CA4.1 - notes for my initial group input

17 Oct 2008, 10:40

Edited by Jose Martel Penate, 17 Oct 2008, 10:52

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Point 1 of the CA4.1 instructions/brief states, "Form small groups of about four to six students. Use the course forum or the course wiki to compare multimedia skills amongst the group members, and to find out who is in a position to offer help."

- In two forum messages (see highlighted text in messages below) I pointed out that I have a limited amount of experience creating and manipulating audio and video. I have mainly used Apple/Mac computers and free (Mac) compatible software. This means that my experiences may not be of direct use to others who are pc/Windows users. I did try (and will continue to endeavor) to give general advice and suggestions in any areas I can help. And by the way, I think all - or nearly all - of the free software I mention has Windows versions.

Point 3 of the CA4.1 instructions/brief states, "Read the Penn State material on what constitutes evidence of learning and contribute to a discussion in your tutor group about this, both your own learning and that of your students (if you have them)."

- I read the Penn State material. It gives basic, though (still) useful, advice on what type of files to use in a (Penn state) eportfolio:

.pdf files
- Portable Document File (PDF - not to be confused with Personal Development File, also shortened to PDF in some papers). Using a pdf helps ensure that the viewer of a document will see it as the creator of the document intended; e.g. formatting issues will not arise. The Penn State material seems to suggest that in order to create, read/view, print or store pdfs one needs Adobe software. Though Adobe continues to be a (the?) leading pdf developer, there are many software developers that offer pdf tools. Adobe and others offer free basic versions of pdf software. However the ideal pdf tool for each individual can only be found after trailing various options. I normally use Mac's own pdf solution, Preview, to read most pdfs, although I do have the latest Adobe reader installed. I also have the free pdf annotator, Skim, installed and use it as a very flexible solution for adding notes to/highlight/underline/etc pdfs.

Publishing images to the web
- The Penn State paper notes that web browsers handle GIF and JPEG images well (this information may be outdated - are there other equally good/better file formats?) and details the main differences between GIF and JPEG image files. I've never published images to the web but I have edited images, again, mainly on my Mac (using iPhoto). Usually I have never done more than crop images or perform some basic enhancement (straighten, adjust brightness or contrast, etc.). Also, I've always worked with jpg files (on my Mac "JPEG" is called "jpg"), or converted files to jpg for ease of use/compatiblity with Windows users, e.g. my screen grab/screen dump/screenshot application/software produces TIFF files. I've never really worked with image metadata (e.g. the date a photo was taken; the camera used; the settings used) - largely because importing images (e.g. my digital photos) directly into iPhoto causes iPhoto to handle metadata in the background and display more-user-friendly "tags" - and as long as I can view a photo I'm not that fussed about the image quality.
- I've used iPhoto to create digital photo-books of still images that can be presented as a slide-show with the optional incorporation of the optical sensation of movement (i.e. a video compilation of still images that uses the Ken Burns Effect to give the sensation of movement/video - "give life to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another", Wikipedia).

Sound as evidence
- The Penn State paper gives ideas for using sound as evidence, from simply recording an event, to linking to an audio file, to embedding sound into a webpage. Using Mac's GarageBand software - according to the blurb, Mac's "personal recording studio" application - I could record/compose/compile music, podcasts or sound effects. I've never really used it for more than an hour or two when getting my hands on a new mac (I have 3 now), and then I hide the application away never to be seen again. I could dig it out but I seem to remember that it looked quite complicated (though it's probably not if I understood a little about making music) and I think I'd prefer to use my video application, iMovie, to replace the sound track to videos or superimpose sounds or add a voiceover.
- Linking the H808 podcast was the first audio linking I've ever done, and I've never embedded anything into a webpage.
- There's free audio conversion software called Switch that I've used in the past to convert music videos (mp4 and WMV (Windows Media Video file)) to mp3. It can convert loads of other file types as well.

Video as evidence
- The paper gives basic information on making video clips. It actually mentions iMovie as an application to use. I have used iMovie to edit video and extract still images from video. Some months ago I imported AVI video taken by my father's JVC cam into iMovie, but for some reason the sound was lost. Later I learnt to strip the audio from a copy of the original video clip using Switch and added the sound track to the video using iMovie. Currently I use iMovie to edit short video clips of my baby daughter, captured using a Canon digital camera with SD card storage. The camera produces .MOD files which I used to convert to .AVI files by simply replacing the file extension (i.e. delete "MOD" in the file name and write "AVI" in its place), then I could view the files using VLC, but with no sound. I later learned to upload the MOD files directly into iMovie which converts the video into a QuickTime Movie (.MOV file). The problem with the MOV file is that it's quite large, and I can't view MOV files on my mp4 player. So I learnt to use DivX Converter to make smaller files that are viewable on my mp4 player. By "learning to use DivX Converter" I mean that I "dropped" a MOV file in the DivX Converter window and sometime later out popped the converted file.



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From: Jose Martel Penate 16 October 2008 15:22:26
Subject: My podcast
To: H808 08I Tech and Skills

Hi all,

I've shared 24 seconds of video (a podcast) of my little baby daughter. The video should be viewable on Windows iTunes. If you don't have iTunes then you could try downloading a great free media player called VLC. It will play most formats you're likely to come across (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/).

By the way, it took me 10 minutes to put together the video. That includes selecting the material, editing it and uploading it.

My podcast url: http://media.switchpod.com//users/jm4298/forH808podcast.m4v
Or the "feed" : http://www.switchpod.com/users/jm4298/feed.xml

Jose



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From: Jose Martel Penate 17 October 2008 02:59:51
Subject: Reply to Keely & Nigel S re my podcast
To: H808 08I Tech and Skills

Hi Keely and Nigel,

Thanks, my little baby daughter is lovely!

Yes, there is sound Nigel, you may have to turn the volume up on your player/computer - though you don't hear my daughter laugh (and she squeals or shrieks more than laughs at the moment), you'll only her mother making silly sounds for our daughter's amusement.

I would love to be able to offer you (all) some advice with this but I'm little more than a semi-experienced user myself. The great benefit that I have is that I'm using a Mac computer. Part of the basic software package that come with a Mac are sound and video editing programs. These programs are very intuitive for basic functions, and with the more advanced functions users can put together a music album or a full-length feature film.

All I can say is that Weller's instructions ("Create a podcast" at http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/resourcepage/view.php?id=90977&direct=1) for making an audio-podcast seem overly complex - of course this in order to try to help the very inexperienced student. But in essence - and while still holding out for confirmation from Helen - (I think) all you need to do is make an mp3 sound file.

This would mean that you make a recording and if it's not an mp3 file you convert it to mp3 using one of the many popular and free audio conversion programs. I often use Softpedia to find free software (http://www.softpedia.com/). Softpedia have different areas for Mac, Windows and Linux. I tend to go for software that has been downloaded by many people over a number of months - I also might do a google search to see what user reviews I might find - these steps are intended to try to filter out buggy software and select something that works and is useful. Once you have the mp3 file you upload it to Switchpod.

For the video-podcast, I used my Mac's iMovie application/software. I clicked to start a New Project and selected the 4:3 aspect ratio for the finished video (other viewing ratios are mobile phone (3:2) and widescreen (16:9)). I selected 1 clip from video I already had and put it into the New Project area. I selected another clip and placed it next to the 1st clip. I named my project and exported it (made it into a file I could email) as a medium sized video (viewing area of 640x480 pixel resolution) suitable for viewing on computers and that still has a smaller file size (4.8MB). I then I uploaded the file to Switchpod.

On the Mac it's all very easy, but you're using pcs with Windows.

If you do try to experiment with video, I'd suggest:

- never use an original valuable source/file, always use copies to play around on

- don't worry about content, just try to learn how to do it

- keep file sizes small! ("Small means quick": quicker response from your computer - less time waiting for processes to get done; shorter upload/download times; etc) Especially for experimenting, make short videos that have a small viewing area (see above), and opt for lower quality resolution if you know how (the lower the resolution, the smaller the file size)

- if you don't have a video camera (remember that digital (still photo) cameras can often take short videos) but do have editing software you could try experimenting with the demo video that the software may have. Or you could try downloading video from the web to mess around with (remember to scan with up to date anti-virus protection) - that video may be copy/edit protected though so perhaps search for/google non-comercial, everyday people's home videos (but remember copyright issues when linking to the OU). Your mobile phone might also have a video camera, but unless you already know how to download the movie files to your pc (and can convert the files if necessary) this option may not be worth the bother.

- I've used DivX in the past. It's a set of popular editing/conversion/player tools (http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/). Basic functionality is free: you can convert various video formats to DivX - a good quality but (relatively very) small file size. The DivX developers agree that software should be easy to use, so check it out if you have no editing solution that you're happy with at the moment.

Jose