The Magical Media Mystery Tour

Explore

2009-02-07T07:51:00.000Z

lynn

2008-03-13T12:26:00.001Z

R

2008-03-13T12:23:00.001Z

alan

2008-03-13T12:21:00.000Z

2008-03-13T12:19:00.002Z

2008-03-13T12:19:00.001Z

Perin

2008-03-13T12:12:00.001Z

Michael Larbalestier

2008-03-13T12:03:00.024Z

Nieves Medina

2008-03-13T12:03:00.023Z

Leo Appleton

2008-03-13T12:03:00.022Z

JISC Regional Support Centre Northern

2008-03-13T12:03:00.021Z

Toni Thompson

2008-03-13T12:03:00.020Z

Chris kemp

2008-03-13T12:03:00.019Z

Claire Gardener

2008-03-13T12:03:00.016Z

Perin

2008-03-13T12:03:00.014Z

Bedfordshire ACL

2008-03-13T12:03:00.008Z

About This Project

2008-02-06T07:05:00.003Z

We are going to create a media map featuring participants in this workshop.

The instructions in this blog assume that you are familiar with some simple ICT concepts such as browsing multiple web pages, copying and pasting, pointing and clicking etc. If you are in the workshop on the day I will be giving assistance. If you chance upon this blog later and are unsure of anything then email me at s.d.thompson@tees.ac.uk

The concept I'm going to employ is something I've done many times in my work on Teesside but in this instance I am going to use nothing but freely available (web 2.00) applications so that participants will most certainly be able to "try this at home".

For reference here are some of the "Media Maps" from Teesside. Margrove Park have details of the 1891 Census right on the houses where those folk lived. Click on Peter Smith's house (to the right near the trees) to hear a fascinating story of Peters take on the speed of technological change. If you traveled East beyond those trees you would come to the beautiful town of Whitby where we will be creating more "Magical Media Mystery Tours". Meanwhile you may want to take a look at FORCEM to explore the worlds first digital Cemetery Early days yet but Skinningrove are building a heritage trail both in the real world and the virtual world as are Brotton and Marske. You can download a document (pdf) about all this here.

To save time in the workshop I have preprepared a "media map mashup" and set up some of the stuff. If you want to try this at home with your own learning community here is the background info you need. There will be many variations on this theme. As a result of this workshop you will have a password to write to this blog so please feel free to add your own experiences and ideas to this blog and by all means link back to your own Magical Media Map. If you do set up your own Media Map Mashup it would be nice if you link back to Teesside.

Getting Started

2008-02-06T07:04:00.006Z

To do this we need a webcam (mine cost £30) a computer and an Internet connection.

Here are the web app ingredients:

www.Blogger.com
www.YouTube.com
www.CommunityWalk.com

actually where we really need to go for this exercise is www.communitywalk.com/mmmt

Because we will be copying and pasting between all these I recommend that you have all three open in a tabbed web browser like www.Firefox.com To open a new tab press "CONTROL" and tap "T". Open 3 tabs - one with Blogger, the second with YouTube and the third with Community Walk.

Since you are already on Blogger (how else would you be reading this?) the quickest way to achieve this is to right click on YouTube above and select "open link in new tab" and then right click on Community Walk and select "open link in new tab".

Creating a Live YouTube Video

2008-02-06T07:04:00.005Z

Because it will need to "simmer" for a while firstly we are going to create a YouTube video. (it will take a while for the video to be available so hopefully it will be ready by the end of the workshop) The reason we're using a webcam and YouTube combo is because a webcam can also be a great microphone and YouTube a repository for your media which can be embedded in your other stuff. If you put a book or something in front of the webcam you are effectively recording audio only and YouTube becomes your audio repository.

Step 3 tells you how to make a video on you computer and then upload it to YouTube later

Logon to your YouTube Account
Click on "upload"
Fill in Title, a brief description and a Tag (tag could be just your name)
This is where you could select upload and browse for a video file on your hard drive
Instead we're going to use "quick capture"
Click on "quick capture"
You will now be asked to allow flash to access your camera. Allow this.
If you wish to make an audio only recording place something (not too heavy) in front of the camera, otherwise position yourself in the screen that appears.
Click on "record" and when the "red light" appears make your recording and click "finish" when complete.

Add Your Marker to the Map

2008-02-06T07:03:00.011Z

Click on the tab in your browser that is set to www.communitywalk.com or open a new tab (CONTROL + T in Firefox) and go to the Community Walk site. Actually we want to go to a specific map and the address is www.communitywalk.com/mmmt
If you are not logged on click "login to add to this map" (top left) and enter the username and password you were given.
If not selected, select the "Build This Map" tab.
What we want to do now is add a marker. There are a number of ways to do this. Don't worry if your first attempt is inaccurate as you can always move a marker.

The first way is to find your location and then add the marker. To do this you will have to zoom in and scroll the map around until you find the spot you want. It may help to toggle between Map, Satellite and Hybrid views (links at the top right). When you have found your spot click on "add marker" link at the top and a dialogue box opens up.
The next way is to search for the location: Click on "add marker" and in the search box type the post code you want to place a marker on. Click on the link presented and it will open a dialogue box on the map at that location.

Type your name into the "title" box and click on save.
You will see that there is now a "move" button. Click on it if your position was not accurate and follow the prompts.
It will help with teh later part of this exercise if you typed into the main page of your map marker something like "click on myname to see me" Click on "Edit" in your map location box and you can now type in this text. Click SAVE.

Embed Your Movie in the Blog

2008-02-06T07:03:00.009Z

You need to have at least two browser tabs open at this point - on on YouTube and the other on Blogger. Since yo the Blogger you are reading this you must be on Blogger so what you need to do now is to log on to your Blogger.

In the top right-hand side of the Blog you will see a link "Sign In". Click on it and enter the details you were given.
Once signed in click on “Dashboard” at the top of the page
You should now see the “Magical Media Mystery Tour” blog edit page.
You will see an item “Edit Profile”. If there is time later we can come back and enter some details but for now Click on “New Post”
You will now see the new blog post box with a space for the title and a bigger box for your blog post. For now simply enter the title which for this workshop is your name. ( N.B. it is VERY important that you enter something in the title box of the blog post}
Do not save or publish the post at this time as we will be coming back to this page after a visit to YouTube.
Now go to your YouTube account.
Sometimes YouTube can be a bit confusing to navigate when you are simply looking for your own videos rather than trawling for uploaded movies. Along the top it will say "Hi username". Click on the link that is your username and you should then see your uploaded videos.
Hopefully by now your video has been ????. Click on the thumbnail of your movie and it should start to play.
To the right of your movie you should see the word "embed" and some code below it.
Click on the code and it should become highlighted (selected) - if not select it manually by dragging around it.
Copy the code into your clipboard (CONTROL + C)
Now go to your blog posting and paste the code in (CONTROL + V)
Finally click on PUBLISH POST which appears beneath the posting box.

Record Video To Your Computer and Upload Later

2008-02-06T07:03:00.006Z

Sometimes recording live video into YouTube doesn't work of you may simply want to record your video, perhaps try a few takes of even edit it a little bit. There are many ways to do this here is what is probably the simplest.

Go to >> start >> All Programs >> and open up windows movie maker
Go to the file menu >> capture video
In the box that opens select your webcam to be the video capture and audio capture device
Click on next
Choose a title for your video and select where it will be saved to (be sure you know where to find it)
The next window allows you to choose video quality. Between the two radio buttons select "other settings" and not "best quality for playback on my computer"
After "Other Settings" you will see a drop down box, click on it and select "Video for Broadband 512 kbps". This is a good balance between quality and file size (remember you are going to upload it) but you could experiment with other settings.
Click next and position yourself to be in camera shot.
Click on "start capture" and after a brief pause begin speaking.
When you are finished click on "stop capture" and then "finish".
You can check the video back and record another if you are not happy. If you have used widows movie maker you'll know how easy it is to edit your video but that's another project.
The video can be found in the location you chose to save it.

Now it's time to upload your video which is a very similar process to step 2 (recording live YouTube video)

Logon to your YouTube Account
Click on "upload"
Fill in Title, a brief description and a Tag (tag could be just your name)
Select upload a video and browse for a video file on your hard drive
The upload will take a little while so please be patient

Upload Your Image to the Map

2008-02-06T07:03:00.003Z

Lets now add an image to your marker. Click on the "add photo" button and follow the prompts to browse for an image on your computer and upload it. You could add multiple images or even draw them in from a Flickr account if you have one.
Click on save when you have your marker as you'd like it.

Linking the Map to the Media

2008-02-06T07:02:00.003Z

Now go to the Magical Media Mystery Tour blog and look for the posting with your video in it (you may need to refresh your browser)
Click on the title of your blog posting.
You will see that the URL in the address bar of your browser has changed. This is called a permalink and is a direct link to your blog posting.
Select/highlight the address (URL) by dragging over it with your mouse.
Copy the address (URL) into your clipboard (CONTROL + C)
Now go you the Community Walk Map
Your map location should be open for editing - if not click on the bubble.
Click on "Edit" in your map location box.
Click on the "details" tab.
Paste (CONTROL + V) the address (URL) of your blog posting into the box entitled "website".
Click on save.
The result will be that your name in the map marker will be a hyperlink to your media in the blog. It would help if you typed into the main page of your map marker something like "click on my name to see me". If you did not do this you can click "edit" again and add some text.

How To Do This Stuff at Home

2008-02-01T15:50:00.003Z

Here are details of the preparations I made before the workshop to create the "Media Map Mashup"

Well not yet actually. Being Lastminute Thompson I'm just now doing the session notes. I'll probably get these notes done after the event so just return to http://magimed.blogspot.com/ to check from time to time. If it doesn't happen you can threaten/cajole/offer bribes at s.d.thompson@tees.ac.uk.

Well I think I'll blog this as I do it. Will give me a break from the tedium of creating 75+ accounts.

This is one of the greatest hassles of doing this stuff. You need to create multiple accounts for the learners. In some instances it may be possible to have all learners create their own but you run the risk of them not being properly hooked to your project. You could create accounts at the start of a course or session but you have to be certain that learners have online access to their email accounts for email verification which all of the web 2.00 providers require. I have a sneaky workaround for this but it is so sneaky I'm not sure how to put it into words, I'll come back to that later.

Last night I created 26 YouTube accounts for this project. Why 26? - well I need 24 accounts for this session and I already lost number 12 YouTube account (something went wrong) This morning I'm making blogger accounts and I've blown number 13. This happens because of the tedious repetitiveness of the process. If someone has a better way I'd be pleased to hear it.

I forgot to blog about the YouTube accounts so I'll come back to that.

Here goes with the Blogger accounts.

I've not yet written about how to set up a blog but it's dead simple. I'll get into that later, for now lets assume you have a blog up and running.

You need to be logged on to your blogger account
Go to >>> settings >>> permissions
Click on Add Authors
Enter all the email addresses of the people you wish to invite separated by a comma.
The invitees have to accept this invitation and create an account. If it's you creating an account you have to be able to access all these email addresses and go through the process.
As the user (or you) clicks on the accept invitation link they are asked to set up an account. Once set up they (you) can accept the invitation and the blog that all these learners will share will show up in their (your) dashboard

Ok two hours later and I have 26 (-1) verified blogger accounts.

Thankfully creating Community Walk accounts is so much easier. You still need access to email verification

Go to www.communitywalk.com
Click on login
click on "signup"
Enter email address, username, and password.
A verification email will be sent to the email you specified
What I do now is hit the back button
The details you just entered are still there
Increment the account number eg email1@blah.com becomes email2@blah.com and username blah1 becomes blah2 etc - of course you have to have access to email1@blah.com to verify it.

Steve Thompson

2008-01-30T09:46:00.000Z