Jeffrey L. Dunster and Professor Paul Thomas, English
The aim of this project was to assemble a CD-ROM of supplemental media for History of Civilization courses at BYU. The research and development of this project served as my honors capstone project and a full report is now archived at BYU under the same title as this ORCA report.
In the early spring of 1998, my faculty mentor, Paul Thomas, approached me about placing over 500 images on a single CD for use in his History of Civilization classes. The photos were stored on six Kodak Photo CDs. Compressing these images to fit on one CD would be easy, but I knew that accessing them would be a challenge for most students unless I could create a program to display the photos or make the CD self-presenting in some way. I decided to prepare the CD like a web site utilizing various Internet technologies that would run easily on most computers.
While experimenting with JPEG compression for the photos, I began thinking about what else I, as a student, would love to see on a supplemental CD. Besides captions and in-depth explanations for the individual photos, texts and maps would be useful and they wouldn=t take much space either. I soon realized that we could prepare quite a useful CD with a little foresight and planning.
As the project expanded, I began to consider the audiences we are trying to address. Some students would have physical or mental disabilities, or some sort of technological limitation. The extended report for the Honors Capstone project outlines the various disabilities some of the users may have, how they affected the design of the CD, and how to accommodate the disabilities effectively. Accommodating these various disabilities is a challenge, but if this CD is destined for use in the state school systems, disability access is a federal mandate now. If this CD is developed without provisions for the disabled, state schools cannot use it because of a new federal law
(http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/nprm.htm).
A full understanding of the disabled and the multitude of their needs is beyond the scope of this report, but for more information, visit the links listed in the Appendix. Or for a more cursory reading, read “Thirty Something (Million): Should They Be Exceptions?” at
http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/30_some/30_some.htm
I began this project with the typical student in mind. There are some obvious computing issues for the typical student: their computer experience, the CD=s ease of use (there won=t be much support for the product if they have problems), the cost of the CD, and its relevance to the course. But I also identified a more troublesome issue, limited computing power. These computers aren’t powerful or advanced enough for some of the newer technologies best suited for this project.
After considering the issues of audience and technology limitations, I finally settled on the following technologies to present the content of this CD.
Everything on the CD will run in the user’s web browser. This strategy solves the problem of cross platform functionality because good browsers are available on all computer platforms. All the technology I chose also works directly in the browser. Using a web browser also provides a familiar interface for the user if they have experience with the Internet and web browsers.
HTML based web pages form the structure of the CD. Javascript adds some functionality to the pages and helps them function more like an educational program. JAVA applets (small programs that run in a web browser) are an option for a future version of the CD, but they require much more planning to make them accessible to the disabled, so I didn’t continue developing with this technology. QUICKTIME media encoding works best for any audio and video clips, but the still pictures would use JPEG compression which is ubiquitous with any web browser, except for the very earliest browsers. Flash programing, though often suggested for this project by other web developers, was not a viable option for this edition of the CD because it requires a separate plugin and a higher level of computing power than some students may have.
The following are the official sites for the technologies I researched for this project:
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)
Official source: http://www.w3.org/
Javascript
Official source: http://developer.netscape.com/tech/javascript/
JAVA
Official source: http://www.sun.com/java/
QUICKTIME
Official source: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
Flash
Official source: http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/
This project has substantially expanded my knowledge of the Internet and its technologies. This multimedia CD could potentially increase the understanding of so many individuals, if prepared properly. In the end, I learned a lot. I am grateful for the opportunity to pursue this project, and I hope I can continue to develop my ideas for this CD in the immediate future.
The Internet publishing skills I have gained while preparing this CD are my main selling points now that I’m graduating. However, the Internet changes so quickly that this benefit is fleeting. The greatest lesson from this project is the new awareness I have of the disabled and their challenges. My new understanding of this often overlooked audience on the web will serve me well in my future career in web development and my graduate studies in Instructional Technology. In the end, I hope that my effort helps these brothers and sisters become more accomplished and happy with their lives. That would make any amount of work on this project worth it to me.