This is a presentation I made to showcase the work I did for an Eduspire course called Multimedia in the Classroom in 2014. I hope you enjoy it and learn a little something! I will take the information I learned in this online course and use it to help my students at Mifflinburg Middle School.

1. Multimedia in the Classroom
EDKU: 9072
Presentation by: Lucas Southerton
Aug. 1 – Sept. 1, 2014
Professor: Rich Kicker

2. Topic 1: Using Images and
Photography
● Most Useful Tools:
– Creative Commons:
● I've always had trouble finding a good website that my students
could use for free legal pictures. This will work great!
http://search.creativecommons.org/
– GIMP Image Editor
● A powerful image editor available at
http://www.gimp.org/
– Photobucket
● A free photosharing website available at http://photobucket.com/

3. My Photo Project
http://s1292.photobucket.com/user/LucasSoutherton/library/KniveMaking?sort=6&● My Photo project was created to explain a little bit about my knife making hobby and to
showcase some of my favorite knives.
● All photos were edited using GIMP Photo Editor. I found that the learning curve was
pretty steep, but after I learned how to use my favorite commands, I was able to repeat
them quickly and effectively. Listed below are some commands and techniques I used:
Crop, Adjusting Brightness and Contrast, Applying Filters
● I've had previous experience with Adobe Photoshop and found GIMP to be very
comparable.
● I had some difficulty finding a good photo-hosting website.
– Prior to this class, I shared photos with friends and family using Facebook, but
obviously this wouldn't work for sharing photos with students.
– I first tried to use Picasa (http://picasa.google.com/ ), but that was not available for
my operating system. On my home computer, I am running Linux Ubuntu.
– I then tried Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/) but was unhappy when I discovered that
they did not accept G-mail accounts.
● When I discovered Photobucket (http://photobucket.com/ ), I was pleased. I found it to
be very user friendly.

4. Topic 2: Using Audio and Web
Streams
● Most Useful Tools:
– Pandora Internet Radio:
● I've used this before and love it!
● http://www.pandora.com/
– Online Audio Cutter
● http://mp3cut.net/
● I have a hand held audio recorder that I've used over the years and each
track starts with all sorts of unpleasant noise as I adjusted the microphone. I
will use this to shorten the tracks to just the parts I want.
– Audacity
● Powerful audio editing and recording program.
● Available for download at: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

5. My Audio Project
● I'm a little bit of a musician. I play guitar and banjo and even write a song
from time to time.
● For my audio assignment, I used Audacity to record multiple tracks to a
song I wrote named, “Feelin' Good.”
– I had vocals, guitar, banjo, bass vocals, and percussion.
– I was able to adjust the volume of each track to get a good mix.
– I was able to cut bad parts.
– I was able fade out at the end.
● I wanted to post my song online, but had much difficulty and never really
succeeded. Website such as www.datafilehost.com and
www.Filedropper.com appeared to be free. In fact, you could post your files
there for free, but then they wanted you to pay for a program to view them. I
ended up posting my file directly in Moodle. You can listen to it by clicking
the link below.

6. Topic 3: Creating Videos with
Generators
● Most Useful Tool:
– Animoto
● www.animoto.com
● Online Video Generator
● Very intuitive. . . something I could do with middle schoolers!
My Video Generation
● http://animoto.com/play/tg2Vc6BocPvsjp8ybB560g
– I made this video to commemorate the birth of our daughter Clara,
which happened just a few months before taking this class.
– I was very pleased with how easy the website was to use and how easy
it was to share. The only downfall seems to be how limited the program
is; there were some formatting things I would have liked to change. That
said, the more options they provide, the more complex it would become.
I think they struck a great balance.

7. Topic 4: Posting Original Videos
● Most Useful Tools:
– YouTube
● www.youtube.com
● Easy Posting
● Options to enhance your video or stabilize a shaky
camera.
● Available via password at my school.
– OpenShot Video Editor
● Available for Linux Operating Systems at
http://www.openshot.org/

8. My Original Video Project
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D2HTo_crIg
● I made this video to show some of the things that I do at my home to be more
environmentally friendly. I've often told my students these things. . . now I can
show them.
● In the video, I successfully stitched together multiple video clips, shortened
most of them, created a fade in between most of them, embedded a still
image, and embedded an original audio file I produced using Audacity. Once
in YouTube, I took out the shaky camera moves and fitted my image to the
screen size used by YouTube.
● I took most of my video with my “point and shoot” digital camera. A problem I
encountered was that my video didn't start until about a second after I hit the
record button, therefore many of my clips start too quickly and I even lost a
bit of dialogue. Armed with this knowledge, it won't be a problem in the future.
A bigger problem I encountered was that my computer was very bogged
down by trying to process such large files. I have a mid quality duel core
processor and yet every operation caused my computer to freeze for several
seconds or even minutes. It was very frustrating!

9. My Take on Moodle and Online Learning
● Pros:
– The versatility of online learning is wonderful. As a teacher and
husband and father, I was happy to be able to do my classwork
as it fit into my already packed schedule.
– When learning content about multimedia, online learning
seems appropriate because you are really learning by
immersion. It's like going to a foreign country to learn their
language. It can be frustrating, but helps you learn quickly.
● Cons
– It can be frustrating! There are so many links and there can be
so much reading and a person really needs to have some
sense of what's important and what is not. Sometimes links
don't work. Sometimes navigation is not intuitive. Sometime
instructions are not clear and you just want a person to talk to!
It's great having an instructor who writes back promptly to e-mails.
Thanks Mr. Kirker!

10. My Take on Moodle and Online Learning
● Pros:
– The versatility of online learning is wonderful. As a teacher and
husband and father, I was happy to be able to do my classwork
as it fit into my already packed schedule.
– When learning content about multimedia, online learning
seems appropriate because you are really learning by
immersion. It's like going to a foreign country to learn their
language. It can be frustrating, but helps you learn quickly.
● Cons
– It can be frustrating! There are so many links and there can be
so much reading and a person really needs to have some
sense of what's important and what is not. Sometimes links
don't work. Sometimes navigation is not intuitive. Sometime
instructions are not clear and you just want a person to talk to!
It's great having an instructor who writes back promptly to e-mails.
Thanks Mr. Kirker!