ADVANCED WEB PAGE DESIGN

• Advanced HTML

 
• If you are a true glutton for punishment and persist in writing your own HTML code, you will certainly want to take a look at the wonderful list of tutorials prepared by George Mitrevski (Auburn University) at his Knowledge Design website.  At the advanced level his tutorials include Embedding Audio in Web Pages, Form Mail Exercises, and Audio-based Web Exercises.

• Images

• You have probably already included images on your website.  But would you like to know more about image scanning, image formats, or image manipulation?  You're probably ready now to get spritzy with your pictures, adding text, cropping, touching up, etc.  The tutorials linked above should help.

 
• Some new software to help you with your images is PaintShop Pro.  This is NOT freeware; it is shareware.  However, it is much less expensive than its commercial counterpart, Adobe Photoshop.  With PaintShop Pro you will quickly become expert at cropping, rotating, adding text, creating banners, doing screen captures, etc.  Sheryl Coleman has prepared a set of basic tutorials that will get you up to speed in no time.

 
• Ready to try an image map?  You can do it the hard way with PaintShop Pro or you can do it the easy way with Map Edit.  Try it, you'll like it!  A demo and a tutorial can be found at the web site.

 
• Finally, if you've struggled with ways to get your slides and pictures from you last trip to France, Spain or Germany up on the web for your classes, you've probably used all the old saws:  you've made a web page loaded with images that take forever to download, put them into a PowerPoint presentation that quickly became too large to fit onto a diskette and transport from one machine/room to another, etc.  Why not wow your students with a professional slide presentation complete with background music and narration using Real Slideshow, a piece of freeware that no teacher should be without.  Extraordinarily easy to learn and use, Real Slideshow will quickly find its way into your bag of tricks.

 
• Sound

• You will certainly want to learn how to record and edit sound files for your language classes.  A good place to begin learning how to record sound is Bob Ponterio's tutorial on Digitizing Sound.  You will also want to acquire another piece of software called Cool Edit (freeware version can be downloaded from the web; if you register and pay a fee, you can have the full version).  Again, turn to Bob Ponterio's excellent advice for sound editing.

 
• To get your students into the sound scene, try using the SCOLA Insta-Classes. To quote SCOLA:  "The combined use of SCOLA programs, which you record according to the Insta-Class Schedule (now also available via Real Audio clips on the individual Insta-Class language pages), and instructional materials enhances language training through the use of current events. It is ideal as a textbook supplement. It is suitable for use by an individual or class to extend vocabulary, grammar, reading and comprehension skills.Insta-Class is prepared each week, ready to use, as a convenient addition to your current study program."  To listen to the RealAudio clips, you will need the RealAudio Player (G2 - which also comes with Real Jukebox) - free software you can download.  The transcripts of the audio files come in .pdf format, which means you will also need Acrobat Reader to open them.  I know of some instructors who create online study guides for this listening comprehension activity by using the Hot Potatoes Cloze exercise (see the Intermediate page).  They cut and paste text from the SCOLA Insta-Class transcripts into Hot Potatoes, then create the cloze gaps they want.  Neat!

 
• Video

• Most elementary, middle school and high school teachers I know do not have access to the high tech equipment required to do significant work with video capture, editing and processing for distribution over the internet.  At the post-secondary level, if you're lucky (as I am!), such equipment will be available to you, making the use of video not only possible but probable.  Without going into too much detail here, you will need:

 
• Video capture card installed on your computer with appropriate software
• Video editing software, such as Adobe Premier (expensive commercial package)
• RealProducer, a freeware program for compressing video files.  See Bob Ponterio's wonderful tutorial on "how to."  Note that in the tutorials he refers to "Real Encoder."  This program is now called "Real Producer G2."  In addition to the freeware version, two other versions of Real Producer are available at a fee:  Real Producer Plus ($149) and Real Producer Pro ($499).

 
• Just for a moment, let's assume that you do have access to what you need to produce digitized video.  Where do you start?  I suggest you begin with Claire Bradin Siskin's wonderful web site entitled QuickTime 101, a web page developed in conjunction with a QuickTime Workshop presented at Calico in 1999.  Claire has everything you ever wanted to know about QuickTime and more!  Her topics include:
• Resources
• Tools
• CALL Authoriing Tools with QuickTime
• Putting QuickTime on the Web
• EMBED tags for QuickTime on the Web
• Examples of QuickTime for Foreign Languages on the Web

 
• Okay, so you have neither the time nor the inclination to "do it yourself" when it comes to video.  Too time consuming, too labor intensive.  Agreed.  But why not use video sources already available on the Internet?  Combined with listening comprehension activities created with Hot Pototaoes, Matchmakers, or Funbrain (see previous pages), these video sources will unleash your creativity:

 
• News and current events.  There's nothing quite like a video broadcast for keeping up with current events.   As a starting point, take a look at this page of online media sources for live audio and video for English, French, German and Spanish.

 
• Broadcast.com has available 20-30 minute films delivered online covering all sorts of content (entertainment, history, art, culture, etc.) in many languages.  Check out the offerings for your language.  You must register to use this service, but it is free.  Once you're registered, click on "Education," then "Videos" then "Languages and Cultures" to get to the foreign films.

 
• The Internet Movie Database has many trailers available for recent films (fewer for older films).  It's worth taking a look to see what's available.

• Netmeeting is one of the best kept secrets on the Internet.  This piece of free software from Microsoft is a powerful collaboration tool that is simple and easy to learn.  Using Netmeeting, two or more students/instructors can send and receive video transmissions (assuming both have quickcams hooked up), talk online (using headsets with microphones), chat (by typing in messages to one another), share a whiteboard, share documents and collaborate on the same document (meaning two people can work on the same document at the same time).  Even if you only use a few of the functions, NetMeeting is well worth the few minutes it takes to download and install.

• For group collaboration on projects, you might also want to take a look at eGroups.com.  According to this site, "eGroups.com provides a gathering place on the Internet for your group to send and receive emails, schedule meetings, share files and photos, or have private group chats. Any kind of group - fan clubs, alumni groups, sports teams, families, or friends - can use eGroups.com."  The four main areas include Group Mail (for sending mail to the entire group, viewing threaded discussions, etc.), Group Calendar (which includes a polling feature for scheduling events), the Group Document Vault (for storing and sharing text and image files), and Group Chat and Talk (using the Talk feature is like using the internet telephone).

 

 

• Are you crazy?

 
• We've just about come to the end of our Teachers' Aides.  I promised you sites that would take the technical out of technology and now I'm talking about Javascript.  No, I have not lost my mind.  And no, I do not "do" JavaScript.  A long time ago, I drew a line in the sand beyond which I would not go.  I am not a computer programmer and do not want to become one.  I am a teacher.  So why am I even mentioning JavaScript?  To me, JavaScript smacks of programming and I don't want to go there.  Neither do you.  BUT,  the interactive potential of JavaScript exercises is just too good to pass up for a dedicated language teacher.  So, you have two choices:  either you can bite the bullet and actually learn JavaScript (not an option for me!) OR you can use JavaScript templates already created by someone else to take the pain and sting out of what I consider to be a very tedious exercise in futility!!

 
• Let's assume that you have indeed lost your mind and decided to learn JavaScript.  Netscape offers a JavaScript Guide that promises to send you into delerium.  Take a look at it, if you insist.  There are hundreds, if not thousands of JavaScript tutorials on the web.  I have not bothered to look at them.  You shouldn't either.

 
• JavaScript for Teachers, not Computer Programmers

 
• A good place to start is with the Cut & Paste JavaScript website.  You will find JavaScripts already written which will accomplish a good number of fancy tasks.  In particular, take a look at the JavaScripts for Teachers page which contains javascripts for multiple choice exercises, a coloring book, a configurable crossword puzzle, automatic bar graphing, and matching exercises.

 
• Sheryl Coleman has created three javascript templates for use by teachers.  They include a multiple choice exercise, a fill-in-the-blanks exercise and a mixed example.

 
• JavaScripting for the Rest of Us by Kathryn Murphy-Judy provides a combination of tutorials and sample scripts for doing some of the fancy-dancy web stuff commercial developers like to do, such as creating status bar messages, dialogue boxes, alert boxes, and fill-in forms.  Written by a language teacher for other teachers, these pages will allow you to dress up your web page without too much pain and agony

• The purpose of these pages has been to showcase web-deployable technologies that are easily accessible online to the average teacher.  I do not intend to venture very far into the realm of free-standing authoring environments, believing as I do that accessibility is the cornerstone of learning activities.  Nonetheless, if you wish to go beyond web-deployable technologies, you would do well to explore the following four:

 
• The X-Media Engine Classic templates by David Herren at the Center for Educational Technology in Middlebury, Vermont provide a rich environment "for creating hypermedia based  cloze and dictation lessons based on audio CDs, video disks,or QuickTime movies,  annotations of text, video, images and sound."  These templates may be downloaded from the Internet.  There is no charge.  There is, however, a kicker:  they are only available for the Mac.  The author has been promising a cross-platform version (for both PCs and Macs) for years, but it has yet to materialize.

 
• Hyperstudio is well-known to teachers for its relatively short learning curve and ease of use.  Often used by students themselves to create multimedia projects, Hyperstudio is hard to beat for simplicity.  Never tried it?  You can order a free demo disk from the publisher at the Hyperstudio web site.

 
• The two most well-known commercial software packages for multimedia authoring are Authorware and Director by Macromedia.  These two are truly not for the faint of heart.  Authorware is the easier of the two, but still has a fairly steep learning curve.  If you'd like to become an animator with the Disney Studios, you'll need to learn Director.  Both are expensive packages and certainly beyond the budgets of most individuals or school districts.


Teachers' Aides


This page was created by Pat Pecoy
for MFL 195
Last updated February 1, 2000