| Multimedia | ||
| Sounds | ||
Multimedia is the use of various media, such as graphics, sounds, text, pictures, and movies, to present information. Teachers have been using multimedia in their classrooms for years to provide variety in their instructional presentations and to meet the needs of diverse learners. Video cassettes, videotapes, audio cassettes, CDs, pictures, text, and artifacts are commonly used by teachers in the classroom. However, with the technologies of today, educators and their students have endless possibilities for combining these multimedia in ways that were never before possible.
Thousands of educational resources exist on the Internet and most of them are free for the browsing. Teachers and students can access worldwide information sources such as movies, sounds, virtual reality animations, graphics, news and research data to incorporate into lesson development or multimedia projects. With the Internet, schools now have the capability of combining multimedia of all kinds to help bring learning to life.
Video streaming is becoming more popular in classrooms today. With a large TV screen/monitor hooked up to a computer, on-line streamed videos can be presented easily. United Streaming www.unitedstreaming.com offers an extensive database of video streaming clips correlated to the Virginia Standards of Learning. Video streaming clips can be searched by subject, topic, grade level, keywords, and/or standards and often are accompanied by teacher guides and blackline masters to aide in teaching lesson content.
School districts must purchase the right to use United Streaming and it is protected by passwords, however, it is relatively inexpensive. Depending on your connection, if too many videos are being streamed at one time, video may have difficulty streaming due to slow buffering. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to download the video to your desktop prior to viewing, however, if your connection speed is 65K modem, downloads take a great deal of time. Other possibilities include downloading and inserting clips into Power Point presentations, or burning to a CD to be used at a later date.
Related Links:
United Streaming
http://www.unitedstreaming.com
Nature Video
Database
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/database.html
The Free Site http://thefreesite.com/Free_Sounds/Streaming_resources/index.htmlFree Streaming Audio Resources
Streaming Video: MS
Windows Media Player
http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/asf/asfp.html
Virtual
Reality
Graphics enhance lesson presentation and student multi-media projects by providing powerful visuals. They usually come with a word processing program or can be purchased on disks. Many graphics and clip art are also available, most often free, on the web. To help narrow your browsing for photos and clip art, try some of the following sites:
Search Engines for
Pictures
http://www.ditto.com/
http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en
http://www.picsearch.com
Animations Galore
http://www.animations-galore.com/
The Free Site (clip art)
http://thefreesite.com/Free_Graphics/Free_clipart/index.htm
The Free Site (photos)
http://thefreesite.com/Free_Graphics/Free_photos/index.html
Totally Free Clip Art
http://www.totallyfreeclipart.com/
100,000 Free Clip Arts
http://www.100000freecliparts.com/
Awesome Clip Art for Kids
http://www.awesomeclipartforkids.com
Kids Free Clip Art
http://www.thekidzpage.com/freeclipart.htm
Classroom Clip Art
http://www.classroomclipart.com
School-Related Clip Art
http://webclipart.tqn.com/internet/webclipart/msub64.htm
Pics for Learning
http://pics.tech4learning.com/
Back to School Clip Art
http://www.cyberbee.com/bts.html
Teacher Files Educational
Clip Art
http://www.teacherfiles.com/clip_art.htm
Discovery School Clip Art
Gallery
http://school.discovery.com/clipart/
Pictures Theme Page
http://www.cln.org/themes/pictures.html
Sound can add a powerful dimension to multi-media presentations and projects. Although many sound files are included with software, some sites offer sound clips such as movie and TV themes, sound effects, and famous quotes/speeches for downloading. The following sites will help get you started in your search for sound clips.
The Free Site (sounds)
http://thefreesite.com/cgi-bin/search/hyperseek.cgi
A1 Free Sound Effects
http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/
Wave Source
http://www.wavsource.com/
Daily Wave
http://www.dailywav.com/
Wave Surfer
http://www.wavsurfer.com/
Clay's Sound Emporium
http://www.kcbx.net/~rloomis/