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Meeting was called to
order at 5:15 PM.
General Business
- Because of the small
group, we moved right into the topic and didn't discuss general
business.
Major Topic: Digital
Video
The group held an informal
discussion about cameras, digital video, and its application on
instruction. Content was as follows:
We were playing with
and discussing a variety of equipment and software during the meeting.
The following "glossary" provides you with some background
information:
| Apple iBook
|
A laptop computer |
| Canon ZR10 Digital
Video Camera |
A camera that captures
both still images and digital video clips to a small tape. The
format of this video capture was a digital video stream.
The still image was in the form of a XXXXXXX. A web search
made us think that this camera is no longer available and has
been replaced with the Canon ZR20 which has a retail of $498.00
(The comment was made that if you are holding a camera that
you bought, they probably have replaced it already with a newer
version). |
| Digital Video
Stream |
(dv-stream) - the
name of what is transferred over firewire from camera to computer
or computer to camera. It does not appear to have any file type
or file extension. Its format is 1's and 0's (binary). |
| Firewire |
A cable that runs
from a digital camera directly into a computer that allows for
the transfer of a digital video stream. Firewire capability
is a standard feature on Apple iBooks (their line of laptops)
but must be ordered on PCs. You can add this capability to your
current computer by adding either a firewire card or a PC/MCIA
card and purchasing a firewire cable if one doesn't come with
your camera |
| iMovie |
Apple's software
that allows you to create and edit digital movies. The final
product is a movie in a .mov file format. The software was available
free with OS9 (Apple's operating system), but you now must purchase
it with OSX (read as OS-ten); there is no PC version of this
software. The software was running on the t-book on OSX. iMovie
is now in its 2nd generation and Apple has already made modifications
to the software from its first version. |
| Quicktime |
Apple software that
allows for the viewing of digital movies. You can download a
quicktime player free of charge. The player lets you do just
that- play digital videos. You can not record, convert files,
or edit unless you purchase the full version of the software.
This software also runs on PCs. |
| Quicktime Pro |
Full
version of Apple software (will also run on PCs) that can be
used to create and edit digital video and do certain file conversions.
Purchase price is $29.99. |
| Sony Mavica MVC-92
|
A digital camera
that captures still images and up to a 15-second video clip
to a floppy disk. This camera also retails for around $500.00.
The still images are captured as .jpg (read as j-peg) files;
the video clips are captured as .mpg (read as m-peg) files.
This camera does not have digital streaming capability. |
| Windows Media
Player |
Microsoft's software
that allows for the viewing of digital movies. You can download
a Windows Media free of charge; there is no MAC version of this
software. The player lets you do just that- play digital videos. |
| Windows MovieMaker |
Microsoft's
movie making software. This 1st generation software comes automatically
with Windows XP (not Office XP). It has many of the features
of iMovie. It creates a file format of .mswmm for editing and
allows you to save final versions as .avi |
Note: It should be noted
here that when the group in attendance is small, the educational
session becomes very informal. There is no true leader (although
Pat and Jeff were our resident "learning as we go along experts"),
questions are asked informally during the discussion, and the learning
may not take the flow of a typical lesson.
To do anything with digital
video, you need three things: a digital video camera, some type
of software that lets you edit the digital video stream, and some
way to transfer the stream from the camera to the computer. We played
with iMovie and discussed Windows MovieMaker, but there are other
commercial software packages available for this purpose as well.
We started by playing
with iMovie. iMovie looks exactly like it does in Apple's television
commercials. The screen is broken down in a grid (to show you what
video and still images you are working with on the project) and
a project line (almost like a timeline) where you build your movie.
All clips and images must be imported into iMovie before you begin.
The software comes with 6 video streams that you can play with,
so we imported a few of those to play with. You select a stream,
drag it into your project line, and you are starting to create your
movie. You can add transitions (changes between clips, stills, etc.),
titles, sound (you can have up to two separate audio files), change
the length of how long a clip will be shown, etc.). Most of the
tasks are menu selections and drag and drop commands. While the
software is extensive in its capabilities, it comes with a tutorial
and some online help, and seemed to be intuitive.
Next, we hooked up the
firewire to the computer and imported the digital video stream that
was saved on the Canon camera into iMovie. Once the importing was
finished, iMovie added it to the grid and we were able to drag it
into the project line as before. We also found out we could export
from iMovie back to the camera.
iMovie allows you to
export your completed project to Quicktime. This format could be
used for posting to the web (since the reader is free) or for sending
video via e-mail. Anyone who downloads the reader can play the movie.
You could send the iMovie format, but the receiver would have to
have a version of iMovie in order to view it.
Positive aspects of iMovie
- easy to use, converts movie to Quicktime format, software has
already been adapted to users (2nd generation).
Negative aspects of iMovie
- would not accept files in Mpg format, would not let us edit the
length of clips (although this could have been our learning curve).
The group decided that
movie making was pretty simple, and could have some terrific applications
in education. It will allow teachers and students to create a new
generation of educational products. The motivation factor alone
in this is apparent, but you are invited to think about the variety
of applications into which this technology would fit.
One of the concerns the
group had was the proprietary nature of the software programs. We
have gotten used to having things dual platform (remember how frustrating
it was to receive a document from someone that you couldn't open
because it was created on a different platform computer?), and moviemaking
appears to be detouring away from that capability. Apple's iMovie
allowing for the conversion of movies to Quicktime comes close to
maintaining that dual platform capability, but Microsoft did not
appear to have any feature allowing for this capability. Since educators
are having less and less control over their classroom machines due
to maintenance costs, and are not allowed to install software, it
is possible that there will be educational resources that teachers
can not access. This will be an interesting area of technology to
watch evolve over the next few years.
General Business
A very informal conversation
was held, as the group was leaving, with regard to the recent discussion
on the list about taking the ITUG meetings "on the road"
and moving them to other locations around the state. A suggestion
was made that a request for a location host be posted to the list
and to accept the first taker on the offer. The host location would
need to be in a lab with Internet connectivity. This request will
be posted to the list.
Meet was adjourned at
7:30. Next meeting is February 12, 2002. The topic and location
will be determined.
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