K-12 Hypermedia Authoring

Cindy and my books have used HyperStudio as an example of a multimedia authoring environment for many years. We don’t think of what we do as promoting specific products, but it might come across that way to others. We see our approach as using the example(s) we anticipate that future teachers are most likely to have available when they move into classrooms. It is in our best interest to use examples that course instructors see as “mainstream.” HyperStudio is the product that is still featured in the just released 4th edition of our book.

If I had the book to redo, I would focus on a different product. At this point, I prefer eZedia. Our local K-12 district is switching over to this software and I really like the upside on this product. It is fairly easy to learn to use, has great high end features, and the company is still in the process of developing the software so I expect new and better things to come. I guess this is my frustration with HyperStudio. When the company was sold — the product (in my opinion) stagnated.

How would I improve either product? My preference would be to move multimedia toward Internet delivery. I would guess this is where eZedia is moving based on their new product eZediaQTI.

I guess everyone has an opinion. At present, this is my opinion on multimedia authoring products.

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ERIC’

I recently stumbled across an alert on a listserv attempting to activate readers to protest the proposed reworking of ERIC. I did not think too much more about this until I walked by the ERIC booth at AERA yesterday and the booth personnel were passing out stickers with the wording – SAVE ERIC.

The plan for the “New ERIC” makes the following changes:
Closes all 16 ERIC Clearinghouses
Eliminates personalized reference and referral services
Terminates AskERIC and clearinghouse question-answering services
Ends all networking and outreach activities, including ERIC-sponsored Listservs
Shuts down Clearinghouse Web sites currently visited by 22.5 million unique visitors a year

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