Blog #6: Multimedia & Mashups

Introduction

Prior to this week, my understanding of mashups was limited to music and the combining and layering of two songs into one. My iPod is no stranger to musical mashups, where DJs commonly pit one artist 'against' another, such as in the famous version of DJ Dangermouse mixing the Beatles with Jay-Z. The resulting video on YouTube not only plays the audio mashup, but also contains a visual mashup. (WARNING: lyrics contain a few f-bombs, make sure the kiddies are out of earshot).



This song retains the elements of both original artists, and yet takes on a life of its own to become an entirely new entity. Now, when I listen to either original song version, it seems weak and lacking. For DJ Dangermouse to create such a clever masterpiece there had to be an inherent understanding of both compositions, an outstanding mastery of recording equipment, and a creative analysis of rhythm and pitch. Bringing the opportunity for such a high level of thinking and performance into the classroom has many potential uses for educators and students.

Reflections on the process of learning about multimedia and mashups

Just for fun, I started my learning with 13 Fantastic and Fun Image Generators as recommended by Barb Dybwad on the Mashable website. These were fun to play with, but didn't have a lot of depth. I found them to be similar to the 'free time' photocopied activities kept on the back shelf of my classroom - great for fast finishers, independent learners, and extra practise, but not really providing a venue for authentic collaboration or sharing with global audiences. The image generators are easy to use and the creations could be saved and uploaded to a classroom blog or wiki. However, these tools linger in the land of fun and the applications for teaching and learning seemed limited.

To bring some humour to the current H1N1 situation I made a fake warning label for the staff kitchen at my office. There was an email circulating on the benefits of using neti nasal pots for nasal irrigation, and I couldn't let the opportunity for such great comedic material slip me by. I posted the warning label over the kitchen sink and was amazed that it took my co-workers several days to notice the 8 1/2 by 11 poster! Good thing there wasn't a real danger.

I also used the De-Motivational Posters tool to create some ironic posters for co-workers. These were enjoyed by my colleagues, although we had a little too much fun with them and the results were not something we wanted to display on our walls to the public ; )  To create these posters, I pulled images from our server, Facebook, and a Flickr account and then right clicked on the generated image to save to a chosen location. Easy to use, fun to create, these tools were a good activity but limited in their applications for learning.

Feeling confident after using the image generators, I decided to dive into using Animoto and Voicethread. While I explored and read about both tools, I was able to spend more time creating with Animoto. This might be because I was so fascinated by exploring Voicethread and the huge variety of ways it can be used both in and out of the classroom that I wanted to continue exploring rather than creating! As a result, this blog focuses more on Animoto than VoiceThread.

"Animoto is a magically-easy way to grab attention, produce professional-looking public relations products, archive an event, visually showcase our best, and create new visual contexts" (Valenza, 2008).  I had no idea what Animoto was, so I started by watching the 60 second video on the home page, following this week's trailfire, and watching a sample video. The sample video looked rather flashy and hyper, and I doubted I would be making anything similar for my first time out.

The sign up process was straightforward and any concerns I had about somehow ending up paying for service were quickly put to rest. It was very easy to determine which features were for paying users and which were included in the free package as a pop up window informed me that certain options such as image speed were not included in my freeloading package. At $3 for a full length movie, I was a little tempted to splash out and see what features and tools were included, but then I reminded myself that I would not be dishing out $3 per classroom student anytime soon.

My background knowledge of Animoto was pretty limited: I hadn't read about it in the mass media and I didn't know anyone personally who was using it. For these reasons, I actually took the time to read through the terms of service and privacy policy. I was happy to discover that users retain "any and all rights you hold with respect to Image Content and Musical Content."

Creating a video really was as easy as the site claimed, and in three steps my Animoto was being sent to my email account. On the first watch-through I noticed that the images were choreographed in sync with the music. I assumed that this was possible because I selected music from Animoto's library, a service which allows them to more finely synchronize the images and sounds. To test out my theory, I made a second clip (NYC - see below) with a song uploaded from my computer. The images in this second video change every four beats, on the third beat of each bar, and in time to the music. Animoto claims that this ability is due to "their own patent-pending Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology and high-end motion design." Whatever it is, it's pretty cool.

Watching the introductory video for Animoto was so helpful to my clueless state that I decided to take the same strategy for Voicethread. The explanatory video quickly brought me up to speed. I was most impressed with the five different ways users have to comment on a thread: by telephone, webcam, microphone, text, or file upload. Depending very much on the individual thread, I can see myself wanting to use a variety of these commenting approaches. However, I am most intrigued by the phone-in option as it eliminates the need to muck around with microphones and cameras, but still lends the personal touch of your voice to the commenting. 

After the video, I started browsing through some of the shared VoiceThreads. And that's it. I fell in love. There was so much to see, to hear, to think about! There were so many educators using VoiceThread in positive ways for teaching and learning I was boggled. Instead of creating my own VoiceThread this week, I spent blocks of time gathering ideas for potential uses of VoiceThread on both a personal and professional level. I think my awe prevented me from coming up with an immediate use for the application, especially seeing as how I am not in a teaching situation at the moment, and so I continued to browse. And browse. And browse! 

Discussion of multimedia and mashups for my own personal learning

I made this first video with Animoto as an experiment, but also as a possible digital addition to thank you cards. Every year, the non-profit organization I work for organizes our community's celebration of BC Rivers Day. In the past they have held awareness raising events with music and entertainment, but have recently switched formats to a hands-on river cleanup. 2008 saw about 15 people, mostly our staff, picking up garbage along our riverbank. 2009, we were overwhelmed by the community response and had over 120 volunteers with some businesses even making unsolicited donations! We are currently sending out our many thank you cards, and would like to maintain momentum for next year. With this in mind, I created my first Animoto with pictures from the album I created for us on Flickr. Animoto is a great marketing tool for non-profits short on time and/or budgets - with just the free version, or the sponsored pro accounts.

My second Animoto video, I wanted to experiment with song choices and images from my computer rather than Animoto's musical library and photos from a Flickr account. Again, the process was easy-peasy. Because the chorus of the song echos the theme of the images, I wondered how I would be able to work with the music file to make the best use of the media pairing. Happily, I found the slider in the music section which allows users to start songs mid-stream. I played with this feature until I was sure the lyrics matched the pictures. But here, you be the judge:



Post-posting note: When I went to Publish this post, things were displayed all wonky! I had originally tried to embed the Animoto video straight into the blog, but it didn't seem to work. Instead, I exported the videos to YouTube and imbedded from there. So it was with great surprise that when I posted and viewed my blog, two "ghost" videos, the ones I originally tried to embed from Animoto, were suddenly showing up! Not only that, but my YouTube videos were larger than my blog column and were blocking some of my widgets.  None of this had shown up in the blog Preview : (


To fix all this, I had to either edit the html for my template or every single video - a scary, scary decision at 11:00pm on a school night. After some whimpering, I chose editing the videos instead of the template and went back to Animoto to look at the code generated by their embedding tool. Then, I searched my blog html for the corresponding bits and deleted them. This fixed the ghost Animoto videos. Yay! I threw some mid-air punches to celebrate. 

The YouTube videos were a little easier to alter as I understood the "height" and "width" tags. I first checked the YouTube embedding codes to make sure that I had selected the smallest version of video available. I had. Then, for each video, I subtracted 100 from each of the heights and widths: the original was 500 X 315, so I changed them all to be 400 X 215. This produced a kind of squashed-up video size, but one that fit my template and I could live with. The learning continues . . .

Other personal uses I've been pondering since creating these two clips are for personalized greeting cards and invitations. I've spent hours searching for the perfect e-card for friends and family members. Either the message was too sappy or the music was annoying. No more! With Animoto and other media mashup sites, loved ones in far flung places will be receiving very personalized, fun, and meaningful e-cards.

I have also thought about posting a picture of my pregnant self on VoiceThread for the future first-time aunts who live on either end of the continent and haven't been able to keep in touch with the comedy of my rapidly expanding stomach. I would like to be able to hear their reactions the first time they view the photo, and VoiceThread would be the best way to accomplish this. Text commenting, such as in email or on facebook, doesn't have the same emotional impact of hearing the excitement in a loved one's voice. I am still considering this option, however, as I haven't quite worked out how I feel about posting pictures of myself looking most like a beluga whale.

Discussion of multimedia and mashups in terms of teaching and learning

The number of uses of multimedia and mashups for teaching and learning are almost limitless. They provide "ample opportunities for developing students' online critical thinking and communication skills," as well as fuel discussions around ownership of creative material and Creative Commons (McPherson, 2008).

The fun potential in image generators could bring a laugh to many a staff room, and the excitement of Animoto could liven up school assemblies. VoiceThread, with its capability for posting and sharing in a variety of media, is the best multimedia tool I examined this week to impact teaching and learning. Bob Sprankle (2009) has compiled the following list of ways educators can use VoiceThread:

Curriculum Possibilities:

• Book talks

• Class discussions

• Assessment

• Digital storytelling

• Journal keeping

• Asynchronous lectures (listened to before or after “face-to-face” lessons)

• Step-by-step math tutorials

• Content review

• Lab reports in science

Home-School Connections:

• Newsletters

• Family trees or “reunions” (where students collect stories from their extended families)

• Tutorials—to help parents support their child with homework

• Yearbooks (Each student could have a page and the entire VoiceThread could be downloaded at the end of the year and burned to DVD.)

• Field trips (Because you can upload audio, you can take photos and make recordings during the trip and share them with the community later on the VoiceThread. Parents can come along for the ride!)

• Tours of the school

Professional Development:

• Tutorials

• Professional development presentations

• Committee work

VoiceThread has been largely embraced by educators for digital storytelling, but as the list above demonstrates, its applications are profound. While not as expansive, Animoto should not be ignored as it engages users in a slightly different way. In the "Tips for this section" for the Imagery portion of making an Animoto clip, the platform states: "Animoto users often tell us they think differently about how they take images when they want to make an Animoto video. Instead of capturing individual moments, they try to capture a whole experience though a series of images. Instead of thinking like a photographer, they're thinking like a director. They think about the story they want to share, and they use images to tell that story." For students, this application enables the "visual, aural, and textual learner to quickly create and communicate complex new and powerful stories and messages of a multimodal nature" (McPherson, 2008), and creates active observation and participation in their life experiences.

Pros of multimedia use for teaching and learning

• easy to use and mostly free
• much better than a bulletin board where "the only audience is people within the school who are limited to viewing the work; they can't interact with it in any way. In a VoiceThread . . . Visitors can leave comments, give feedback, and ask questions" (Sprankle, 2009).
• Voicethread has an advantage over PowerPoint as Voicethread has the power of "transforming presentations into conversations that invite deeper reflection and critical thinking" (Sprankle, 2009).
• fun!

Cons of multimedia use for teaching and learning

• these tools are web-based applications: "a modem or slow wireless internet connection will grind Animoto to a halt. The applications' heavy reliance on Adobe's band-width-hungry Flash Player makes using anything other than a reliable high speed Internet access an understated exercise in frustration" (McPherson, 2008). 
• Animoto "does not provide users with tools for fine-tuning the presentation" (McPherson, 2008).

Summary

Multimedia and mashup sites are fun to observe and fun to create in. Teachers and students can use the tools in all subjects and at all grade levels, provided they have adequate computer and internet access. While each application has some sort of limitation, they all provide learners the opportunity to increase their digital literacy skills, engage in thoughtful reflection and analysis, and be creative in their demonstration of learning. Multimedia speaks to the different learning modalities and is easier to use now than ever before.

Works Cited

McPherson,K.. (2008). mashing literacy. Teacher Librarian, 35(5), 73-75. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1502965521).

Sprankle, B.. (2009, October). VoiceThread. School Talk, 15(1), 4-6. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1884218111).

Valenza, J.. (2008). Announcing: Animoto for Education. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1560024356.html