There is a lot of confusion around the subject of digital colour and the process of ensuring colour consistency for still images. This document provides an introduction to the different methods used to manage digital colour.
Read full advice document...Colour is an area of digital imaging that can lead to considerable confusion. This document provides a detailed introduction to colour theory.
Read full advice document...This document provides a detailed explanation of the different approaches to colour management. The document also covers the process of calibration of monitors, scanners and printers as well as conversion between aditive and subtractive colour systems.
Read full advice document...This is a text version of the workflow diagram in the advice document: Generic Image Workflow.
Read full advice document...This document reviews the general concepts of 'best practice' within an image digitisation workflow and then looks at how these concepts can be mapped onto the workflow, to allow the efficient production of all required deliverables.
Read full advice document...How the collection digitised its documents and photographs.
Read full advice document...This document is intended as a quick reference guide, answering frequently asked questions about copyright. You are advised to check reference works and/or seek legal advice for your specific circumstances.
Read full advice document...The 35mm slide has long played a key role for delivering images in the teaching and learning environment. However, recent improvements in capture and delivery technology have seen digital images virtually replace analogue media. Many slide collections now have to be converted to a format which can more easily be incorporated into the modern workflow. This document explains the process of converting analogue slides into digital images and preparing them for delivery.
Read full advice document...This document provides a guide to good practice in still image capture to help the user to design a workflow for capture and optimisation. The document highlights the main points that should be considered to ensure the highest quality output from your equipment.
Read full advice document...In planning a digitisation project, one of the major considerations will be where you decide to do the digitising and how to make best use of the workspace. Ensuring the area is designed and set up correctly will not only help establish a smooth and effective workflow, but will also make sure the project personnel involved are at their happiest and therefore at their most productive. This document looks at the main issues to be considered when planning and setting up a workspace for digital imaging.
Read full advice document...This short case study looks at how the newly established History of Art department at University College Cork went about building a collection of images to support its teaching. Although it would have preferred to create an all-digital collection, the constraints of time, money and copyright led the department to take a hybrid approach, using a mix of formats, drawn from several different sources.
Read full advice document...Staffordshire Past Track is a web-based multimedia archive related to the history and cultural heritage of Staffordshire. The bulk of the collection is comprised of photographic or printed images from the past 150 years. Noteworthy features of the Past Track project are its bespoke content management system and a user interface that provides, among other functions, map-based searching, an image zoom facility, and user-annotated albums.
Read full advice document...This is the third part of a five part advice document that provides background information on video pre-production.
The five parts are:
1. Introduction to planning
2. Define and analyse your production
3. Activities and dependencies
4. Estimates and schedules
5. Analyse risk and evaluate
Although these advice documents may be useful if you are involved in filming a single activity (e.g. a lecture or interview), they are primarily aimed at those developing more complex projects. For basic guides to filming, please follow the links to related advice on the right.
Read full advice document...This is the final part of a five part advice document that provides background information on video pre-production.
The five parts are:
1. Introduction to planning
2. Define and analyse your production
3. Activities and dependencies
4. Estimates and schedules
5. Analyse risk and evaluate
Although these advice documents may be useful if you are involved in filming a single activity (e.g. a lecture or interview), they are primarily aimed at those developing more complex projects. For basic guides to filming, please follow the links to related advice on the right.
Read full advice document...This is the forth part of a five part advice document that provides background information on video pre-production.
The five parts are:
1. Introduction to planning
2. Define and analyse your production
3. Activities and dependencies
4. Estimates and schedules
5. Analyse risk and evaluate
Although these advice documents may be useful if you are involved in filming a single activity (e.g. a lecture or interview), they are primarily aimed at those developing more complex projects. For basic guides to filming, please follow the links to related advice on the right.
Read full advice document...This is the first part of a five part advice document that provides background information on video pre-production.
The five parts are:
1. Introduction to planning
2. Define and analyse your production
3. Activities and dependencies
4. Estimates and schedules
5. Analyse risk and evaluate
Although these advice documents may be useful if you are involved in filming a single activity (e.g. a lecture or interview), they are primarily aimed at those developing more complex projects. For basic guides to filming, please follow the links to related advice on the right.
Read full advice document...We introduce a number of screen recording software options for capturing moving image and audio activity on a computer screen.
Read full advice document...This advice document brings to your attention the free online bookmark service Delicious. Its ability to allow you to manage bookmarks by saving, searching and sharing will be of interest to anybody who has to manage many bookmarks for individuals or groups. It has applications of use for teaching and learning which will be described below.
Read full advice document...An overview of all the elements involved in producing screencasts at different levels of complexity, and for a variety of educational purposes. We examine some technical tools and methods for screencast creation from the ground up, and for those already familiar with screencasting there are ideas and tips for improving quality and effectiveness.
Read full advice document...This advice document provides some basic information on rights issues associated with creating time-based digital media resources. By time-based we mean resources that change over time - including spoken audio, music, animation, and video - as opposed to still images or screen shots, which do not change over time. Rights issues include copyright, recording rights, moral rights and performance rights.
Read full advice document...This document examines issues relating to quality assurance from a project management perspective. It proposes a four-layer model for assuring quality and looks at some of the more common reasons for problems with output quality. This document is intended to be used by collection managers intending to digitise their resources or by managers of digitisation projects.
Read full advice document...The following units are the BTEC accredited assessment components of our still image professional development certificate and award.
Read course description...The use of video in education has ceased to be an occasional occurrence, but the quality of videos has not kept pace with their popularity. This course is intended to instil basic competence in the many areas of knowledge that are needed to produce good video work. A hands-on approach is taken, such that during the two days of learning about video techniques the participants will actually produce two short videos. All equipment and facilities will be supplied.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a two-day course. Course fees are as follows:
Bringing together experts in digital media and copyright law this seminar created by the JISC Advance services, JISC Digital Media and JISC Legal, uses common real-world scenarios to focus on how copyright impacts on the use of digital media. The seminar will allow participants to gain an understanding of the common issues and challenges facing institutions in the current copyright landscape.
Seminar fees: £100 per participant. Includes lunch and refreshments. There will be a pre-seminar online exercise attendees are requested to complete. This is merely to provide some background knowledge prior to the seminar.
Screencasts - videos of on-screen computer activity, accompanied by voice-over, and possibly other media (webcam video, Powerpoint slides etc) - have in recent times increased massively in popularity, scope and acceptance, and can now provide a sophisticated learning experience, incorporating slides, images, video, audio, screen annotation, subtitles, interactive quizzes and more.. Whether you want to narrate a presentation, demonstrate the use of software, or record and share your screen for any other reason, a screencast may well be the answer.
This practical one-day workshop provides an opportunity to learn how to maximise the value of screencasting in presentation, demonstration and digital storytelling for teaching and learning, in the context of the whole workflow from planning your own short screencast to rendering it as a video. We've even had some delegates posting finished screencasts to YouTube by the end of the day!
Read course description...Analogue media deteriorates at an alarming rate and few digitisation projects can hope to retrieve great signals from aged collections. In order to archive maximum usefulness some basic digital remastering is often required. Fortunately, today's digital tools mean we can easily remove unwanted 'defects' whether hisses and scratches from shellac discs or the distorted colours of old videotapes
N.B. This course covers digital restoration of audio-visual resources only. It does not cover restoration of still images
Read course description...This course looks at the technical background behind, and procedures for, image capture and optimisation delivered through hands-on activities. This workshop will teach you how to produce the correct end product for your intended purpose and teach you the easy 'science' of scanning to remove the guesswork from your image capture.
Read course description...This action packed course looks in depth at using a digital SLR's creative controls to put you in charge of your photography. You will also have plenty of hands-on practice with the camera and be shown how to effectively illuminate 2D and 3D objects using tungsten and fluorescent studio lighting.
Read course description...This entry level course will provide you with an understanding of the techniques and skills needed to produce great quality images from a digital SLR camera with ease. Some illuminating background theory will be supported by hands-on practical exercises in photography.
Read course description...Effective colour management is vital within the digital workflow and anyone working with digital images should understand and be employing the core principles. This training course introduces colour management theory and 'good practice' to ensure that you understand how to achieve consistent and accurate colour between applications, platforms, and devices.
Read course description...This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to record and produce recordings of spoken word audio, with specific emphasis being placed upon the recording of lectures, seminars and events. You will learn the basic concepts of recording technologies and through practical exercises you will learn how to confidently apply these to practical situations. The workshop will also introduce you to ideas for delivering new media such as podcasting, and suggest methods for managing your digital recordings.
Read course description...This course is designed specifically to help you consider how to effectively incorporate metadata into the fabric of your image collection, through explanation, discussion and practical activities.
Read course description...Over the past fifty years the videotape has grown from an obscure television production tool into a vibrant and vital social document. But videotape has proved to be a fragile long-term medium and its contents are at risk. This risk can only be mitigated through careful planning. This workshop will investigate the challenges associated with the preservation of videotapes. Through practical exercises, we will look at how digitising materials to archival standards can both safeguard and help develop a collection. We will also look at the challenge of creating a sustainable digital collection. Quality assurance procedures and best practice will be referred to throughout.
Read course description...This entry level course provides an easy to understand theoretical overview of digital images and image capture combined with practical exercises using both a scanner and digital SLR camera for those getting started with creating digital images.
Read course description...This one day workshop focuses on the effective use of digital media online including the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). During the workshop attendees will discover how to improve their presentation resources, know when and how digital media can be used to enhance learning materials and be able to successfully embed their new knowledge in their VLE and online services.
Read course description...If you've ever needed to find images, video or audio you can use in your work materials then this course is for you. It will guide you to all the best places to locate free-to-use, copyright-cleared digital media resources for use in teaching and learning. You'll never use Google to find digital media again!
Read course description...This course will get you up and running with Adobe Photoshop. You will learn key concepts and skills to enable you to understand and start using this exciting application with confidence.
Read course description...Now that many important materials are in a digital form, building an accessible online media collection which successfully delivers images, sounds, video and other media is a goal of many institutions.
Until recently, expensive Digital Asset Management systems where the most viable option, but now open source server applications such as Dspace, Omeka and Drupal hold the promise of truly interoperable and standards-based collection management.
This one day course will offer a model of digital collection management, based upon open source solutions. Attendees will gain hands-on experience of planning, building, managing and delivering a digital media collection.
Read course description...This course covers the essential skills you need in order to maximise the quality and visual appeal of digital images from both scanners and digital cameras. You will learn the tips and tricks necessary to transform your images quickly and easily.
Read course description...This course will provide you with a hands-on experience of creating, managing and delivering a departmental image collection. You will acquire the foundation knowledge required to make well informed decisions about building an image library. You will also have the opportunity to discuss and share information with people from the HE/FE/Cultural sector facing similar issues in order to help you develop practical solutions.
Read course description...This informative and stimulating course is run by a leading expert in copyright. It looks in-depth at how copyright and other legal issues impact upon digital media and it will enable you to develop practical approaches to clearing and managing those rights within your own collections.
Read course description...To meet the skills required by libraries, archives and institutions to digitise their existing analogue collections, this course aims to provide a complete introduction to the theory and practicalities of successfully digitising analogue audio resources. The workshop will provide hands-on tuition alongside presenting theoretical knowledge with group discussions of topics surrounding the digital lifecycle, in a digitisation project based context. The workshop has been designed as a precursor for our more technical, media specific training modules. The practical elements will involve digitising audiocassette tapes as example media.
Read course description...This course provides a thorough practical overview of how to digitise images and text from print-based materials. You will use a desktop scanner and related technology to effectively enable you to leverage the rights granted to you by the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) scanning licence.
Read course description...This course is designed to meet the requirements of staff in libraries, archives and other related institutions needing to digitise existing analogue collections. The course builds on our Digitising Analogue Audio workshop, by introducing a range of legacy audio media and examining them in more detail.
The workshop will provide the opportunity to both handle these media and configure the equipment needed for their successful playback. A recommended, pragmatic workflow will be followed.
Essential theoretical and interesting historical information is included which together contribute to understanding: the development of audio recording technologies; how to handle and best reproduce each medium; how to digitise each medium to archival standard.
Read course description...Over at the Loughborough University E-learning blog, Charles Shields introduces a lecturer at the Design School using video to demonstrate metal machining equipment via QR code.
Read blog entry...The normal course of video production separates into a three distinct phases: pre-production (planning), production (filming) and post production (editing). Because production and post production normally employ most of the physical resources used in a project (travel, recording media, equipment, personnel) it is important to manage these resources and the risks involved as efficiently as possible - and to do that you need to plan carefully.
Here are our 7 top tips for successful video production planning:
Read blog entry...Last week I attended a really inspiring day run by the Engaging Students Through In-Class Technology (ESTICT) SIG Steering Group and hosted by the University of Bath.
Read blog entry...It’s interesting that, for a tool to be useful, it doesn’t need to do something new; rather, it can do something old, but in a new way. That new way might be a bit simpler or a bit faster, or it might just be different, and that difference is all it needs to make it useful.
Read blog entry...One of the key tools needed to produce resources is the use of various workflows.
Read blog entry...Our sister service has recently released a case study detailing work that Greenhead College has done on creating a video storage system for use with Moodle.
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Joss Winn from the University of Lincoln, nicely explains how 'Creating a PDF or eBook from an RSS feed' can easily be done. Image credit.
Read blog entry...This short concept video demonstrates how Sports Illustrated might work in the near future using a tablet/mobile device. found via The Fischbowl
Read blog entry...I just came across a great time-lapse video (3:17) detailing the creation of a cover for Macworld magazine. Peter details it in full on his website, including hardware used and the overall process. Well worth a watch if you have never seen the effort it takes to create a professional photo and cover design.
Read blog entry...Backing up is the first thing that I think about once I have any new data on a new device.
Read blog entry...If you're like me, you may have wondered at some point how to download/back-up all of your full size Flickr images. Dan Benjamin of Hivelogic has a solution that uses a python script to solve this pesty issue.
Read blog entry...We have just released an updated version of our Using WebCT with digital media. This advice document aims to introduce WebCT and how you can use digital media to support your WebCT course content. We look at why digital media can enhance the teaching and learning experience.
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Last week Rich Belson from Western Computer in Bristol came in to our offices to give us a demo of Apple Podcast Producer, with specific focus on its use in education. Its premise is to support the recording, uploading, file management and delivery of podcasts using audio, video and/or screen capture.
Read blog entry...You're on a roll, you're recording your best piece of audio ever..... and then one of your phones in the room rings, throwing you completely off. Although it seems obvious, you would be surprised at how easy it is to ruin a recording by being thrown off due to the phone ringing. Remember to turn off/silence/unplug your phones when recording. More recently this also applies to computer noises such as twitter/facebook alerts. If you hear the Microsoft Windows shutting down sound then you have probably lost your recording anyway! If you have any tips yourself, please do add them to the comments.
Read blog entry...Last week the Futures Café at the University of Bristol held a presentation about cloud computing with particular reference to the use of Google Docs in education.
Read blog entry...Here's a nice little promo with a few effects shots that lets you see the Red being used on a real shoot.
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