JISC Digital Media: News

Organising your images with Flickr

2010-09-08T08:37:59Z

We’ve just released a freshly updated version of our advice document Using Flickr to Organise a Collection of Images.

Photo by yvestown on Flickr - used under a Creative Commons licence

Whether you have a small number of photographs you would like to share privately with a few colleagues, or a larger collection you need to make more widely available, the photo sharing site Flickr has the sorts of features and tools that make it a potential alternative to setting up an in-house image database - or, if not a replacement for your own system, a useful additional means of exposing your collection to a larger audience.

As well as exploring some of the more useful features, this document will also highlight Flickr’s limitations and point out areas where particular consideration needs to be taken.

Read our advice on Using Flickr to Organise a Collection of Images.

New advice on accessibility issues for digital media

2010-09-01T09:05:06Z

JISC Digital Media has published a new advice document titled Basic Guide to Accessibility.

Not surprisingly, this guide looks at the issue of accessibility, including the concept of ‘reasonable adjustment.’ The advantages of digital media for accessibility are discussed, followed by sets of guidelines and a basic accessibility check that can be performed on existing documents.

Note that this document is intended as a very basic introduction to the subject of accessibility. This vast subject is dealt with in depth by our sister service JISC TechDis. Pointers to various TechDis resources appear throughout our document: they should be considered a stepping-off point for exploration of the wealth of material TechDis supplies.

Read our Basic Guide to Accessibility.

Fixing it in the mix

2010-08-25T08:11:30Z

We have just published a new advice document on Audio Post-Production Techniques for Spoken Word.

Post-production covers the treatment of digital files once a recording has been done to help improve the audible quality and cover up any flaws from the recording stage.

This paper introduces the concept of post-production and discusses some of the most common techniques used to improve spoken word audio with screen casting tutorials and audio examples to help you get the most out of your recordings.

Photo by Gerrysan on Flickr - used under a Creative Commons licence

New advice on free online screencasting tools

2010-08-18T08:30:57Z

As part of our ongoing series of guides to free online media creation and editing tools, we’ve just added a new advice document Free Online Screencasting Tools.

Screencasting is a hot topic at the moment, with the explosion of digital video on the web, and this advice document looks at some of the free tools available online which will enable you to capture your screen, microphone and webcam, and start publishing simple screencasts online. These services are easy to use, and critically they don’t even require you to install any software at all beyond a web browser (which, if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you already have..)

Online services are also useful for experienced screencasters, as they’re accessible anywhere, on pretty much any machine, and they offer some quick and convenient methods for publishing and sharing your screencasts when time is of the essence, or resources are limited.

New training dates for Sep - Dec

2010-08-13T10:01:02Z

We’ve just pubished our new training programme for September to December.

Photo by ant.photos on Flickr - used under a Creative Commons licence

JISC Digital Media courses are run in small groups, giving attendees plenty of opportunity to discuss individual issues with the tutors and other participants.

The courses focus on providing vital hands-on training supported with well structured technical information to give attendees the skills, knowledge and confidence required to work with digital media (still images, moving images and audio).

The Training page has all the details.

Introduction to the copystand

2010-08-11T08:49:22Z

Digital SLRs are increasingly being used to capture 2D objects which until recently would have been digitised using a scanner. Recognising the increasing use of the copystand we have just published a new document which explains what it is and how to use it is used: The Copystand.

Copystand. Image courtesy of kaiser-fototechnik

Screencasting workshop - extra date

2010-08-06T14:52:28Z

We’re now taking bookings for our new Building Effective Screencasts workshop on September 16th. UPDATE: 16th Sep is now fully booked, but we have added an extra date Tuesday 12th October.

Creating successful screencasts requires a knowledge of the whole screencasting workflow, from planning, though production, to delivery. There are many elements that can go into a screencast, and in this workshop we’ll be looking at each stage of the process in turn, and how to maximise quality and consistency.

This is a hands-on session, and there’ll be plenty of practical exercises, guided by expert trainers with specific screencasting experience. If you want to know how to capture a voice-over narration, enhance your screen and highlight important elements, or tailor your screencast materials to your audience’s needs in any other way, then this is the workshop for you.

Workshop groups are small to enable more personal tuition, so places are limited.

If you’d like further information please email info@jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk, or you can book a place here.

New online tutorials on finding video and audio resources

2010-08-05T09:13:40Z

JISC Digital Media in conjunction with the Virtual Training Suite (VTS) have launched two new online tutorials: Internet for Audio Resources and Internet for Video and Moving Images.

The free-to-use tutorials have been designed to assist staff and students within the education sector to locate audio and video for use in teaching and learning.

Created as part of the Virtual Training Suite the tutorials have been funded by JISC Advance.

Internet for Audio Resources

Internet Audio Resources is a free online tutorial to help you learn how to use the Internet to find audio resources for your work quickly and efficiently.

Internet for Video and Moving Images

Internet for Video and Moving Image Resources is a free online tutorial to help you learn how to use the Internet to find video resources for your work quickly and efficiently.

Dave Kilbey, Training Coordinator at JISC Digital Media said, “the emphasis of the tutorials is on finding copyright-cleared resources, which are available free of charge; facilitating users with quick, hassle-free access to a vast range of online audio and video resources.”

These two new tutorials follow the launch 22 months ago of the very successful Internet for Image Searching tutorial.

Guide to GIMP image editor

2010-08-04T08:09:19Z

Following our recent guide to free online image editors, we have updated our Introduction to GIMP Image Editing Software.

GIMP is a free open source image editing program that has a comprehensive set of tools comparable to those available in commercial software such as Adobe Photoshop.

Our guide shows how you can simulate a shallow depth of field to focus attention on a particular part of an image using GIMP’s Gaussian Blur filter

GIMP can help you with simple and advanced image editing tasks - this document looks at the GIMP features that are of most use to those wanting to edit images for use in teaching and research. Read our Introduction to GIMP Image Editing Software.

Free online audio editing tools

2010-07-28T14:53:24Z

A new advice document looking at free to use online tools for recording, editing and converting audio files.

Rather than downloading software and installing it on your computer, it is now possible to use web hosted services to edit and arrange many types of media files. Upload or record from any machine connected to the internet, and use these free online tools to manipulate, edit and convert your content, then download or publish the results. No special software necessary at all, and usually at no cost!

Our new advice document - Free Online Audio Editors - looks at some of these online tools designed specifically for manipulating digital audio, and examines at what you can do, and which service might be best suited to particular tasks. It is a companion document to our recent guide to Free Online Image Editing Tools, and we have a similar guide to online screencasting tools coming up soon too.