Multimedia Happens!

Making Multimedia happen in your classroom can be very inexpensive if you know where to look.

Here are some basic tools that you will need. You may already have some of these in your school or home. You can also get an excellent introduction to Multimedia in the Classroom at Jeff Peach's website.

Projecting your multimedia

• You should have a presentation device that gets your computer screen to show up on your classroom video monitor. It's called a scan converter.
  • An AverKey 300 is what I use. AverKey 300 costs about $150, but a less expensive one can be found for under $100. It's plug-and-play. That means that you plug one end of a cable into your VCR and the other into your computer. It requires only that you know how to follow simple instructions in setting it up.
  • You do need to know how to set your VCR to receive an input (line in or auxiliary) signal. The instructions for doing this are in the same menu where you set the clock which ought to strike fear into most people.

Audio Input

• You need a mixer that will take all your sound inputs and output them to your VCR.
  • The mixer can be purchased at Radio Shack for $50.
  • The main thing you want to do with the mixer is to hook up a microphone, the computer sound, and a CD player and control (mix) the sound levels. This outputs to the VCR. See Jeff Peach's site for a very good diagram of this configuration.
  • You could do without the CD player, but it's nice to have one when a student wants a particular piece of music at the start of his or her project. A portable CD player hooks up nicely to the mixer.
  • You need a microphone. Inexpensive microphones can be purchased at Radio Shack or CompUSA for under $10. The microphone plugs directly into the mixer.
  • You could skip the mixer and go straight from your computer line out to the audio in on your VCR, but the sound is not amplified as nicely as you will want.
  • Alternatively, you can add an amplifier and some speakers to this system which gives you a little nicer sound in the classroom. Plug the mic into the amplifier and then go from the amp to the VCR.
  • You can see that there are lots of audio options that work. Try some of these options. Before long you will have a reasonable multimedia recording system set up in your classroom or lab.

Video Input

• A simple video solution to adding video to a multimedia stack is the QuickCam from Logitech or an Intel Camera Pack. They're both about $150. Less expensive computer camera products from these companies can be found as well. This option allows you to make, save, and add brief videos to your stacks and to add a live video on a particular card. You would not videotape an entire student video using a QuickCam. The conventional video camera is used for that purpose.
  • I use the QuickCam because my Compaq notebook recognizes the capture device (camera). The Intel camera just didn't work easily on the Compaq, but it's an excellent product for a PC (like an IBM) that's not so proprietary as the Compaq.
  • You may also get an A/V card for your desktop-style computer. This allows you to plug in a video camera and capture live video provided you have the software and camera. This is certainly more expensive, however, than the options outlined above.

Cables and connections

• There are a several things to know about cables.
  • Cables have ends on them called jacks. There are male and female ends on jacks. Microphone cables have a different kind of jack than RCA cables, and it's important to see the difference. I will show these cables in class. For now, know that a mic jack has either one or two little bands around the prong, and RCA jacks don't.
  • Cables take audio or video signals from somewhere (out) to somewhere else (in). If you plug a cable into an audio out, you need to plug the other end into an audio in. The same thing is true with video out and video in.
  • Adapters are available that allow you to switch from microphone jacks to RCA and back.
  • All of this could be confusing. That's why Radio Shack exists! Get to know the place.

Here are the components described above. Click and drag the image. There are four views in QuickTime VR.