El Salvador Practicum MOU Signing

This January, a small group composed of IEP, IPS, Business, T&I and TESOL students went to rural El Salvador for the Team Monterey Development Practicum.  Each year, Team Monterey partners with a local community based organization in the Bajo Lempa region of El Salvador called La Coordinadora Asociación Mangle.  A very poignant moment in the trip was when the two institutions formalized their relationship with the sining of a Memorandum of Understanding at La Coordinadora’s administrative headquarters on Thursday, January 22, 2009.  

Digital Media Commons graduate assistant and Team Monterey participant Ryan Gonzalez took a high-definition hard drive camcorder into the field to document the experiences and narratives for Salvadorans and MIIS students alike which will culminate into a 20-30 minute film.  

Ryan is currently in the final stages of editing the footage from the MOU ceremony.  Editing is being done on Final Cut Studio.  The documentary is anticipated to be completed in early April.

Opening Credits for MOU Ceremony:

Information Technology Logos III

 Logos’ development process.

By Pilar Chaves

Information Technology Services Logo Development II

Lab and Media Services logo proposal up-date by Pilar Chaves

 

Video Embeds in Powerpoint 2007

***In Progress***

I have received a lot of requests recently from people wanting to embed videos in Powerpoint.  This looks a lot better than simply having a link to an online video, which opens the browser and then loads the video in a messy Youtube or other online video site page.

As discussed in the post on embedding in Powerpoint 2003, there are basically two ways to do this.  Please see Video Embeds in Powerpoint 2003 for advantages and disadvantages of each method.

• Emebed a shockwave flash object which links directly to the youtube flash video file (or other online flash video) into your powerpoint the powerpoint that you.
  1. Show Developer Tab
  2. Click Developer
  3. Click More
  4. Embed “Shockwave Flash Object”
  5. Get the flash URL (fro
  6. Edit URL informationdjustments
  7. Enjoy!

  Instead of reinventing the wheel here is a detailed video on how the process works:

• The second method is to embed an actual video file which is located on your computer.  It has been my experience that Powerpoint 2007 is a little bit more flexible than 2003 in the kinds of video formats it accepts-but not much.  The Windows Media Video format should normally work great as it is the “native” Microsoft video format, but normally we don’t have the “luxury” of a file in .wmv format.  However, if you convert your file to an .mpg with using the mpeg1 video codec then you should be able to embed any of your files relatively easy.  There are a number of free programs which can do this: on the PC check out Super or Pazera.
  1. Convert your video to a compatible video format if necessary
  2. Click insert
  3. Click Movie>Movie From File
  4. Locate and select your video file
  5. Select how you want the video to play “automatically” or “when clicked.”
  6. Resize the video if desired by dragging the corners.

Basic Steps are as follows:

I liked the last video so much I am putting on another one by the same author.  This video shows how to take a Youtube video and then convert the file to mpg1 using super and then embed it into Powerpoint.

Video Embeds in Powerpoint 2003

***In Progress***

I have received a lot of requests recently from people wanting to embed videos in Powerpoint.  This looks a lot better than simply having a link to an online video, which opens the browser and then loads the video in a messy Youtube or other online video site page.

Basically there are two ways to do this.

• Emebed a shockwave flash object which links directly to the youtube flash video file (or other online flash video) to the powerpoint that you.    This assumes that during the presentation there will be an internet connection.  The big advantage is that you don’t need to worry about video formats, because the flash format works great.  Below is an example of how to do this with a Youtube Video in Powerpoint 2003.

In powerpoint 2007 you will first need to enable access to developer tools. This is done by:

• Embed an actual video file which is located on your computer.  If you have a video on your hard drive which you would like to embed This has the benefit of not needing a live internet connection, however, it is important to remember that the video file is not actually a part of the powerpoint file and therefore if you copy the powerpoint to another computer or a jumpdrive or anything like that you will need to also copy the video file over.

Information Technology Services Logo Development

 

Information Technology Services and its associate departments, Lab and Media Services and Student Services, are currently working on the development of their logos. Here is a sample of the proposal. Take a look and send your feedback!

 These logos were designed by Pilar Chaves using Adobe Ilustrator.

MIIS Spotlight: Amity Malack

In the spotlight is 2nd year MAIPS student Amity Malack.  Amity has specialized in International Migration Policy Studies and will be heading off to the IOM in Bangkok for IPSS and will graduate in August.  The spotlight series is a project that Institute Development Officer Shirley Coly is working on.  

The video was shot and edited by Ryan Gonzalez of the Digital Media Commons using a high definition camcorder and iMovie HD.  This is the first of three video clips that will be sent to friends of the Institute during the upcoming holiday season.

Digital Storytelling Workshops

This last month we had workshops on Digital Storytelling, using Macs and PCs. Take a look!

For more information go to Digital Storytelling Resources.

The DMC gets a new TV!

Watch as the DMC’s new high definition flat screen TV gets installed!

In the Spotlight: Professor Nuket Kardam

Last week I had the pleasure of working with Professor Nuket Kardam of the International Policy School on a creative addition she wanted to use with a grant proposal for the Institute.  Her project is entitled “Visionary Women: Culture and Women’s Voices from Turkey” and she proposes displaying Turkey’s diversity and cultural richness through digital story telling.  The focus of her work will be women who are leaders that exude a communitarian spirit, that are trustworthy, humble, patient, and generous.

For the creative part of her project, Professor Kardam wanted to put together a slideshow of photos that included background music and a voiceover.  We used photos that were digitally scanned, a song from her iTunes library and iMovie 08 to put it all together.  

It was great to collaborate with Professor Kardam as she was very enthusiastic about incorporating digital media into her work.  After we finished the editing we uploaded the video to youtube.com so she could share this with her colleagues, students, family and friends.