March, 2008

SIGMM:  A Multimedia Group for Educators

By Michael Rio, SIGMM Assistant Director

Are you an educator who is interested in multimedia? Looking to meeting other educators who share your interest? Interested in multimedia workshops and training opportunities? If so, then SIGMM is for you!

SIGMM (Special Interest Group- Multimedia) is part of MACUL, the Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning (www.macul.org), the main educational technology organization in Michigan. On the MACUL web site SIGMM and other special interest groups are listed. The main purpose of SIGMM is to share and promote learning about and using multimedia in education. SIGMM puts on workshops on such topics as digital video, digital photo editing, animation and multimedia presentations. Besides having a section on the MACUL web site (look under special interest group on the home page), SIGMM also has a blog at www.mimultimedia.blogspot.com.

SIGMM is active at the annual MACUL conference in March each year, alternating between Detroit and Grand Rapids. This is when we hold our annual breakfast meeting, select new officers, set up our steering committee and host one or more pre-conference workshops. SIGMM also sponsors a video and multimedia contest with prizes awarded at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Currently SIGMM is planning summer and fall workshops in addition to using more “Web 2.0 style” resources, like our SIGMM blog, to encourage Michigan educators to share ideas, questions and uses of multimedia in education. Some past workshop presenters include New York Times columnist David Pogue (www.davidpogue.com) and nationally known presenter/trainer Leslie Fisher (www.lesliefisher.com ). Integrating technology across the curriculum has become important in all schools. Interest in learning about multimedia tools, equipment and software and effective uses is vital to improving teaching and learning in the 21^st century.

Digital video has become affordable and is being widely used at all levels and in all curriculum levels. With digital video cameras costing as little as $200 and DV editing software built into all Macs and Windows PCs, anyone can start shooting, editing and sharing digital video. Some common uses include students making their own news broadcasts to share with their schools. This can be done with a camera, a microphone and a computer with DV editing software. Many students also make commercials, public service announcements (PSAs), mini-movies, music videos, sports highlight videos, videos of school plays and concerts, interviews with interesting people and documentaries about educational topics. Digital video is a lot of fun and can easily increase student interest and learning in any subject area. A new service has started called SchoolTube (www.schooltube.com) where schools can safely share students’ video projects. Video can also be shared on school web sites and local cable access stations.

Animation has become very popular, including at the elementary level. Animation can be done with a still digital camera and any software where the photos can be assembled into fast moving frames to “animate” figures, toys, objects or pictures. Claymation is one popular option. A special claymation kit can be purchased at Tech4Learning (www.tech4learning.com ), which makes it easier to make clay figures that can be easily manipulated for stop-gap animation (take a photo, move the object slightly, take another photo). Apple’s iMovie and Windows Moviemaker DV software are two options for assembling photos into an animation. You may need to experiment with timing, but 1/3 to 1/10^th of a second per photo seems to work well for many beginning animations. A web search can lead to many animation web sites to learn more about animation options, software and sample projects. Flash has also become a popular option for making animation projects. Flash has moved beyond the web to become a multipurpose multimedia and animation tool.

Another major area that SIGMM focuses on is digital photography and photo editing. Digital cameras can be bought for under $100 and the quality is better than ever. Photoshop Elements (www.adobe.com) is a great digital photo editing software that has many of the same features as its professional big brother (Photoshop CS). Photoshop Elements costs under $100 and school site licenses can be purchased at very reasonable prices. With a digital camera and Photoshop Elements great photos can be taken, downloaded and edited for prints, multimedia presentations or to share on the web. USB card readers making using digital cameras in labs very easy as they can support memory cards from any make or model of camera (buy card readers that support many formats). Some examples of uses include photos of field trips, lab photos of projects, photos of historical locations, student activities, sports, people, art and for use in Digital Story Telling projects. Adding digital photography and photo editing to teaching and learning can greatly enhance student learning and understanding, in addition to helping them become familiar with digital tools they can use in their future careers and personal lives.

SIGMM welcomes all educators interested in these and other multimedia projects to get involved. We are also interested in working with individuals, groups and companies that share any of our interests in multimedia in education. Check out our SIGMM section on the MACUL web site (www.macul.org) and our blog (www.mimultimedia.blogpsot.com ). We welcome your questions, ideas and input as we plan workshops, seminars, online discussions and other activities to share and learn about multimedia in education together. It is also a great way to network with other educators who share your interests. Multimedia uses in education are not only fun and interesting, but can also play a vital role in improving teaching and learning.  The students of tomorrow need digital multimedia skills today, and SIGMM hopes to assist educators interested in learning about effective multimedia uses in their schools and classrooms.

Michael Rio is the SIGMM Assistant Director. He teaches Digital Video Production, Digital Multimedia and Web Design at Harper Creek High School in Battle Creek, MI. He also teaches a WMU graduate course in “Introduction to Digital Video and Animation” for educators.