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Create more. Spend less.
Feature Update: eZediaQTI 2.1.4 Mac - 2.0.2 Win
 GoTo Objects now appear as disabled buttons when they are on the same frame that they are targeting. The GoTo Object will show up as its "Pressed"
state and will not be clickable. This is useful for navigation bars that include several GoTo Objects that exist on a range of frames.
Button elements and Picture Objects with rollover states will now preload their "Over" and "Pressed" images. This increases the speed at which the "Over" and
"Pressed" images appear in a browser window.
GoTo Objects set to open another HTML page will now open that page in the same browser window by default.
All of the above feature updates affect the "Generate Web Site" function only, and not the "Export Interactive Movie" function.
Using the New Button Styles in eZediaQTI
We've added a whole raft of new button styles to eZediaQTI 2. There are three new types of button styles to choose from: Corners, Frames, and Tabs.
Corners and Frames are not used as typical Button Objects that you click on. They are intended to be used to put a quick frame around a picture. The nature
of the button styles in eZediaQTI help to make these frames easily scaleable to fit any size of photo, without distorting the details of the corners. You
can also choose the color for your Corners and Frames to make them match the style of your project.
Once you have positioned your Corners or Frame, you may want to save that style of object into a Media Library for reuse later in your project. Then
convert the Button to a Picture by selecting it, then choosing "Object > Convert to Picture". Then, to remove its interactivity, you'll want to
either add it to the background, or delete its "Over" and "Pressed" states.
Tabs are a new type of Button Style that are meant to be used together in a row.
New Corners, Frames and Tabs are available now in the latest eZediaQTI update.
 Learn how to check and update your version of eZediaQTI.
Ann Penstone
John Hersey High School
"eZedia fit a niche that just wasn't filled by PowerPoint or iMovie. It gave kids interactive capabilities and
they had to THINK to use it - and they learned technology AND the subject matter. Their motivation was fabulous
and they began asking if they could use it for more projects.
"The most amazing thing about the first time kids used it is that they came to class, had fun and stayed focused
while they learned the content by doing! They can't wait to use it again and again; each time they want to be
challenged to learn more about it. We first used it with kids who are school phobics; who did not come to school
and slept, daydreamed and had previously been unmotivated to pass Science. All of a sudden, kids were coming to
class - sometimes twice a day. They began teaching the teacher and were excited about learning. This software helped
us change the lives of students and made them feel proud of their accomplishments."
- Ann Penstone
John Hersey High School
Arlington Heights, IL
Ann Penstone is the Technology Coordinator at John Hersey. Brigette Muck is teaching the Special Ed Science class where they've
been using eZediaMX and
eZediaQTI with students in grades 9 - 12.
Get More Without Adding More Time!
One of the prime challenges for school districts is providing all the staff development needed to support teachers
in meeting new challenges. Traditional practices for providing training in reading, mathematics, science, etc. have
remained fairly consistent and schools are comfortable with impacting a large number of teachers with those methods.
What has thrown things for a loop is technology. Recent conversations with district technology coordinators reveals
their frustration in that they offer course after course but a high percentage of the same people turn up not having
progressed any further from the previous time. Worse, the number of new technology issues increases with each passing
month so it becomes an endless game of catch up. It's frustrating for the teachers and for the districts.
Think cross-training! If you were trying to get in shape, your personal coach would make you do cross-training to speed
up the impact of your efforts and to greatly reduce the time to reach those goals. From our research and practical
experience, the same appears to be true for technology. The problem for districts is figuring out how they would do
that. Traditional approaches provide a course on making a webpage, another on digital cameras, and the list goes on.
There is little transference of learning from one to the other, the list of courses is endless, and the amount of time
and resources needed continues to mount. The cross-training approach cuts the time needed and increases the results.
You can come up with your own cross-training approach, but we use multimedia as the heart of ours. We begin with something
very simple like eZediaQTI 2. Within that one environment, teachers learn to handle video, audio, photos and graphics of all types,
files and folders, and the list goes on. The important part is that they also learn to think about the bits and pieces in
context. The fact that skills are not learned in isolation is very important. With eZediaQTI 2, teachers can create webpages and
websites, interactive study guides, digital story books, scrapbooks, web scavenger hunts, photo albums, slide shows -
with and without music, and much, much more. The great part is that teachers can do all of this without having to do any
programming at all and the final product looks great!
Teachers learn to quickly recognize similarities. Inspiration 7.5 now uses an approach for choosing colors that is very
similar to eZediaQTI 2. Teachers quickly see the patterns. The "handles" that appear around the graphics when selected in eZediaQTI 2
is the same approach used in many other programs but in eZediaQTI 2 there is a context for both understanding what they mean
and how to use them. The skills developed in a eZediaQTI 2 environment transfer well to other software packages found in schools.
A few weeks after completing our course, one of the teachers illustrated how this worked for them. They received a new
piece of software they hadn't used before. Remembering what we said about looking for similarities and thinking about
what they already knew, they were able to complete their task using the new software without asking anyone for help.
Am I claiming that doing this one thing alone means that people never have to do another course again? No, but it does
take them out of the passive approach and puts them well down the road to being able to think with technology which is
an entirely different world than learning an isolated skill. As we say to our teachers, we don't care what you know at
the end of the semester. We do care passionately about what you know and are doing four months and twelve months down
the road after you are no longer in our class!
Authors, note:
Drs. Jane and Michael Madden
Francis Marion University
You are more than welcome to e-mail us about what we are doing.
You may contact us at: mmadden1@sc.rr.com
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