ROP / SCHOOL-TO-CAREER PATHWAY
PRESENTS
Multimedia Computing
Course Syllabus and description
The goal of this course is
to provide students with entry-level knowledge and usage of multimedia
computing. These skills can be used in
the classroom or built upon later to secure employment.
|
WEEK |
LESSON |
|
ONE |
DRAWING AND PAINTING |
|
TWO |
CREATING WEBPAGES ONLINE |
|
THREE |
BUILD WEBPAGES USING SOFTWARE |
|
FOUR |
USING MS POWERPOINT |
|
FIVE |
ENHANCE/MANIPULATE DIGITAL PHOTOS |
|
SIX |
CREATING YOUR OWN MUSIC BEATS |
|
SEVEN |
EDITING DIGITAL MOVIES |
|
EIGHT |
COLLIMATING PROJECT #1 |
|
NINE |
COLLIMATING PROJECT #2 |
|
TEN |
BUILD ONLINE PORTFOLIO |
You are
expected to complete one lesson per week for 10 weeks. When you have
completed the lesson
email it and the
assignment will be graded and returned within 2-3 school days. Please
fill out your course
schedule and submit to
instructor.
BEFORE YOU
BEGIN
Before you
begin this course you need to send the instructor a specific introductory
email. This should only take 5 minutes, but don’t begin coursework before you
do.
USING HELP
Before you
begin ANY lesson you need to understand how to get help in ANY software
program. You do this by using the pull
down menu “Help” on the far right corner of ANY open software program.
Show me that you know how to use help:
Open up
Microsoft Word and pull down SEARCH WORD HELP (right pull down)
Type in the
words MAIL MERGE
What help
topics came up in the help box?
Just email me
two (2) of the topics that popped up so I know that you can go to help when you
need it. [email protected]
Week 1 – Drawing and Painting
One of the most important
elements in creating a custom multimedia presentation can be creating a custom
piece of artwork. How many times have
you scene this type of clip art!
All computers have some
type of drawing and painting program. In
a Macintosh computer a user can work in Appleworks OR Clarisworks. You can double click the icon and then select
Paint. If you select Draw you will have
less options. If you have a PC each unit
comes with MS Paint. This can be located
by going to START – ACCESSORIES – PAINT.
You may get lucky and have
a high end after market paint program on your computer. You can discover this by going to ANY
computer and doing s search under the keyword PAINT. Try it you have nothing to loose and you
could find a great mystery program with more tools.
Assignment – What is your favorite type of music? When you close your eyes what creative and ABSTRACT images come to your mind? Using an available paint program paint a picture of this image. Please make sure when you paint you ZOOM the view so you can add detail. Go to the help menu and type in ZOOM and some brief instruction will pop-up to guide you through this process. No clip-art please!
Week 2 – Creating Webpages Online
Perhaps one of the easiest
ways to create a webpage is to use one of the FREE online websites. This is not a good option for advanced
webpages, but if you are creating a simple page on a family vacation or perhaps
a new hobby these sites are perfect. You
can go to a search engine like GOOGLE or YAHOO! and type in FREE WEB
SPACE. You will get many hits including www.geocities.com and www.tripod.com.
Assignment – Go to a free website generator and create a webpage on your favorite type/genre of music. They will have a step by step tutorial to make it very easy. You will need to have a picture ready to upload and hyperlinks of your favorite music websites ready to paste into the online template. You may consider putting pictures and hyperlinks in MS Word BEFORE you go to the website. It is also helpful if you have a YAHOO! email account before you go to geocities.
Week 3 – Build Webpages Using Software
The best way to build a
website is to create one using a software program called an HTML Editor. Two popular HTML editors are Microsoft
FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. If
you do not have an HTML editor on your computer then you might want to use a
simple word processing program like Microsoft Word or Corel Word Perfect. An HTML editor works exactly like a word
processing program. The only real
difference is that it has a few more buttons and pull down menus than a word
processing program and you’re your documents and pictures will be saved so they can be uploaded on the
internet.
Don’t let the word WEBPAGE
scare you. All the internet is: billions
of flyers that can be searched and some of them have movement. Webpages are simply no more than that!
Open an HTML editor and begin
to explore. Write some text and make it
larger and smaller. Find some picture
and clipart and use “insert” feature to dress up a simple page. The most important thing you can do before
you begin……….explore all the buttons.
Assignment – Using a HTML editor create a webpage of your favorite band. Go to the bands actually website and see how they have created it. Search the internet for other fans websites. Please make sure you have six (6) hyperlinks and one (1) email link. Please make sure you also have two (2) pictures. Upload your website to your free online storage and email the instructor the link.
Week 4 – Using MS PowerPoint
Using MS PowerPoint
PowerPoint creates
slide shows for your computer. Slideshow presentations are used in
business, primarily to educate people on products and services offered by
companies and individuals. In education teachers present lessons in
PowerPoint and students often summarize chapters in college as a way of
conveying understanding. Using PowerPoint will likely be a lifelong tool.
What's specifically is PowerPoint?
PowerPoint is
little mini flyers grouped together. Instead of calling them flyers each
piece of the presentation is called a slide. PowerPoint slides usually
have text and graphics (pics). Some advanced presentations will have
music and video.
Assignment
- Using concepts from your one of your webssites, create a MS PowerPoint
presentation for your band or music genre.
Please have a minimum of 8 slides include text and graphics,
Week 5 – Enhance/Manipulate Digital Photos
How many times have you
watched a spy movie where a CIA technician creates a fake ID card with
someone’s touched up photo in about 10 minutes.
Your about to find out that touching up a photo perfectly in ten minutes
is impossible. Many computers have a
free program on them to enhance photos for your personal use. Do a search on your computer PHOTO and you
will likely find a free Microsoft product or on a Macintosh…………iPhoto. Many PC’s have Abobe Photoshop.
Although 95% of the world
uses PC’s for their computing needs 5% use Macintosh. If you are planning on doing some video
editing or working with pictures most professional like Macintosh. If you have the ability to do this put a Mac
and a PC side by side then start moving the mouse. The Mac will likely feel smoother and this is
the prime reason to find a Mac to work with photos and any work that is HIGHLY
mouse sensitive. If you are going to
crunch numbers and write a letter a PC is great. Surfing the internet in a PC environment can
often prove better because many networks rely on PC’s and PC software to run.
As advised before get a
photograph to manipulate open it up in iPhoto and experiment. The first thing
you should do when you open up the photo in your program is do a SAVE AS to
preserve the photo “as is”. If you distort the photo beyond repair you can
always go back to the original, open it up , and start over. Your instructor is also going to want to look
at the original photo side by side to see how you changed it (hopefully for the
better).
Assignment – Email yourself a photo from home OR find a photo on the internet. Download the photo on your computer. Open it in iPhoto and do your “save as” BEFORE you begin work. Simply change all the major aspects of the photo and some of the minor aspects. Make sure as you make the changes that they are not distinguishable at first glance. Email upload and email both the original and touched up photo.
POINTERS
When you do something you
like quickly do a save. This way no matter
what you have altered the picture in away that is not easy to change or loose.
If you do something to
your photo that you want to redo select UNDO.
If you have a lot that needs change close the program. When it asks you if you want to save changes
say NO. Open the file back up and you
are back in business.
Week 6 – Creating Your Own Music Beats
Here is the unit that
finally came that can give you some pure creativity. Making custom music selections can really
dress up any PowerPoint presentation OR just something to expand your creative
outlets.
- Click the garage band icon
- The default instrument is the grand piano.
Double click on the piano to select an instrument
- Go to the pull down WINDOW select show
keyboard
- Play with the keyboard a little while and get
a feel for the instrument
- When you feel ready to play a few seconds hit
the record button and play a while.
- When you are finished hit the record button to
stop and the play button to stop the track
- Drag the extended play line back to the beginning
and listen to your creation
- To select another instrument go to track pull
down and select NEW TRACK
- Repeat this process with new instrument to
create music
Assignment – Create a 90 second music beat and email/upload to your instructor.
Week 7 – Editing Digital Movies
If you have created a
flyer before in MS Word then you can edit a video in a computer. That is all video editing is……….word
processing video images. You cut, you
paste, you drag you drop. Video images
come out of a camcorder and they are “captured” in the computer and saved as a
file. You open up your video editing
software and then open the video file you just captured. Many computer programs have sample videos
available for you to practice with.
These sample files we will use for the purpose of learning how to video
edit.
First things first. Open up iMovie or Microsoft’s Windows Movie
Maker. Open a sample video and experiment with it. You will likely need to go through the
tutorials or if you are taking this course in the classroom get a live 5 minute
demo. If you do not have a sample video
in your computer email your instructor and one will be emailed to you or made
available for download.
Assignment – Using the CD provided to you edit the Park West 2005 graduation. If you are taking the class online you may email the instructor and ask for the file. Please provide LIGHT background music, titles, and transitions from scene to scene. Email/upload a 2 minute version of the video to the instructor.
Week 8 – Collimating Project #1
Assignment – Using your own creative outlet repeat ANY lesson from Week 1 – Week 7. The idea of week 8 is for you to move beyond the end point of your last assignment and add more personal creativity. You can also add to prior works, but check with your instructor if you decide on this option.
Week 9 - Collimating Project #2
Assignment – Using at
least three (3) of the above media combine them into one (1) lesson that makes
sense and is entertaining.
Some possible options
include using your painting and drawing assignment within a webpage and include
a beat you mixed yourself as music for that same page. Another option would be using prior created
media in a PowerPoint presentation.
Week 10 – Online Portfolio
Assignment - Create a
web page with one (1) graphic and nine (9) links showing your work from this
class (weeks 1-9). Briefly describe
the lesson and what you learned. All
work should be viewable online, not downloadable. Include links from
other students work and at least one email link. Use Geocities to upload
you files.