New Media Center
at the University of Mary Washington
The “Simple” Act of Resizing Images
Recently, a faculty member asked me a question that initially didn’t appear to be difficult to answer. “How do you resize an image?” When I’m working on multimedia projects, I do it many times over, or at least I did. Actually now, it is greatly automated for me and very complicated to tell someone how to resize their image because it contains the generally unsatisfactory answer – it depends. Let me start by answering when and why you would want to resize a digital image. The most common use of digital images is to post them to a web page for others to see. The most common images that we have to share are digital images from our cameras. We see images on web pages all the time and often they are images that came from a digital camera.... (more...)
Macs and PCs can play nice
New Media can mean working with huge files. Moving them from one computer to another has gotten easier with large capacity USB powered hard drives ( I like the Western Digital Passport drives). However, trying to move files from a PC to a Mac, or vice-versa can cause some issues. One of the problems is that the file systems are different. Computers need to keep track of not only an awful lot of documents, but other operating system files as well. The way that PCs keep track of files is with file systems known as either FAT32 or NTFS. Macs use a system called HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended). FAT32 is the older of the two file systems for the PC and Macs readily recognize (can read and write files to) drives that are formatted using FAT32.... (more...)
Podcasting – Busting the myths
Myth #1 – You need an iPod to podcast In theory you don’t really need to even own an MP3 player, let alone an iPod. Podcasting gets it’s name from the iPod (Start with the word Broadcasting, take out Broad and substitute Pod). It’s the idea that you are broadcasting to an iPod, but you are actually broadcasting to any MP3 player or even just a person’s computer through the web. It is also not LIVE broadcasting, it’s more like a magazine subscription. Myth #2 – You need an iPod to listen to podcasts As we said in Myth #1, you can listen to podcasts on any MP3 player, UNLESS, the podcast is ONLY available in AAC format from iTunes. Even then there are some portable players that support some AAC files (Microsoft’s... (more...)
What to look for in a camcorder
Shopping for a camcorder has never been an easy experience, but there has been constant improvement in the quality of video that can be obtained. Before you buy a camera, know what your final destination for your video is. Is it YouTube? Then you won’t need the highest quality camera because this is low resolution video. However, having said that, YouTube does offer HD quality video on their site, so high resolution video is now an option. Will you be making a DVD? Then you’ll want to get a high quality camera. Will you just re-watch it on your TV? Make sure you’ve got the right cables to make the connection. If you’ve got an HDTV, you might want to consider and HD camera. If you’re ready to shop you can start... (more...)
Jing Thing
Now Jing might sound like the name of a Chinese dynasty but, it is actually a free piece of software that allows you to do screen captures, create screencasts, and share it all easily. So lets break Jing down. As a screen capturing software it is great. As some of you Windows users probably have experienced, taking screenshots is a pain in the behind. Jing allows you to capture a window, pane, or region so you get just what you need. Jing also has a simple markup feature so you can add a text box, arrow, rectangle, or highlight what you want. After you have your screenshot you have several options... (more...)
Recording DVD Segments on a Mac
In the “how long were you going to have that feature and not tell me” category comes the ability to record in the Mac version of VLC. What it allows you to do is record segments from a DVD. You see, in the Windows version of VLC (since version 1.0 came on the scene), you have been able to record a DVD that is playing. The Windows version has a record button in the program (you need to select View>Advanced Controls to make it available). Once you do that you can hit the button to start recording, then hit it again to stop. For almost a year now, and even during my recent NMC presentation,... (more...)
A Real Podcatcher for the iPhone
Sometimes Apple leaves features out of products for inexplicable reasons . We’re on version 3.0 of the iPhone software and their iTunes application does not allow you to subscribe to a podcast using the standard itpc:// protocol, nor can you add a feed manually, like you can with the desktop version of iTunes. The screenshot from the iPhone above shows you what happens when you click on an iTunes subscribe link in the web browser. An alternative program with the above features that you can use for the iPhone is called RSS Player. I mentioned this app in my post about AudioBoo, and it will... (more...)
About us
Welcome to the University of Mary Washington New Media Center. The UMWNMC is a sub-division of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies (DTLT), and as part of its mission, provides research, oversees development, and offers production assistance and consultation for new media approaches to supporting technology-enhanced and online learning at UMW. You can also follow us on Twitter @umwnewmedia .
The University of Mary Washington is a member of the New Media Consortium, which we joined in 2007. The NMC provides programs and services that foster the exploration of new media and new technologies. The NMC provides an annual Horizon Project that reports on the emerging technologies in education.