such large files. I have a mid quality duel core processor and yet every operation caused my computer to freeze for several seconds or even minutes. It was very frustrating!

My Take on Moodle and Online LearningPros:The versatility of online learning is wonderful. As a teacher and husband and father, I was happy to be able to do my classwork as it fit into my already packed schedule.

When learning content about multimedia, online learning seems appropriate because you are really learning by immersion. It's like going to a foreign country to learn their language. It can be frustrating, but helps you learn quickly.

ConsIt can be frustrating! There are so many links and there can be so much reading and a person really needs to have some sense of what's important and what is not. Sometimes links don't work. Sometimes navigation is not intuitive. Sometime instructions are not clear and you just want a person to talk to! It's great having an instructor who writes back promptly to e-mails. Thanks Mr. Kirker!