digital media
Introduction
Since early times people have communicated. This communication could have been a simple pile of stones, cave paintings, clay tablets or paper. This topic will exam Digital Media.
Digital media is the use of information and software technologies to communicate information. This information may be delivered by email, text message, mobile phone or podcast.
Evolution of Media
View this tube to see an overview of change in the evolution of media
essential task 1
a) Create your own wiki by visiting here. use your initial and family name so that others in the course will have a standard format to find your wiki. make your wiki “protected”.
b) Add to your wiki a avatar, embed a youtube video, with a digital media theme. Add a sentence as to why you selected this video.
essential task 2
a) Read page 92 of the text IST information and software technology 7-10 by Peter Ware et al.
b) Create a page in your wiki titled ” Key terms in Digital Media” and select ten terms from page 93 and provide a meaning to each of these terms. The addition of an appropriate image would be good.
c) Create a page in your wiki titled “Content” and during class read through the various headings in order and in your own words provide a brief summary of the content. Use the heading to head each brief summary.
| weekly homework task |
| activity-04-01 |
| complete the task from the IST cd and post this response in your wiki. it is also expected that a hardcopy is handed up. |
The Purpose of digital media
Most of you have been able to use a book to obtain information, learning and entertainment. The computer has enabled humans to add a new dimension to media called interactivity. Both these mediums or media are a way of communicating a message.
If you were able to navigate to this page, then you have been using the interactive features of the web browser. This interactivity allows you to control how and what you view.
Browsers are not the only computer technology that uses digital. Applications such as microsoft office are digitalise formats. Animation, graphic, video and audio formats are greatly enhanced in the digital format.
Digitalisation allows faster processing and larger storage to occur and generally enhanced quality.
Digital media uses files that use 0's and 1's that the computer is able to interprete these 0's and 1's form a binary numerical code. This digital data uses software and hardware to provide a media that humans can understand. The message may be in a graphic, a video or a audio file format displayed using a device such as a monitor or speaker.
A vital part of a digital media product is that it delivers a message, to the intended audience. As we have seen previously, desktop publishing is essential, so that the product is capable of doing so by way of the appropriate page layout and design. The actual medium used to deliver the message needs to be correct as well. Text messaging is generally comprised of short abbreviated words for example great is written as gr8.
| portfolio task 1 | |
| Research task | |
| visit Youtube and research any digital media concept and from your research embed five tubes to your wiki as portfolio task 1 that provides information about the concept that you chose. |
Types of Digital Media Devices
Today nearly every device that connects to a computer is a digital device. These include scanners, cameras, barcode readers, printers, phones and audio devices.
These devices handle data that has been encoded from analogue to digital values. The values are in binary form of "0"s and "1"s. Follow these links to see more about digital camera that captures images not on film but in a digital format that is stored and media center computer. View the tubes below to see more about the way a digital devices works.
View this tube to see a book scanner digitization BookDrive DIY
View this tube to see a sony playstation portable multimedia device
View this tube to see a touch screens device
Types of digital media products
Here we will examine three types of digital media products:
Graphic digital media and products
Two main digital media areas exist and for our study, one is Graphic Design the other is Desktop Publishing (DTP).
Graphic Design software provides a the user with the ability to manipulate or to create images. Photoshop, Sqirlz and Paint are examples of a graphics application. Graphic programs require an input device such as a mouse or tablet.
DTP software allows the user to create text with other formats such as graphics and audio. Microsoft Word and Publisher are examples of DTP applications. These two primarily work to create printed documents. Webpages are also examples of DTP and Microsoft SharePoint is an example of the application that could be used.
weekly homework task
activity-04-02
complete the task from the IST cd and post this response in your wiki. it is also expected that a hardcopy is handed up.
Audio digital media and products
Audio data in a digital format is created by the process of data sampling. This process captures sounds and converts these analogue waves into digital. Audio is a very important component of a digital media product, as it provides background or reality sounds. Audio sequences initially comprised of MIDI files, however, advances in sequencing software has provided a means to mix sounds and to add effects.
The most common audio file types are MP3, WAV, MIDI, AAC and WMA. A quick google of these will provide you with simple explainations of each of these.
analogue to digital recording
here
Extension task
Visit the link above. Then download the worksheet and respond to the activities
| weekly homework task |
| activity-04-03 |
| complete the task from the IST cd and post this response in your wiki. it is also expected that a hardcopy is handed up. |
| portfolio task 4 | |
| Practical task | |
| use audacity to create a two minute presentation. the presentation is titled "the purpose of digital media". You are to include two effects that are made possible by the audacity software. the effects may be added music or fades. add this project to your wiki as portfolio task 4. download audicity. here |
View this tube to see your first Audacity Tutorial
View this tube to see your second Audacity Tutorial
View this tube to see your podcasting Audacity Tutorial
Video and animation digital media and products
Animation sequencing is more difficult to complete owing to trhe software that is currently available. Video sequencing is much simpler, once again due to the available software which is much simpler to use. When a video camera is purchased it will always be delivered with an application that allows the editing of video. Windows Movie Maker is a program that may be used for many types of formats.
Video and animation may be ditributed well in an optic disc format or over the Internet, but Broadband is required to complete this successfully. Telstra provides a movie download service to its clients, whereas before the client was required to go to a video store to rent a DVD.
The most common video and animation file types are MPEG-2, FLV, MOV and AVI. A quick google of these will provide you with simple explainations of each of these.
The Animation Process
View this tube to see Matrix style flipbook animation
View this tube to see animation tutorials
View this tube to see how to animate 2 tutorial
View this tube to see how another animation tutorial
Extension task
Watch the three videos above. Is the animation completed with the one application? What does this user require from the computer to work with so many applications at once? What is the common element used in producing animation 1 and 2?
| weekly homework task |
| activity-04-04 |
| complete the task from the IST cd and post this response in your wiki. it is also expected that a hardcopy is handed up. |
Data Types of digital media products
View this tube to see an overview of change in digital communication
Data is raw material, “0″s and “1″s, that is given meaning by computer hardware and software. This data once processed is then called information. This information may be text, graphic, audio or video formats.
There are two forms of data, analogue and digital, analogue is from the natural world, for example your voice, colours or sounds. These waves vary in frequency. Digital data is when these frequencies are given a number value of either a “0″ and “1″.
The smallest unit of data and memory is called a “bit”. These “bits” are combined in units of 8 bits, which are then known as a “byte”. So this is how a computer stores data on a computer.
Data is processed in an appropriate software, this is known as organising data. If you are creating data which has many numbers and or formulas, then you would use a speadsheet application. A graphic would have the data created using a graphics application such as adobe photoshop.
The main data types that you may be aware of are text, numbers, audio, video and animation and graphics. These would generally be processed with different applications as described above.
Data may be transmitted between computers in two main ways the first is serial data transmission and the other is parallel data transmission. Serial data transmission has each bit being transferred along a single path or bus which is slower than when data is transferred using the parallel data transmission, which has each bit using its own path or bus, so a byte is transferred at the same time. Parallel data transmission is faster though more expensive and restricted to a cable of a metre or two.
Data manipulation techniques
Technology has now given the ability to modify data in a way that was not possible even fifty years ago. Analogue data was able to be manipulated, however, by digitising data, that is to give a value to the data of either a “1″ or a “0″, the manipulation is almost endless with the appropriate hardware and software.
Hardware allows the interaction to occur. The hardware has five functions, with different hardware carrying out a function. These five functions are input, output, storage, processing and control. The first three functions are quite evident allowing a user to input data and instructions, output data as information and to retain data on a storage device such as a hard drive.
Processing and modification of the data occurs in the processing and control functions. The data is processed in the central processing unit(CPU) according to the instructions on control of the data from the control function.
View this tube to see the components that are found inside the Computer
View this tube to see what the CPU does
View this tube to see peripheral devices
The exercises laid out below will give you the opportunity to manipulate data yourself, we will look
The tubes below and the exercises demonstrate manipulation and the social effects of such manipulation. There are many types of manipulations which include rendering, morphing, tweening, cropping for graphics while cutting, filtering and sound special effects are used with audio.
Video and animations are often manipulated in similar ways to that of audio, with cutting unwanted segments, with compression techniques to reduce the size of the video. Another form of manipulation is carried out by timing controls, this is important as the time codes which are found in video formats control the start and finish of each segment.
Video Editing Links for students who wish to extend themselves
1. Make Movies UK
2. Digital Storytelling
3. Elements of Digital Storytelling
4. MPEG Streamclip: Free video converter for Mac & Windows
5. Capture Software. Free capture images and video from your computer
| portfolio task 2 |
| Practical task |
| visit each of the following sites below and complete one of the set operations allowed. Add the four digital products to your wiki as portfolio task 2 |
Portfolio 2 websites that provide digital media data manipulation software.
Bodyswitcher website.
Scrap Book website.
Silly Scenes website.
Comic Strip website.
Morphing
Morphing is a digitised process which allows you to change one image into another. the following tube will display the morphing of an image into another.
View this tube to see examples of morphing
| portfolio task 3 |
| Practical task |
Download the following application called Sqirlz onto your notebook and then select two images and morph them using the application. View the Youtube video for a tutorial or visit the Sqirlz tutorial site. add the image to your wiki titled portfolio task 3 |
| weekly homework task |
| activity-04-05 |
| complete the task from the IST cd and post this response in your wiki. it is also expected that a hardcopy is handed up. |
how to use sqirlz
this tube was removed by the user. a new tube will be available soon.
Manipulation using Photoshop
View this tube to see examples of manipulating an image for commercial reasons
Extension task
Watch the video above. Marketing often presents a perfect image. What may be the social issues that develop when a manipulated image of a person is presented as the "norm"?
Digitisation process of Data types
This process by a computer to convert analogue to digital is called digitising. The computer accomplishes this task through the use of a range of devices, a microphone collects the frequencies from your voice, measures the data and gives it a single digital value. A digital camera will carry out the same process with the shapes and colours that are captured when a picture is taken.
The computer reverses this digital process when we access the data as information. The voice that was captured by the computer hardwarew and software, is converted back to an analogue electrical current, by the sound card and then the speakers broadcast the sound of your voice.
Binary is the name that is given to the “0″s and “1″s, that the computer uses. As you may understand by now, that all data is therefore, stored and transmitted by electric currents, this is that the computer is formed by a huge number of “on” (”1″) and “off” (”0″) switches.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a process where a hardcopy of text or images, may be digitised. Scanning uses light which uses mirrors and lenses to focus the text or image onto a micro chip, that detects change in the reflection. The scanner will generally create a bit mapped image of the text or image. Click here to see how OCR and Scanning works.
View this tube to see Analogue and Digital explained.
weekly homework task
activity-04-07
complete the task from the IST cd and post this response in your wiki. it is also expected that a hardcopy is handed up.
Factors affecting file size
The higher the sampling rate of audio digital media files the better the quality of the sound, but the file size is larger. The sampling rate measures how many sounds are made per second. An MP3 audio file will have a sampling rate of 44,100 samples per second. A voice recording will be only 22,050 samples per second.
Pixels are the measurement units used in an graphic digital media file. A high quality image that is 7-megapixels will have seven million pixels. As in audio, the better the quality the larger the file size.
Animation is measured differently. An animation is measured in frames per second. An AVI file originally having 30 FPS and 300,000kb will after compression can be compressed to 42,000kb. The advantage of this will be the transmission and storage will be more economical. The disadvantage is that the quality will be much worse.
File size in digital media products is an important consideration, as transmission, processing and storage demands increase with file size. Data compression is a process that reduces the size of a data file. Compression basically works by removing data which is duplicated, outside of the frequency range of colour and sounds that humans are able to recognise. There are two forms that we concern ourselves with, they are lossless compression which reduces file size, but does not delete the duplicated data for example. The other form of compression is lossy compression, which does delete permanently the data which is lost. The advantage is that lossy files are much smaller than lossless files.
View this tube to see how To reduce image file size.
View this tube to see how to make a video file smaller.
Download the free trial version of image-compressor here
weekly homework task
activity-04-08
complete the task from the IST cd and post this response in your wiki. it is also expected that a hardcopy is handed up.
Display and distribution
This site is using a number of streaming video to distribute information. Click here to see how streaming and audio works.
Digital media products will not always work on every computer that attempts to display it. Quite often plug-ins are required. An example of this incompatibility is found in different internet web browsers. Some browsers will not display java scripts that display fine on another browser.
User environments also need to be taken into consideration, is the user using a dial-up connection, this would inhibit streaming data significantly. Does the user have a special need that could make your product more accessible if modified to such a need.
It is very difficult, due to the advancement of technology to meet the same specifications of the end user of a digital media product. The technology that they are using may be older therefore, incompatable. Quite often though the addition of a link to additional plug-ins is worthwhile to provide users with access.
Distribution of digital media was once quite limiting, hard drives were small in capacity, removal storage was also restrictive, and certainly the low speeds of the interent did not provide for the distribution of digital media.
DVD and CD was and still remains an ideal way to distribute digital media. These have the capacity to deliver a high quality product without disruptive downloading issues. These had limitations in the amount of data that may be stored, and distribution costs were generally high. There was good control over ownership of the product though.
Fast Broadband has provided a cheap alternative to optical disc distribution. Digital media may be distributed easily and at a high quality now. The ability to update a product is an additional advantage of Broadband over optical discs.
Other forms of distribution of digital media
View this tube to see RSS explained in Plain English.
View this tube to see Twitter explained in Plain English.
View this tube to see Podcasting explained in Plain English.
View this tube to see Online Photo Sharing explained in Plain English.
View this tube to see how to create a podcast.
weekly homework task
activity-04-09
complete the task from the IST cd and post this response in your wiki. it is also expected that a hardcopy is handed up.
Project development
The planning, production and overall development of a project has six steps.
If you do not know what is required to be completed to solve a problem, then the resultant solution is very unlikely to be correct. It is therefore, important that the task be understood. this may be done by asking questions of the potential participants of a solution.
Once that you decide upon the problem, then you need to decide on a solution. Probably thinking about one design only is not the best, create a few designs so that you can decide upon the best.
Once that you have decided upon a solution you may then commence to create a solution or product that will solve the problem. Make what is known as a prototype first. a prototype is a model or limited functioning product, to see if the solution is appropriate. a storyboard is also a sound design tool to develop a product, especially a video or audio product.
Once you have decided upon the solution, then make it. evaluation of the product is a continual process and should be completed through out the design and implementation process. maintainance will also be required to be carried out as the product is used.
Digital Storytelling with Movie Maker
View this tube to see how to Storyboard in four minute tutorial.
planning with digital data in movies
Assessment Portfolio
You must complete portfolio 1, 2, 3 and 4. The portfolio needs to be added into your wiki on the due dates.
portfolio 1
Due week 2
Research task
portfolio 2
Due week 3
Data Manipulation-1
portfolio 3
Due week 4
Data Manipulation-2
portfolio 4
Due week 4
Audacity task
Roles and responsibilities
View this tube to see if kids different because of digital media?.
View this tube to see what are the roles of digital media in our life (get through the deep first 1.33 minutes and it is easier to follow 
)
Careers in information and software technology
As technology and user demands grows more and more IT careers are created. Some careers in IT have not even been thought of yet as the technology may still be undiscovered or still in the development stage.
Careers include Data entry Operators, Programmers, Multimedia Specialists, Technicians, Web Designers,Systems Support and Sales. The abilities and duties range from TAFE to Advanced Tertiary courses at University.
If you are thinking that IT maybe a career option, check with TAFE Colleges and Universities to see course entry requirements. Google IT careers to find out actual roles.
Registration and programs
Registration and programs for teachers are here
DIGITAL COPYRIGHT Requirements
Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution
Licence: here
The personal or classroom educational use, provided there is a link to TeacherTube here. TeacherTube terms and conditions state that videos may be downloaded for
The YouTube terms and conditions state that videos may be embedded in the media, provided there is a link to YouTube and that the appropriate non commercial use is made here
The Wired Science terms and conditions state that videos may be embedded in the media, provided there is a link to Wired Science and that the appropriate non commercial use is made here
Reference to the text and included cd-rom, IST, information, software and technology 7-10 , auther Peter Ware et al. isbn 0-7314-0168-9 is made as students are expected to purchase both items.
Reference to the NSW Board of Studies Syllabus documentations are made, with documentations available from here