Traci Fry Web Tools
November 30, 2002
Audio-Louis Armstrong

Animation Example
Webtool
Quicktime
Audio
Animation
Technology and Reference From an educational standpoint, the right quicktime movies such as the spacewalk or classroom lectures become invaluable. You have access over and over again and students have a wealth of movies available online. (see links below) I enjoy music very much and I know that my kids do as well. We do not, however, have access to Kazaa and other related download programs at school. Age-old problem of lyrics, vulgarity, etc. come into play. Probably would have a music file that I will let them pick from unless they download news voice-overs or other things that they can get from independent sources. I found that the flash and animated gif files (if not created in-house) can be hard to find. Lots of cheesy little ones, but lots of the long ones are either inappropriate or not easily downloaded. If I were adding animations to the website, I would make them build each one and then turn them in for inspection before they added them to the website.
Description Quicktime is a viewing engine that allows clips which include image and sound to be played on the site. Pros: people and students love visual. Cons: many files take a long time to download. An audio files if sound only and can come in the form of WAV, MP3 etc. They are instantaneous and easily brought up. A little tricky when adding to websites because you want to be able to start and stop them at will. I do, however, think they add lots of personality. Students can create animated (moving) files in lots of different programs including Live Motion or Macromedia Flash. Basically the old Disney method brought to screen. Can view them as Flash (SWF) files or animated gifs.
Educational Purpose and Value Probably the most important of the three if students are doing some sort of research project. Can be tedious if it's their personal site because of download time. Great for personal websites. Can become a problem if students are allowed to find their own or bring from home. My lab doesn't have floppy drives so not really a problem there. Good for sound clips for historical references. Animations are great for students to learn sequencing and all aspects of Flash , Go Live, etc. Hard to find good, clean ones from the internet.
Educational Limitations Takes lots of time. Putting into website is not hard but depending on the hook-up you could easily lose their interest. It's more of an entertainment thing. It should not be the focus of the site. Just an added extra. Very good if students are interested in building their own animations. It's a growing field, just visit the Pixar's website. It's a valuable tool and students who aren't successful at paper stuff can do this kind of thing.
How to insert a quicktime movie into a website
If you're in GoLive, go to the objects palette. and choose the Quicktime Icon. It looks kind of like a blue Q. Then right click on it and choose Browse Link. Then choose the video clip that you have in your folder. When your site comes up the window for the clip will load and usually you will have to hit play to make it work.
Helpful Links

Adobe.com

Quicktime is a viewing engine that allows clips which include image and sound to be played on the site. Pros: people and students love visual. Cons: many files take a long time to download.