by Brad Ryder

for

MCTE 660, Multimedia and Emerging Technologies
Prof. Maxine Cohen
School of Computer and Information Sciences
Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL

XV. References

1. How Multimedia Is Changing The World (Ch. 1, Q3)

This chapter has provided insight and "food for thought" about how multimedia will change the world. It could probably even be asked, "What won’t be changed by multimedia?" But if I were to choose one place where multimedia will have a great impact, it would be in the area of education. Not just "computer-based learning," which the book mentions, but having students do the authoring and so learning through the creation and use of multimedia applications.

Hofstetter [1995] writes that schools are buying videodisks, and that the use of computers in college and high school courses have led to higher scores and reduction in learning times. However, one use of multimedia recently involves having students research the content and then author their own multimedia presentations.

In a classroom in Evanston, Illinois, students created a "Hypermedia Zoo." Each student gathered data about an animal, organized the data into a format that was compatible with HyperCard, and presented their reports as a multimedia document that included text, graphics, videodisk images, audio, and QuickTime movies. Students appreciated the freedom allowed with such a project [Milone, 1995].

In Morganfield, Kentucky, a fourth grade class created a multimedia presentation about the solar system. After doing the off-line research, the students put the information onto an Apple IIe. They used a program called Super Story Tree; their hardware was a camcorder and VCR. For many of the students, the teacher said it built their confidence and gave them a chance to see what the future of technology will be like [Milone, 1995].

Multimedia doesn't have to be a single-project effort; it may comprise the entire body of a course. As I've mentioned in the discussion groups, a multimedia presentation may be used as a student's portfolio. To complete a course, students will create presentations containing all the work accomplished toward course requirements. Whether the projects are reports (text), videos, stills, or sound, the professor will be able to access any one or all of them for easy viewing and evaluation.

There will need to be much more research and development of this concept before it becomes a reality. For instance, how does a classroom full of biology majors go about getting their slides into a multimedia presentation? Would they want to? This is something I intend to look into further as the time approaches to choose a subject for my dissertation.

2. How A Computer Helped Me Learn (Ch. 1, Q5)

A good multimedia program came into my life last year. I first saw MusicStar, of all places, on the QVC channel. It was being offered along with a small piano keyboard (still right here in front of me) and promised to teach you how to play. I ordered it immediately. Not only have I learned a little about playing the piano, but my children love to come in and start up the program. They play better than I. Their hands are smaller and fit well on this little keyboard.

The program has four components: 1) An encyclopedia of music history – the user clicks on objects for a multimedia event (such as seeing and hearing someone play an instrument); 2) A jam session – the user can record music with the on-screen tape recorder; 3) A recording studio – this gives the user four tracks, including synthesized drums; and 4) Private Lessons – here the user gets the actual drill and practice of how to play the keyboard. With each lesson completed successfully, the drills get harder ... which is as it should be.

As I look at MusicStar now, it's clear that it does qualify as multimedia, but I had not thought of it as such. This is one aspect of this course that I'm appreciating, that I have had many experiences with multimedia and not quite recognized them.

3. Future MPC Standards (Ch. 1, Q7)

The future is here. As I also mentioned in the discussion groups, the new standard is MPC3. If you want to use multimedia successfully, much depends on whether your computer is capable of handling the demand. Mixing sound, text, images, animation, and motion video is a lot of work for the computer. The hardware requirements of running multimedia have continued to rise over the years, as software gets more sophisticated and demanding. The first standard was MPC (multimedia PC) Level 1. Then there was MPC-2, calling for a system with at least a 486SX processor, 4MB of RAM, and a 160MB hard drive. Inevitably, the latest standard asks even more of the computer system.

MPC-3 calls for a minimum of a 75-MHz Pentium processor (or equivalent), a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, 8MB of RAM, a 540MB hard disk drive, wave table audio, and video-ready graphics. Many vendors, including Packard Bell Inc., IBM, and Compaq, are shipping systems that meet the MPC-3 specification [Crothers, 1995].

Today's machines have more memory and speed, but if someone lacks this, multimedia upgrade kits are available. All kits include a sound card, a CD-ROM drive, and a selection of titles. Some also include external speakers, a microphone, headphones, and a joystick [Shields, 1995].

Although lofty, these increased standards are necessary. It is apparent, with all the entertainment and educational CD-ROMs available, that it is impossible to avoid multimedia. This also means audiences have higher expectations. They expect top-notch graphics and interactivity. Not to worry. It is becoming possible for even the most casual user to find and use robust authoring applications to create elaborate and impressive presentations [Heck, 1996].

Video capture is another place where the computer may need beefing up. If students are to create multimedia reports and want to bring in video from their own sources, such as a camcorder, the signal must be converted to digital form. Right now digital video eats up storage. Compression is getting better, and will help, but the motion will be jerky for quite a while. Use video clips sparingly [Shields, 1995].

One thing that will help video is MPEG, a component of MPC-3. Microsoft has licensed Mediamatics' MPEG software player, Movie Player, and it may be the digital codec (code-decode compression) of the future [Guenette, 1995].

4. Printed Books And Hypertext (Ch. 2, Q2)

Hypertext makes electronic documents powerful, as well as fun, but printed books will probably never be obsolete. Although printed books do not, technically, have hypertext ability, the influence of hypertext in electronic documents has led to an interactivity of sorts in some books, especially those for children. An example is the "Goosebumps" series. Readers have choices to make every four or five pages, and the story unfolds based on their selections. In an episode called "Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter," for example, which my son was reading, he had to choose, upon discovering he was shrinking, between running into a physics building for help or looking for his aunt. Other "links" are made depending upon the day of the week (that the book is being read) or the birthmonth of the reader [Stine, R.L., 1996].

While printed books cannot have real hypertext, allowing the reader to click on a word and jump to another place, the options in the "Goosebumps" books create a metaphor for this capability. The reader still has to manually turn to the page indicated according to his selection, so the word "hyper" doesn't apply. They are just links.

Links have always been available in books such as encyclopedias, where they were called cross-references. This is where hypertext in electronic documents offers a great advantage. Readers need to move around quickly within a reference publication. Being able to click on a cross-reference and jump there will greatly shorten research time and improve results.

Another benefit of hypertext is that the content can be changed easily. Revisions are painless with electronic documents, whereas printed books require an entire new printing or at least an occasional supplement. To readers of an electronic document, the changes are transparent, incorporated seamlessly into the flow of the publication. This often requires the separation of content from appearance and that individual chunks of information be tagged and attributed. However, this can be set up using SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) which can accomplish such tasks as indexing and cross-referencing, building the table of contents and index including correct page references, as well as printing on the fly. Once documents move online, the cross-references, figures, tables, indexes, glossaries, tables of contents, and other tags can be mapped to software-generated hypertext links [Eichler-Martin, 1995].

This approach is fine for reference and education publications. For other books, such as novels, electronic links are not necessary, nor even desirable. Many people still like to "curl up with a good book" and it's not quite as romantic or cozy curling up with a computer. It is my belief that while research documents may eventually be found exclusively online, printed books of an entertainment nature will always be with us.

5. Digital Audio And Video (Ch. 2, Q3)

Courts have always balked at accepting audio or videotapes as evidence, as far as I know. However, they do accept depositions and testimony. President Clinton was allowed to do this in the Watergate trial. Also, there was the 911 tape played before the OJ Simpson jury. This was a surprise to me, since the audio could have been falsified, and even if it weren't, the jury still had to rely on witnesses for voice identification.

I don't think the widespread use of digital audio and video is going to prevent their use in court. In fact, it seems the courts will actually look more favorable on the use of this technology, if it speeds up the process as it has the potential to do.

However, if the courts use digital video and audio tapes, they'll be a little more particular about who creates the tapes. Technologically savvy lawyers and litigators can make effective use of computers, video and audio in court to influence jurors. They can bring the full resources of automated law offices into the courtroom. Instead of carrying in cartons of documents, lawyers can bring in the same information stored digitally for easy search and retrieval. Videotaped depositions are available and can make a powerful impression, and audio can have an impact as well [Moll & Hennigan, 1995].

Few lawyers are using such technology effectively yet, but many are moving in that direction. A quick search on the Internet located dozens of companies marketing their video deposition services, such as Jessica R. Berman & Associates, Inc. (court reporters and videographers). Berman says there's a "future in video" and that the using of videotape for depositions may rescue her struggling profession [Helm, 1995].

Rather than disappear, the use of audio and video in the courts will increase. Courts will of course need to be assured of the accuracy and validity of these tapes, which is where the companies providing such services will stake their reputations.

6. Using Multimedia To Sell Homes (Ch. 3, Q5)

This is being done at a local (to me) company called Crockett Log Homes. When visitors enter the front office, they are immediately greeted by the marketer and then, after a brief discussion to determine their interests, are invited to sit at a computer and watch a multimedia presentation.

The presentation, created with PowerPoint, is quite linear. However, multimedia elements are still used. After seeing the opening greeting and welcome, along with a brief history of the company, the visitors are shown log homes in various stages of construction. These homes are photos shot using a 35mm camera and processed onto CD-ROM by Kodak. The pictures look crisp and sharp on the VGA screen.

Visitors are told about the materials that go into building a log home, and learn why the logs used by this company are the finest around. The presentation includes, in addition to photos, some artwork by the company's graphic artist, such as cross-sections of the log homes with all the components pointed out and explained.

On each slide is a photo or graphic, along with some copy for the visitors to read. The lines of copy appear one at a time, sometimes sliding in from left or right, or falling or rising into place, or some other effect. The copy is on the screen long enough for the visitors to read before the next slide replaces it, also using a special effect such as a wipe or dissolve to keep it interesting.

Throughout the presentation a sound file is triggered to play short clips of the company president talking about his wonderful log homes.

PowerPoint does not yet lend itself to interactivity, so this is not the optimum multimedia interface. To learn about a specific type of home, the visitors must sit through the entire presentation until the desired part comes around. Crockett authors are working on a new presentation using a more versatile tool (they won't say which) that will allow visitors to make choices at various stages of the presentation.

In spite of its limitations, the marketers at Crockett say they have had good response from their multimedia show. Visitors may well be as fascinated by the technology before them as they are by the lovely homes in the presentation. Still, they watch. The benefit seems to be that instead of visitors dropping by and grabbing some literature, they stay a while. This gives the marketers a chance to make casual conversation, even during the show, and develop a rapport with the visitors.

Of course even with the most interactive presentation there will be limitations. The most obvious would be that the visitor cannot easily take any information to study later, except by memory. Perhaps the marketer could print out some selected pages, and if the company's printer had high-quality color (it doesn't), the visitor would be able to take that. Still, the easiest thing to do is to supplement the multimedia presentation with glossy four-color brochures.

Multimedia is fun, and it's a conversation piece, but it won't entirely replace printed promotional literature for this company ... even if it would save a tree.

7. Percentage Of Teachers Using Multimedia (Ch. 4, Q1)

When I was in elementary school the percentage of teachers using multimedia as we know it today was zero. The nearest thing we had was one of those pull-it-through slide viewers with a reel-to-reel tape recorder or phonograph alongside (this was also before cassette tapes; I'm only 44!). Now and then my teachers would show a film, with the optical sound track imprinted on the film strip.

Mine wasn't the only "deprived" childhood. Dockterman tells of dropping into his old school's media room and finding a "treasure of underused equipment: projectors of all sorts-slide, overhead, opaque, filmstrip, movie (both auto and manual feed). Tape recorders-reel-to-reel and cassette." There were even some televisions, radios, and computers – Apple IIs, Commodore 64s, PC juniors – lying around [Dockterman, 1995].

Computers weren't available in my elementary school. In fact, I didn't know anything about computers. In college, the only computers were the big mainframes that you could use only by typing up a batch of cards. So if it's insisted that multimedia must incorporate computers (and that seems to be the case), then I was about 20 or 25 years ahead of any kind of multimedia education.

By the year 2010 the percentage of teachers using multimedia will be 99.99%. It's difficult to imagine, what with the proliferation of computers in the classroom, that any teachers will be without some kind of access to a multimedia presentation. As Dyrli and Kinnaman report, multimedia creates authentic learning environments. It gives the classroom the potential to enhance, enrich, extend, and ultimately transform the curriculum [Dyrli & Kinnaman, 1995].

For multimedia to succeed, though, teachers must use it effectively. Past innovations, such as filmstrips and broadcast technologies, failed to bring revolution to the classroom. Whenever a technology failed in this way, it was blamed on the educators, who didn't adjust and adapt [Dockterman, 1995].

Will multimedia go the way of the filmstrip? We'll see in 14 years.

8. Just Grandma And Me (Ch. 4, Q5)

This little story is interactive. Both my children (ages 9 and 6) have played with it and are intrigued by the ability to click here and there, choosing between "Read To Me" and "Let Me Play," and causing things to happen in the book. When they clicked on options, they were given the chance to jump to any page in the book, so the entire book could be read in linear fashion or (in a full-blown version of the application) they'd have been able to play on any page they chose.

In another sense, the book is not as interactive as it could be. The reader doesn't get much of a chance to choose the direction of the story, the style in which it is read, the speed of the animation, etc. Still, as a tool to make reading fun and to give children the chance to involve themselves in a story, to manipulate the characters, and to explore the environment in which these characters "live," this is an excellent program.

The computer is used well to display the colorful animation and provide the sound. Using the mouse, the reader can move the cursor to click on various items on the screen (in the book) and make things happen. Click on the mailbox and a frog drops out, ribbits a couple times, and hops away. Click on the cow and it moos. Click on Grandma's handbag and it plays "By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea." These are little nuggets of fun that bemuse children, something not possible in a printed book.

When it comes to the issue of teaching reading and comprehension, this is an enjoyable way to do it. My 6-year-old daughter, Natalie, clicked on the ball a few times, causing the story to be read again. As the words were highlighted and the girl's voice read, Natalie followed along. Perhaps some children would rely too much on being read to, but this is not much different from having a parent or teacher read to them at first. Later the child would become familiar with the story and the words, and begin to associate one with the other.

One big difference I can perceive here, and it is significant, is the interpersonal level attained in reading to a child. When I read to my daughter, she is usually on my lap or sitting close by. With a computer, how nurturing and cozy can it be? Still, nobody is suggesting it take the place of a real person. If this is a concern, then perhaps parents can use this capability of the computer in combination with physical contact, sitting at the computer, child in lap, and going through the electronic story a few times.

No matter how ubiquitous computers become, the human element must be present for memorable and worthwhile learning experiences.

9. Subjects Influenced By Technology (Ch. 4, Q8)

Nearly every subject has a multimedia title or more these days. This is a relatively recent phenomenon. In 1994, few computers had a CD-ROM drive. Between 1993 and 1995 consumer ownership of CD-ROM drives jumped from 9 million to about 40 million, with another 17 million purchases projected by the end of 1996. Titles being created for these drives are on a range of topics: Roman history, Greek philosophy, rain forest ecology, Mayan archaeology, and mountain climbing [Roberts, 1996].

With all this, how can anyone say with subject is influenced the most? Some subjects have moved heavily into the use of technology, such as ESL (English as a Second Language) programs. A CD-ROM called Steps to English Language Development is a comprehensive, networked, multimedia CD-ROM that that addresses the broad scope of language needs found in the fourth- through 12th-grade ESL classroom. It's organized into beginning and intermediate/advanced levels of instruction. It takes an interactive approach to language development, uses color, animation, and sound elements to motivate students and improve comprehension [Lopez & McLester, 1994].

While more research is no doubt needed to determine the impact of CD-ROMs on education, some groups have started already. A partnership of New Jersey's special education teachers and their students have been exploring the potential of multimedia technology in the classroom. Called Technology, Research, and Inservice for Special Education (TRISE), the project is a partnership among IBM/EduQuest, the New Jersey State Department of Education, and the Toms River Regional Schools. This group began its work a few years ago to 1) examine the effects of multimedia on the acquisition of knowledge for special education students; 2) develop multimedia-based materials and activities; and 3) provide inservice training opportunities to New Jersey's special education teachers [Kinnaman, 1994].

As the research bears results, I would expect to see that all subjects benefit from and take advantage of this multimedia technology. It is here to stay.

10. Multimedia In The Movies (Ch. 5, Q1)

It's not the latest box office hit, but I found the multimedia and other computer effects in "The Net" quite interesting. It used a "Hollywood" interface, as did another interesting movie, the name of which escapes me, starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. When I watch movies such as these, I am attracted and amused by the ease and speed of the computers. Sandra Bullock can click on an icon and get digital images (such as the woman who was taking her place), graphics, wonderfully animated security screens, and vibrant sounds. Michael Douglas can use the computer to move around in cyberspace and read virtual files without even a glitch.

Movies can always benefit from multimedia, in my opinion. It's something I never get tired of, and I believe as moviegoers get more sophisticated they will not only accept this technology, but expect it. After all, what is a movie other than a full-screen, although linear, multimedia event?

11. Multimedia In State Government (Ch. 6, Q1)

How is multimedia used by your state government? The New Hampshire State Government is using the World Wide Web; other than this I'm not aware of any other multimedia involvement.

Do multimedia kiosks help tourists find their way around your largest cities? Not that I know of. But then I don't get over to Nashua or Manchester much.

Is there an employment kiosk to help the unemployed find jobs? No. The State uses a telnet application.

Is multimedia used to make disaster relief available to those who need it? I'm not aware of anything.

Does your state use multimedia to deliver driver license tests? No.

12. Three More Multimedia Uses In Government Services to Community (Ch. 6, Q2)

1. Lunchtime entertainment – Keene has a large downtown lunch crowd. Multimedia kiosks could be placed near the Common to provide entertainment and informational services.

2. City regulations - Visitors could drop by and find out about Keene and its special regulations, tourist sites, historical features, etc.

3. Tickets - For any event in town, people could go to the multimedia kiosk, see what was happening, and buy a ticket.

 

References

Crothers, B. (1995.) MPEG puts Intel's Indeo to the test. InfoWorld, 17, 41, p. 42.

Dockterman, D. (1995.) Interactive learning: It's pushing the right buttons. Educational Leadership, 53, 2, pp. 58-59.

Dyrli, O.E., Kinnaman, D. (1995.) Part 4: Moving ahead educationally with multimedia.Technology & Learning, 15, 7, pp. 46-51.

Eichler-Martin, K. (1995.) Authoring Tools. CD-ROM Professional, 8, 1, pp. 82-83.

Guenette, D. (1995.) The MPEG software/hardware issue, or explicating a Sigma Designs white paper, and other clues. CD-ROM Professional, 8, 12, p. 58.

Heck, M. (1996.) Multimedia for the masses. InfoWorld, 18, 4, pp. 64-79.

Helm, L. (1995.) Court Reporter Sees the Future In Video, Daily Business Review, 36, 109.

Hofstetter, F. (1995.) Multimedia Literacy. New York, N.Y.: Mc-Graw Hill.

Kinnaman, D. (1994). New Jersey project targets special education and professional development. Technology & Learning, 14, 4, p. 52.

Lopez, D. & McLester, S. (1994.) Smart choices for the ESL classroom: Steps to English Language Development. Technology & Learning, 14, 7, pp. 23, 30.

Milone, M. (1994.) Multimedia authors, one and all. Technology & Learning, 15, 2, pp. 25-31.

Moll, P. & Hennigan, M. (1995.) Technology Offers Litigators An Edge, The National Law Journal, April 3, 1995, p. C13.

Roberts, P. [1996.] Virtual grub street. Harper's, 292, 1753, p. 71.

Shields, J. (1995.) Do-it-yourself multimedia. Technology & Learning, 15, 4, pp. 26-32.

Stine, R.L. (1996.) "Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter," Goosebumps. New York, N.Y.: Scholastic, Inc.