Message-Id: <mailto:199408222004.PAA03244@library.wustl.edu> Date: Mon, 22 Aug 1994 11:48:20 -0700 From: Joshua Yeidel <mailto:yeidel@TOMAR.ACCS.WSU.EDU> Subject: Re: Instructors' lecture slides (long) To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB <mailto:IMAGELIB@ARIZVM1.BITNET>
We are establishing a Digital Media Collection as part of a project to apply multimedia technologies to a new World Civilizations course. The collection has two parts:1) a catalog of information provided by the faculty about each media item 2) a file system (the "collection" proper) containing the digitized items.
Right now, about 99% of the collection consists of 24-bit still images.
Currently, the catalog is maintained on a Mac with FileMaker Pro (flat database). The catalog is copied to a public server, where it can be accessed or duplicated by project faculty. Each record in the catalog contains a "file-id" that points to the location of the digitized object. The design allows for multiple records to reference one object (repurposing).
The collection resides on a Unix server (DECstation 5000 Model 200). Initially, we used a Gatorbox to make the collection available on Macs, but a) the Gatorbox is not very reliable b) this is a single-platform solution c) performance was miserable. These factors kept many of the faculty from making effective use of the collection.
Now we are moving to a World Wide Web-based service, running "httpd" on the DECstation and Mosiac or MacWeb on the clients (Mac, Windows, and Unix). We are also working on building a WWW-accessible indexing mechanism, to allow searches of the catalog without FileMaker Pro. The final service should allow queries like "buddha and cave" to return a Web document in the form:
---------- | |
| thumb- | Title of Object 1
| nail 1 |
| |
----------Further descriptive information from catalog for Object 1....
-----------------------------------------------------------
---------- | |
| thumb- | Title of Object 2
| nail 2 |
| |
----------Further descriptive information from catalog for Object 2....
-----------------------------------------------------------
and so on. The thumbnails are hypertext "anchors" which, when clicked, cause the full object to be downloaded to the client (desktop) machine.
One major difficulty is identifying appropriate media formats for multi-platform use. For full-color still images, we have adopted JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format), and for moving images we use Quicktime, but neither is universally recognized (yet :-). There are still lots of questions in this area...
We do not "get around" copyright issues. After an initial "anything-goes" period, we have adopted a strict standard: Submissions to the collection must include documented evidence of copyright clearance for use at WSU. We are expunging from the collection all objects which do not meet this standard. Of course, faculty may use objects which are not copyright-clear in lectures (we are not copyright police); but we do not scan, do not store, and do not serve on the network objects for which we cannot document copyright clearance. Until and unless the law is changed, we haven't any real option on this.
One step we are taking to ease the impact of this policy is to identify and mobilize easy-to-clear objects: public domain collections (e.g., government) on the net, personal slides from faculty that can be donated to WSU, etc.
One big bottleneck is the capitalization of appropriately-equipped classrooms. We have been working with a hihg-profile General Education Enhancement Project as the engine to help mobilize money for this.
"Fetch" alone is not a very good solution, because you need indexing and previewing capability. Faculty are not going to be very happy working with images across a network to their homes, unless they have Ethernet speeds (at a minimum). Even compressed images average 100K per image, or about 3-4 minutes on a typical 9600 baud connection. Our faculty come to campus to work on the image portions of their lectures.
We find that the major benefit of this approach is that it encourages sharing and re-use of materials and ideas among faculty -- what, in other arenas, would be called a "prductivity gain". Educational benefit is supported anecdotally, but is notoriously difficult to measure.
Joshua Yeidel, Learning Systems | mailto:yeidel@tomar.accs.wsu.edu Information Technology | All standard disclaimers apply Washington State University | "Believe it if you need it, Pullman, WA 99164-1222 | or leave it if you dare..." 509/335-0441 | -- Robert Hunter
On Fri, 19 Aug 1994, Harold Lehmann wrote:
> Have any of you--or your contacts--had experience putting lecturers'
> slides on electronic medium and creating a library for them to use to
> compose and project lectures and for students to use to review? I'd be
> interested in hearing what networking architecture you used, and how you
> got around copyright issues.
>
> I was thinking of archiving the slides on CDs, creating a jukebox library
> accessible over the network, use Fetch, or something similar to enable
> lecturers to compose their lectures and for students to view.
>
> Besides the tecnical issues (faculty have different computers; you need
> network connections, a computer, and a computer projector in the lecture
> hall), there are human problem (faculty like to compose their lectures at
> home), etc.
>
> Comments appreciated.
>
> Harold
>
> SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
> Harold Lehmann, MD PhD
> Director, Medical Informatics Education
> Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
> 410-614-0843
> mailto:lehmann@welchgate.welch.jhu.edu
> SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS