Presentations with Quicktime Movies (Published in the TechEdge, Spring 1998) by Wesley A. Fryer www.wesfryer.com   The creation of multimedia presentations by students is emphasized throughout the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology. Specifically, the TEKS call for students to "use productivity tools to create effective document files for defined audiences such as slide shows, posters, multimedia presentations, newsletters, brochures, or reports." (Chapter 126.12.c.10) This article highlights techniques teachers can employ to help students utilize digital movie clips, called "Quicktime movies," in multimedia presentations with HyperStudio and PowerPoint software on both Macintosh and Windows computers. Methods for obtaining Quicktime moves from the Internet and other sources are also discussed, using both Netscape and Internet Explorer. A complete copy of this article, including hyperlinks to referenced websites, is available at http://www.wtvi.com/teks. According to Apple Computer, "Quicktime is Apple's multi-platform, industry-standard, multimedia software architecture. It is used by software developers, hardware manufacturers, and content creators to author and publish synchronized graphics, sound, video, text, music, VR, and 3D media." "Quicktime VR" refers to the technology which allows panoramic movies to actually be controlled by your mouse: you can "rotate objects, zoom in or out of a scene, look around 360 degrees, and navigate from one scene to another." Quicktime technology can literally add another dimension to a virtual field trip like a museum tour, permitting visitors to not only view but interact with exhibit items and scenes. For educators, Quicktime is a format for short video and music clips that can be used in a wide variety of instructional ways. Quicktime technology permits students and teachers to easily import video clips (usually from CD-ROM or the Internet) into multimedia presentations. Additionally, Quicktime allows users to capture, edit, compress, process, and playback digital video on ALL major computer platforms: Mac OS 8.x and Mac OS 7.x, Windows 95, and Windows NT. Quicktime format can also be used to store and play a wide variety of digital music recordings. More information as well as free Quicktime software is available from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/.   CD-ROM Sources It is possible to use a video camera and create your own Quicktime movies for a presentation, but it is much faster to use video clips created by others. Many CD-ROM products, like Grolier’s Multimedia Encyclopedia, include video sequences on a wide variety of topics. One advantage of using video clips stored on a CD-ROM is access speed. It takes a LONG time to download a video clip from the Internet compared to a still picture. This feature of the world-wide web (known by many as the "world-wide wait") can be avoided by using CD-ROMs. Whether you are using HyperStudio or Microsoft PowerPoint as your presentation software, several video clips are available on the CD-ROM that contains your original software. Other CD-ROMs that contain Quicktime movies as well as still, clip art images can be purchased. The amount of disk space taken up by a video clip depends on a variety of factors. The length of the sequence, the screen size at which the sequence was saved, and the clip’s resolution all affect its size. Clips can be compressed with Quicktime software to reduce size, but image quality is usually degraded in the process. Large video clips not only take a long time to download from the Internet, but also may be too large to save on a floppy disk. For this reason, students usually should save their presentation files (including Quicktime movies) on removable media like a Zip or Jaz drive (http://www.iomega.com), the hard drive of their computer, or on a file server. 1.4 megabyte disks simply do not have enough storage space needed for most of these files. "Zip Plus" drives which permit file saving and transfer on and between Macintosh as well as Windows computers are ideal for creating presentations with Quicktime movies.   Internet Resources With access to a fast Internet connection, an enormous variety of Quicktime movie clips may be downloaded from the world-wide web. In this case, a "fast" connection is an ISDN or T-1 line. If you use a 28.8 or 33.6 modem connection to access the Internet, download times for most Quicktime movies are extremely long. For example, a 20 second long, 1.2 megabyte Quicktime clip takes less than a minute to download with a T-1 internet connection, but over eight minutes with a 28.8 modem. These download times are approximate, since other factors can either slow down or speed up the transfer rate. You may have the patience to download several video clips at that slow rate, but if you are downloading a large number of sequences you may either give up or search for a computer lab with a direct internet connection. Once cable modems become cheaper and more accessible nationwide in the next several years, transfer speeds could increase as much as 200 times over current modem rates. Until then, time constraints will prohibit most modem dialup users from downloading a large number of video clips from the Internet. If long download times are not an obstacle, however, there are many websites containing useful Quicktime movie clips. CNN has a large collection of current; news related sequences available at http://www.cnn.com/video_vault. Clips are organized by category (world news, US news, fashion, etc.) and the archive is keyword searchable. The file size of each clip is listed by its link, along with its playing length in seconds. An updated listing of Quicktime movie websites is available from http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Multimedia/Video/Quicktime/Movies/ . Alternatively, the search engine HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com/ ) offers the option to search the web for ONLY movies. After typing a keyword or phrase into the search box, under "Include media type" click the box next to "Video." Resulting link lists are pleasantly accurate, and led to a variety of sites including movie clips related to the desired topic in tests performed for this article. More links are available at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/samples/.   Saving a Movie Normally when a user clicks on a link for a Quicktime move in Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, the movie downloads and is displayed within the web browser. Depending on the version used, Quicktime software may have to be downloaded from the Internet and installed on the computer. When preparing for a HyperStudio or PowerPoint presentation, however, the Quicktime movie should be saved directly to the computer’s hard drive instead of displayed in the browser. The steps for saving a Quicktime movie to the hard drive depend on the type of computer and web browser being used. Accompanying Table E lists the steps for Macintosh computers, and Table F lists the steps for Windows computers. TABLE E: Saving a Quicktime Movie in the Macintosh OS Netscape Navigator MS Internet Explorer Find a link to a Quicktime movie you want to save. Click on the link with the mouse and hold down the button. From the popup menu that will appear, select "Save this link as…" Choose the folder on your hard drive where you want to save the movie. Click "Save." Find a link to a Quicktime movie you want to save. Click on the link with the mouse and hold down the button. From the popup menu that will appear, select "Download Link to Disk." Choose the folder on your hard drive where you want to save the movie. Click "Save." TABLE F: Saving a Quicktime Movie in the Windows OS Netscape Navigator MS Internet Explorer Find a link to a Quicktime movie you want to save. Click on the link with the RIGHT mouse button. From the popup menu that will appear, select "Save this link as…" Choose the directory on your hard drive where you want to save the movie. Click "Save." Find a link to a Quicktime movie you want to save. Click on the link with the RIGHT mouse. From the popup menu that will appear, select "Download Link to Disk." Choose the directory on your hard drive where you want to save the movie. Click "Save."   It is a good idea to save all the resources for a presentation into a single folder on the hard drive. This folder might be labeled something like "movie resources." This makes files easier to locate later and also to copy to other computer workstations.   Inserting a Movie in HyperStudio HyperStudio (http://www.hyperstudio.com) is a powerful multimedia software tool that allows virtually anyone to create impressive presentations incorporating text, graphics, movies, sounds, and animations. Once a Quicktime movie is saved to the computer’s hard drive, inserting the movie into a HyperStudio "stack" is a straightforward process. These steps are the same for both Macintosh and Windows computers running HyperStudio 3.0 or 3.1. Step 1: After creating a "card" on which to play the movie, from the Objects menu choose Add a Button. Select the button of your choice on the left side of the screen. Type a word or phrase for the button, like "Quicktime Movie." Click on OK. Step 2: Drag the button to the preferred location on the card. Click outside the flashing dots to place it there. At the Action screen, click on Play a Movie or Video… Choose Disk File (Quicktime movies) at the Video/Movie Source screen. Click OK. Step 3: Locate the folder or directory on the computer’s hard drive where the movie is saved. Choose a movie and click OK. Position the movie like clip art in the location where it should play. Click outside the flashing dots to place the movie. Step 4: Click the box next to desired options for the movie. Options include showing the first frame on the card, erasing the movie when it finishes playing, looping the movie so it plays repeatedly, playing the movie over other objects, and displaying a movie control bar. After selecting desired options, click OK and then click Done. Step 5: Click on the button with the browse tool selected to play the movie. A movie can be played as soon as a card is displayed by choosing from the Objects menu About this Card. Click the box next to Things to do when arriving at this card and select Play a Movie. MIDI files (highly compressed digital music files) can be converted into Quicktime movies and played in the same way. A wealth of MIDI recordings are available on the Internet. A good place to start hunting for files is Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com). From the initial screen search for "midi," or proceed directly to http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Genres/Classical/MIDI_Files/ for classical music files which can enhance a presentation as background music. To play Quicktime VR movies within HyperStudio, version 3.1 must be used. Free updaters can be downloaded from the HyperStudio website at http://www.hyperstudio.com/download/indbod.html for both Macintosh and Windows computers. These files will update HyperStudio software to version 3.1, which includes Quicktime VR features.   Inserting a Movie in PowerPoint Microsoft Office is the standard productivity software package for many business offices in the United States and continues to grow in popularity. Some school districts (such as Houston ISD) have adopted Office as the standard software package purchased with every new computer (Macintosh as well as Windows OS). PowerPoint is the multimedia presentation software included in Microsoft Office. Although it began as a "linear" presentation tool, recent editions have included the ability to create buttons on slides which "branch to other locations." (In PowerPoint 97 and 98, choose the Slide Show menu and select Action Buttons to branch to other slides.) Like HyperStudio, PowerPoint can be used to create impressive multimedia presentations that incorporate (among other things) Quicktime movies. Table G describes the steps required to insert and play a Quicktime movie within PowerPoint. These steps are identical for both Office 97 (for Windows) and Office 98 (for Macintosh and Windows). Office 98 includes built-in support Quicktime VR movies. TABLE G: Quicktime Movies in PowerPoint From the Insert menu, choose Movies and Sounds. Select Movie from File. Locate a movie you want to insert on the hard drive. Click OK. Move the mouse pointer to the center of the movie. Click and hold down the LEFT mouse button. Position the movie as desired on the screen. Release the mouse, click and drag on one of the "handles" around the movie to resize it as desired. Click on the screen outside the movie. From the Slide Show menu, choose View Show. When the slide containing the movie is displayed, click on the movie to play it. To make the movie play when the mouse is simply moved over the movie instead of clicked, from the Slide Show menu choose Action Settings. Select Mouse Over and choose Play as the Object Action. Copyright and Fair Use As with other referenced materials, students and educators must be keenly aware of the copyright limitations that exist for using Quicktime movies obtained from various sources. Internet websites offering Quicktime movies for download and viewing sometimes offer a link explaining their applicable copyright restrictions. When in doubt, ask for permission to use multimedia resources obtained from the Internet. An example of these restrictions can be found on CNN’s website at http://www.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html. It reads: "Subscriber(s) may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit, any of the content, in whole or in part. Subscriber(s) may download copyrighted material for Subscriber's personal use only. Except as otherwise expressly permitted under copyright law, no copying, redistribution, retransmission, publication or commercial exploitation of downloaded material will be permitted without the express permission of CNN and the copyright owner. In the event of any permitted copying, redistribution or publication of copyrighted material, no changes in or deletion of author attribution, trademark legend or copyright notice shall be made." The key words to focus on in this legalistic passage are "exploit," "personal use," "commercial exploitation," and "publish." Academic fair use permits students and educators to keep temporary copies of materials like Quicktime movies obtained from websites, as long as they are used for academic purposes and not sold for profit. Permission from copyright holders for this type of academic fair use may be requested, but is not legally required. If downloaded materials will be published on a school website, however, educators should obtain permission from the copyright owning individual or organization first. For more information about fair use and copyright as they apply to multimedia, refer to http://fairuse.stanford.edu/multimed/. Intellectual property rights will grow in their importance both within US and international law as the economies of the world continue to move from an industrial to and informational focus. A wealth of exciting opportunities exists for communicating ideas with multimedia software like HyperStudio and PowerPoint. As responsible educators, we should model and teach respect for copyright laws and intellectual property rights. At the same time, we can motivate and instruct students to communicate their ideas and demonstrate mastery of knowledge and skills in impressive presentations that not only meet the mandates of the TEKS, but are also a lot of fun to create! Good luck!   Wesley Fryer is an educator and technology consultant in Lubbock, Texas. He welcomes your questions and comments about this article or about classroom technology integration in general! Tools for the TEKS home | Article Archive | Technology Workshops Mailing List | Feedback | Tools and Techniques | Technology Idea Exchange Contact me using this webform. Links to my blogs are also available. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.