Web Construction with FrontPage:
General Issues,
Creating/Opening Locally
Opening "Live",
The Editing Environment/Themes,
Fonts and Text Editing,
Whole-page formatting,
Placing Images,
Tables,
Hyperlinks and Menus,
Website Structure, and
Publishing your Site,
Classroom uses
Multimedia on the Web:
The Playing Field
Images
Music and Sound
Video
"Fair Use" and Copyright
Streaming on the Web
Image
Sources
Multimedia and PowerPoint:
PowerPoint Animations
Sound and Music
Video
The Web Applied:
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Video,
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Most schools now own a digital camcorder or video capture system, or a Logitec Quickcam (or other low-resolution computer camera). If your video is in digital form, post it on the web and link to it – nothing could be simpler! Whoa!! Slow down! This is one area where some attention to detail is crucial! An uncompressed video file may fail to run on the client computer after destroying bandwidth on its way down to it!
The
tools:
Video can be digitized either by using a digital camcorder or QuickCam-style computer camera, or through a capture system. Only a QuickCam works without additional hardware – even a digital camcorder needs an interface. It is beyond the scope of this document to address video capture – if you need a beginner’s guide, see Pinnacle Systems Studio for help on one capture system, and other video issues.
In general, video-editing software comes with the hardware, including . . .
Ø Logitec QuickCam or other computer camera system: Usually these will only shoot and play back. Some provide a bunch of settings, including frame-per-second or motion-detection. However, the bundled software will usually not compress files, so be careful posting anything of size or length produced by a QuickCam!
Ø Pinnacle Systems Studio DC10+ or other capture system: The software bundled with this hardware is quite good, though basic, and provides for several compression options.
Ø Firewire (also called IEEE 1394): This is the interface needed to upload video from a digital camcorder to a computer. Apple includes it with its newer iMacs and G4’s, and the iMac’s bundled software (iMovie) will cover your software needs. Firewire systems are also available for Windows machines, as an add-on, and are factory installed on some laptops. Pinnacle's Studio DV sells for the same as DC10+, and uses the same editing software.
Ø Adobe Premiere: Although bundled with some more sophisticated hardware (including several brands of Firewire), Premiere is available as a stand-alone video editor. It’s expensive ($250+), but will handle almost anything, including layered sound, any video format, animated GIFs, and all still-image formats. It outputs to any format (including MPEG and QuickTime) or level of compression.
The
formats – general issues:
For an extensive discussion of formats and compression, see "Formats and CODECs" under "Video."
The
rules:
Ø No Autoplay! See “Sound” above for reasons, and then multiply them by 50 for video!
Ø Give samples! Same as sound as well. If you have a specific agenda that requires a longer video excerpt, warn the District Webmaster at webmaster@fcps.net of your intent, and get permission for your posting!
Ø Don’t get fussy about quality! The instructional or informational nature of a video excerpt will not be lost if it runs at 10 frames per second, or if sound is not CD quality.
Ø Test your files! Set up a link to your video files, then go to several example machines and test to see if it works. If there are client machines in your building that won’t play it, you can expect problems outside of your building!
Ø Provide tools if needed! If you use QuickTime, give a clickable link to the Apple source! If you use Indeo’s CODEC, same story!