Internet Basics for ESL Students
Lesson 6
Multimedia

Dictionary

• The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus

key words: images, video, animation, interactive, optical, digital, storage, laser, edutainment, kiosk.

Dialogue 1: using a new multimedia learning game

Pair work. Practice the conversation. Mary: Look, I bought the new Encarta encyclopedia on CD-ROM. It's a kind of "edutainment" software. Paul: It has great graphics and sound files. Mary: Let's see.... How does it work? Hmm, I put it in the CD-ROM drive and install it this way.

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An example: Riven is a popular multi-media game that uses sound and 3D graphics. The player must solve a mystery, and the clues are given as text, recorded sound and music and still images.

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Dialogue 2

Pair work. Practice the conversation. Jim: This is a new multi-media authoring tool. Now I can make applications with sound and graphics. Mary: Can you also put in animation? Jim: Yes, and I can use .avi files to show movies. Mary: Great! Let's go play your first game.

How does a CD-ROM work?
CD-ROM, which means Compact Disc-Read Only Memory, is an optical technology used for storing digital information on a plastic 12-centimeter disc. Over 650 MBs can be stored on one disc. That's about 300,000 printed pages, one hour of sound, or 15,000 graphics. A laser beam reads "pits" (depressions) and "lands" (flat areas) as 0s and 1s off the disc and makes them into a file.

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Group work: questions
1. Have you ever used a CD-ROM?
2. What CD-ROMS are popular now?
3. Have you ever used a kiosk? Where?
4. What does multi-media mean?

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Multimedia file extensions:
It is possible to tell what a file is by looking at the file extension. Here are some of the more common ones you might see:

The Filename:	What it is:
1. AVI	(Audio Video Interleaved) Video. This is MS Windows usual format for video files.
2. BMP	(Bitmap) Graphics. This can be a photo or illustration.
3. GIF	(Graphics Interchange Format) Graphics. A 256 color graphic based on a Compuserve format.
4. JPG	(Joint Photographic Experts Group) Photos. High quality images saved in a compressed format.
5. MID	(MIDI) Songs. Standard Windows format for storing large song files.
6 WAV	(Waveform) Sound: This is the standard sound file in a Windows environment.

Dialogue 3

Pair work. Practice the conversation. Jim: How do I play this movie file? It has an .avi extension. Paul: Windows 95 has a Multimedia Player which is powerful but simple. Just double-click on the .avi file you want to see. It will close when the file is finished playing. Jim: I see. How do I control the video player? Paul: If you want to get the controller, just double click on the title bar of the playing .avi.

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Activity:
Search the Internet and identify 6 file types. What are they? How are they used? Compare with a partner. Did you find the same file types?

October 31st is what holiday in the US and Europe? Use Alta Vist to find out.