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Rich Media >> Get Rich Quick
7/22/2005
Bloomsburg University (PA), academic technologists affiliated with the university’s Institute for Interactive Technologies (iit.bloomu.edu) have staked their careers on making sure rich media products get even richer. Through this program which began online in 1997, educators work solely with distance education students interested in developing the next wave of rich media. In the process, they employ the latest and greatest forms of rich media and interactive technologies, says IIT Assistant Director Karl Kapp.The program’s rich media immersion begins with homegrown audio sensor software that allows instructors to engage in two-way audio communication with their students. Next, with the help of Java-based Symposium conferencing software from Centra (www.centra.com), instructors can also break their classes into groups, and students in those groups can interact in real time through collaborative whiteboards.
To further enhance communication between students and instructors, IIT utilizes ECP Connect, a program from Interwise (www.interwise.com) that manages data and voice conferencing. It has also employed the new Breeze product from Macromedia (www.macromedia.com), which essentially is designed to enable users to participate in online meetings and conferences where they can share presentations, view videos, conduct polls, chat, and more. “This combination of technology enables us to quite literally sketch out ideas as they materialize,” says Kapp. “The notion of doing that online is simply revolutionary.”
| INSIDE RICH MEDIA |
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| A number of rich media experts say that a surprising number of students fall victim to issues pertaining to firewall controls. The problem arises because at a time when identity theft and other security threats are at an all-time high, few students have their personal firewalls configured to allow incoming data to stream unchecked. |
While Breeze is the newest component of IIT’s repertoire, the real highlight of the program is its commitment to rich media applications that incorporate real-time video as a learning tool. The school’s reliance on digital video conferencing is nothing unique, but in addition to broadcasting video-over-IP along with voice and text, IIT also incorporates Macromedia’s Captivate software to record an instructor’s onscreen mouse movements for those hard-to-follow instructional lessons. With the help of this step-by-step learning tool, IIT offers rich media classes in many of the products actually used to create the rich media: Dreamweaver, Flash, and Authorware from Macromedia, as well as Photoshop from Adobe (www.adobe.com), and more.
The IIT program is a one-year endeavor, followed by an internship or dissertation at program completion.
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