MEDIA SKILLS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

A presentation program is a computer software package used to display information, normally in the form of a slide show. It typically includes three major functions: an editor that allows text to be inserted and formatted, a method for inserting and manipulating graphic images and a slide-show system to display the content.

Presentation software is a tool used to create visual presentations. These presentations are usually delivered in a slide show format, and can be created with a variety of programs. The programs make it possible to combine text and graphic elements to convey important information to a group of people all at once. Common uses for presentation software include teaching a new or complex concept to a group of students, announcing the launch a new product or service campaign to employees, training employees on key concepts or new policies, etc.

Microsoft PowerPoint is the name of a   presentation program developed by Microsoft. It was officially launched  as a part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system.

PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of individual pages or "slides". Slides may contain text, graphics, sound, movies, and other objects, which may be arranged freely. The presentation can be printed, displayed live on a computer, or navigated through at the command of the presenter.  

PowerPoint provides three types of movements:

1.   Entrance, emphasis, and exit of elements on a slide itself are controlled by what PowerPoint calls Custom Animations.

2.   Transitions, on the other hand, are movements between slides. These can be animated in a variety of ways.

3.   Custom animation can be used to create small story boards by animating pictures to enter, exit or move.

Features of PowerPoint Presentation:

One of the features provides the ability to create a presentation that includes music which plays throughout the entire presentation or sound effects for particular slides.

 In addition to the ability to add sound files, the presentation can be designed to run, like a movie, on its own.  

PowerPoint allows the user to record the slide show with narration and a laser pointer. You may customize slide shows to show the slides in different order than originally design and to have slides appear multiple times. 

The programs make it possible to combine text and graphic elements to convey important information to a group of people all at once.

Common uses for presentation software include teaching a new or complex concept to a group of students, announcing the launch a new product or service campaign to employees, training employees on key concepts or new policies, or presenting a proposal to a group.

The advantages of using a PowerPoint presentation:

A Power Point presentation could get and enhance the attention and interest of the intended audience.

Power Point could be used as an effective tool for illustrating images and visuals that are difficult to draw with the use of traditional drawing tools.

Learning to use a Power Point presentation does not necessarily involve a formal lesson because an individual could easily learn and teach himself in using Power Point because its tools are user-friendly and easy to follow with the various tips and sample templates offered by the program.

The disadvantages of using a Power Point presentation:

A Power Point presentation that uses too many animations, graphics, background images and other dynamic visuals could distract the audience from the actual message and other information being conveyed to them.

Power Point is not suitable in using for some types of presentations such as commencement speeches, poetry recitations, and technical reports that require detailed processes or procedures.

A PowerPoint requires a set of system requirements. A presentation for a medium to large size audience would need an interrupted source of electricity during the presentation, a computer system that is free from technical problems and software breakdowns, a projector, speaker system, and other system requirements for carrying a successful presentation.

Apache Open Office Impress, a part of the Apache Open Office suit developed by Sun Microsystems, is an  open source presentation programme   compatible and similar to Microsoft PowerPoint. Impress is the presentation feature in Open Office analogous to Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Apple Keynote. The special feature of impress is that, it  can export presentations to Adobe Flash  (SWF) files, allowing them to be played on any computer with a Flash player installed. It also includes the ability to create PDF files, and the ability to read Microsoft PowerPoint's .ppt format. The term computer graphics includes almost everything on computers that is not text or sound. 

Graphics are the visual presentation of art or symbols or any other image on some surface that is created in order to entertain, inform or illustrate an object. Impress is the presentation feature in Open Office analogous to Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Apple Keynote. The special feature of impress is that, it  can export presentations to Adobe Flash  (SWF) files, allowing them to be played on any computer with a Flash player installed. It also includes the ability to create PDF files, and the ability to read Microsoft PowerPoint's .ppt format.

GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program - is a comprehensive  image retouching and editing tool, which  is  a free and open source software. It is a high quality graphics editor used to process digital graphics and photographs. GIMP can also be used to create basic animated images in GIF format. It is often used as a free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop. Animated images such as GIF and MPEG files can be created using an animation plugin. GIMP has tool for creating graphics and logos, resizing and cropping photos, altering colours, combining multiple images, removing unwanted image features, and converting between different image formats.

Audacity is the name of a popular open source  multilingual audio editor and recorder software that is used to record and edit sounds. It is free and works on Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. Audacity can be used to perform a number of audio editing and recording tasks such as making ringtones, mixing stereo tracks, transferring tapes and records to computer or CD, splitting recordings into separate tracks and more.

Uses of  Audacity to:

•         Record live audio.          Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.

•         Edit  MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.       Cut, copy, mix sounds together.

•         Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

Kdenlive - K Desktop Environment  Non-Linear Video Editor -  is an open source video editing software package for GNU/Linux and FreeBSD which focuses on flexibility and ease of use.  Kdenlive is an intuitive and powerful multi-track video editor, including most recent video technologies. Kdenlive supports all of the video formats  such as QuickTime, AVI, WMV, MPEG, Flash Video, etc. The project was initially started by Jason Wood in 2002, and is now maintained by a small team of developers.

Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) is an Inter-University Centre created by the UGC with the responsibility of utilizing electronic media in education. CEC coordinates the management and production of programmes in the 17 Media Centers set up by the UGC in various Universities of India.

It has been established with the goal of addressing the needs of Higher Education through the use of powerful medium of Television along with the appropriate use of emerging Information Communication Technology (ICT). These programmes are telecast through Vyas-24 hour higher education channel and can be received on DTH Platform of DD Plus.

CEC is a nodal body of UGC for implementation of E-content development Scheme on Higher Education. Realizing the potential and power of television to act as means of Educational Knowledge dissemination, UGC started the Countrywide Classroom Programmes in the year 1984.For production of such programmes Media Centers were set up at 6 Universities. Subsequently CEC emerged in 1993 as a nodal agency to coordinate, guide & facilitate such Educational production at the National level.

Objectives of CEC

It coordinates, facilitates and directs the activities of Media centers

It disseminate educational programmes through broadcast and non-broadcast modes.

Production of educational programmes and support materials

Studying, promoting and experimenting with new technology to increases the effectiveness of educational communication.

Providing an academic forum for the creation of educational programmes

ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL SATELITESIN FORMAL AND NON FORMAL EDUCATION

Arthur Clarke, in 1945, introduced the idea of satellite communication. A communications satellite  is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications. With the advent of communication satellites the educational scenario became broader and broader in our country. These satellites became a current interest to educational technologists and planners.

The major communication satellites developed in India in the field of education are SITE, INSAT and EDUSAT.

SITE (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment)

The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was the first Indian Educational satellite launched by Indira Gandhi, the former prime minister in  1^st August, 1975. It was conducted  using American Application Technology Satellite (ATS-6).

This is the largest sociological experiment conducted anywhere in the world. Program related to health, hygiene and family planning were telecasted directly to about 2400 Indian villages over six states namely Andra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan.

The educational programmes of SITE have been designed to suit the needs of children of pre-primary and primary groups.  The SITE programs were telecasted each day for one and half hours in the morning and two and half hours in the evening. The morning programmes were designed to suit the needs of children in the age group of 5 to 12 years. The duration of the morning program was 22½ minutes for each cluster. The evening programmes were of 30 minutes which provides general development programmes on agriculture, health and family planning and entertainment including ten minutes live national news.

          The SITE can also be used in different areas including in-service teacher training course, health and family planning, agriculture, adult-education, non-formal education, distant education and other instructional and educational programmes.

EDUSAT

Education Satellite – EDUSAT -  is the first full fledged Indian satellite built exclusively for serving educational sector. Its first operational flight took place on 20^th September, 2004. from Satish Dhavan Space Centre, Sriharikkottah.   It is mainly intended to meet the demand for an interactive satellite based distance education system for the country. It is a collaborative project of the MHRD, IGNOU and the ISRO. The projected life of the EDUSAT is 7 to 10 years.

The main purpose of EDUSAT is to provide education to all people primarily children from remote areas of the country who cannot go schools or colleges. The classes would be conducted by various State Education Boards, NCERT, CBSE, universities, etc. in a studio environment using power point presentations as well as the common black board.  There cloud be  interactive as well as non-interactive sessions offered.

The classes would be beamed to pre-destined areas using the EDUSAT similar to regional TV programmes on ‘Dooradarshan’. It will be in the form TV programmes. Students attending the classes will be able to ask questions to the teachers conducting classes through SMS, e-mail or other mode of communication. To enable this facility, schools or colleges should have an interactive receiving terminal which is currently being supplied free by ISRO to selected schools/colleges.

EDUSAT can cover whole geographical area of India with its five spot beams. The spot beams used in the EDUSAT are more powerful than that of the INSAT. Therefore, its signals can be received with a smaller satellite dish.

EDUSAT is specially configured for an audio-visual medium, employing a digital interactive classroom and multi-media multi-centric system. It is primarily meant for providing connectivity to school, college and higher levels of education and also to support non-formal education.

Advantages of using EDUSAT in education

1.It is a satellite fully dedicated to cause of education.

2. It covers all geographical area inside the country.

3. It can provide interactive and cost effective education.

4. It can provide consistency to information.

5. It can provide audio-visual medium and interactive multi-media facility.

6. It is useful to implement virtual classrooms in remote and rural schools.

7. It can provide lecture sessions from the best and expert teachers.

8. It can facilitate provision of  equality in educational opportunity.

9. It can open up many possibilities like on-line teaching, video conferencing, etc.

10. It can enhance distance education in the country, especially in higher education streams.

EDUSAT in Kerala

Using EDUSAT the govt. of Kerala started an experimental project named  as Virtual Classroom Technology on Edusat for Rural Schools.  Today the govt. of Kerala utilizing the services of EDUSAT for providing quality education to all, to the students and teachers from primary classes to the college level. This will be implemented with the help of IT @ School project and with the co-operation of ISRO.

This programme has three stages and wide technological arrangements were need to receive these programmes. The main beneficiaries of this scheme are the students from 1^st standard to 12^th standard. The teachers of primary, secondary and higher secondary schools as well as the public will also be benefited. The following programmes are distributed:

1. Training for Directorates, Institutions and teachers of various Public Educations Department. The Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI), the SCERT, S.S.A, Directorate of Higher Secondary Education come under this category.

2. Virtual Classrooms of Collegiate Education and Technical Education Directorates.

3. Entrance examination coaching and career counseling.

4. Contact classes conducted by the state open schools.

5. Awareness programmes organized by various govt. departments.

Educational Benefits of Satellite Television

Satellite Televisions offers a number of advantages including a wide variety of shows to watch and numerous music channels to enjoy. It can also provide numerous educational benefits as well.

With the commencement of Satellite Televisions, various educational programmes are increases in number and variety. There are numerous educational channels offered by Satellite Television, including National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery Kids Channel, Biography, the History channel and so much more. There are also numerous educational shows and documentaries offered by Satellite Televisions at any time for kids to enjoy as well to learn. Some programmes offer a variety of different types of projects which kinds can try for themselves.

Satellite Televisions programmes can open an entirely new world for children by providing them opportunities to learn about various cultures, civilizations, etc. through out the world through various educational programmes.  ‘Sancharam’, ‘Flavours  of India’, ‘Yathra’, ‘A walk with Subaida’, etc. are examples.

Many educational programmes are now started to assist children and teens to cope with socially difficult topics which kids are facing in greater intensity today. Bullying, bereavement, drug and alcohol abuse are few examples which have been covered by educational television programmes.

The Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMMRC) at the University of Calicut is the only one of its kind to be set up in Kerala by the University Grants Commission (UGC).  Operational since 1998, the Centre is dedicated to harness emerging information and communication technologies for furthering the cause of higher education.  Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) is the apex body that coordinates the activities of EMMRCs. Presently, the EMMRC, Calicut is engaged in the development of e- content (multimedia) for undergraduate programme in certain disciplines.

ViCTERS - Virtual Class Technology on Edusat for Rural Schools - was introduced in the Kerala education sector in India. It is Asia's first full satellite based education channel; which provides a synchronized learning environment in the rural parts of the state with high quality educational content.  IT@School is the nodal agency for implementing ViCTERS  under the EDUSAT network. Now a day it offers  17 hours of broadcasting from 6am to 11pm. It also provides high speed internet connectivity  and teacher training programme for better learning environment.  

ViCTERS offers interactive virtual classrooms that enable the school students as well as the teachers to directly communicate with the subject experts and educationists. It also ensures the dissemination of high quality education to the students and teachers from the original source.

Gyan Darshan is a bouquet of satellite-based educational TV channel which was started on 26th January, 2000.  It carries not only the educational video programmes of IGNOU, but also those of other major educational organizations like the UGC, CIET-NCERT, NIOS, IITs, TTTIs and also developmental and cultural programmes intended for the public at large.  Gyan Darshan offers interesting and informative programmes for different categories of users such as pre-school kids, primary and secondary school children, college/university students, youth seeking career opportunities, housewives and adults. The programmes are contributed by major educational institutions including IGNOU, UGC, NCERT, CIET, Directorate of Adult Education, IITs,  and other educational developmental organisations.

Gyan Darshan 1

A satellite based TV channel devoted to educational and developmental needs of the society. This is the main Gyan Darshan channel. The programmes are contributed by major educational institutions and development organisations such as IGNOU, UGC/CEC, NCERT/CIET, Directorate of Adult Education, IIT and TTTIs.

Gyan Darshan II:

An exclusive educational satellite to provide interactive education. It is a one-way video and two-way audio satellite-based interactive systems. Viewers can directly access the experts in the studio during an ongoing programme, express their views and have their doubts about various issues clarified as the programme goes on live.  It offers distance education through Virtual Class Room mode and provides access to digital repository of educational content hosted at IGNOU. The signals can be received across the country.

Gyan Darshan  III:

It is also known as Eklavya Technology Channel dedicated  to provide technical education pertaining  to engineering programmes.  The programmes are prepared by various IITs.  Eklavya brings quality education to students pursuing engineering education.

Gyan Darshan  IV

It is also known as Vyas  which brings curriculum based          educational programmes to the students pursuing higher education. The programmes are sourced            from the CEC-UGC.

ANIMATION AND GRAPHICS

Animation is a specific type of graphics. It is a presentation consisting of a sequence of 2D or 3D images one after another to produce an optical illusion of acion.

When motion is infused into graphics, it become animation and when sound is added to animation, it become multimedia.

Graphics is the visual presentation of art or symbols or any other image on some surface that is created in order to entertain, inform or illustrate an object. 

Graphics	Animation
Graphics are the drawing of images or illustrations.	Animation is a specific type of graphics.
Graphics are imprinting images on some surface.	Animation is creating the effect of rapid movement of images.
Graphics  are  the visual presentation of drawings or images on a surface.	Animation is the sequential presentation of images  to produce motion.
Graphics are just  visuals and are static and stills.	Animation is an optical illusion of graphic images.
Graphics has no text and sound	Animation may have text and sound

SIET AND SITE

SIET is the State Institute of Educational Technology is responsible for the planning, research, production and evaluation of educational softwares like video, audio programmes and computer multimedia. It also aims to implement schemes to generate teaching technologies and learning process in the modern context.

SIET Kerala is the 7^th SIET's in the country. The Institute was established on the 8th of September 1999.  The institute is responsible for the planning, research, production and evaluation of educational software like video, audio programs and computer multimedia. 

Objectives  SIET Kerala:

The main objectives of the State Institute of Education Technology Kerala are to focus on the development of educational  tools such as:

Educational Radio,        Educational Television, Computer Assisted Instruction / Computer Managed Instruction, Audio/Video Cassettes, Satellite Communication, Multimedia,  Local Area Network (LAN), Internet, etc.

Refer notes on “Role of communication satellites..” for Satellite Instructional Television Experiment

COMPUTER - HEALTH HAZZARDS

Some of the most common problems related to computer use are:

1. Carpal tunnel syndrome: A painful condition of the hand and fingers caused by compression of a major nerve where it passes over the carpal bones through a passage of time at the front of the wrist.  It may be caused by repetitive movements over a long period, or by fluid retention, and is characterized by sensations of tingling, numbness, or burning.

2. Repetitive strain injury: Repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) are "injuries of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems that may be caused by repetitive tasks, forceful exertions, vibrations, mechanical compression (pressing against hard surfaces), or sustained or awkward positions".

3. Computer Eye strain: Eye strain is a common health hazard associated with prolonged exposure to computer screens. Constantly staring at the computer screen can cause dry or watery eyes because of your tendency to blink less.

4. Back, Neck and Shoulder Pain: Due to poor seating posture and poor organization of work equipments on the desk leads to straining their neck to see and work on a computer screen ant it results in to stiff shoulders.

 5. Computer vision syndrome: Computer vision syndrome is a temporary condition resulting from focusing the eyes on a computer display for  periods of time. It may cause headaches, blurred vision, neck pain, redness in the eyes,  dry eyes, irritated eyes, double vision, etc.

6. Computer Radiation: Computers give off very low frequency (VLF) and extremely low frequency (ELF) radiation. This type of radiation is called non-ionizing.  It is not as strong as ionizing radiation, such as x-rays, that are known to cause cancer. 

7. Social Disconnect: The Internet has provided us a platform where we can say whatever we want and be whoever we want. This can have a negative effect since people act in certain ways and say certain things that they otherwise wouldn't do in real life. Many people believe that the Internet experience is the same as real life experience, but it's not.

Few solutions for various Computer Related Health hazards:

    Occasionally close your eyes for a few minutes and every 20 to 30 minutes or so look away from the computer to stare at an object in the distance. You can also sit back and just close your eyes for a few minutes.

    To prevent dryness and irritation in your eyes, blink more often. Every 20 minutes, blink 10 times by closing your eyes very slowly.

    Spread fingers apart for several seconds while keeping wrists straight.

    For the back pain and other muscular related problems, it is suggested that you get up every hour, stretch and move around for about five minutes.

    Sit straight while you are working on the computer. Avoid slouching.

    Use a desk lamp, if possible, instead of an overhead light to reduce computer eye strain.

    Make sure to keep the computer screen placed at least 18 inches away from direct view and top of the screen is at the eye level.

    Using an ergonomically correct workstation can improve painful situations quickly.

    Always use a computer for a specified amount of time. Health experts say screen time at home should be limited to two hours or less a day. Only in that time you should check your email and do all the necessary stuff.

    Try to keep your laptop away from you as mush as possible. Try keeping it out of your sight so that you don't get tempted to use it.

    Go out for a walk or a bike ride with your friends and socialize.

THE INFORAMTION TECHNOLOGY  Act, 2000

It is an Act meant to provide legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication.

The  act warrants appropriate amendment of the Indian Penal Code, The Indian Evidence Act of 1872, The Banker’s Books Evidence Act of 1891 and The Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934 and other related matters. This become necessary to give legal validity to the new means adopted.

The act contains 94 sections in 13 chapters. The last four sections say about the amendments to the existing acts. The details of four amendments are included in four schedules.