MEDIA
(Internet Accessibility)
Audio/Video
Any discussion of audio/video will pretty quickly arrive at
talking Mac/PC compatibility and favored software. Keep in
mind that the end result is presenting web pages that convey
the information appropriately and contribute to learning.
The Alaskool web site has been around long enough now that
it pre-dates DSL and cable modems. When we started adding
audio/video to Alaskool, modems were just updating from 28k
to 56k. Our running joke was we could take a perfectly good
video clip and make it unintelligible by the time it was compressed
to a size that would "fit" through the 28k "pipe." Luckily
things are quite a bit better now, however, web developers
often have fast Internet access so a reminder to consider
those who still don't may be appropriate.
RealPlayer: We were always impatient for quick access
to web page media (audio/video) so ended up formatting the
Alaskool site materials for RealPlayer. This program supports
streaming media and a free "player" can be downloaded at www.Real.com.
Below are some how-to's that might be helpful. The downside
of Real (www.Real.com) is that it is a cluttered and overwhelming
web site. Their "free" production software is often hard to
find on their web site.
Creating streaming video: For Alaskool we primarily
captured video from VHS tapes. (Refer to http://www.alaskool.org/resources/audiovisual/avindex.htm)
We could write a book on all the problems we encountered dealing
with video capture cards and software. New technology allowing
more capability has improved with digital video cameras, iMacs
and iMovie software, and better capture capabilities. With
a digital video camera iMac with iMovie or PC with Firewire
and video software, it is quite easy to import video to a
computer.
Analog
(VHS, 8mm) video can also be transferred to the digital video
camera fom an analog video camera with just the appropriate
RCA patch cords. From the digital videotape it can be transferred
to the iMac or PC using the Firewire connection. The saved
video file can be translated to streaming video using one
of the Real Producer content creation programs. If the streaming
video creation fails it may be because the video file is in
the wrong format or is too compressed.
Audio Content Creation
We have prepared audio clips enabling you to hear phrases
for the Iñupiaq Phrase Book and listen to the entire book
of Maniilaq online. The system we developed for producing
these resources was inexpensive and produced remarkably good
results.
Equipment Needed:
win98 computer
inexpensive microphone
audio recording software
a room with a door!
Indexing Scheme: We worked out a way to number and
"track" audio clips with a basic Excel spreadsheet along with
a print-out of the text. We used a simple numbering system
that could easily be related to the corresponding paragraphs
or phrases. From this indexing scheme, the original "wav"
files were linked to the related streaming video files and
to the appropriate parts of the web pages.
Cross-platform
Audio: Audio saved as ".au" can be opened, edited, etc.
on both Macs and PCs.
Interactivity (Database)
What I call Interactivity suggests different people "interacting"
with a web page in different ways. Both the Iñupiaq Phrase
Book and the Iñupiaq Dictionary are examples of this interactive
aspect of Alaskool.
Iñupiaq Phrase Book: (http://www.alaskool.org/language/inupiaqpb/ipbstart.htm)
This page is where you check to see if the the Iñupiaq font
is installed properly. Go to the appropriate link at the bottom
of the page to access the Iñupiaq Phrase Book. The url (http://www.alaskool.org/language/inupiaqpb/ipbindex.asp)
is the top level index to the Phrase Book. Clicking on any
category takes you to the detailed pages.
This Phrase Book is an example of a static set of web pages
formatted as static HTML if on a CD or from a database accessed
over the Internet. Both require the Iñupiaq font in order
to be viewed correctly and include streaming audio clips of
the Iñupiaq phrases.
The Iñupiaq Dictionary: (http://www.alaskool.org/language/dictionaries/inupiaq/dictionary.htm)
The Iñupiaq Dictionary can be queried (searched) based on
English words beginning characters of groups of Iñupiaq words.
We have not developed a program that would allow exact character
matching when searching for specific Iñupiaq words.
In the dictionary, images were scanned from the published
Iñupiaq dictionary and appear when a query is made. The Iñupiaq
dictionary information is stored in a Microsoft Access database
and accessed from web pages written in ASP (Microsoft's "active
server page" language). These programs, once written for one
Native language can be used with other languages. We are currently
working on transferring a Tlingit Noun dictionary to a similar
queriable web page format.
