RE: Some questions

<From: Sander Gerritsen>
>> With question #2, if tele-learning is basically tutorials with video,
then
>> that's what I've been researching into with SMIL's.
> 
> Then I think you might me able to help me, somewhere in the near future :)

> 
> For example, I'll have to know how you can add notes to a 'tutorial with 
> audio/video'.

You can definitely do this with SMIL, and depending on the type of Viewer
you may require your audience to use, you may have more options. 

You can also do this with DHTML, although harder. HTML + Time is a
possibility, but I haven't been able to find out much about it, except that
it's like SMIL but allows JavaScript to be used. Almost like a Dynamic SMIL
(DSMIL ?).

You could also use a programming environment like Director or Authorware.
They are not to hard to use, but it does take some programming experience to
do (and they have a nice price tag: director = $1000; authorware = $2700 for
new products).

The product/language implementation will depend on what you plan on doing.
For example, a tutorial with quizzing possibilities would be best with
autorware/director, but if it's to be implemented on the internet and you
have the possibility to use CGI's, then DHTML/HTML+Time might be a better
choice. If you just want to do Video/Audio with text that can be modified,
then SMIL is also a good way to go. 

Again, it will greatly depend on each situation you wish to do. If you can
eliminate certain cases for all situations,(ie. quizzing) you should be able
to chose one instance to do what you want. 

In my case, I'm leaning toward SMIL, do to multi-language issues. I need to
have the correct audio play for the correct people (same with the text).
With the tutorials I'm working with, however, they require quizzing, so
authorware is being looked at to do this. 

>> If tele-learning is different, let me know and I'll see if I can find
>> someone here who might know a better answer.
> 
> 'Tutorials with video' is one aspect of tele-learning. In my case, tele-
> learning has to approach the current situation as much as possible. One
thing 
> I'll have to know is *how* you can model the real world (i.e. current 
> situation) and which modelling languages are suitable to do this. So 
> basically I'm looking for examples of the use of SMIL in a tele-learning 
> environment, especially with regard to learning tools.

Again, it will depend on what your "current situation" happens to be. If you
could describe a situation, I could give a more precise opinion. But it
would be an opinion. There are people at my job that are not to positive
about SMIL because it's still in 1.0 status (and because Microsoft would
prefer to go with HTML+Time). But coming from the ease of maintaining the
files, and the ease of creating them, that's the why I'd rather go with
SMIL.

Hope this helps,

david s.

Disclaimer...
All opinions are of my own views. They are not necessarily those of UNISYS.

Received on Wednesday, 3 February 1999 14:09:17 UTC