MULTIMEDIA: THE WORLD OF HEALTH, BUSINESS AND SCHOOLS
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
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Multimedia and Personal Health (Ch. 7, Q4)
A. Childhood Training
B. Personal Fitness
C. Medical Assistance
D. Future Technology
II. CD-ROM Encyclopedias (Ch. 8, Q1)
III. Multimedia Computers And Research (Ch. 8, Q3)
IV. Presentation Packages At School Or Business (Ch. 9, Q5)
V. Executives & Multimedia Presentation Packages (Ch. 9, Q2)
VI. Authoring System At School Or Business (Ch. 9, Q3)
VII. Multimedia Application Development (Ch. 9, Q5)
VIII. My Computer's Multimedia Components (Ch. 11, Q2)
A. System Unit
B. Multimedia Accessories
C. Multimedia Read/Write Storage
D. Communication Options
E. Auxiliary Input & Printers
IX. Have I Ever Used A Trackball? (Ch. 11, Q3)
X. References Multimedia and Personal Health (Ch. 7, Q4)
Three ways multimedia can help us maintain our personal health: childhood training, ongoing personal fitness, and medical assistance.
Most elementary schools have computers, but so far mostly only in the libraries. Students have access to them, but more are needed in the individual classrooms. Once this occurs, then students will be able to use multimedia titles to enhance their learning in a variety of areas, including their health. Notice the emphasis is on "enhance." Before multimedia, before computers, even before video and film, students found a way to learn. Multimedia should complement all the other resources a teacher has available, not replace them.
However, a program called NET (nutrition education and training) is suggesting that multimedia computers be placed in, of all places, the cafeteria. Established by Congress in 1977, NET considers the cafeteria as a "learning laboratory," a place where children learn about nutrition. So why not tie their classroom learning to their nutritional education?, NET is wondering. With a multimedia computer, the school children would be able to view an interactive program on CD-ROM called "5 A Day Adventures." It was developed by Dole Food Company and the Society for Nutrition Education to teach third grade students the importance of eating five servings a day of fruits and vegetables [Anonymous, 1994].
One can imagine the children lining up in the cafeteria, passing by the computer(s), and biding their time punching up various food items. They'd be able to find out the nutritional value of the pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, and turkey and stuffing being offered that day. Multimedia is an attractive and engaging teaching method which can help children develop "lifelong healthful eating habits" [Anon.]
After we've gotten out of school, but before ending up in front of the doctor, we can improve the chances of maintaining personal health by monitoring personal fitness. That is, by watching weight, eating the right foods, exercising, etc. We can also go out and purchase a multimedia computer. Multimedia titles are allowing families and individuals to read up on medical problems, record personal health data, and get answers to health questions just by typing in a request on our home computer.
A program called "Bodyworks" shows images and descriptions of anatomy and provides information on fitness, common illnesses and first aid. It's probably more geared toward students than families interested in general health information, but the same company makes "B.A.B.Y.," a program about birth and the baby's first years, as well as "PharmAssist," which tells about drugs and first aid [Clark, 1994].
Other multimedia titles are:
With titles such as these available, as well as new technology making its way into the home every day (the Internet, fiber optics, cable, multimedia kiosks), anyone with the skill and dexterity to press finger against touch-screen (or in some antiquated societies, click a mouse) should be able to keep the rest of their body in good shape.
Multimedia titles have been available for the physician and those in medical training. One example is a medical assistance program is "telemedicine," which uses digital networks to perform long-distance diagnoses of diseases and disorders. The possible benefits here are medical education and intercontinental health care [Baer, 1996]. But perhaps it's time for the patient to take advantage of this technology.
What better way to maintain my health than to fully understand a medical procedure I'm about to undertake and perhaps be able to decide on an alternative? But instead of an attentive, caring physician taking time with me, it's an attentive, caring computer. (Well, not so much caring but at least attentive.)
This is happening through an interactive computer system that has been placed in some doctor's offices. Known as the Patient Advise and Consent Encounter (PACE), the system uses touch-screens and animation. An actor-doctor narrator tells patients about various procedures and describes alternative treatments [Anonymous, 1995].
The technology of tomorrow can only make us healthier. There will be faster computers in each home, with large bandwidths connecting to the Internet and the vast amounts of information. Modems, telephone lines, or fiber optic cable will feed the multimedia kiosk in the living room. It shares its resources among the computer, situation comedies, and feature movies ... all within easy access through the touch-screen or remote keyboard. The advantage is, now it's all interactive.
Instead of placing a CD-ROM into the drive and viewing in solitude, people will interact with others with similar health needs. Perhaps they'll just exercise. Maybe they'll have more serious needs, such as speaking with another person suffering from a disease. In any case, it will be easy, fast, and inexpensive.
How will this improve our health? By making us more aware. We're always hearing those horror stories of people who go into the hospital for surgery, then find out it wasn't needed. Or those who are admitted for one ailment but discover they are suffering from some other problem. When it comes to health matters, ignorance is not bliss. Give me information every time.
There are numerous CD-ROM encyclopedias available. One I bought at Staples for $6.99 is called Circle of Knowledge. It's a full multimedia encyclopedia. By using the Media Browsing Room, one can get a selection of pictures, video and music clips about events such as the battle of Gettysburg, topics such as folk music, and people such as Clara Barton. From the Master Index, one can type in the desired topic and (if it's there) it will appear in the selection box. Pressing enter will bring up the information. It's not one of the finest or more robust encyclopedias, but it has a good amount of information. It was interesting to observe that it contained a listing for Woody Allen but not one of the best baseball players ever, Babe Ruth.
Other CD-ROM encyclopedias are easy enough to find, although they will cost. A search of Infoseek, using "encyclopedia" and "CD-ROM" as search criteria, revealed 32,781 sites. Among the first ten were www.shoplet.com/cdrom/e3.html, where CD-ROMs of all kinds can be bought.
There's www.edutainment.com.au/encycli.html, which referred to such CD-ROM choices as Microsoft's Encarta 96 and the Australian PC User Annual CD-ROM Encyclopedia Shootout. At wayzata-tech.com/Guinness.html one can order the Guinness Encyclopedia for $39. And the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia can be ordered by going to www.drtech.com/grolier.html. This CD-ROM contains the complete text of all 21 volumes of Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia, plus pictures, maps, and animation.
Other CD-ROMs are listed at a web site called Encyclopedias and Reference (www.edutainment.com.au/encycli.html). Included are the ones mentioned above, plus the Compton Interactive Encyclopedia, the Britannica CD, Webster's Encyclopedia, and the World Book Encyclopedia.
My access to these multimedia encyclopedias is limited. The only one I have is the one I just bought. At this time the school my children attend does not have CD-ROM capability. Amazing as it seems, they have just purchased a couple of Macintosh computers and two accounts at the local Internet access provider. So they may be able to get access to some of the encyclopedias online, of which the Britannica Online Encyclopedia is probably the most notable.
Multimedia computers have already assisted me, and probaby many other students, with their research. There are advantages and disadvantages to using such a resource. The ability to see video and hear sound clips provide a broader understanding of the topic as well as a better grasp of the context of the information. The researcher can include quotes from a video or audio clip in his report. Although this could also be obtained from printed reference material, the researcher might also be able to get a feeling for the circumstances surrounding the comment. It's even possible, using a screen capture, to include screen shots from the multimedia resource in the report. Eventually I could see how graduate students' papers might even include video and audio clips, perhaps even original ones created by the student involved in some kind of empirical research.
Of course this ties in well with my view of the future format of term papers and theses. It will no doubt come to pass that professors (and even high school teachers) assign and expect their students to submit their papers in multimedia form. This is already being done at Roseburg High School in Oregon. Rather than write a traditional term paper, the students can optionally author a multimedia presentation. Students go through a tutorial, then gather video clips from tapes, laser discs, and cable TV; they import music from a CD or do their own sound effects; and they get still images from a digital camera or scanner [Milone, 1996].
This gives a new twist to using multimedia computers for research, in that the research is gained not from the presentation but in creating it. Regardless of the subject matter, students should be able to find the equipment and resources to create whole new bodies of information in a multimedia presentation. These presentations will be stored, just as theses and dissertations are today, for posterity.
There's one disadvantage of using multimedia encyclopedias as a resource. It can be difficult to do string searches of multimedia content. Unless the quote, event, person or topic is synopsized in text form, it will be impossible to find, for example, where John Kennedy says "Ich bin eine Berliner." However, a search of a more general nature might be preferable.
Another disadvantage is that most CD-ROM devices hold only one diskette at a time. There are multiple-diskette devices, but until they are in widespread use, researchers who want to search more than one encyclopedia will have to change diskettes. It may be that the files from several CD-ROM could be placed, at least temporarily, on the hard drive for easier access. Perhaps hard drives will soon be large enough for this. It doesn't seem feasible at this time.
We don't have much of a selection in the way of presentation packages at my place of business. We are an Internet Service Provider and have a lot of Internet client software. However, recently we acquired a program called Astound. It bills itself as "Number 1 in Multimedia Presentations." It is similar in many ways to MS PowerPoint, a program I worked with at a previous employer, Crockett Log Homes. (At Crockett we also tried Harvard Graphics, also similar to PowerPoint; the decision, not mine to make, was to go with PowerPoint.)
Astound is designed for someone who really doesn't want to spend a lot of time programming. Using the HeadStart feature, the user can choose from a dozen possible presentation formats, such as Company Profile, Marketing Plan, and Dealing With A Crisis. Then, once the outline pops up, the user replaces the boilerplate information with the specific information required for the new presentation.
A user can also input data from the slide view. In this format the slides show up and the text and graphics can be clicked on and changed. Astound allows input from either slide or outline view; from the sorter view (a number of slides are seen at once, as thumbnails), the slides can be dragged and dropped. This eliminates the need, as with older versions of PowerPoint and other presentation software, to cut and paste, and makes for good flexibility overall.
Although I haven't worked with PowerPoint in a while, this version of Astound would seem to be much more powerful. Some of the features are:
While my place of business doesn't use many presentation tools at this time, this is something we should consider. As Manager of the Web Services Division, I need to show potential clients the advantages of having a presence on the World Wide Web, which is difficult when they are not on the Internet. Using Astound, I could create simulations of how their web site might look.
Nobody at my place of business uses a multimedia presentation package. As mentioned in the previous question, I would be the one to use it if we decided to take advantage of the capability. The closest we come to a multimedia presentation is during our User Group meetings. This is when the Director of Marketing uses an adapter of some kind to project the image of the computer display onto a large screen. Then he browses the Web or shows the group the Internet client software being highlighted that evening. Last week we demonstrated WebPhone. This is not what I would call multimedia, at least not until there is more in the way of visuals.
My place of business does not own an authoring system as defined by this chapter, although Astound has many of the features. Now, if we wanted to create a multimedia presentation, we would use the various applications for graphics and sound and then import the finished product into our presentation package. This might not be as seamless as using IconAuthor and its suite of applications, but it would work.
One problem with such full-fledged applications (Authorware Professional, IconAuthor, Quest) is that many users have spent months or years becoming familiar with programs such as Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, Freehand, Corel Draw, etc. They may not want to learn another draw program. Many users want the flexibility to use the creative tools they like and then import them into the authoring program.
In answer to this question, I'm very impressed with how the designers of these presentation and authoring tools have combined the necessary elements into a nearly seamless suite of applications. In Astound, for example, the author has access to Astound Animator, Astound Draw, Astound Video, Astound Sound, a Media Manager, and several other tools.
What makes this kind of software all the more fascinating is the number of platforms (operating systems) it can run on. An author has several interfaces to choose from when developing a multimedia presentation. These different interfaces try to provide a familiar frame of reference, known as a metaphor. In many presentation programs, the author can choose from various metaphors, such as the slide show, the book, the timeline, and the icon, to name a few.
Perhaps the most versatile interface is the book metaphor, which allows the author to see his presentation on screen in the form of a book. Pages can be lifted to see other pages, and on each page there are a number of multimedia objects which can be manipulated. The book metaphor allows the author to create interactive links, to link from one page to another or to other books.
The book metaphor is helpful in the design and assemby stages of authoring. In the Toolbook authoring environment, most handling of multimedia objects is done with the mouse, such as drawing objects, choosing colors, and placing text objects. The author has a tool palette, a command window which allows the author to type in code as needed, and some aids for writing scripts.
A tool called MediaForge has a flowchart to help new users keep track of a production's flow and content. It asks the user to create an empty framework of various backgrounds and scenes. These appear in a clear tree diagram window (the Project List), which also defines the logic of the presentation. A good interface also includes a way for the author to collect and gather all the referenced multimedia files. Then, although it's not strictly an interface consideration, the program should provide some easy distribution, or publish, feature [Heck, 1995].
Perhaps the only addition I'd like to see with the authoring programs is the ability to select which tools (paint, sound, animation, etc.) are bundled with it. This is feasible given the multi-tasking capability of most platforms these days. But then the author is still working with a variety of tools that are not inherently compatible. Filters and conversion programs will be needed. This is no doubt inevitable in this ever-changing, growing, and developing world of software competition.
Actually, it's what makes the world so interesting.
My computer is fairly new in the global scheme of things, but in this fast-paced world of infinite upgrades and immediate obsolescence, it's an antique. I bought it a year and a half ago and at that time it seemed like more than I'd ever need.
My system has a 486DX chip running at 125 megahertz, and originally came with 8 megabytes of random access memory. I've since upgraded to 16 MB of RAM. The improvement was quite noticeable. Memory is a critical aspect affecting a computer's speed, and one I'd recommend increasing as much as possible, even before getting a faster chip.
My monitor is a 14" color display capable of super VGA which I have set for 800x600 pixels. Even though this greater pixel resolution makes everything a little smaller, I like it because it makes browsing the web easier. More stuff shows on the page at once.
My pointing device is a PC Mouse. It doesn't have a little ball inside. Instead it has an infrared beam which reads movement when I run it along the special mouse pad. The pad has a reflective grid and must be properly aligned or it will not work. My young daughter found this out, getting frustrated when the pad was in situated vertically rather than horizontally. The mouse was moving in unpredictable patterns.
When I bought this computer it came with a double-speed CD-ROM drive. Wow, double speed! Then there was 4X (four speed), 6X, 8X. Where will it stop? Eventually I would like to upgrade this component as well. It is not a priority, though.
My sound card is a 16-bit Media Vision Pro Audio Sound card. There are still much better ones available, but this one is quite good and meets MPC2 standards. My one complaint is that although it is supposed to be Sound Blaster compatible, there are many DOS programs that don't seem to agree. If I ever get another sound card it will be, first of all, plug and play; plus it will be a Sound Blaster.
My speakers are small but very effective (for cost me but $40). What I sometimes do is run a line from the LINE OUT of my sound card over to my prosumer (professional-consumer) quality mixing board, and then to my really good speakers. The sound is excellent.
I don't have any kind of video overlay device. Years ago I bought a framegrabber from a DAK catalog. It was bleeding edge technology at that time (and probably still is). This I think is not something I'm going to need in the next half a dozen years, although being far from my kids' grandparents, it might be fun to be able to send some video to them, no matter how primitive.
One thing I do have is a midi keyboard. It's just a little thing but it allows me to input some of my music into a program called MusicTime. Then I can create very nice lead sheets and print them out; they are quite professional. It took me a while to get this midi device working with my sound card. After I bought the keyboard I discovered that I needed some kind of adapter, which cost another $75. But with it I can also add a joystick to my system if I wanted.
My system came with a 160 megabyte IDE hard drive. This seemed like plenty of space, but of course it wasn't. I even had a space doubler on it. A few months ago I upgraded to a 1.2 gigabyte hard drive. So far I haven't used even half of it. To better manage my files, though, I partioned it to a C: and a D: drive. The C: drive is mostly for my work stuff, while the D: drive has games and other leisure activities.
As far as the other components, I don't have a SCSI card, nor do I need one at this time; I don't have an optical disk or a writeable CD-ROM drive; and since I don't have a notebook computer, I do not have a PCMCIA card (now known as PC cards).
My very first modem, ten years ago, was 1200 baud. This was fine for connecting to Compuserve and their VT-100 interface. Then I really went all out and got a 2400 baud modem. Of course every computer user has gone through the same thing, seeing their system quickly becoming out of date. Now I have a 28.8 Kbps (kilobytes per second) US Robotics Courier. Sometimes it's still not enough. There's the hype about ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines giving us 128 Kbps access, but will it just be another transitional technology?
Soon there will be ADSI (asymmetric digital subscriber line), with the capacity to carry digital traffic at 1.5 Mbps, 12 times faster than ISDN. The regional phone companies will be testing this technology as early as next year. Plus Broadband Technologies has demonstrated ATM (asynchronous transfer mode); this will allow connection to fiber optic cables and access speeds of up to 51 Mbps [Eckhouse, 1996]. Of course the cost would be prohibitive for most users, but like everything, once it's affordable we'll all just have to have it!
As for my Internet connection, this is a dialup TCP/IP connection through the local ISP (Internet service provider). Since I work there I don't have to pay anything, but the typical cost is $20 per month for 100 hours of access time. At work we have a local area network (LAN) connected directly to the Internet through our T1 line.
I don't have a scanner at home, although we do at work. For a while I was working with a hand-held scanner; now I have access to a 600 dpi flatbed scanner with 24-bit color. The photos we scan and place on the web sites are very nice.
My printer is a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4L. It doesn't do color, and that's fine because I rarely want color. Also, when I bought this printer the color printers were quite slow and the quality of the image was not too good. However, recently the price has fallen (of course) and the images are impressive. The complaints I've heard from those who have these printers is that the color cartridges are expensive and that one color (I believe it was red) tends to go dry very quickly.
Of all the components now available for computers, I'm pretty pleased with most of the ones I have. I've mentioned some things I don't have and would want if money were no object. Overall I believe having a computer is liking owning a home; you just try to maintain it as much as possible, upgrade it when you can afford to, and try to get as much out of it when you sell.
Yes. I bought a notebook computer several years ago (which I no longer own), and it had a trackball. At first it was a little awkward, but eventually I came to appreciate the convenience of it. I didn't have to reach far to find it; it was always in the same place; it didn't require a lot of space; and it was very responsive. These are some clear advantages over a mouse, which takes up space and has to be moved several inches back and forth to be effective.
The disadvantages are few. At first it was difficult to point to the right object on the screen; this got easier with time. It was also difficult to manipulate objects for a while, since the button had to be held down while rolling the trackball.
The book mentions mouse pens and the TrackPoint stylus, but another pointing device which has appeared is the trackpad. You can slide your finger around, then click the button to select or double click to execute. You can also tap on the pad to select or execute. I haven't tried one of these but this may be the coming thing. They could be especially valuable for notebook computers, where space is a consideration.
Right now I'd say my preference is still my neat little mouse. Even though the trackball has some advantages, and I'm sure I'd eventually get comfortable with one, I like the tactile quality of a mouse. Reaching over for it all the time is inconvenient, but this has only made me a better keyboard user. There are actually lots of things one can do right from the keyboard, if you try.
References
Anonymous. (1994.) Nutrition at school: Preparing for the future. Public Health Reports, 109, 5, pp. 706-709.
Anonymous. (1995.) Cyberdoc explains medical procedures. Science News, 147, 20, p. 315.
Baer, T. (1996.) F.Y.I.: The info highway to Wellville. Computerworld, 30, 6, p. 73.
Clark, J. (1994.) Home health guides go high-tech. Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, 48, 4, pp. 142-143.
Eckhouse, J. (1996.) The next wave: A few ways to outrace ISDN. HomePC, 3, 9, p. 108.
Fish, S. (1995.) Doc in a box: The Family Doctor, 3rd Edition. Better Homes & Gardens, 73, 8, p. 52.
Heck, M. (1996.) MediaForge 2.0 appeases multimedia programmers and authors. InfoWorld, 18, 25, p. 151.
Hofstetter, F. (1995.) Multimedia Literacy. New York, N.Y.: Mc-Graw Hill.
Milone, M. (1996.) Kids as Multimedia Authors, Technology & Learning, February 1996, p. 24.