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Audio clips can become the heart and soul of your Web site. Think how beneficial it would be if you could provide actual instructional material online for parents and students. Students who were absent or gone on a school function would only have to visit your Web site to "catch up."
There are three ways you can present instructional material to your students. One is text, which is the easiest but possibly the least beneficial to your students. A second way is to record your voice giving instructions, and the last way is provide an online video. Let's start with a voice recording.
Recording a voice requires special software. There are several programs available, but for this training you will use "Pure Voice". After watching the movie you may download "Pure Voice" from USD 336 Download Site into your documents folder (video will say desktop, but the only way to save is in the documents folder).
Note: Recording sound on the Web uses QuickTime technology by Apple. Anyone wishing to view your page will need QuickTime 4 installed on their machine. This program is available for free for both Macintosh and Windows (PC) computers. USD 336 Download Site has it available (but all training computers in USD 336 have already been updated to QuickTime 4).
Tip: QuickTime files are generally called movies, even when they contain only audio.
Create a short audio link for your Web page. This could be a "welcome" to your site or some form of instructions. Link your sound to your Web page.
When surfing the Internet you may come across a sound that would fit well on your Web page. Or you may find a sound that would enhance your multimedia presentations in the classroom. Some Web sites allow you to download the sound by a simple click, while others may require special software to capture the sound. The same procedure is used to capture sound or video, and the video below will explain that procedure. It should be noted that you cannot capture Real Audio sounds.
If you have a purchased copy of QuickTime Pro ($30-$40,) you will be able to capture movies from the Internet and save them to the hard drive. The free version (which many of the computers are using) does not have that capability. With the correct software, it is possible to capture videos that you locate on the Internet as long as they are not Real Videos. Once you capture a video, you can add it to your Web site, but be careful not to violate copyright. Capturing videos will also be useful for PowerPoint, HyperStudio or AppleWorks slide shows. The first video to the right shows how to use QuickTime 3.0 to capture a video or sound off the Internet. The computers for the training have QuickTime 4.0 and as long as you use 3.0 or newer this will work. The second video demonstrates how to place a QuickTime movie on your Web page.
Creating videos for your Web site and multimedia presentations can be very helpful. The challenge is to determine the best way to accomplish what you want from the video. There are several types of recorded videos (1) A screen captured video, like what you have been using, (2) A recording of yourself from a video camcorder with the clip then digitized, (3) A digital camcorder recording of yourself (4) A recording of your lecture and presentation (using PowerPoint or AppleWorks). As with sound, you will need special software for various types of recording.
Capturing your computer screen while you record instructions can make an ideal instructional video. Snapz Pro 2 (about $40) is a sleek utility allowing the user to "grab" virtually anything seen on the computer screen (Macintosh ONLY) and immediately transform it into a usable QuickTime movie. Snapz Pro 2 also works when most other capture utilities won't, making it the screen shot utility of choice for manual writers, Web publishers, and other media professionals. The more RAM, the better for this program. It is recommended you have 96mb of RAM or higher.
Watch the video on the right to learn more about how Snapz Pro operates. Please read the note below regarding IMPORTANT information about Snapz Pro that is NOT covered in the video.
Note: Your screen resolution should be set to 800 X 600 and the colors should be set to 256 while recording the video. Failure to set your colors to 256 will result in the "echo" effect on your movies' sound. You should also try to keep your movies under 1.5 minutes for optimal performance.
If you would like to practice making a "computer capture" video, download Snapz Pro to your computer from the above address. Once you have it in your documents folder, open it and try to create a few videos. Keep your videos short as it is better to have several short ones then one long one due to download time. You may consider using videos only on the network computers at your school to avoid lengthy download times.
Once you learn how to use Snapz Pro to capture your computer screen you can take the next step and capture a multimedia presentation. Open a presentation (PowerPoint, HyperStudio, AppleWorks) and then start up Snapz Pro. As you move through the presentation, provide short comments into the microphone, and when you're finished, you will have a video of your multimedia presentation.
The following are advanced level skills, and we hope to have videos online by the March 11 training.
Any videotape can be digitized so it can be viewed on the Internet or in a multimedia presentation. You need an AV computer to connect the VCR to the computer, and special software (iMovie, Premier, or Avid Cinema.) Most districts have an AV computer available in one of the school libraries. For the training there will be two computers set up with the iMovie software. After viewing the video please locate Tom Sextro for assistance in making an iMovie. A video you have digitized may be added to you Web page like any other video.
If at Holton
There is a major difference between a digital camcorder and a regular camcorder. The digital camcorder can be connected to any AV computer and the video downloaded directly to the computer. The video can then be edited with software like iMovie, Premier or Avid Cinema. If you want to try recording with a digital camcorder, locate one of the trainers. They will make available a digital camcorder, along with a computer with all the necessary software. A video created by a digital camcorder may be added to your Web page like any other video.
