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Week 13 - Starting Sunday 01/02/2014 - Valencia, Venezuela. Week 13 Syllabus
Introduction - Hello everybody. For those who don't know me. Who is Tom Hodgers?
Ex- Rocker, Beatle Maniac, One-Man Band, Hippy, Time/Space Traveler, Japanophile, Kendo-ka, Aikido-ka, Zen Buddhist, Philosopher, Mad Scientist.
Learning Practitioner.
Week 14 - Starting Sunday 08/02/2014 - Valencia, Venezuela. Week 14 Syllabus
Creating Class Elements Part 1: Images and screen-shots
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| This image captured from my friend Tony Gurr's blog page http://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/ |
There are a lot of software programs available for capturing and downloading images. I've tried out many during the last few years (Jing, SnagIt etc.) but I always fall back on my favourite, the screen capture button on my machine.
The screen capture button is available on PCs and MACs.
On a MAC,
- Press the Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 3 all at the same time
- You will find a capture of the screen on your desktop named ‘Picture _’
I then use the free Irfanview or Paint program for editing.
Following are some notes I made for using images in a Moodle course:
Some notes about Images
Modern
computers will load pages full of images very fast. Speed of loading
will depend upon the users OS, free disk space, free RAM size and
Internet connection velocity.
The size of the image FILE is more important, this can affect performance more (both user and site).
The factors involved in SITE performance are basically the same as for any PHP-based database-driven system. Some MOODLE activity modules and filters can affect response velocity, typical culprits being: Chat module, Quiz module, Cron task and the Recent Activities Block. The base images delivered in the original Moodle distribution package provide unoptimized graphics, most of which can benefit from lossless recompression utilizing optipng for PNGs, gifsicle for GIFs and jpegoptim for JPGs.
Optimized graphics transfer faster and provide a faster perceived response for clients.
Here are some example images showing the difference between perceived image size and file size:
The size of the image FILE is more important, this can affect performance more (both user and site).
The factors involved in SITE performance are basically the same as for any PHP-based database-driven system. Some MOODLE activity modules and filters can affect response velocity, typical culprits being: Chat module, Quiz module, Cron task and the Recent Activities Block. The base images delivered in the original Moodle distribution package provide unoptimized graphics, most of which can benefit from lossless recompression utilizing optipng for PNGs, gifsicle for GIFs and jpegoptim for JPGs.
Optimized graphics transfer faster and provide a faster perceived response for clients.
Here are some example images showing the difference between perceived image size and file size:
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| The original JPG file is 491x602 pixels with a file size of 42.4 Kb. |
DO NOT change the size of images when inserting them into a label on Moodle. Physical perceived size (acreage, or WidthxHeight in pixels) should be optimized before uploading.
In general, it is not advisable to reduce image size using these settings, since the image will be transferred over the internet in its original size no matter what reduction is set for it. This will slow the loading of your webpage.
This means, that if you have an image that is bigger in size than you want it to be on your page, you should reduce the size in a graphics program, rather than reducing the size on the webpage using the width and height attributes.
On the contrary, sometimes, it can be wise to enlarge images using this technique.
If you leave out the settings for width and height, the browser will automatically use the real size of the image.
However, you should always enter the settings for width and height, even when using the real size!
The reason is that if the settings are left out, the browser can't build the page until the image is entirely loaded.
This means, that a student cannot read text around the image while the image itself is loading - which in turn will give them an impression of a slow loading page.
This becomes especially true if the image is inside a table.
In that case, the whole table will not be shown until the image is entirely loaded.
Please take a look at my document How do you and others intend to use images?
Week 15 - Starting Sunday 16/02/2014 - Valencia, Venezuela. Week 15 Syllabus
Creating Class Elements Part 2: Audio and video
Please click on this podcast:
Continuing with the topic of making organized, configured additions to the course area, we come to Adding Video and Audio to your Course.
Quality Counts!
Understanding resolutions can be a challenge. The primary key to consider is that the higher the resolution, the better the product.With music, you will generally see terms like 48kHz or 24bit. The first one, kilo-Hertz or also kHz, signifies the size of the sound spectrum. Humans can normally hear from 20hz to 20kHz, though some individuals may be able to listen to a much higher frequency.
For most on-line video, 44kHz will be the most popular of the resolutions for the sound portion.
For 90% of the people, that level is ideal, but 10% can hear a distinct difference between 44khz and 48khz. These tend to be the “audiophiles” among us. They really can hear the differences that most of us can not.
There is very little variance in music between 96kHz music and 48khz music, but the variance between 44kHz and 48kHz is quite noticeable. If you further lower from 44kHz to 22kHz, it would be similar to the difference between CD music and a Telephone call.
Another popular phrase is in bits (i.e. 16bit or 24bit). It is a little confusing to describe the difference but, simply put, bits are units of the music array. The more bits, the better resolution the music will have.
More bits amounts to less frequency being crammed into the bit, which allows for the processing via computer to be much clearer by offering more defined audio.
In video, the same thing goes. 1920×1080 (The resolution known as 1080p) provides a clear picture, while 320×240 makes blocky video, that can be almost un-viewable if the camera darts or zooms.
When you see a “a X b” it is in reference to the amount of pixels, width x height. Some common resolutions are: 1920×1080 – 1080p, this is the highest resolution of the HD format, 1280×720 – 720p is the lowest of the HD format, 720×480 – 480p is a standard television signal.
Apart from this, you have the bit rate for video. The higher the bit rate, the more color information and definition will be packed into the frame.
More is better!
Always produce in the finest resolution possible. It’s much easier to lower resolution, than trying to range up to an increased resolution.n.b. When uploading or downloading Podcasts or music, to or from, some on-line programs, they only accept 128 Khz files.
Week 16 - Starting Sunday 23/02/2014 - Valencia, Venezuela. Week 16 Syllabus
Creating Class Elements Part 3: Screen-casting and multimedia
A Prezi recorded in the classroom, it's long, but gives an idea of Prezi with audio.
Following is one of the applications I use in every course I hold.
In this example it is an interactive mind-map originally made collectively in a F2F class of a blended learning course, then saved as a viewable, interactive SWF file from MindManager.
This mindmap was made in one of my Japanese Language and Society post-graduate diploma courses for Spanish speakers, and shows the topics to be covered in the "Communication in Japan" module. All of the topics to be covered in the module were brought to light (or added in a later class) by students in the initial module class.
Methods of Communication in Japan. Please click on the + signs to expand the map:
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