3. More introductions
Why does this workshop interest you?
Are you using new media now? How?
How do you think new media might help you?
4. Goals
Explore the current communication
environment
Introduce a variety of new technologies
Show you where to find tools and media
Send you off with ideas
5. Schedule
Background overview: what is New Media?
Finding Tools and Media
Multimedia technologies
Podcasting technologies
Mapping technologies
Miscellaneous other technologies
Wrapping it up
95. Resource Websites
Using New Media for Interpretation
newmediaforinterpretation.weebly.com
Workshop Blog
http://kidblog.org/InterpretingwithNewMedia
We’re going to switch directions today and talk about a specific type of media – new media I’m coming to you from a couple of different backgrounds. My undergraduate work was in Interpretation and for the past 25 years I’ve been involved with interpretive planning through our business, BUCY Associates.
I also have graduate degrees in Education, focusing on educational technologies and have been teaching at Western Oregon University in the College of Education and coordinating a master’s degree program in educational technology. Teaching courses such as Info Design, Emerging Tech, Web 2.0 Tools has allowed me to keep up with the newest technologies and their applications in informal and formal learning environment. Over the years I’ve done a fair amount of work in Alaska. As Dave was saying yesterday, we’ve taught many workshops up here and completed a number of interpretive plans. But I’ve also been up here several times teaching courses for my master’s degree program, and we’re doing that again now. We have teachers from bush schools enrolled and are also open anyone wanting to use technology to educate. Classes are online during the school year and we come up here in the summer to teach some workshop-style classes. I’ll leave brochures here if anyone is interested, but that’s not really why I’m here. I just wanted to explain my connection between informal education, formal education, and technology.
I know we did introductions yesterday, but I’d like to go back and get a feel for where all of you are when it comes to technology go around the room – Why does the workshop interest you and what experience do you have (what technologies are you using?) So, let’s talk about this for a minute – what situations do you have that you think might benefit from the use of new media? Use a flip chart to write down their ideas.
My goal today isn’t to teach lots of things – which would be hard, since you can’t be online. But I’d like to give you a feel for what’s available, and take some time to talk about the possibilities. I’m hoping when you leave today you’ll have lots of ideas.
This is what I have in mind – but we can talk about other things if you want to ask questions.
So, what is New Media? Definitions are rather elusive . . . But It’s not just about a bunch of new devices. People use the term to mean many things, but one way I like to think about it is that it’s an idea about the way we communicate. on-demand access to content any time Anywhere on any digital device as well as interactive user feedback creative participation community formation around the media content
It’s an idea that says we should be able to be in direct communication – two way communication – with anyone and everyone. It’s an idea about sharing and interacting. It’s an idea about many-to-many communications, rather than the top down one-to-many model we’ve been used to. It’s an idea about sharing across and amongst many groups.
New media, then, is about the idea of sharing and the media that allows this to happen.
Web 2.0 is another term you might have heard Web 2.0 refers to the technology that allows the New Media idea to take hold. Web 2.0 is sometimes referred to as the Read/Write web – we’ll come back to that in a minute.
Another term we often hear is Social Media or Social Networking. This is the idea of people socializing and communicating through a variety of media. This is the current reality. Young people today – and more and more even older people (like me) are communicating – often almost exclusively, though social media of one kind or another. They post status updates and links on Facebook. They share links and catch up on news on Twitter. They post pictures on Flickr and videos on YouTube. They write blogs and websites. And they share, share, share – They share links to interesting information. They share videos They share ideas They teach one another Ideas spread like wildfire – one person posts, ten friends pass it on, their 10 friends pass it on again. It’s like the old pyramid scheme, only this time it works – that’ s why videos can go viral and end up with more than a million hits in the first week after they are posted. If they are interesting, it spreads throughout this vast network at lightning speed. And more and more – people are accessing this network through mobile devices – connected to this vast network of information anywhere, anytime.
So what has changed to make all of this possible? It’s not just a change in the equipment we are using – Although that is definitely a part of it. But it’s a much bigger change that is changing our culture altogether. I think of it as three major changes (though there are more things playing into this.)
The first is the idea of cloud computing. Cloud computing is a natural result of improvements in our data speeds and faster microprocessors. As speed becomes faster and faster, and as we are able to process more and more data – it has become possible to actually do our computing with applications that are not installed on our own computers. And this is just the beginning.
Nicholas Carr (who wrote “Is Google making us Stupid?”) explains it in a way that makes it really easy to understand this revolution that is going on. In the early days of electricity, every business had to generate its own electricity. And every business had at least one technician charged with keeping the generator running. If the generator broke down, the business was sunk. But then advances in the design of electrical transmission and electrical motors made it possible to deliver electricity from a central location. And because they could deliver to many locations from one central utility. And that meant they could capitalize on economies of scale. It became so inexpensive to purchase electricity from these utilities that no one had to be in the business of generating their own electricity any more – they could just plug into the grid. Today we simply take this for granted. If we want electricity, we plug into an outlet. A similar change is happening in computing. With increased power of microprocessors – and increased data storage capacities – companies are beginning to offer computing over a grid – the Internet. In fact, Google is building a giant data warehouse in The Dalles, Oregon, not far from my own home. From there, they will be able to store massive amounts of data and deliver it quickly, on demand, all over the world. And this is happening all over – at speeds that allow us to do our actual computing work online instead of on our computers.
We just plug into the grid – the cloud – where everything is stored on computers around the world and we can access all sorts of information and programs that are stored on thousands of computers around the world. And it’s just beginning – it’s getting so cheap and so fast, that soon we won’t need computers to run our programs or store our data – we’ll just need an interface. Something to connect us with the cloud. The little netbooks we’re seeing are the beginnings.
Another change is in the technology that allows us to interact online. Our new Web no longer limits us to simply posting information online. It now allows us to interact with both the content and with other people. We now communicate through the Web – it has become a conduit. There are thousands of Web 2.0 Tools available online now –You’re familiar with many of them: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. And in addition, many are essentially full applications similar to those we used to buy and install on our computers. A lot of what we are going to do in our workshop today is to explore some of these tools. These tools have made it possible for everyone and anyone to not only consume information online – but to contribute . It opens up the doorways to two-way communication with our visitors. It makes it possible for people to share, to compose, to teach and more online.
And finally – a huge change that has just begun to take hold is a different way of dealing with copyright. It’s a part of the New Media ideas of sharing, collaborating, and interacting. As you know, we can’t just grab any photo or piece of music and publish it as our own. Any creative work is automatically copyrighted when it is created. With this copyright protection, it is not legal for us to use anything without written permission. Finding pictures and music through a Google search will bring back all sorts of pictures and music that we cannot use legally. Recently, there has been a new movement taking place called Creative Commons. Some people call it “ copy left . ” Many artists and musicians have recognized that they want to share their work, and they don’t want to have to deal with written permissions, so they have attached Creative Commons licenses to their work that release some of their rights. You can recognize work with a Creative Commons license when you see some of the symbols here. This license says, essentially, that you can use the work without asking – under specific conditions.
There are different levels of permission – different Creative Commons licenses. Some allow you to share and remix the work but only for non-commercial purposes. Others make no requirements on how you use them. Most, however, ask for attribution and ask that you provide the same Creative Commons license on your derivative work. (called Share Alike) NOTE: make your own work CC licensed. Make it open – easy to reuse. Gives you visibility. Gets your stories out Millenials – social networkers – looking for cool, interesting things to link, share, build upon. See on twitter, post to Facebook (auto-upload on Twitter.) Someone sees it, posts on their blog.
So all of these things are working together The idea of sharing, collaborating, and interacting online The technology that allows us to do this And the reality that millions of people are already online networking And this provides us with all sorts of new possibilities in the ways we can (and should) communicate – an environment and the tools make this possible.
So – there are all sorts of new tools and ways to communicate now. But why bother? You already have may tools that work fine. Well, for one thing, as Dave was pointing out yesterday: Everything sends a message And you want to send the message that you are up-to-date. Even if you are an historic site, you don’t want it to appear that your communication techniques are out-of-date.
Why bother? A large portion of our audience has grown up with technology – they are comfortable online and if we want to reach them, that’s where we will find them. (Of course—that’s not to say that everyone is online. We can’t make the mistake of thinking this will reach everyone.)
And here’s something else: if you are wanting to get your message out, the fastest way to move it is through the vast network of connected people online. Here’s an example from just last week. I was scanning through my Facebook page and this post caught my eye. I don’t know John Yee And I don’t really know Ann But she’s friends with a friend and for some reason friended me on Facebook. It’s been a good friendship: she posts all sorts of interesting things So I clicked on the link
And read a fun story about a Macaque monkey who stole a professional photographer’s camera and took her own self-portraits. Now, I don’t normally read the Daily Mail online, so I wouldn’t have seen this. But someone I don’t know told someone else I don’t know well, and she told me.
And so I reposted it on my Facebook page and within 30 minutes my sister had commented on it – and now all of her friends will see this post. The point is, this is happening all over. Whenever a story catches someone’s interest, it gets spread around the web – and not just through Facebook, but through blogs, and Twitter, and YouTube, and more. If you can make your stories interesting, they will spread.
And there is another reason to consider: All of us here are familiar with the concept of the Commons and are, presumably, in position where a good portion of our mission is to manage the commons – parks, forests, etc. In our education we read the Tragedy of the Commons, and we accept a need to manage for the good of all, and in such away that all may partake in the benefit of our common property. But we tend to think of the Commons as our natural and cultural resources – and yet we also have another resource that we manage and share for the good of all – and that is information. And many people are starting to think of information as a common resource – a resource that should be managed and shared for the good of all. That’s really the idea behind behind the Creative Commons – it’s a way to manage and share creative output in such a way that others can use and benefit from it – and build upon it. So the question you might want to ask is: Should our information be managed in such a way that it can be available to and usable by all? One organization that has taken a lead on this idea is the Smithsonian Institute. I want to show you a little video.
So, the Smithsonian has decided to make their research and information accessible and usable by the general public. They have made a critical decision that this information commons will be a part of their stated mission. Interestingly, they used a Wiki – a new media tool that is housed in the cloud and can be accessed by, and modified by many. Together, many people collaborated on a single document, working out the details of the Smithsonian Commons. It’s an illustration of how these new media tools can bring people together to collaborate on shared projects.
So today I’m going to talk a bit about some of the new media available – you’re all familiar with these: podcasts and vodcasts, online slideshows, video, and more. But what does it mean to us as interpreters? Do we need to hire technical specialists? Do we need technical training? The answer to those questions is, “Sometimes” BUT there are also ways to get started on a low budget with little technical expertise
Code on this slide links to one QR Generator for demo purposes (QR=Quick Response)
Although there are a variety of high-tech tools available that are quite expensive and require a good deal of technical know-how to use, there are also a huge number of free tools now available. Our focus today will be on these free tools. The selection is enormous . . . There are thousands of tools now available that are very easy to use. These tools are being used heavily in education today, but I have not found as many examples in informal settings. But the potential is enormous. You can be creating your interpretive stories within minutes – using tools that are completely free. I’m going to give you a brief – and fast – overview of some of the tools that are available to you. Don’t worry about taking notes or trying to remember them all. I’ll provide you with a website at the end with links to all of the tools we’re talking about and, where necessary, links to tutorials.
We’re going to look at tools in two categories Some of what we’ll look at is software that you can download onto your computer at no charge This software can range from very easy to use, to quite complicated Some of it can only run on a Mac, and some only on a PC Today we’ll take a brief look at three that run on both platforms To find more tools: http://download.cnet.com
I also want to show you some Web 2.0 Tools Web 2.0 is sometimes called the Read/Write Web. The idea is that we no longer have static pages that we simply search and read--Now we have dynamic, interactive pages that allow us to communicate, create, and contribute. There are thousands of Web 2.0 tools available online and many of them work beautifully for telling interpretive stories in a variety of ways. I’ll show you a few, and then point you to some resources where you can find exactly the tool you need.
So, I want to introduce you to some programs for creating various types of multimedia presentations. These tools allow you to combine words, and images, and video, and audio files, and interactive components. Now, of course – you have photographs of your own that you can use. And you can take your own video and upload it. But there is lots of other media available to you. I mentioned the Creative Commons movement earlier.
So – where do you find this Creative Commons media? In the interest of time, I won’t show you all of the resources available, but let’s take a look at a few of them. Google Search Flickr search Wikipedia Jamendo Internet Archive (Prelinger archives – look up Smokey) I’ve created a website for you where I’ve provided instructions for finding Creative Commons images by changing the settings in your Google Searches and by using Flickr. And I’ve provided links to some of my favorite databases of music and film. And I’ve also provided a link to the 50 Ways to Tell a Digital Story website where Alan Levine has compiled a list of more than 30 resources with media that carry Creative Commons licensing.
Okay – one more way you can get media for your projects is with a screen capture program called Jing. It’s a fabulous tool for grabbing media for your interpretive stories. If you haven’t discovered it yet, you’re missing something. I use it almost daily. In fact, all of the screenshots in this PowerPoint today were created with Jing. When you download and install it, this little icon will load up on your computer and will remain open, running in the background, while you are working in other programs. Anytime you want to take a screenshot, you can just click on the icon and grab whatever portion of the screen you want—just by dragging around it with your mouse. DEMONSTRATE It will capture an image like this – I just grabbed this PPT screen as I was working on it It has some tools on the side that allow me to annotate my slides. And I can save the file on my desktop or copy and paste it into a presentation. Now Jing can also capture up to 5 minutes of video from your screen, which allows you to demonstrate things online. For example, you can create a video of a PowerPoint presentation complete with narration – or any other kind of online presentation. One note about Jing videos. In the free version, it only saves as a Flash file, and therefore can only be viewed through a web browser. The Pro version has more options, but you can always save your video onto Screencast and link to it from your own application. I’ve found that Jing is an extremely useful tool for answering questions at a distance because it allows me to quickly capture an image or demonstrate something on a website and send it out via email.
As I was putting this workshop together, I couldn’t help but think back on the first slideshow we created for the Oregon Coast Trail. We had a carousel of slides, a separate cassette tape, and a written script to help time the switching of the slides. To make the title interesting, we laid out plastic letters on the beach. Of course, this setup required a person to operate it, and it required a full audience to justify presenting it. It needed a facility and equipment to display it. We used slides in our workshops for years.
And when we wanted to use words, we had an overhead projector and boxes full of overheads that we carried around with us. (of course—that was back in the day when we could bring along all sorts of boxes without paying an arm and a leg for extra luggage) But then – we had PowerPoint. This made it easy to put together slideshows and it is still used heavily today. But what happens when you want to share your PowerPoint presentation with people who aren’t right there in the room with you? What if you don’t want to be limited to the few times you have people gathered altogether in one place?
Here’s one option -- an online tool called Slideshare. Many of you have already used this, I’m sure. I’ve seen all sorts of presentations coming out of Alaskan parks and visitor centers. But it’s a really quick and easy way to put a Powerpoint presentation online. Here’s and example: http://www.slideshare.net/natsatlarge/sequoia-kings3
We have tools that allow us to create slideshows in all sorts of different formats. We can combine photos and slides into a video with music and automatic transitions We can create photo slideshows in a rolling timeline, adding music using clips provided within the tool or uploading our own. We can zoom into images, or pan across them. And we can give control to our visitors to move through our slideshows at their own pace. We have tools that allow us to create collages, layer pictures on pictures, or put images within cutout frames. Our finished products can be downloaded to our own computers or they can be saved on the website where we created them and shared via a link. Usually, we are given embed code that can be used to embed the final slideshow onto our own website or blog so that all the visitor sees is the final presentation. These tools allow us to reach our audience on a one-to-one basis. There is no need for a large audience gathered in one place, and there is no need for a facility or a personal presenter. The program can be played on a website, in a visitor center, on a big screen in an auditorium, or downloaded onto a mobile device.
Slideroll is one example: create a photo slideshow in a timeline view. Add music: use theirs or upload your own. Zoom and pan images, adjust transitions. Publish to their website, or take the embed code to put in on your own website or blog.
Here is an example from Zion – just a simple slideshow but it can be embedded right on their website, Slideroll also has a desktop application you can download. Demonstrate mine.
VuVox collages: Add images, video, music. Make cutouts – put pictures into cutouts. Embed in website or blog.
VuVox -- http://www.vuvox.com Vuvox offers many different styles for your collages and quite a bit of control Make cutouts – put pictures into cutouts. Embed in website or blog.
Here’s an example about the CCC
http://animoto.com/play/9IAOWwqdoZCEiMcileIC3g?utm_content=main_link Animoto Combine pictures with music Music – preloaded with 1000 tunes Or you can upload your own mp3 file The program compiles your pictures into a video Videos are unbranded – you just get the final video, clean Final product is very professional looking – but you don’t have much control over your own design Music – preloaded with 1000 tunes
If you want more control, there is a site called JayCut that works very much like a desktop editor – giving you control over video, images, music, transitions, and text. It has built-in transitions and text styles. Very much like iMovie or Moviemaker and has more control than many Web 2.0 tools. It’s a very free powerful online tool. When your movie is complete, you can download it onto your computer, publish it online, or embed it in your website.
This is a 9 minute tutorial – probably don’ t need to show the whole thing.
Many of you might be working with historical stories where the chronology is important. There are timeline applications available that let you create interactive displays. Click the images on the timeline and interpretive text pops up. This kind of display can allow you to compare what was happening on your site with events happening around the world at the same time. Or you can show succession – what did it look like on this site at different times in history? What will it look like in the future? Again, these interactive timelines can be exported and embed on your website.
The last few were fairly traditional ways of presenting information, but let’s look quickly at Prezi – a non-linear presentation tool I’d actually thought about doing my presentation today in Prezi, but I was worried that the time-lag on a webcast might make it unwieldy. I’m going to take you to the UNESCO Prezi to demonstrate – it might be slow for some of you but we’ll try. If it doesn’t work well for you here, I’ve given you a direct link on the website I’ll leave you with. Show example It’s a fun way to give a presentation because it’s different. But there are other ways you can use it. It’s almost like a flip plate display – ask a question and then zoom in for the answer. Or use it to embed information in a landscape. Imagine, for example, a road cut that shows layers of soil from different eras. Zoom into one layer to see an image of what was happening in the landscape when that layer was put down. Zoom back out to the full image, and then back in to the next layer. It can put geologic events into a context that makes sense. But the same thing can work with any image – zoom in to reveal more information.
Voicethread is a wonderful little tool that I use a lot in my classes because it allows my students to interact with one another and with the content. You can upload an image, or multiple images; a Powerpoint, or even a video Then record comments about each the image – notice the little Comments button at the bottom.
Voicethread – when I click the comments button, I’m given several options: The microphone icon lets me record my voice using my built-in microphone or a USB mic The telephone lets me call in – I click, and it gives me the phone number (simple) The Type icon lets me add a text comment The camera icon lets me record myself using my webcam
Each comment is displayed next to the image, and when visitors open the Voicethread the comments play sequentially automatically, or they can click on a specific one. Visitors can click through the different pictures. I can envision this for a lot of different projects: Imagine a historical photo with different voices telling the stories of the different people in the image. Or imagine a controversial issue represented visually with different people commenting on different sid es of the issue. When your Voicethread is done, you can embed it on your own website. With the free version, you can only do three Voicethreads, but you can delete old ones to create new ones, or you can upgrade to the professional version for a small fee to allow for unlimited Voicethreads (look this up)
Let’s take a look at a little voicethread (go to mine) Have different people come up and comment on it using different identities
In the past publishing was a major process – and expensive. We had to guess how many copies we would need Tikatok allows you to create books. It was designed for young children but can be used by anyone and is very simple to use. Simply add pictures and text—and then publish it. The site gives embed code so you can add it to a website or blog. This is what it looks like when published. (exit PPT and go to website) You can also order copies of the book, so visitors can order an actual bound copy before, during, or after their visit. Or imagine using this tool for a children’s program where you can allow children to take pictures at your site and bring them back to create their own eBooks. Or you could set it up as a parent/child activity and let them use their cell phones to take pictures together and create a book. Or you could upload images yourself and let children create a story using the pictures you’ve provided.
While we’re talking about publishing, there are services online for self-publishing. One of those is Lulu. I worked with my mother to publish this book of Haiku last year. She ordered copies that were very professional and have been sold in bookstores. Simply create the book in Word or a page design program and upload the book to the website to be published as an eBook or a bound paperback or hard-cover book. There is a great deal of technical support available on the site. Publishing things such as guidebooks has been an issue in the past. When budgets are down, guidebooks are often eliminated. There are big advantages to this online process. You no longer have to order bulk copies – you can order one book or 5,000. Order just what you need for your gift shop – or let visitors order their own copies. Update easily as things change.
Show this demo
Okay – let’s talk about podcasting for a few minutes. There are a variety of simple ways to make podcasts. Several sites allow you to simply call in from your phone to record directly online. It’s an easy way to make a quick podcast on the fly. You can call in from out on your site as a reporter on the spot. These sites don’ t allow editing afterward, but you can always rerecord if you are unhappy with the product. Audioboo is one simple site that lets you record on the fly. Example: http://audioboo.fm/boos/335344-anna-chatting-with-wildlife-education-officer-michael-smith (linked on picture) Go to Audioboo.fm and show them my account. Do a quick interview using my cell phone app.
Creates a free website for your podcasts. 14-day free trial but after that you can keep it for only $4.95/mo. These are videocasts. (You could also do this on YouTube)
This site – Talkshoe – let’s you invite others to join your phone call and it records the call as a podcast episode. You could do an interpretive talk with a question and answer period afterward. Or give a panel discussion with several specialists providing multiple perspectives on a topic. Most of these sites will let you record from an iPhone or a Droid, a regular phone, or or from a browser. Publish to the site, which acts as a host for your podcasts, or embed on your website, or feed your podcast to iTunes or another host.
If you are wanting more control over your podcasts, with the ability to add music, create multiple tracks, and edit, you can download a little free program called Audacity that’s a darned powerful tool. It allows you to record multiple tracks or to upload audio files and layer them – maybe voice, and sound effects, and background music. When your file is done you can export it as a wav file or as an mp3 file.
Audacity is a really simple program to learn and it’s very powerful It allows us to upload audio files and layer them –I can export a variety of formats It automatically adds new tracks – this file was stereo so it came in on two tracks. If I want to bring in additional files it will put them on their own tracks below this and I can drag them right or left to start when I want them to start. If I want to add an audio track, I can record directly into Audacity. And what makes it really powerful is that there are tools for correcting the audio. One of my favorites is the noise removal option. In fact, I often bring files out of GarageBand and open them in this free tool to clean up the sound. I’ve provided links to a number of tutorials on the website.
But we can also do this online without downloading an application like Audacity. Aviary is a nice suite of powerful programs, from image editing to podcasting The audio tools are very powerful – multiple tracks, fully online And you can save in multiple ways – download as an mp3 or a wav file, embed In a website, link to the file in Aviary, or publish it to the Aviary site where others can find it. Both Audacity and Aviary can be used for a variety of functions: You can create podcasts You can create original soundtracks for your videos You can recreate historical sounds representative of your site You can compile bird songs or wildlife sounds from your site These tools can allow you to bring in sound and music to enhance your interpretive stories.
There are also tools that allow you to create vodcasts – add video or images to your podcasts and create episode. Yodio is one. Call 1-877-MY-YODIO (699-6346) and then follow the directions to make your vodcast. You can create audio-video tours of your site using your photos. Embed them on your website, or let visitors subscribe and receive them on their own computers or smart phones. (Erin’s owl Yodio)
Okay – Let’s look at some mapping tools I know all of you are familiar with GoogleEarth What I want to do show you how you can make a map-based tour using Google Earth – complete with little interpretive signs. I’ll take you to Google Earth for a quick demonstration, but because there may be a lag on your computers to view this, I won’t try to show much detail. Instead, I have provided a video demonstration and links to pictorial tutorials that will walk you through the process of doing this yourself. It is not difficult. Show Google Earth When your tour is complete, you can save it as a kmz file that your visitors can download and play on their own computers if they have GoogleEarth. Or you can play it on a computer in your visitor center. Or you can play it and capture it with Jing to create a little video to put on your website.
Okay – Let’s look at some mapping tools I know all of you are familiar with GoogleEarth What I want to do show you how you can make a map-based tour using Google Earth – complete with little interpretive signs. I’ll take you to Google Earth for a quick demonstration, but because there may be a lag on your computers to view this, I won’t try to show much detail. Instead, I have provided a video demonstration and links to pictorial tutorials that will walk you through the process of doing this yourself. It is not difficult. Show Google Earth When your tour is complete, you can save it as a kmz file that your visitors can download and play on their own computers if they have GoogleEarth. Or you can play it on a computer in your visitor center. Or you can play it and capture it with Jing to create a little video to put on your website.
Similar to GoogleEarth, is Google MyMaps, but this one is completely online – there’s no need to download the GoogleEarth application. You can add placemarks and “interpretive signs” that visitors click on to reveal. You can’t do a flying tour, as in GoogleEarth, but it is easy and effective. Provide a link on your website, or let visitors can play your tour on their mobile devises and open the interpretive windows when they arrive at the appropriate location on your site.
Here’s an example of a GoogleMaps tour of World Heritage Sites that allows you to zoom into different parts of the world and click on sites for more information.
Here’s one new technology that I’ve been monitoring It’s out in Beta right now, and it looks promising for storytelling This is a site for collecting oral histories – you can attach your story to a specific site Examples: Denali National Park; Warren Ames Memorial Bridge It’s set up now so that it’s easy for anyone to attach their story to any location by calling in with their cell phone. But you could also set it up for your own site, with your own interpreters adding stories to your different features. It has a very personal, friendly feel. Broadcastr has iPhone and Droid apps that allow visitors to use it on their mobile devices and listen to the stories while standing at the appropriate site. It’s a bit like a GPS tour.
Here’s one new technology that I’ve been monitoring It’s out in Beta right now, and it looks promising for storytelling This is a site for collecting oral histories – you can attach your story to a specific site Examples: Denali National Park; Warren Ames Memorial Bridge It’s set up now so that it’s easy for anyone to attach their story to any location by calling in with their cell phone. But you could also set it up for your own site, with your own interpreters adding stories to your different features. It has a very personal, friendly feel. Broadcastr has iPhone and Droid apps that allow visitors to use it on their mobile devices and listen to the stories while standing at the appropriate site. It’s a bit like a GPS tour.
This one is from Great Britain It takes an overseas phone call if you’re here – but you can also upload prerecorded audio.
Okay – and one final group of tools allows to to broadcast live from your site You can keep a real-time camera on a wildlife site – a nest, for example. Or you can broadcast live events – interpretive talks, festivals, etc. These free tools are very professional – in fact, many TV networks use them programs for their onsite reporting.
And they are easy to use. Just hook up a camcorder to your computer and start broadcasting.
So, this workshop is really not meant to be a “how-to” session; it’s more of a broad overview to give you an idea of what is available. Things are changing so quickly that there are new tools appearing every day Some of these tools will disappear, some will go from free to charging a fee, and others will appear to replace the ones that are gone
In fact, one of the tools I was planning to share with you today gave me this screen when I visited last week. It’s an exciting time . . . but we need to be nimble and ready to change as new tools appear and old ones disappear.
So . . . I’m not trying to teach you about specific tools I’m trying to point out that whatever it is you are trying to accomplish, there is probably a tool available to do it If you focus on the tools, you’ll be limited by what they allow you to do. If you focus on the tasks , you can find a tool to help you So – with so many tools available and new ones every day, how will you find the one you are needing?
Here’s one site I use all the time It’s organized into the types of ways you might want to tell stories Very simple to use – and has an example for each tool using the same short story told in multiple ways Notice that there are many tools that I didn’t share – different presentations tools, different timeline tools, different map tools
Or here’s another site This one lets you search based on the task you are trying to accomplish Go to site and demonstrate Want to create a blog – type blog into the search bar and see what your options are Want to create a video – there are plenty of options Hold your mouse over an icon for a brief description Click on the icon for a more detailed description . . . And go directly to the site to test it out
Before you run out and start trying all sorts of tools, I recommend that you create an email account for just this purpose. This will protect you from from sites that might start emailing you advertising. You won’t want your work or family email clogged up with spam (though I have to say, I’ve registered on plenty of sites and I haven’t had any problems yet. I have a dedicated Gmail account – it’s relatively secure and protects access to your other accounts.)
Different tools provide you with different opportunities—choose the tool that allows you to do what you need to do. Remember, it is not just a “tool” – it can control the design decisions you make. So know what you need. Things to look for? Is it Free? Some sites start out free, but then ask you to pay for continued use, or to save your files, or for additional options. Make sure you know what is free, what costs, and how much. Is it easy to learn and use? Sometimes easy just means you have fewer design options, but that isn’t always the case. If it looks like it has a high learning curve, try to see how stable the tool is. If it’s been around for awhile and is being used by many people, it might be worth investing the time to learn it. And tied to that is Design Control. Does the program let you customize your design to make it your own, or will your final product look like everyone else’s? Does it provide you with embed code so you can put your product directly on your blog or website? If not, does it let you download the finished product? Some sites only allow you to save onto their own server. This can still work, but make sure you know how it will display when you use it—and recognize that if the site goes down, your product is gone. And along the same lines—is there a way to put it on a mobile device? Can you load it through iTunes? Or YouTube? And does it provide you with a professional looking product? Many do. Some are amateurish. ADD – advertisements; affordances
Be sure you have thought about how you will use your final product. Will visitors need it before they come to your site—on website, maybe? Do you want them to use it onsite on their mobile devices? Do you plan to display it in your visitor center? On computer monitors? Does it need to be available as a download from iTunes? As a podcast or vodcast? Do you want visitors to be able to download it from your website? The answers to these questions will help you determine which tools will work for you.
It is important to remember that the tools will change—so focus on the goals of your project, and then look for tool One trick to keeping your flexibility and your ability to respond to change quickly is to keep all of your source materials organized separately outside of the applications you are using to build your product. This makes it easy to recreate your interpretive story using a new tool.
So, to finish up, I’d like to show you the website I have created to support this workshop. Here you will find links to all of the resources I discussed today.
I’m not going to talk about augmented reality, other than to tell you that it’s happening. But it’s not free and it’s not simple. It requires creating a 3-D model and . . . . . But this is what it is.
