eZedia World e-Newsletter

1. Sneak Peek at eZediaMX 3.0
It's almost here! The soon to be released eZediaMX 3.0 will have many new features and functions including three new objects. One of the new objects will be the Placeholder Object.

Designers and professionals alike, eat your heart out with the new Placeholder Object. The Placeholder Object will reserve a spot for media to be added at a future time. Properties can be set for the Placeholder Object which the added media will automatically inherit. Use the Placeholder Object to storyboard and plan a project, create templates, and incorporate consistent layout guidelines.

Look for eZediaMX 3.0 this winter!

2. Technology - Looking Back, Moving Forward
By Murray Lamontagne
Director, Documentation and Training
eZedia Inc.

You always hear about the "Good Old Days" where things were better, cheaper, bigger... the list goes on and on. With technology, the good days aren't looking backwards, they are actually the tomorrows and beyond. Technology gets better with each passing year and how people are utilizing technology has evolved greatly over the last 15 years.

Back in the old days of 10MB hard drives and 640 k of RAM, people wondered what they could possibly fill their computers with. People migrated from typewriters to Word Processors to generate business correspondence. Spreadsheets replaced adding machines in manipulating numerical data. Graphic programs replaced hand drawings, and people were able to create Bar Charts and Pie Graphs directly out of their live information. But, the working environment was an ugly, text-based world.

Then the Graphical Interface evolved, and a whole new era of programs developed. Mac OS and Microsoft Windows provided an easy-to-use interface where people could "Point and Click" their way around the screen. Information sharing meant that you could now use the information in your Spreadsheet to complement the Word Processing document. Updates and changes were instantly reflected in all locations and you only had to type things once.

Enter eZediaMX. eZediaMX takes the sharing of information and moves it into the realm of content integration. We now have a multi operating system product that allows for using files and formats from both Mac OS and Windows seamlessly. The recognition of most major media file formats means that you can Drag-and-Drop your files directly into your projects, regardless of operating system, and know that they are going to work.

To complement its power, eZediaMX provides an ease of use that you just don't find in software today! Gone are the long hours required to learn the basic functionality of a program. Instead you replace it with intuitiveness supplied by WYSIWYG project design. You drag things around to place them where you think they should go. Arrows that point to "This" or "That" create interactivity that you can see. You don't have to be a programmer to use this product and you can learn the basics in about 45 minutes and start creating multimedia rich projects.

If you imagine that the last 15 years have taken us from a text to media environment, with a learning curve dropping to less than an hour... Can you imagine where we can go from here?

3. Did you know about the eZediaMX Container Object?
This month we look at the Container Object and what you can do with it. Located in the eZediaMX toolbar, it is the ninth icon from the left.


Create a Container Object by clicking its icon in the toolbar. In the Container Object dialog box, click the "Type" pull-down menu to create different types of containers. Containers can hold or generate things like random numbers, dates, times, frame number, movie timecode, VR nodes and more.

If you link a movie to a standard container, the container will display the timecode of that movie in minutes : seconds : 60ths of a second. If you link a path to a standard container, it will display the number of the current point on the path.

Containers are best used in combination with a Branch Object. With a Branch Object, you can check to see if the contents of the container match any of the branches, then activate other objects based on your location in a VR, the time of a movie, a certain point on a path, or even on a certain time of day!

Container Object Tutorial

4. eZedia and Project-based Learning
By Drs. Jane & Michael Madden
Francis Marion University

No educator needs to be told about the challenges facing today's classrooms. Children from widely differing backgrounds, learning styles, problems, skills, and talents enter our schools every day. The challenge for teachers is to make ideas come alive for all their students. Multimedia and project-based learning offer a rich environment for nurturing the kind of learning that can engage the greatest variety of students in the classroom.

Project-based learning is not intended to replace traditional teaching. In fact, it is an ideal partner rather than a replacement. Students need the opportunity to apply what they have learned previously in formal instructional processes. The best opportunities occur when there is genuine problem-solving and learning in a real-world context.

Project-based learning can become even more exciting and dynamic with the incorporation of multimedia. Until recently, that would have been a daunting task for any educator. However, eZedia puts powerful tools into the hands of some of our youngest constituents. Now, the focus for students is on communicating - where they've come from; what they've experienced; how they express their knowledge; and, what new questions they have. The incorporation of multimedia allows them to put their ideas in motion. Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has helped teachers to be sensitive to the fact that students learn differently and eZedia opens the door to self-expression for this broad range of learners.

One of the best resources we've come across to help teachers organize successful project-based learning experiences, especially at the K-6 levels, is the work of Dr. Sylvia Chard, Director of the Child Study Center, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Her web site, http://www.project-approach.com, is a marvelous resource, providing step-by-step structure for understanding, planning, implementing, and evaluating project-based activities.

Dr. Chard organizes a project-based approach into three broad stages - beginning, developing, and concluding a project, with specific types of activities associated with each. This same structure provides a natural framework for developing an overall eZedia project to communicate classroom happenings. Incorporated into that could be the individual and group projects.

At each stage, the classroom teacher and the students can capture images and artwork via cameras, digital and 35 mm, scanners, digital camcorders or regular camcorders, music, and voices telling the tale of their learning adventure. Not only do these elements serve to enhance the project, but also to aid students in recalling the various activities and experiences. For some students, these shared multimedia events, combined with direct experience, may be the anchor they need to develop more sophisticated concepts.

For teachers in the United States for whom grant-funding is a perennial issue, Dr. Chard's site also provides a strong theoretical foundation tied to applied situations that would be eminently fundable. As more and more schools face the challenge of increasing numbers of at-risk students, the combination of multimedia and flexible opportunities for learning can become core components in writing winning proposals.

About the Authors
Dr. Jane Madden is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Francis Marion University and is the Director of the Grants Development Program on campus. Dr. Michael Madden is a Professor in the School of Education. Both are the co-authors of two successful Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grants. eZedia has been a research partner in both federal grants. No remuneration was received for the writing of this article.

Thank you to Dr. Sylvia Chard for her kind permission to include information on her site in this article.

5. What's New At eZedia
Out with the old and in with a whole new web site! eZedia's team of talented programmers and designers have been working hard to improve your eZedia online experience. From faster downloads to comprehensive searching and an expanded online store, we hope you enjoy it!

Online Opinion
Your opinion counts. In the bottom right hand corner of every page on the new eZedia web site, you will see a [+] icon. Click to rate the page, then fill out the comment card. Your feedback will help us further improve our eZedia web site and satisfy our users.

Visit eZedia today

eZediaMX 3.0
And, last but not least, look for the new release of eZediaMX, version 3.0, packed with lots of exciting new features. Coming this winter!

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Look for the next issue of eZedia World on January 7, 2002.

eZedia World welcomes subscriber feedback, story ideas as well as editorial contributions to our monthly newsletter. Please e-mail us your ideas at ezediaworld@ezedia.com.

© 2000-2001 eZedia Inc. All rights reserved. eZedia, the eZedia logo, and eZediaMX are registered trademarks or trademarks of eZedia Inc.