[senit] Easy multimedia programming

Hi Sean

Hi Claire,

yes it's a great programme in many ways, and as you say available for  
Mac (we do have it), but I don't find it works smoothly on the Mac,  
and it doesn't for instance take advantage of great developer tools  
within Mac's OS like the media browser - so choosing images (for  
example) not only means a different learning step but is less  
intuitive and not as visually easy as within Mac programmes  
themselves. The tools are there and companies such as Kudlian (I Can  
Animate) or Plasq (Comic Life) make excellent use of them.

I know I'm ignoring the great strengths there, as you mentioned, the  
symbol support, walk throughs, and extremely importantly the switch  
access itself. I'm not suggesting that it's not brilliant for all it  
does, but as so often - I want more! As they say, you can please some  
of the people...!

Regards,
Sean

On 15 May 2007, at 21:41, Claire Barnes wrote:

> Hi Sean
>
> I would recommend SwitchIt Maker 2 from Inclusive. It's totally  
> different to
> Scratch - not a programming tool at all, more like a very  
> simplified version
> of PowerPoint. It's also a 1000 times better than SwitchIt Maker,  
> if you are
> familiar with that.
>
> You can add pictures, videos, text and sound (either mp3, wav or  
> record
> directly into the programme).
>
> It is incredibly simple to use for staff and children, instructions  
> are
> supported by symbols and it literally walks you through the process of
> putting together a presentation. It can be accessed by a switch, touch
> screen or mouse.
>
> It has 101 uses from creating simple cause and effect presentations to
> producing a dramatisation of a story with video, text, pictures and  
> sound
> effects.
>
> It has its own microsite:
>
> http://www.switchitmaker2.com/about/aboutcreatingactivities.htm
>
> This page has lots of screen shots of the process of making a  
> presentation.
>
> And its available for Mac!
>
> Claire Barnes
> Willow Dene School
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
> [mailto:senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Sean O'Sullivan
> Sent: 15 May 2007 19:21
> To: senit at lists.becta.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [senit] Easy multimedia programming - 'Scratch'
>
> Thanks for this David,
>
> it looks like it has promise, but it's still heavily text based,
> despite its drag and drop sense of use and the graphical look of the
> blocks of text. So for many users who have learning difficulties it
> may still be somewhat off the mark. It would be really nice to see a
> mutimedia programme that went much much further in terms of visual
> operation - my old favourite HyperStudio had some token areas that
> helped in this, but MediaBlender, which has partly stepped into the
> gap, seems to have dropped rather than improved this.
>
> I know there are people on the list who highly recommend PowerPoint
> for multimedia work, but what I'm getting at is how actually creating
> the document itself is done using visual tools, not that what has
> been made is visually interactive.
> Apple's Keynote isn't too bad for visually showing you photos and
> movies that you might want to add to a slide, and listing audio that
> you can listen to before deciding whether to add it, and things like
> transitions give you visual previews, but there's still a lot of text
> to work with. At the moment I feel it's an adequate option, but
> things like non-linear links require text ability to create the
> navigation, and it hasn't been designed to give detailed control of
> audio such as for individual elements on a slide.
>
> Is anyone aware of anything of this sort?
>
> Sean O'Sullivan
> sean.frankwise at easynet.co.uk
> Deputy Headteacher
> Frank Wise School, Banbury
> http://www.frankwise.oxon.sch.uk
>
> http://www.parkroadict.co.uk
>
>
> On 15 May 2007, at 09:49, David Lane wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>>   I thought that the following might be of interest to some readers
>> of this group - this item on the BBC website describes a free bit
>> of software that is intended to provide an easy way to create
>> programmed animations etc - the video is well worth watching.
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6647011.stm
>>
>> cheers
>>
>> Dave
>> -- 
>> Xavier Educational Software Ltd
>> Special software for special needs
>> http://xavier.bangor.ac.uk
>
>
>