Multimedia project and Final blog

Multimedia Project Summary:
Description:
This multimedia project will be a collection of web pages that will have videos, films and pictures, with the right description and/or caption where needed. There will be texts, biography, links to museums and libraries to allow students to navigate to do their own research.
It will have a Teacher support link to lesson plans, to texts, and to a discussion board, to discuss, to create assignments, and to interchange lessons plan.
There will be student friendly pages where students will find information, vidcast, animated pictures, motivational tasks, interactive games, and pop quizzes that help them to review their learning or even to create their own material.
Viewers are going to have the option to leave a comment and to contact us via email.
Audience: High School, College, Ed. Middle School
Technical Format: HTML/text
Technical Requirements: web capability, Flash
The design will follow the W3C’s Web Content accessibility Guidelines and XHTML 1.0. There will be a written link, “color scheme and access options” where the viewers can choose between color scheme and different letter sizes in each color scheme.
There will be a link to get “text only” available for screen readers, and a graphic version. There will be some instructions to apply according to the browser using Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Firefox.
I will mark the project with Creative Common license.
What did you learn by doing this project?
First, I learned to apply what I learned in real situation. Second, I have learned to give to the learners the materials necessary to become lifelong learners.
Definitively, I have learned to do a better job. With the new tech I learned I will get the attention from my audience; I will be able to motivate them because I have more resources, audio, visual, interactivity aids. Thanks to these new ideas I will be able to teach my students to become life learners because I will give them the tools to learn by themselves. I will play the role of a tutor more than of a lecturer.

Final Blog Post: The Personal Reflection
What is your personal vision of Multimedia as an asset to teaching and instruction? I think bringing multimedia to teaching and instruction is a great idea not only because the teacher can present material in a clearer, innovative, interactive and motivational way, but also because the audience does not have a limited space anymore. The class becomes alive. The teacher and the students can be taken to a lot of places and at the same time the teacher and students can bring art, cities, persons, music… to the class to have fun and to learn. Multimedia has made the textbook incomplete and has helped the teacher to become more a tutor than a lecturer.
Discuss three areas of personal growth in the area of Multimedia.
Web design, video and music are the areas where I know I have increased my growth. Now I am able to present my teaching materials in different ways. I will create web pages that will introduce videos to explain some topics or to introduce a tutorial. With these new possibilities, I will be able to bring music, real life problems, art, museums, history, maps, games, animation, and interactivity to the class. I will motivate students because I will reach all students through visual, audio or another accessibility aid.
Relate how you will incorporate meaningful examples multimedia into your learning units to improve instruction. Give specific examples they will fit the level of instruction you hope to work in.
For instance, I will use http://www.sanfermin.com/index.php/en/ with all the links, video and picture to help the students to understand about the cultural customs in Spain and its roots in Ancient Times.
To explain about Mexican mural Renaissance I will use the web page about Diego Rivera http://diegorivera.com/index.php where I can use the videos, information, pictures, and links to obtain more in depth knowledge.
To show my students some examples of Mexican food I will use this video http://video.google.com/videosearch?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4TSHB_enUS300US300&q=Mexica+food&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=5BCwSaXDD4jWnQfBm5jNBQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#
How will you monitor multimedia for accessibility and use for students with disabilities? How will you create or find alternatives for learning?
I will create different options to allow all kind of students to reach the information and to create the necessary interactivity. I will create audio options and text options that allow the use of the screen readers. I will not abuse using pictures and videos, but if I have to use them, I will describe the pictures and I will add caption text to videos.
Identify how you will stay current in the field of multimedia.
I will assist to conferences and listen to online presentations. I will participate on blogs, podcast, or vidcasts. Likewise, I will participate in websites and I will try to talk with teachers and with instructional designers.

Universal Access

a)
The new way we have learned to see web pages is really interesting. I had never looked at the other side of a web page. For instance, I have found http://www.nbcs.org.uk/, one web page that incorporates accessible multimedia. I believe this web pages is really complete respect access. The design follows the W3C’s Web Content accessibility Guidelines and XHTML 1.0. There is a written link “color scheme and access options” where the viewers can choose between four color scheme and four different sizes of letter in each color scheme.
There is a link to get “text only” and a graphic version; there are some instructions to apply according to the browser using Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Firefox, I have even used Thunder, a screen reader, to listen to it. This web page offers a lot of possibilities to all kind of viewers versus the web page http://www.adoptapet.com/ . This one does not offer any possibilities for viewers with disabilities. It is attractive, dynamic and funny thanks to the pictures, but blind people are going to find it difficult to access its information. After I have checked Waved 3.5, I found there were a lot of accessibility errors in the structure, outline view, features and alerts. In my opinion this page lacks the order in page design and in the way information should be presented to be more beneficial for viewers with disabilities.

b) Court Case

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) sued Target because they believed that target.com is not accessible to people with disabilities using screen-readers. According to NFB the inaccessibility of Target.com violates the ADA, the California Unruh Civil Rights Act and The California Disabled Persons Act. In August 2008 they announced a $6 million class action settlement. In the settlement Target will ensure that the target.com website meets the Target Assistive Technology Guidelines. Likewise, NFB will monitor target.com and train their employees responsible for coding the target.com website to remain Accessible to Guests who use assistive technologies.

References:
Retrieved from: http://www.nfbtargetlawsuit.com/final_settlement.htm
Retrieved from: http://jimthatcher.com/law-target.htm
Retrieved from: http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=357
Retrieved from: http://www.dralegal.org/cases/private_business/nfb_v_target.php

c) Write a short description of the changes you would need to make in order to be compliant with the 508 standards and the WCAG guidelines.

In order to be compliant with the standards I will have to follow CSS for layout. That will help me to design a consistent structure where I will add meaningful titles and descriptive written links.
I will provide keyboard access to all toolbars, menus and provide telephone support staff.
I will increase the size of text or even allow to select preferred font and to alter background colors to create contrast. I will provide audio-description or even captioning when I design the graphic design if there are images or videos. Moreover, I will create a text only page, probably HTMLX that will facilitate the use of screen readers. Finally, I will validate the web page.

Susana

Spanish Simulations

Characteristics of the Learners/Players: Students taking beginning and/or intermediate Spanish courses.

Learning Problem: Know the vocabulary and what expressions one person has to use to greet; practice how to greet people of different ages and social status in different situations: at work, supermarket, home, school, etc.

Outline what the virtual world would look like:
A couple of students have just arrived at the airport in a Spanish speaking country and they are meeting the host families whom they have never met. The families are made up of a mother, a father, a grandfather, and a twelve-year old daughter. They are going to interact in different situations: They go out to a restaurant to eat, and there the students meet three other family members, cousins and other friends. The cousins are about the same age as the students. On the following day, the students introduce themselves to their teachers at the university. In the afternoon they go to the supermarket and talk to the lady that sells fish. In the evening, they go to the movies with the cousins and their friends.
Players can choose their characters, their families, the persons whom they want to greet and the different situations. They can create a lot of possibilities in a whole day in a Spanish-speaking country.

What will learners need to do? The students need to greet and respond when meeting new people and will earn points as they perform the appropriate greeting. They are practicing in real situations at their will. They can choose different scenarios (restaurant, cinema, bus, market…).

The learning outcome is the following:
· Students learn in real life situations,
· Students/players will learn and practice vocabulary
· Students/players are involved in real examples they can choose at their will.

Susana

Interactivity and Multimedia

Hi, Allison and Michelle,

I always thought the games were beneficial to the learning environment. I have used them as a student and later I always have used them as a teacher. I have played role games with my students or I have had them play some kind of game to reinforce a concept. However, I have never used a video game to teach them. Well, I would not know how to use video games then. Besides I had preconceived idea of video games associated to the isolated teenager who is playing a violent, sexist and non-useful game. This week I have learned that we, as teachers, can use all the interactivity that videos games provide to help students learn.
I have read some articles and information online, but there are two papers that captured my attention: “Playing and Making Games for Learning Instructionist and Constructionist Perspectives for Game Studies”, written by Y. B. Kafai[1] and “Video Games and the Future of Learning” written by D. Shaffer, K.Squire, R.Halverson, J.Gee[2]. These writers explain the video games’ potential as a teaching material and confirm my idea that games are beneficial to the learning environment.
I am thinking about the possibilities the video-game design activities (level and character editors) offer for educational purposes. Video games offer the opportunity of learning by doing. So they become handy to constructivists. The current interactivity that video games provide, where players can create and design their own characters, storylines, games themes and interactions, help them learn by doing. It makes perfect sense to me because we as teachers need to master topics when we have to prepare our teaching materials. Players have to master a topic, whether it is history, math or science (Civilization III, Time Engineers, Making History).
There is also a lot of effort put to create and design the characters, and to make the storylines, game themes and interaction. However, this is a motivational and challenging effort that is going to help the students learn and become lifelong learners. Playing makes the students improvise, innovate, seek out for answers and be creative. For instance, in allowing learners to play working as a surgeon, he or she can learn biology; in designing buildings or cities, he or she will learn about engineering or architect. Players can learn a lot of from the video games, history, ecology, math, science, politics… and they learn in context.
We are talking about ”social interactivity” where the players are playing simultaneously online at a given time, and participating in virtual worlds, where players seek out news sites, read and write FAQS and participate in discussion forums.

Pros:

- Its gaming nature provides the necessary motivation to learn happily.

- Students and public generally speaking are familiarized with them.

- Material is very attractive to the senses (sound, color, velocity…) and very challenging and engaging.

- Videos games provide the same values, attitude and behaviors that are present in our society.

- Character and material richness (History, Art, Geography, Math, Health, Urbanism/Lincoln, Van Gogh, Frank Lloyd Wright…) allows to experience in the virtual past, present or future in different realities and context.

- Players in their roles can learn and reinforce concepts and ideas.

- Allow repetition and coming back. Players have to master a level to pass to the next and these go from easy to difficult.

- Players need to become flexible, improvise, and be innovating to seek out for answers and be creative or even imaginative. They develop higher thinking skills.

- Clear goals and immediate reward.

- Games allow social interaction: players can play online, and participate in discussion forums or chat rooms; they can seek out news sites, read and write FAQS.

CONS:

- The idea that video games are violent, bloody, sexist, racist and consuming. One has to check what kind of rating the video games have.
- Teachers have to learn to work with the video games to use as teaching materials.
- Teachers have to learn to relate video games with and educational goal.
- It is expensive for the school (tech support, copyright, hardware…)

Susana

[1] Yasmin B. Kafai, “Playing and Making Games for Learning Instructionist and Constructionist Perspectives for Game Studies”, Games and Culture, Vol. 1, n. , Jan. 2006, 36-4. Retrieved from http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kafai/print/pdfs/playing.pdf

[2] David Shaffer, Kurt Squire, Richard Halverson, and Jim Gee, Video Games and the Future of Learning WCER Working Paper No. 2005-4 June 2005. Retrieved from http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/publications/workingPapers/Working_Paper_No_2005_4.pdf

MY ENVISION USING THE WEB 2.0; EXPERIENCES AND IDEAS FOR USE

Dear Alison and Michelle,

In my opinion, using the online software as a teaching tool should be an objective for the teachers. There are four important facts that teachers could realize: first, Web 2.0 is dynamic, participative and collaborative; second, the young students and learners have been born within the Internet era, so they are familiarized with technology. Third, the Internet access is easy and affordable. Fourth, technology is part of our daily life. As a result, learners are used to the Internet, used to the visualizing way of learning and they will know how to adapt to technology and usually, they will understand in a better way.

I have learned to use Web 2.0 as the instrument that will help me to transform passive learners into active ones. Actives learners are going to be able to create contents and share them in chat room, blogs or wikis. Doing so, learners are interacting with the content, with the teacher, with their partners and even with the creators of the information.

Teaching materials created with this online software can be attractive, colorful, and desirable learning materials for the learners. For instance, I will begin a class by introducing a topic with an eye-catching vidcast or a fascinating podcast is going to call the learners attention. Then as a class, I will ask for a brainstorming period that we can create through bubbl.us. Next, I will present the information about the topic. To do so, and depending on the topic, I will use my teaching materials that I created by searching in the Internet through the different searching machines, probably Kartoo. I could use some visual representations using Slideshare, or PowerPoint; some maps from Google Earth or some statistical visualization from Gapminder. Later, I will have the learners work in groups to create their own answers and to do some research. Finally, I will have the learners present their own materials through video, or through blogs, where they can present all the files and multimedia or even I will create a wiki page where the class will begin a discussion.
As a class I could teach my students about Diigo.com . A web page where students can create web-page favorites about class topics that will help them in their research and even interact among them.

Susana

Multimedia instruction (and a lot of work....)

Multimedia evaluation

Hello Alison and Michelle,

After reviewing some web pages I found this http://www.dekalbcountyilsheriff.org/
really interesenting.

CONTENT
· Who is the target audience for this multimedia piece? All the citizens of Dekalb county who want some information about the Sheriff Office in Dekalb, Illinois. Such as Civil Process, Forms or Sex’s offenders information.
· How well is the information (including text, graphics, music, animation, and video) communicated to the target audience? Information is not useful. It is incomplete and unclear. The information is packed in a text too long, too compact and it is no visual at all. It is no attractive, it has no pictures, videos or animation. Blind people are not going to be able to use the web page. There is no audio. Information should be written in a clearer way, in shorter paragraphs, add some bold headings and titles, and add some pictures or videos to call viewers’ attraction (police cars, activities between police and adult citizen or kids)
· How would you evaluate the information for its clarity, usefulness, and ability to arouse interest in the target audience? The information is no clear enough. It looks like it was copied from an old history book. It is not useful because it is not connect with real-life problems so it is not going to arouse interest in the target audience. I think not everyone wants to read all this information; people will prefer to call to the office or talk to an officer. It would be necessary to inform the citizens about topics such as: jail information, court services, information about the sheriff divisions, volunteer opportunities, fingerprinting service, handgun-carry permits or even it would be necessary links that can inform about other topic related to the sheriff information or police information in general.
· Weighing all the above factors, assign a value to the content on a scale of 1 (poor) to 6 (excellent). 1

STRUCTURE AND NAVIGATION

· How well is this piece organized for the target audience? It is badly organized because the navigation bar is not classified from general to concrete. There is not a concrete Sheriff Home page in the more visible navigation tool. At the bottom we can find a “Return to the top” link, and a Dekalb County Government link, that works as the home page. I think this link should be “related links” instead.
· How easy and intuitive is it for a user to figure out how to move through it? It is no easy or intuitive. The navigation tool at the left it is not designed to be attractive or to call the viewer’s attention. For instance, the employment page is called Employment, but viewers do not know what are they going to find there, perhaps, job postings or benefits? Likewise, viewers cannot go back to the Sheriff’s Office page, because the home link takes them to the Dekalb County Government home.
· Is the breadth and depth of the information easily apparent, and how efficiently can a user move through the multimedia piece to learn the extent of what is being presented? There are no links that allow viewers to complete and wide their knowledge about the information available. It will be necessary to create a Related Links, for State of Illinois or emergency procedures.
· Weighing all the above factors, assign a value to this piece's structure and navigation on a scale of 1 (poor) to 6 (excellent). 1

COMMENTS:
They will have to redo the structure and the navigation. The navigation column on the left will have to be more attractive, cover useful topics and to have a Home page to the Sheriff Office web page. The navigation link at the bottom will have to be more useful. It will be a necessity to create a Banner and a Header that will act as identification and attraction. It will be necessary to create a Related Topic links to viewers’ convenience.

VISUAL DESIGN
· How would you describe the visual appeal of this multimedia piece? Awful. There is no visual appeal. It looks like the person or persons that designed this page were not thinking of making an appealing or interesting web page. They are only interested in telling something, but they do not bother whether viewers like or not.
· How suited is the design to the target audience? Badly. I think that the target audience is not going to pay too much attention. If they do so, it is not because the web page will be attractive, but because they need to retrieve some concrete information.
· Would this design appeal to users other than the target user? If so, which ones? If not, why not? No. Because there is no design appeal.
· Weighing all the above factors, assign a value to this piece's structure and navigation on a scale of 1 (poor) to 6 (excellent). 0

COMMENTS:
I would create a new visual design. For instance, I will edit the header, and I will divide the page into three columns. The middle one will be the widest one. I will use it to provide short ideas and I will include attractive pictures or animation or even with a video about citizens giving their opinion about the Sheriff office and showcasing some of activities. On the left column I will put a navigation tool about the sheriff office topic, perhaps adding a picture of the Dekalb sherrif. On the right column I will put other links that could be interesting for the audience, related links. Depending on what I would do in the center column, I could combine this with an animation.
I will complete the web page with a footer and navigation in a small font size, and with the sheriff office address and phone. Finally, I will add audio to each link.

FUNCTIONALITY
· How appropriate is the technology used on this piece for the type of content being delivered to target users? It is insufficient. The target users will need more technology to pay more attention to the information.
· Would this piece work on a dial-up connection or does a user need a high-speed connection? This piece work will work on a dial-up connection.
· Do all the links work? No
· Weighing all the above factors, assign a value to this piece's functionality on a scale of 1 (poor) to 6 (excellent). 1

INTERACTIVITY
· In what ways does this piece encourage users to interact with the content? None at all. This page only is telling some information. The designers do not expect any interaction.
· How does this interactivity enhance a user's understanding of the content?
Does not apply because there is no much interactivity.
· Weighing all the above factors, assign a value to this piece's interactivity on a scale of 1 (poor) to 6 (excellent). 1

I will look for your feedback,

Susana