Posting Large Rich Media Files

After finishing up a project that involved a PowerPoint presentation equipped with still images, transitions and sound, I had a problem with transfering the information to a different group member for their editing.  Although I didn’t believe that the file was very large, it was too large to send over any of my three email accounts, or to post on our course shell.  I tried to zip the file and post it again, but it was still too large.  I lastly resorted to finding some free software to compress the file.  I found software called Pando which seemed to work well, however, whoever was opening the file also needed the software.  Phew – what a hassle!  I noted that other groups in my class approached the problem of file size different ways.  We eventually posted our file to our blogs, but I saw that I was dangerously close to the limit on the blog’s free storage space. 

 I just finished watching a fellow class group’s presentation on “rich media”.  The presentation was very good – in fact, it taught me what rich media is, but I realized that if the trend is to provide rich media resources in our classrooms, we will need faster computers with more storage space and faster internet connections.  I know this is a trend that improves each day, but I find it interesting that these are the very issues that present themselves as the limiting factors into providing more rich media resources.

Trends Analysis Project

Please see the attached Trends Analysis Project on multisensory learning:

multisensory-learning-pp1.ppt

Virtual Losses

I just read an article in the local paper called “Reality Bytes” that discusses the losses people have suffered through the death or disappearance of a avatar in a virtual reality environment.  The article talks about what happens when “virtual reality collides with physical reality”. 

People who spend a great deal of time in the realm of virtual reality and invest emotional ties have become physically tied to the reality (or non-reality) of their virtual reality existence.  When there is a death (whether real or not), the article discusses the need for those involved to go through the normal greiving process – only this process is unclear and uncharted in the virtual reality existence.   The article talks about how a group of friends of an avatar named Monique (who died) have set up a virtual memorial fund by auctioning off articles of clothing and accessories for the avatars so that they have virtual funding to provide to virtual members who have done nice things. 

The article talks about how “Relationships are evolving, expanding.  They’re different today.”   I think that is an understatement.  I’m curious where this will lead in the future.