Education is the thing that I would like to pursue for life;
Technology is the thing that I believe can bring power to Education. Just combine the two!
IT 644 "Advanced Hypermedia Development" is a core course for Master of Science program in Instructional Technology major at the University of Southern Mississippi. IT 644 is an advanced course in the development and use of interactive, animated hypermedia products for use in instructional design projects, lectures, presentations, and multimedia events. There is an emphasis on producing applications incorporating text, audio, graphics, animation and digitized video which effectively communicate to the user. (from the course introduction of http://dragon.ep.usm.edu/~yuen/teaching/it644/intro.htm)
In about three-month hybrid course study, I have learnt lots of new software for instruction, which have been listed here:
[All the links to those software, online or download, have to attached above. You can access to those links by clicking on the name of those software]
And For each software listed above, I have attached all the relative assignments to blogfolio posts with their reflections. Each post would include several parts:
The description of what the assignment is;
My assignment artfact;
Introduce what the software is; in this part, I am trying to give a general and brief introduction of how to use those software;
What the features of the software that I know about duiring doing the assignment;
Limitation of my assignment or the shortcomings of the software from the perspective of user, if any.
What is Hypermedia? This is the question that I am always thinking about when I start the PhD study in Instructional Technology. As illustrated in Dr. Yuen's course materials, IT644 concerns about application of Hypermedias to instruction. This is the first course I have taken for this major. To certain degree, IT644 influences me a lot and brings me to a new world of teaching and learning.
To answer the quesion at the beginning of this reflection. Different sources provide different answers and definitions. Some would treat Hypermedia as "A computer-based medium combining multiple media (text, image, sound, animation and video) with high levels of user interaction and the capability to link items of information with other items within the system".
While some would take "Hypermedia as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks intertwine to create a generally non-linear medium of information. ..."
As for me, hypermedia is like a computer-related collection of tools and application which could be learned and mastered for different purposes. And instruction is just in this pool.In Wikipedia, there has been a number of theories concerning hypermedia and learning. One important claim in the literature on hypermedia and learning is that it offersmore control over the instructional environment to the reader or student. Another claim is that it makes level the playing field among students of varying abilities and enhances collaborative learning. A claim from psychology includes the notion that hypermedia more closely models the structure of the brain, in comparison with printed text.
In the three monthes study and learning in Dr. Yuen's Advanced Hypermedia Development course (IT644), I really have gained a lot, from software to hardware, from classroom to online learning, from textbook to artifact. Every step is a chance of growing in Instructional Technology for me. I think it is IT644 allowing me to deep into this major, and it is also IT644 increasing my great interests in combination of technology with teaching and learning. The learning of IT644 itself is just a course of the combination of learning and technology! Amazing!
Besides,because IT644 is a hybrid course, it gives us more learning and study platforms, not only combined to classroom. We have Social Network online learning enviroment; we have textbook learning procedure; we also have class weekly. Such hybrid provides me more chances for study, and gives me deeper feeling of what is hypermedia.
IT644 Social Network is a forum for the communication between students and instructor, students and students, created by Dr. Yuen. We were asked to attach each assignment to Social Network to share and grade. The key point in Social Network is "SHARE". All the students of the same class have to show their artifacts in this network, which provide us the interactive learning enviroment. We could enjoy others' artifacts, and find to which we could do any improvement for selves' assignment. At the same time, we were also asked to use DropBox to share our artifacts, which is also a kind of online network for user to store files. Dropbox is really a convenient movable tool for share works.
The Digital Media Book recommend by Dr. Yuen leads me to the road of what I have to do with digital media. I like this book very much! The basic concepts, like pixels, resoluation for images, videos, audios. And even this book does a great help for my working on Flash Actionscript 3.0 in IT740 (another core course for PhD study in Instructional Technology). The interaction is not only in course itself, but also a kind of interaction among the relative courses in this same field.
Our class is another studying platform, besides the Social Network created by Dr. Yuen, and the textbooks recommended by Dr. Yuen. All the students in class share their opinions and ideas about our program, about assignments, about those software. I do appreciate their sharing in classroom. With their suggestions and opiniones, I know to what point I could improvement my artifacts. Thanks to you all!
Using technology to improve the effects of instruction and learning course must be the direction of modern education. As a PhD student in Instructional Technology, what I have to do is to know as many software/ hardware as possible, and combine them with education in my teaching career. In each reflection of my artifact in IT644, I have summarized the features of software learned in this class, and the possible way of combination of these technology with language teaching and learning process. I do hope that all the combination could really do great help for language learning in the future!
Below is the animation I created for learning the word "hungry" and the phrase "follow me". English beginner could know the meaning of the phrase with the angel's action, and memorize the word, which appear twice in this context.
Just as it is declared on the website, Fuzzwich provides a platform for everyone to create self animation. Just follow those simple steps on the screen, everybody could create the very own animated masterpiece in moments.
There are several templetes of background for animation, also you can upload your own background by clicking on "upload"; and then choose the roles you like in Fuzzwich. One of the features in Fuzzwich is that you could use your own photo to instead the faces of your role! That is really funny! (Suppose that your handsome/beautiful face with a pirate/evil body!) Then, you can edit of the appearance of roles' faces (smile, sad, etc.),and set the dialogue of those roles. Another feature in Fuzzwich is that it is easy to set the role's moving trace. When you click on the "record" button, just drag the roles on the screen to draw the trace of moving. When stop, you can preview the animation.
Fuzzwich assignment is the last assignment in IT644, which is also the easiest one for learn. But, it is really very interesting and useful. Before getting know about Fuzzwich, creating animation is so mysterious a thing for me. And I believe the similiar feeling would be for most people who are not good at designning or flash. The platform that Fuzzwich provides for us is a creative place for everyone, especially for those who want to use animation for instruction but without any knowledge about animation.
In language teaching, context is a thing that playing very important role for language acquisition. A good and proper context could help learners to learn language much more efficiently and leave learners more impression on the words or phrases that appear in the context. Fuzzwich could just do this. Trying to create a simple dialogue between two roles in the animation, with music and funny background, teacher could make their classroom much more attractive.
I would like to give an comprison here. Suppose that, teacher would like to teach beginner of English what to say or how to say "hi" for the first time between two strangers. There could be several methods to accomplish this teaching stragtedy.
Method 1: The most traditional way maybe tell learners orally, "when strangers meet each other for the first time, you have to say "how are you?" or "How do you do"", and then the teacher would write down those two phrases for students.
Comment: This method is direct, students can understand what should be used for the first time meeting. But the obvious disadavantage of this method is that it is too boring, and students needs more time to memorize the two phrases. They know what to do, but they do not know how to do!
Method 2: Based on the first method, teachers may do some improvement. Some of the teachers would choose to draw pictures for the sceen, (on blackboard, or on hand-out paper). And then, teacher could tell students, how to use the phrases to say hi to strangers.
Comment: This method is much better than the most traditional one, which does provide the sceen for language learning, to certain content, it could be recognized as "context". But, this kind of "context" is limited, it is only on the picture, which means that it is dead, not "live". It still cannot activate the learning atomosphere in class. Language is a living thing, how could it only exit on paper conveying to learners?
Method 3: Fuzzwich could make language learning and teaching vivid. Teacher can create a simple animation to show two strangers meet for the first time to say hi to each other, with music or different background (for example, on the beach, in the street, etc. That is really life!). To check whether learners understand the phrases and make sure that learners know how to use the phrases, teachers could give the chance for learners, asking whom to create a similiar screen by Fuzzwich.
Comment: Fuzzwich creates a vivid language learning context successfully, and this is a also the feedback part of language learning procedure, which really crucial for language learning! It bring the language teaching and learning from a 2-dimension (word, and paper) to 3-dimension (word, paper, and really context). That is just what I need in my English teaching class!
Create your own photostory or slideshow by Showbeyond, adding title and background music.
Showbeyond is an online photo slideshow story creator and sharing community. Actually, this is really an assighment that make me feel a kind of reflection. When selecting each slide, adding text to the slide, choosing proper background music, it is just a course of recalling based on the topic of photostory. Photostory, in IT644, Showbeyond is the another tool that used for creating a photostory. The first tool for creating self-photostory in IT644 is assignment 1 which you can see my reflection on the post of Assignment 1 in this blogfolio. Although Showbeyond has the similiar or even the same function as Photostory the tool, it still gets its features.
Feature 1:
Showbeyond is easier to operate. As a online tool, you do not need to download anything for creating the slideshow story. What you have to do is only preparation your photoes/ pictures, and UPLOAD.
Feature 2:
Showbeyond provides us another simple way to create the electronic portfolio. The slideshow of the growth of panda that Dr. Yuen showed us in class leaves me a deep impression, which fully illustrates the function of Showbeyond in instruction. It shows us that the Showbeyond could be used as a kind of electronic portfolio to share artifacts with us. If you choose Showbeyond as the collection of artifacts, the electronic portfolio could become easier. With selection of picuture of artifacts, and collate some texts, your electronic portfolio created by Showbeyond could also be outstanding!
Feature3:
Showbeyond could also be an strong tutorial slideshow. In different field of study, there must be many concepts related with proceture, development, and process. Just because the slideshow feature, Showbeyond could be used to show the development of history, the procedure of production, the process of movement, etc. In this way, it makes the instructional procedure attactive, colorful, and vivid. When doing this assignment, I thought that using Showbeyond could be a good way to introduce the history of English literature, with each slideshow of different developing period in English literature. For students in English, clarify the periods of English literature is always an difficult thing by just reviewing textbook. With Showbeyond, the history would be presented clearly and directly in front of learners, better than any form or thick textbook.
(But for the comparison between Showbeyond and Photostory the software in Assignment 1, I did not choose to create the slideshow of English literature. What I have done in this assignment is still using the collection of photoes, with background music. Obviously, Showbeyond looks more simple but professional in my assignment 7 than in assignment 1)
However, I think there is a small limitation for Showbeyond. The background template is all in the grey or black-white color tone. I just wonder that whether there could a function of Showbeyond that allow users to change the background into self-pictures or photoes, which may make the slideshow more personal.
Prezi is “a web-based presentation tool using a map layout and zooming to show contextual relationships which addresses some of the shortcomings of Microsoft PowerPoint“.
Compared with PowerPoint, Prezi has many advantages for presentation. When creating the presentation with Prezi, I have fully gained the advantages of Prezi.
Point 1: Prezi is much freer.
With a ligel account, you can sign in Prezi to create your featured presentation. The platform of Prezi provides users a freer place for creating the presentation. When creating your presentation, you do not need to consider where to put different slides, like in PPT; you do not need to care much about the fonts or the colors; you do not need to puzzle which template is much better for the presentation. Working on the platform of Prezi, you just need to concentrate on the content of your presentation!
Point 2: Prezi is easier to operate.
Some users of PowerPoint may face a problem, that is how could we make our presentation in PPT looks more professional? In PowerPoint, you have to choose the template, add slide, adjust the order of slides, make effect for the emphasis... some many things that need to be mastered for a professional presentation. However, in Prezi, no matter you are a niche or a nova, you can create a professional presentation. Prezi has prepared everything for you!
Just type what you want to present on the platform, (if you have to give a presentation, I think typing is a thing that should master before using Prezi...), and highlight the word or draw shape on words that you need to make emphasis on by the highlighting tool and drawing on the left-right corner of Prezi platform. Besides, you can easily upload video to your Prezi presentation by adding the embedded code of the video. (Usually, a YouTube video would be much easier to upload for its MP4 format, which is also a thing that I have learnt from IT644).
Point 3: Prezi is logical-clear.
After preparing all the contents on the Prezi platform, the next important step is to make your content logically. In PowerPoint, the common thing we do to show the logic of all the slides is setting the slide order. So, you have to take care of the order very carefully when you setting slides. However, in Prezi, the order is a very simple thing. When everything is on the screen, you just choose "path" to set the showing order of your presentation by clicking on the slides one by one, according to your own logic of the presentation.
If there is some slide were missed when you clicking, no need to feel frustrated, and do not need to go back. What you have to do is only to drag the number showing on your path to the missed slide, the number will adjust to the new order automatically!
Point 4: Prezi is a working-group.
There is another feature that attracts me in Prezi, that is the group-working. You can invite any other person to join your edition of Prezi work. Actually, in IT 740, we have used Prezi group-working to create a presentation. Different person could working togther in a same presentation, but without disturbing each other. And, you can also see who is working together on the screen. There would be a little body showing the name of your partner. Just like in a real working office, seperating working but good coopration!
Point 5: Prezi is portable.
Different from PowerPoint, Prezi could be downloaded as a flash file, which solves the problem for the computers that do not installed relative software. You can download your Prezi file, and save it to your jumpdrive. When you need to present, just copy the file to the computer, you can give your perfect presentation!
Description of Assignment 5:
This assignment should be created by Video Toolbox, merging videos clips and edit the clips.
As illustrated on its website, Video Toolbox is an advanced online video editor. It provides powerful functions of converting, cropping, mergeing or recording ... And it "analyses your video files and displays detailed information about the codec..." Converts your files between all of the popular video formats (3GP, AMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, MOV, M4V, MP4, MPEG, MPG, RM, VOB, WMV). And, also, Video Toolbox gains lots of features, which have been shown on its website:
In simple mode: all you have to do is select the output format.
In advanced mode: you can make changes to advanced settings such as:
- video codec, resolution, bit rate, frame rate.
- audio codec, bit rate, sample rate, channels.
Adds a text watermark to your video file.
Cuts video at start and end points that you determine.
Crop video with just few clicks
Merges multiple files for you into a single video track.
Extracts audio, video or subtitle text from a file -- a feature known as demux.
Records video from your webcam or another movie device.
Takes snapshots and creates thumbnails off your video clip.
Adds embedded subtitles to your video file.
Besides, on the website of Video Toolbox, there are many links to other converting software, which could be useful for the converstion between different formats, not only for video, also for audio. Always, the compatibility of videos for edition is a big problem for beginner. I have to download many software for converstion, because of my digital camera. With the links on Video Toolbox website, it becomes much easier for me to choose which one is much more proper for editing. A tip here is that, MP4 the format is usually prefered by uploading. So, if it is possible, try to convert your video file to MP4 when uploading for any edition.
As for me, this assignment to certain degree made me a little bit frustrated, compared with other assignment in IT644. It is a pity about this assignment for me, the topic I chosen for the assignment is not good to show combination of the two videos by Video Toolbox. Actually, the functional of Video Toolbox is very strong and powerful, not just combination of videoes. The problem I met happened for the last step of exporting file to youtube. This is a serious problem, which I did not realize before I had this assignment. For the previous work in this assignment, I chosen part of a movie for edition, (surely note where it is from). But the embeded code was not permitted to share the video. There is no other way to solve this problem, THE VIDEO MUST BE ORIGHINAL!!!
Video Toolbox also could also be an good and interesting for instruction. Instructors could use this software to create tutorial video, background introduction video, etc. As for English or language teaching class, I prefer to use Video Toolbox as an effective background introduction tool, combining and editing any relative videos togethor to share with learners.
Using Jing and Screencast.com to create screen captures on a computing task.
Jing and Screencast are all the products of TechSmith. To use Jing and Screencast to create screen captures, you have to download the free version of Jing to your computer version. (fortunately, we can use the free verstion~) The combination of Jing and Screencast is a perfect method for creating tutorial, especially for showing others how to using specific software in computer.
I would like to introduce my assignment first before the reflection part.
How to use blackboard, the online learning system in USM is the topic of my Jing assignment. Why I choose this instructional topic? Acturally, for me, the blackboard online learning system is a completely new learning enviroment. Before studying in such an enviroment, what I have to do first is to learn and get used to this online learning enviroment. Fortunately, I have some time to learn it before using it for study. But not everyone has enough time to learn a new learning enviroment before they use it. Under such circumanstance, a clear and professional tutorial video or flash is necessary. That is why I choose this topic for this assignment. Jing and Screencast is the best tutorial tool for starting learner.
To create a good tutorial video/ flash, a clear screen is very important. Jing is just the thing to keep your creation clearly. After downloading Jing to your computer, by clicking the stars on the right-top corner, you can easily highlight or circle the part that you want to make emphasis on. And you can also use the arrows to make any explaination of any concepts to help learners understand.
After knowing the basic operation of Jing, what you need to do for creating the tutorial is to oeprate as what you do for the software, (just as what you will do about a software, like word, powerpoint, open a webpage, etc.). And here is only one thing that you need to pay attention to, make sure that every step you record by Jing is in the frame. Only in this way, your operation to certain software could be recorded.
Another feature of Jing is that you can record your voice simultaneously. When you recording your mouse movements for the software, you can record your voicely explaination at the same time. This feature helps the learner to follow the created instructional tutorial not only by eyes but also by ears, which could enhance the learning effects.
(for this assignment, I am sorry to say that I could only provide the link to it, not a flash file that could be inserted into the post, and below is the link: )
Audacity is a free, easy-to-use and multilingual audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. And Audacity is also the first software I learn that proceeding audio file. Audacity is really a powerful software for editing audios. With audacity, you can merge two or more audios together; you can cut audio (shorter or longer); you can add special effect to audios; you can change the frequency of audios; you can enlarge each track of audios to edit on every tiny point of the audio file.
For my assignment, Dr. Yuen suggested me to add a short and brief introduction for the content of this audio file. I would like to explain what I want to convey by this audio file. Audacity allows users to add as many audio files as possible at the same time. I intend to create a mixed audio file that using many kinds of sound from real life to represent a person's typical daily life. After collecting all the sound files, I import them to Audacity, and then cut and emerge them to the correct time position. The topic I chosen for this assignment is to be in accordance with Audacity's permission of importing many sound files at one time.
This sound editing software could be applied to language teaching course, especially for listening teaching and learning. By combining different accent English listening audio files, teachers could use Audacity to let learners feel what standard English pronunciation is, what English dialect is; or even, teachers could ask learners to record their won spoken English, and combine with standard English to do the comparison, helping learners know clearly self's shortcomings.
Here is another thing that need to be paid attention to in using Audacity. The export of audio file as a MP3 format. For a Audacity project, if you want to export it as a MP3 format, you need to find the a .dll file in LAME to complete the exportation. But the version is different from MAC and PC. What you have to do for the exportation of MP3 file, is to go to LAME website, and find the relative .dll, and install it before you exporting the file. However, if you were editing a MP3 format audio file in Audacity, there is no need for you to find .dll in LAME.
[About the artifact of this assignment, I am sorry that I am still working on finding a way to insert an audio in Blogger]
CleVR is a free panoramic photo sharing site and photo stitching software. It allows panoramas to be embedded into other web pages using a Flash viewer. Panoramas can be displayed with hotspots — areas in the scene that can be clicked to display other content or to navigate to another scene.
For this assignment, learning how to use CleVR the software is very important; however, at the same time, if you want to accomplish an outstanding assignment, you have to win some knowledge in shooting too. As for my assignment, I have a strong feeling, that is , a good or bad final panoramic movie should dependent not on how you use this software but on the pictures you shoot. Before hanging on this assignment, I have tried several times. Not enough photos cannot cover a perfect 360 degree screen which would affect the final export of the CleVR panoramic movie; while, too many photos would also become a burden for CleVR. When shooting and prepare the pictures/ photos for the panoramic 360 degree movie, here are some tips from Dr. Yuen:
a. When taking the pictures make sure you overlap each picture you take by about 10 to 15% so it will come out better later in the program;
b. You should have about 7 to 8 pictures.
And I would like to add one more point here, which is actually also gained from Dr. Yuen's IT753 course about shooting. The first time when I tried about shooting for this assignment, I made a mistake. I moved my digital camera when photoing for the panoramic scree. That is fatal for the post-editing in CleVR, because the principle for CleVR is to find similar pixels in adjacent pixels. If you shooting unsteadily, the pixels may be missed in CleVR, which is difficult for it to deal with. So, when taking pictures for CleVR, make sure that your digital camera is steady; do not move too frequently when shooting, which could benefit your CleVR editing.
Using Picnik/ Splashup to a modify at least 20 photo images;
Using Photo Story 3, create a photo slideshow containing these photo images with captions and titles, narration, motion animation and transition effects, and music.
This is the first assignment of IT644, which requires two parts to accomplish. First you have to edit your photo/ pictures by Picnik/ Splashup; and then you have to use Photo Story 3 to create your slideshow. This is a very interesting assignment. All the software are new to me.
Picnik is an online photo-editing software. It is very easy for users to upload your photoes/ pictures, and do edit. You can add words, decorations, frames, etc to your photoes/ pictures, which are provided by the online editing tool Picnik. You can even change the color or the tone of you photoes depending on your own interests. After all the edition of the photoes/ pictures, you can import all the pictures to your Photo Story 3 to create your photo slideshow.
Photo Story 3 is a product of Microsoft, which is a free application allowing users to create a show and tell presentation from digital photos. Follow the steps in the software, Photo Story 3 will lead users to complete their own photo story. In the reflection of Assignment 7, Showbeyond, I made a comparison be tween these two software. Although Showbeyond has many outstanding features in creating storytelling presentation, Microsoft's Photo Story 3 also deserves its preference.
Point 1:
Photo Story allows many different special effects for photos imported.
Point 2:
Photo Story supports re-editing. Even if you have finished your photos editing, your recording of narration, and selection of the background music, you still have the chance to make any changes! That is powerful for users' satisfaction!
Point 3:
Photo Story 3 allow to export a WMV file. That means, you can burn a CD for storage of you work; and you can save it as a WMV file to hard-drive. You do not need to rely on internet. And if you burn it to CD, you photo story becomes portable, any place with player, you can show your photo presentation!
For this assignment, Dr. Yuen gave me some suggestions and advices. The problem about my assignment is that, the sound of background music is too loud to hear my own narration voice. I do appreciate Dr. Yuen's advice. And when I play back about this photo story movie, I do find it is a little difficult to recognize my voice. When I working on the Jing and Screencast assignment, I pay much more attention on the voice volume part, which is helpful for me. And I am sure that from this aspect, I do better in Assignment Jing and Screencast than this Photo Story Assignment.
