Multimedia Tools to

Accommodate the Adult

Learner

William F Perry, MA, RN

Objectives
 At the end of the day you will be able to:
 Manipulate images, audio and video
 Use Web 2.0 tools to collaborate/communicate
Tools and techniques
 Educate
 Communicate
 Collaborate
Hardware
 Computer
 Microphone
 Digital camera
 Webcam
Free/Open Source
Software (FOSS)
What is “Open Source”
 Free to download
 Free to use
 It is protected by copyright

 Different from Free, Public Domain or

Creative Commons
Is it safe?
 Yes

 Constantly under
revision and improvement
by a global community
of developers

 Does NOT absolve you

of the need to practice
safe computing.
What’s available?
 Just about anything you need.
 Audio/video/graphics Tools
 Collaboration tools
 Tools to create tests, polls, surveys
 Images
Can I use them in my facility
 Great concern re: spyware, malware, viruses
 Many online services may be blocked
 YouTube
 Blogs
 iTunes
Looking at Learning Preferences
 Auditory
 Visual
 Kinesthetic
Auditory preference

 Auditory learners
 listeners
 may repeat to hear own voice and process
information
 engage in mental dialogues
Visual preference
 Visual learners
 prefer seeing what they are learning
 pictures and images help them understand
 Translate descriptions to images
Kinesthetic preferences
 Kinesthetic learners
 want to sense position and movement
 'get their hands dirty’
 often favour scenarios and labs
Learning style inventory
 Online learning style preference
assessment:

http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp

http://www.learning-styles-online.com/
Multimodal learners

 Most people have greater retention with a

multimodal approach
Today’s students & instructors
 Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
 Gen X: 1965 – 1980 (28-43)
 Gen Y: 1981 – 1989 (19-29)
Baby Boomers
 Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
 Transistor radio: 1950’s
 8 track cassette player: 1960’s
Gen X
 Gen X: 1965 – 1980 (28-43)
 Video games (pong): 1970’s
 Personal Computer, Sony Walkman:1980’s
Gen Y
 Gen Y: 1981 – 90 (18-29)
 CD players, World Wide Web: 1990’s
 iPod: 2000
 Digital natives

“Today’s students – K through college – represent the first

generations to grow up with this new technology. They
have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using
computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams,
cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital
age. Today’s average college grads have spent less than
5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours
playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours
watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell
phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their
lives.”

Marc Prensky “Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants” http://www.marcprensky.com/

Building on familiar tools
 PowerPoint
 Images
 Audio
 Video
Finding images
 Clip art in PowerPoint
 Commercial libraries
 Digital photographs
 Internet
Free images on the Web

 Public Health Image Library

http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/home.asp
 Stock.XCHNG
http://www.sxc.hu/index.phtml

 Royalty free images

Resizing and Cropping Images
 Change of physical dimensions
 Cut out unwanted portions

 Don’t forget to decrease file size

 Smaller files = faster loading

Resize and Crop in PowerPoint
Compress the images
DPI and Format
 DPI= dots per inch
 72 -150

 GIF – 256 colors – lossless

 PNG – lots of colors – lossless
 JPG – photographs – lossy
Online image editors
 Online
 http://www.pixlr.com
 http://www.picnik.com
Image editors to download
 Gimp
http://www.gimp.org/
 Paint.net
http://www.getpaint.net/
Converting PowerPoint
 PDF or Flash
 No need for PowerPoint
 Table of contents
 Small file sizes
PowerPoint Tools
 AuthorPoint Lite
http://www.authorgen.com/authorpoint-lite-free/po

 Open Office
http://www.openoffice.org
Creating Audio
 Narrating PowerPoint
 Creating mp3 files
 Insert into PowerPoint presentations
 Create podcasts
Audio Formats
 MP3 – wide variety of players
 WMA – Windows Media Audio
 MP4 – iPod and iTunes
File Size and Audio Quality
 The bitrate of an audio file is a key indicator
of the quality level of that file.
 2 minutes of audio
 128K 2MB CD quality
 64K 1MB FM radio
 32K .5MB AM radio
Time to download

 2MB
 Dial-up: 5-8 min Broadband: 10-30 sec
 1MB
 Dial-up: 3-5 min Broadband: 5-15 sec
 .5MB (500K)
 Dial-up: 1.5-2 min Broadband: 2-8 sec
Tools to Create Audio
 Audacity
 Microphone
Podcasts
 Audio files place on an Internet site
 Subscription option – automatically updated

 Gcast: Podcasting the easy way

 http://www.gcast.com/
Subscribing to a Podcast
 Feed reader

 Google Reader
http://reader.google.com

 Bloglines
http://www.bloglines.com
Video – Vodcasts and Screencasts
 Vodcast: video with subscription options
 Screencast: video and narration of screen
activity

http://www.screencastcentral.com/
Video Formats
 Windows Media Files - .wmv
 Quicktime - .mov
 Shockwave Flash - .swf
 Flash video - .flv
 iTunes – mp4
Tools to create and edit video
 Software bundled with your camera
 Debut Video Capture – capture video
 Microsoft Movie Maker – edit video
Tools to Create Screencasts
 Commercial  Free/Open Source
 Camtasia  CamStudio
 Captivate  Jing
 Screen Toaster
Putting Video in your Presentation
 Be careful of file formats
 PowerPoint can embed .wmv
 Use a link to play other video formats
Collaboration Tools
 Wiki
 Shared
documents
 Mindmaps
Using a Wiki
 A website that can be edited by anyone
 Able to revert to earlier versions
 Wikipedia
 http://www.AskDrWiki.com
Shared Documents
 Google Docs
 Zoho Docs
Mindmaps
 Graphical diagramming
Communication Tools
 Asynchronous
 Email
 Discussion boards/forums

 Synchronous
 Text chat/instant messaging
 Video chat
Discussion Boards
 Usually available in your LMS
 Threaded vs unthreaded

http://www.allnurses.com
Instant Messaging
 LMS
 Meebo
Video Chat
 Skype
 Google talk

 Option to use/not use video

 Can function in text only mode
Blogs to Journal the Journey
 Different from a wiki
 Individual focused
 No revision history
 Does allow comments and responses

 Blogger
 Wordpress
Blogs as a teaching tool
http://clinicalcases.blogspot.com/
Self Assessment Tools
 LMS
 Camtasia
 Captivate
Course development tools
 Udutu – http://www.udutu.com
Virtual Rooms
 Classroom
 Office hours
 1:1 help
Personal Start Pages
 PageFlakes
 NetVibes
 iGoogle
RSS

What is RSS and what does it

have to do with this topic?
What is RSS?
Rich Site Summary/Really Simple
Syndication

 It’s a way of automatically checking various

Internet resources for updates and delivering the
content to your browser.

 Once you have “subscribed” to

a site your computer checks
for new content without having
to go to each site.
RSS Readers
 Read online using a browser
 Google Reader: http://google.com/reader/
 Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com
Searching PubMed
Create a self updating bibliography

 To automatically search PubMed for articles on a

specific topic go to http://pubmed.gov or
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/.

 Enter you search terminology and click the “go” button. When the resulting list of
citations is diplayed, click the drop down next to “Send to” and select RSS feed.
An address will be generated that you can copy into your feed reader.
http://www.pubmed.gov

Create a self updating bibliography

 Your search is
automatically
updated and
sent to your
reader as new
articles are
added to
PubMed.
Surveys & evaluations
 Survey Monkey
http://www.surveymonkey.com

 Survey Gizmo
http://www.surveygizmo.com/
New Directions
 Games
 Virtual worlds
 iPods
Games & learning
 Characteristics that keep user attention
 Engagement
 Action
 Problem solving
 Visible results
 Strategies to include active participation
 Computer games as a serious training tool
Second Life
iPod
 Audio
 Video
 iTunes University
Finding more resources
 Directory of elearning tools
http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/
Thank you!

Bill Perry
wfperry@gmail.com