Using Sound and Video for Interactive Web Activities
Chris Elvin Demonstrated Hot Potatoes at JALTCALL 2002
In my JALTCALL 2002 session, "How to make interactive sound and video EFL web pages,"
I demonstrated how one can use iTunes, QuickTime Pro and Hot Potatoes to format,
edit and optimize sound and
video files for display on the Internet. I showed teachers what the
HTML codes for sound and video files look like and explained a few
of their variables. I also demonstrated how to use Hot Potatoes with
sound and video files, offered some personal tips and suggestions,
and showed examples of interactive web pages from my own website, EFL Club.
Finally, I briefly talked about copyright, and tried to interpret what fair
use means to educational multimedia developers. This presentation also
included a fun twenty question "Instant Lawyer Quiz," which was made using
Hot Potatoes.
Participants varied from total beginners, who were thinking of learning
how to make their first homepage, to experienced webmasters, who were
interested in learning how to make their sites more interactive. The issue of
copyright was possibly the hottest topic discussed, but there was general agreement
that as long as my website, EFL Club, remained educational and not for profit,
it would be difficult to argue against its use of songs and movie trailers.
My future projects will still rely on Hot Potatoes and Quicktime, but with more
variation in the exercises for students, which up to now have relied mainly
on clozes.
By Chris Elvin
2002 ESL MiniConference Online
See also the JALTCALL 2002 overview by Timothy Gutierrez, Conference Chair.
Chris Elvin has a Master’s degree in TESOL from Temple University,
Japan. He is the author of "Now You're Talking," and the owner and
Webmaster of EFL Club,
a children’s language learning Web site. He presented at the recent
JALTCALL 2002 conference in Hiroshima, Japan, and contributed the
following synopsis of his session for readers of the ESL MiniConference
newsletter.
celvin@kd6.so-net.ne.jp
St. Dominico's Institute
Kanagawa, Japan