Descriptions of the Options Available in the MediaMAX Slideshow Program:

Identifier: The Identifier provides information about the frame or movie that is currently displayed by the player. If the videodisc has database files about the images on the disc, then lessons can be prepared by searching the database and including the descriptions in slideshow notes.

Remote Control: This feature allows the computer to act as a remote control in selecting and playing video clips. Any selected clip can be added to the clipboard for putting together a slideshow. An interesting feature of the remote control is the Quick Quiz Machine(or Slot Machine). This will randomly choose and display frames from within a defined range, set by the Òstart movieÓ and Òend movieÓ fields. Students can quiz themselves by trying to identify an image, and then clicking the Identifier button in the header bar to see if they were correct.

Button Maker: A variety of different types of buttons can be created on a Hypercard stack in order to make interactive lessons. Text and graphic features allow you to create concept maps, flow charts, and outlines that access specific frames and video clips from the disc. This option can be used to create a lesson from scratch or to enhance a preexisting slideshow list.

Slideshow: The Slideshow program is where you can arrange custom lists of still frames, movies, graphics, sounds and text for presentation. By editing a slide, you can add overlay text or vary the speed at which it is played. The list of slides can be run at preset durations or be manually controlled. Descriptive notes can also be added for each slide to create worksheets or lectures notes that will activate the slides by using ÒhotlinksÓ. This portion of MediaMAX allows you the greatest flexibility in creating lessons.

Notes & Barcodes: A Slideshow list can be printed out using barcodes to access the video frames, in place of the hotlinks. This option can also be directly opened from the Main Menu, to allow students to write reports to be presented to class. The barcodes can be saved to the Scrapbook file of the Macintosh for later use in a word processing file. Only videodisc slides can be used to make barcodes. To play a movie, you can make a barcode for the first frame of the clip, then play the movie once it has been activated.

Lessons: This option is used to access pre-made, interactive tutorials or presentations. These Hypercard lessons can be commercially prepared or homemade. The advantage of making your own lessons is that you can customize them to meet your particular needs.

Special Notes & Tips for Using MediaMAX:

1. The more you get into using the MediaMAX program and all of its creativity, the more you will want it to be able to do. The people at Videodiscovery are sensitive to that need and have been working diligently to improve upon their product. Call them and tell them any problems or limitations that you may experience, and they will try to remedy it. In the last two months, we have worked through four different upgraded versions of MediaMAX, as more improvements have been made.



2. The Remote Control function can be accessed while editing slides/movies to allow you to monitor each frame displayed and choose exactly which ones you wish to include in your slide list.



3. When using the Button Maker option to prepare a lesson directly from the disc, you cannot add overlay text to the images. This can only be done while using the editing feature of the Slideshow program. To delete/edit a button, use the TOOLS menu and highlight the button icon at the top right of the menu box.



4. Once lessons have been prepared and saved using the Button Maker or the Notes & Barcodes options, then MediaMAX is no longer required to run them. This is important when you have to share equipment with other teachers.



5. It is easiest to make a slide list first and do all of your editing, and then go to the Button Maker to prepare a new lesson as a data base file.



6. By exporting slide notes to the clipboard, they can be opened and modified further by using any standard word processing program, such as ClarisWorks or WordPerfect. Text files may also be imported into the Slideshow program in order to make slide notes.



7. Any videodisc frame or movie will be displayed on the TV monitor, but text, sound, graphic or QuickTime slides are stored and displayed on the computer.



8. Graphic slides can only be made from PICT(ure) files. A snapshot of almost any computer screen can be made by pressing the OPEN APPLE, SHIFT and 3 keys at the same time. The snapshot will be saved as a PICT file on the hard drive under the name ÒPicture nÓ, where n is a number from 0 to 9. The picture can be imported into Hypercard with the ÒImport PaintÓ option, if further editing is desired.



9. Making either sound or QuickTime slides from scratch requires additional software and hardware to be installed on the hard drive. MediaMAX can open and use existing files of this type, but cannot make the original files itself.



10. A print out of any HyperCard or MediaMAX screen can be made by pressing the OPEN APPLE and P keys at the same time.

Interactive CD-ROM Encyclopedias

The new CD-ROM interactive encyclopedias are designed to provide easy access to a wide variety of information. All of the written text found in a complete set of print encyclopedias make up only a small portion of the material on the disc. Besides more than 25,000 articles, there are hours of sounds, music, and speech; thousands of images, maps, charts and graphs; a hundred animations and video clips; an illustrated timeline of world history; an interactive atlas; and a complete dictionary. The software program used to search through the information, sort and organize it, and then incorporate it into a report is the foundation of the interactive encyclopedia. This elevates the process of research far beyond the mere collection of facts and figures. A higher level of thinking is required to logically piece the information together. Students and teachers can explore the inter-relationships between concepts taught in different courses to provide an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Cause-and-effect events help to illustrate this point.

Since the CD-ROM encyclopedias are minature laservideodiscs, the same type of classroom applications are possible. Teachers can organize information from the encyclopedia to support or review material presented in lecture. The research layouts prepared can be saved onto a floppy disk and re-opened later, when needed. A sequence of information can be presented for student observation and analysis. Small group-collaborative learning lends itself to assigning a research topic/problem to be explored. When computer access time is limited, this research can be included as an alternate class activity, and the outcomes reported to the rest of the class by the smaller group. Disc based quizzes can be led by the teacher accessing pre-selected information, or by the individual student searching for the answers to written questions. Since the computer is an integral part of the CD-ROM technology, the students will be utilizing its logical capabilities. The power and ease of use of these interactive encyclopedias allows the students to directly control their learning. This results in more interest and enthusiasm in class.

There are several interactive encyclopedias currently available. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The top three based upon consumer reports and personal evaluations are Compton's , Encarta and Grollier's. Key features for consideration are: ease of accessing information, options for creating reports, computer memory requirements and, of course, cost. Compton'sª allows the greatest flexibility to access information, opening more than thirty windows at once. However, pictures and charts can not be printed out directly from the program. Encarta, on the other hand, allows images to be printed along with the written text, but it is more restrictive in opening the different types of information. Before buying any of these programs, they can be previewed at most local computer stores to determine if they meet your particular needs.

Presenter(s) for this seminar:

Mark Case and John Hnatow

Emmaus HS, 851 North St., Emmaus, PA 18049