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eZedia - QTI1 &
QTI2
Page 1
QTI
-1 QTI - 2 Digital Photo Album
The
QTI2 Page
QTI2 "How-to" Movies
Back in January, 2003, I first posted this page on eZediaQTI. I've been
busy since creating more projects. More importantly, we've used QTI to
introduce our students (teachers) to a simple way to create impressive
projects. They've done some nice work - from school tours, neighborhood
tours, e-brochures, etc. The fact that QTI allows you to take a
multimedia project to the web in only a couple of minutes makes it an
exciting introduction to the world of multimedia communication. A
statistic I ran across the other day based on US Department of Labor
data for job projections, suggested that the demands for skills in this
area will grow by 67% across all industries by the year 2010. That's
not that far away!
For us, QTI and eZediaMX are communication environments that also allow
students - of all ages - to experience new modes of thinking and
communicating. We've seen the teachers in our classes
significantly accelerate the rate at which they develop technology
skills since we brought in QTI and eZediaMX. More importantly, they
seem to continue to grow after they leave our class. As we say the
first night of class each semester - "We aren't concerned with what you
know in four months when the class ends. However, we are definitely
interested in what
you're doing in eight months - after you've no longer had contact with
us!"
eZediaMX and QTI provide the missing link in teacher staff development.
They also act as an amazing bridge, facilitating understanding of what
would normally be complex multimedia development concepts and making it
possible for students of all ages. For students (and teachers), there
is also the added bonus of having a real-world environment to
meaningfully organize media and handle the construction of a project.
You don't need us to cite the abundant research on the value of using
multimedia project-based learning for students. What we're saying is
that you now have access to an environment that makes it possible for
students of all ages and ability levels to participate in such an
activity. Instead of inventing artificial activities that involve
higher-order thinking skills, you can offer them an environment that
facilitates that every minute they're involved.
The fact that QTI and eZediaMX share a common interface makes working
in the two environments a simple process. Of course, eZediaMX has more
powerful features with the logic tools, but the first sets of icons are
all the same. If you love eZediaMX, then
you're going to get a real kick out of QTI. It's fast, very, very
simple
to use, and magically exports your projects as a QuickTime movie! Now -
pay attention. When QTI exports the movie, it just doesn't create a
regular
QuickTime movie, as impressive as those are. It creates an interactive
QuickTime movie. Instead of a flat, linear format (which you can make,
if
you want), you can add buttons and navigation and links to the web,
etc.
- and all of that is only the beginning because the people at eZedia
are
always thinking of how to take things the next step.
If you know eZediaMX, using QTI is a snap. Even
if you don't know eZediaMX, using QTI is easy.
Projects
I actually have a number of QTI projects scattered around this site.
I've been getting in the habit of creating a QTI project to show you
how many of my eZediaMX projects work. I shall attempt to put a
complete list together - just for QTI. In the meantime, keep in mind
that the graphics techniques and most of the "how-to's" at our site are
equally applicable to QTI as they are to eZediaMX. Until I get the list
together, you might want to look at the eZedia Sampler
pages that I established recently. I picture of a project is often
easier to recall than the name!
I've kept this the first project on this page very simple. It has text
for the narrative accompanied by pictures and a beveled effect that I
dragged out of the transparency well in the eZediaMX resources folder.
If you download this file, you'll notice that there is a button in the
movie that will take you to the Hampton Plantation photos at this site.
If you run the project through the provided webpage then hitting the
back button will take you from the Hampton Plantation page back to the
project.
QTI also automatically generates that webpage to make it even easier to
post your project to the web. I also love the fact that I can take
wells that I created for eZediaMX projects and use those to create
projects in QTI - so cool, so simple.
You'll notice that we have lots of vr's at this site. You can even
embed those in a QTI project. Consequently, you can be in a movie and
cruising around a vr that's in the movie at the same time. Amazing and
lots of fun!
Like eZediaMX, QTI is only limited by your own imagination. Click
here for a list of QTI features.
Figure 1: Here you see a screen capture of the opening of my little
project. I opened it up in the QuickTime viewer instead of the webpage
when
I did the screen captures.
Figure 2: Here we are a little further in the project and you can see
the impact of the bevel effect I've used on the photo and, more
importantly, you can see the interactive button in the movie that will
take you to a
website. How cool!
Figure 3: Notice that the viewer is provided with navigation buttons to
move through the project.
To download the project and
view it, click here. The project is
around 1.2 MB in its entirety.
To see how to make all those little buttons line up perfectly in a few
seconds, click on this link.
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Slide Show
with Music
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A friend was
asking about how to do a simple slide show with music. This is
one example of one approach using QTI. I've used a music file
from the eZedia resources folder and combined it with some of my snow
pictures.
Figure 4: Here's the opening picture of the little slide show. Music
plays as the pictures change.
You can view the
file online by clicking here.
You can download the files
in a zipped format by clicking here (about 1.4 MB.)
How I did it
I'm using QTI from eZedia.ca for
this project.
1. Select your music and note how long it is.
2. Think about how many pictures you're going to need - 5? 10? 20?
3. Assemble the pictures in a folder along with your music so you
aren't wondering where it all went.
4. I just decided to space the pictures out in even intervals. You
might want to do yours according to highlights in the music.
5. Bring in your first picture by clicking on the graphic icon in QTI.
Put the picture in the top, left-hand corner so that there isn't any
white area showing on the top or the left-hand side.
6. Double-click on your picture and make sure it is set to open on
Frame Open.
7. Bring in your next picture and park it right on top of that one.
Make sure they're tucked into that top, left-hand corner.
8. Keep doing that until all of your pictures are in.
9. Bring in your sound file. Make sure it is set to start on Frame Open.
10. Save your project. Remember to give each project its own folder.
You can save your project in the same folder where you organized your
pictures and sound file.
11. Go to View > Object Timers.
12. You now have a listing of all the objects on your frame. You aren't
going to change any of the timing on the first picture because we want
that to be there when the frame opens up and our music starts. You will
want
to double-click on each of the little timing boxes to the right where
you
see a tiny thumbnail of each picture you have in the pile.
Note: The time is in minutes, seconds, and ticks.
13. Simply change the start time for each picture. I didn't bother with
changing the ending time on my pictures because I was putting one right
over top of the other. I had mine changing about every 8 seconds after
the
opening frame.
14. Save your file when you're done or along the way. It never hurts to
be cautious.
15. When you're finished, go to File > Export > Movie and
click OK. eZedia's QTI will whip you out a movie. You can preview it
and
go back to your original QTI project to make any changes you notice you
need.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
When QTI creates your movie, it also creates a media folder in the same
way that an eZediaMX project creates a support files folder. If you are
going to send this QTI project to someone or post it on the web, make
sure you
send along the contents of the media folder so QTI can call up what it
needs.
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