Uses of Streaming Media
Margie Adkins

Most of the examples of streaming media that we were asked to view were disappointing.  Some were too difficult to access and some were just plain frustrating to watch.

Windows Media Tutorial  This one was difficult for me to access.  When I clicked on the link in Netscape, I was given the message that I would need to download a certain plug-in to view it.  I went to the site for the download and found many different options of things to download.  I tried downloading the only one that said plug-in, then went back to the tutorial site.  There I got no response when I clicked on the button I was supposed to click on after downloading the plug-in.  I then tried accessing the tutorial using my compuserve browser.  There I found a turorial on excel that had a terrifically long beginning screen and no introduction to explain what I was to be viewing.  I found this whole process to be completely frustrating.

Indonesian Language Lesson  This one was much easier to access.  It used pretty still images rather than a talking head video while playing the audio portion of the language lesson.  It was also interactive in that the student could answer questions based on the video.  I thought this was a pretty good site.

Ascultation of Heart  This was disappointing in that the video stopped with the first image as the audio continued to move forward.  I also thought that the text of the audio was limited and boring.  Questions were asked, but answers weren't given.

Boundary Value Problems  I thought this was a pretty good site.  It gave written text, visual images and audio narration in a 2 frame format.  The video was embedded into the page itself making it easier to view the page and the video at the same time.

August Strindberg  This site was a terrible waste of video bandwidth.  It shows a woman talking about the subject, but the video frequently got stuck while the audio continued.  There was nothing about the video that helped me to better understand what the woman was talking about.

Survival of the Fittest  I quickly got frustrated with this site.  The first thing I read was that it was not supported by Netscape, my preferred browser.  So I switched to Internet Explorer which was the recommended browser.  What I got was a 4 frame black screen that took so long to load that I gave up and quit.

Rubric for Evaluating Instructional Presentation or Learning Center I was not able to access this site because it required a log-in name and password that I didn't have.

Overall I think these sites could all be improved by following the old adage that "less is more."  It is not necessary to add so much to a presentation that it becomes frustrating for the viewer to follow or too difficult to access. For a presentation to be useful, easy to access, and easy to follow, the creator needs to keep it as simple as possible.  That doesn't mean that the educational value needs to be sacrificed, just the extra bells and whistles.