Cassandra Arnold MDMC

I am designing a unit where students will use qualitative and quantitative research methods and digital tools to explore a civic, environmental or historical issue impacting their community. The project will occur in several phases and suggestions for how multimedia tools can be used in data collection, analysis and reporting will be discussed. Students can better understand how scholarship can be researched from a more nuanced perspective.

Prototyping and brainstorming will be an integral part of the assignment, and analyses of multimedia apps will help improve their participatory learning capabilities.  As noted by Walker, Jameson, and Ryan, the skills required to function in a more participatory culture involves more judgement and assessment of data that is not clearly discernible (Walker et. al., 2010). For example, data can be verbal or visual. Also, there is a psychological or emotional component to social issue might not be articulated properly using traditional statistics, rather recorded interviews and images.  Photojournalism is another form of presenting important community issues. Also by incorporating multimedia into the analysis of a civic or historical community issue that might have complexity reinforces the importance some important 21^st century skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, engagement.

The following is my analysis of the tools I identified thus far for creating this project and my screencast summary: 

Photoshop Express ---Video Toolbox.com --- Soundation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQVQASMHs5M

All the apps can assist in the summation and presentation of data in concise, yet engaging formats. All tools need to be free as I want to try to limit socioeconomic burdens from students and administrators. The access to the underlying data can be extracted and transferable so students can collaborate in virtual communities (email, google drive, Dropbox) It also helps mitigate the issues with additional travel time, expense or inability to coordinate schedules to work on assignments. 

To summarize my thoughts regarding suggestions for use, I used the following ratings scale across the different criteria.  

Legend  5Useful Feature0Indifferent Feature6Lackluster Feature

My detailed comments are summarized in the charts below

Criteria	Adobe Photoshop Express (Still media)   MUST USE	Comments
Ease/Flexibility	5	Variety of standard and custom editing features to accommodate drawings, photographs, jpeg files, etc.  Cropping templates that accommodate several popular social media sites (e.g. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) Mobile version
User Friendly	5	Basic editing features found in typical photo editing app.
Snapshots/Help	0	Efficient/ Reset to original feature
Reliability	0	No file manager
Safety	5	On device so user has control, potential for hacking is based on your firewall capabilities
Time	5	Near instant turnaround time to apply edits

Criteria	VideoToolbox.com (Moving Media) MUST USE	Comments
Ease/Flexibility	5	Variety of edit capabilities like split video, merge video, crop video; at least 8 file formats available Navigation through the different menu options Additional capabilities like creating thumbnails
User Friendly	5	The descriptions of the menu options are simple and a glossary is clearly available on home page
Snapshots/Help	5	Video library for all features, but they run very quickly.
Reliability	0	A file manager stores past projects for future use
Safety	0	Pop-ups ads tend to occur when you use less frequent features like convert file formats.
Time	6	Processing is extremely slow, even though output is good

Criteria	Soundation (Audio Media) POSSIBLE USE	Comments
Ease/Flexibility	5	Enormous preset menu of sounds and instruments that can be leveraged by novices or musician. Can create or remix music, although importing music requires a paid subscription.
User Friendly	0	When user logs on the default location is catalog of paid/add-on section. Not immediately clear that you need to navigate to another menu option.
Snapshots/Help	6	Tutorials are poor screen shots that have misinformation and is potentially outdated
Reliability	0	Site appears available when access
Safety	0	Potential for hacking is based on your firewall capabilities
Time	5	The sounds are uploaded immediately and files saved under projects for future use within the session.

Walker, S., Jameson, J., & Ryan, M. (2010). Skills and strategies for e-learning in 

      participatory  culture. Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age: How Learners are Shaping

     Their Own Experience. Routledge: New York, NY.