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Optional Front
Page Session - One |
During our first optional Front Page
session, we will explore the basics of creating an educational
website that can be used in conjunction with courses or special
projects.
The name of the server we will be connecting
to with Front Page is:
http://discovery.coe.uh.edu/cuin6345m/sum06
For security reasons, user IDs
and passwords will be given out in class.
Advantages of Using Microsoft FrontPage 2003:
- Affordable
- Basics are Easy to Learn
- Multifunctional: Web Design/File
Storage & Sharing/Multimedia
- Excellent Support for Graphics
- Works Directly with Web Server, No
Extra Uploading Required
- Integrates Well with Other Microsoft
Software: Internet Explorer, Word, Windows Media Player, etc.
Disadvantages:
- Only Available for PCs
- Not as popular as Dreamweaver among
Professional Web Designers
- Can Be Finicky, Especially When Using
Forms, Layers, Style Sheets and Other Intermediate or Advanced
Features
- Easy to Overwrite Files if Not Paying
Attention
We will begin our exploration of Front Page by going to:
fp-intro.html
Additional Resources
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Review Assignments
from Class Five |
We will begin this week's class with a
review of the assignments from last week.
| Class Five Posting Assignment:
Post a message in which you
ask any questions you might have about Digital Storytelling
or provide comments about how you might be able to use this
technology in your particular area of
health/medical/dental/veterinary/nursing education.
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| Class Five Hands-On Assignment:
Submit a brief report in
which you describe your initial work with Photo Story 3,
including:
- what topic you
selected and why,
- what kinds of images
you decided to use and where you found them,
- what type of audio you
included, if any, and
- a description of your
experience using the Photo Story software and whether or
not you had any problems with the creation of your
story.
When you are at a point
where you are satisfied with your progress, save the project
file (it will be a .wp3 file) and save it to a CD or a Flash
drive.
Then, be sure to bring a copy of the .wp3 file, as well as
copies of the images you used in this story and any audio
files, with you to Class 6.
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Some ideas, problems and helpful tips that
were identified this week:
Ideas:
I think that digital storytelling would be excellent
for providing basic information in short segments... say, for
patient education. Patients are typically sitting for hours in
Emergency Department waiting rooms throughout the country... how
easy would it be to create maybe 10-20 5-minute video segments that
discussed common diseases such as asthma, influenza, low back pain,
etc. and run them on a continuous loop as an educational tool.
It would also be great for discussing inherently humanistic
dimensions of medicine, including topics such as death telling,
delivering bad news, ethics, etc.
I think Photo Story would also work well (besides for the scenarios
mentioned above) for the internet for residency web sites to
introduce the school or the program or for an introduction to what
emergency medicine is.
I agree with everyone's input so far, but see the use of Photo Story
in my line of work for a different use. I would love to see this
used to convey sentiments, feelings, values, and attitudes that one
should have when working with laboratory animals. As most of the
class knows, I am a great believer in the humane and ethical use of
animals in research by animal care techs and investigative staff
alike. I think this would be a good medium to show the paramount
importance of this issue. Laws, regulations, and guidelines might be
better presented via PowerPoint. Whereas, the caring, humanistic,
and compassionate component may be better conveyed via Photo Story.
This could be incorporated into a training program for any staff
involved in the use of research animals.
In my particular area Photo Story could be used for making short
health messages (like soap opera) for the community based in their
culture, age, and nationhood.
For a couple of rounds now, I had the opportunity to participate in
the admission of graduate students to our department, and I always
thought that something "catchy" was missing as a sort of
advertisement, if you wish, for our department, to try to attract
the best students that we select after considering their
applications. With photo story we could create a short product in
which we present the history of our department, the line of research
and the faculty that we have, along with a beautiful Houston, where
we are asking them to spend the next 5-6 years of their life. After
selecting the applicants, we could send them the letter of
invitation to the second round (interview) together with a CD
including the Photo Story product.
I agree with the opinions voiced so far about the relative strengths
of Photo Story and PowerPoint. It seems that what we're saying is
that PPT may be stronger in addressing the cognitive domain, and
Photo Story the affective domain. That potential could serve patient
educators well, since much of patient education must be aimed at
changing perceptions and behaviors, in addition to providing health
facts. I've found Photo Story much easier to use of the two
programs.
I think we can use digital storytelling for training some procedure
in the lab. For me this is the first time I learn about this
technique so I think I need a lot of practice to improve the skill
of using it.
Problems:
The only gripe I had with the software was that I was
unable to copy a picture. You have to always import a picture, not
good if you have already spent time editing it, and need a copy to
freeze the image for a moment at the end of a transition. Maybe
there is a trick I am not aware of.
Editing pictures while in the PS
program is really difficult. It seems the tools are basic and
cropping was very difficult to use. From what I gather, you would
have to edit images in another program then import them in.
I paid for a great piece of music on iTunes and tried to import it
into my story. It was impossible. It's an mpeg4 file. Is this
possible at all? I would love to learn how to do it.
When I was trying to work with the transition timing, I couldn't get
the piece of music I chose to start immediately with the first
image. I ended up keeping the image for an additional 3 secs
(pausing image) in order to have some sort of timing with the music.
I did not know how to turn down the volume of the music while
narration was present. is it possible to have both going at the same
time (narration and music)? I would like some help on how to do this
better. The music drowned out the narration.
Tips:
When you are importing audio/music into Photo Story,
it automatically begins to fade out the sound about 15-20 seconds
before the audio clip is over... this is a little annoying if you
happen to be presenting spoken audio at that particular moment. The
solution is to add about 30 seconds of silence to the end of your
audio track (I believe both Goldwave and Audacity can do this) so
that you trick Photo Story into not fading out your audio until it
hits the recorded silence. Just a little tip that would have saved
me about an hour of messing around with the program trying to find
out what was wrong.
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More with Digital Storytelling |
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Assignments for Next Class |
Reading Assignment:
Explore/Read at least ONE of the following:
Posting Assignment:
Hands-On Assignment:
- Complete the digital story you began
last week. You may use Microsoft Photo Story 3, or another
software application, if you prefer. Since the file size of
digital stories is generally quite large, it probably makes more
sense to bring a copy of the final story with you to class on a
Flash drive or data CD. Therefore, for this assignment,
I'm asking that you use the online submission system at:
http://eclassrooms.coe.uh.edu/assignments/ to submit a
report (as a Word document or other text file) in which you
address the following issues:
- Do you think your digital story
could be improved if you added full-motion video, rather
than just still images? Why or why not?
- Are there any other things you
can think of that might improve your digital story? If
so, please briefly discuss them.
- Did you have any continued or
different technical problems in completing the digital
story? If so, please describe them.
- Do you think that the use of
Photo Story or other similar software programs for
creating digital stories is an appropriate topic for
this course? Why or why not?
- Are there any other comments
you would like to add about this assignment?
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT NEXT WEEK'S CLASS:
At 4:00pm next Thursday, July 13, 2006, we will have our second optional one
hour session on using Microsoft FrontPage. If you have
already purchased a copy of Front Page, please bring the CD with you
to this session. If you have not yet purchased a copy of Front Page,
but would like to, please contact
me no later than Wednesday, July 12, so that I will have time
to get a copy for you.
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