Understanding Multimedia

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Define multimedia, describe why it is effective, and explain how it will be important to life in the twenty-first century.
• Demonstrate how multimedia is changing the world through telecommuting, home shopping, electronic publishing, and computer-based education.
• Show how fast multimedia is growing in business, industry, homes, online services, and education
• Identify and define the components of a Multimedia PC.
• Define the Internet and the World Wide Web and understand how they provide access to multimedia resources on a worldwide basis.
• Define and recognize linked objects in a multimedia application.
• Understand the present-day limits of creating those objects.
• Think about what new kinds of objects there may be in the future as multimedia technology progresses.
• Consider whether the digitization of media is making communication better or worse, and understand the appropriate role of technology.

Readings

Read chapters 1 and 2 of the Multimedia Literacy textbook to study the concepts covered by this module. Chapter 1 defines essential terms, and chapter 2 presents a taxonomy of the multimedia objects you will be studying in this course.

Online Activities

In chapter 1, you learn that multimedia is the use of a computer to present and combine text, graphics, audio, and video with links and tools that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate. An important goal of this course is to enable you to become a creator, not just a consumer, of multimedia on the Internet. The following online activities will help you realize what a strategic goal this is for virtually everyone living in the 21st century:

• Multimedia is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world today. As the installed base of CD-ROM drives approaches the 200-million mark, DVD drives have become one of the hottest consumer items, able to play CDs while also providing access to thousands of broadcast-quality movies with surround sound and up to 26 times more data storage. Follow the Multilit Web site links for the latest statistics on how fast multimedia is growing.
• Multimedia is redefining the communication system that forms a significant part of the infrastructure of our society. An unprecedented number of mergers among companies jockeying for position in this fast-paced field are combining the telephone, television, and personal computer into a mass market multimedia utility. Follow the Multilit Web site links for the latest news about mergers and acquisitions.

Chapter 2 presented you with a taxonomy of the multimedia objects you will be using in this course. The following activities provide online examples of these objects that will bring this reading to life:

• Creating graphics by hand is time-consuming. To save time there are extensive libraries of clip art that you can use in multimedia productions. By following the Multilit Web site links to clip art, you will discover dozens of online clip libraries. Many have broad, general categories including photographs, icons, animations, background tiles, buttons, and bullets, while other libraries focus on a visual theme such as nature or scientific images. You can usually use clip-art images royalty free, but make sure you read the license carefully because restrictions may apply. You may be required to include a courtesy hyperlink to the clip library’s Web site, for example.
• People who do not have digital cameras or photo scanners can still take digital photos inexpensively. When you develop a roll of film at Eckerd Drugs, for example, it only costs about $4 extra to get a diskette with up to 15 pictures, $5 for up to 28 images, and $6 for 29 or more exposures. Follow the Multilit Web site link for more information about Eckerd and other digital photo services.
• Just as video digitizers can be used to grab any picture a camera can see, waveform audio digitizers can record any sound you can hear. For an example, listen to this recording of the author welcoming you to this course.
• MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It provides a very efficient way of recording music. Instead of recording the waveform of the sound, which requires a lot of storage, MIDI records the performance information required for your computer’s sound chip to play the music. As you listen to this example, realize that the sound is actually being synthesized by your computer, as codes in the MIDI file tell your sound chip what sounds to make and how loud to make them.
• MP3 stands for MPEG Audio Layer 3. It's an audio file format that uses an MPEG audio codec to encode (compress) and decode (decompress) recorded music. MP3 can compress a CD-audio track into a substantially smaller-sized file requiring significantly less bandwidth to transmit over the Internet without degrading the original sound track's quality. To download a free MP3 player, find MP3 Web sites, and create MP3 files from your favorite audio CD, follow the Multilit Web site links to MP3.
• Video provides a rich and lively resource for multimedia applications. There are four types of video that you can use as the objects of links in multimedia applications: live video feeds, videotape, videodisc, and digital video. Follow the Multilit Web site links to live Webcams and digital video feeds from television stations and news networks.
• In multimedia, animation is the use of a computer to create movement on the screen. There are four kinds of animation: frame, vector, computational, and morph. After you read about these in your textbook, watch the movie named morph in the movies folder on your Multilit CD.

Assignments

After you complete this module, you will be ready to complete the assignment that asks you to tell your instructor why you are taking this course. This assignment reads as follows:

• Your first assignment in this course is to say why you decided to take it. Please summarize what your reasons are for enrolling in this course. What goals do you hope to accomplish? Stating your goals will help your instructor understand what you are hoping to get out of this course. In the process, you will experience how convenient it will be in this course to submit your assignments online and get feedback from your instructor.

In addition, every student in this course is required to participate in the course discussion forum. Please join in the conversations you will find in progress there, and initiate new topics as you wish.