Module 4- Website Functionality
OVERVIEW
The Legacy Stories living history library is much more than a place to preserve and share personal and family history. It is a resource center for all things legacy. It is where you can connect with clients on a purposeful level. And it delivers the magical moment when clients experience their own Pict-Oral history.
This lesson teaches LegacyStories.Org website functionality for audio uploads, photo slideshows and recording oral narrative descriptions of photos. The website has other features you should become familiar with such as multimedia story pages and more but not required for the Legacy Matters Program.
Please know that some of the site functions depicted in this course have changed slightly due to a recent website upgrade and that revised tutorials are being created. Still, the basics remain the same and you should be able to do everything that is required to pass this lesson. Good luck. Let's begin!
TAKE COPIOUS NOTES!!
LegacyStories.Org Features
It's important to grasp what can be done in the LegacyStories.org web library. Take a quick tour!
UPLOADING AUDIO RECORDINGS
It is important to understand the difference between the My Audio section of the website and the My Slideshows section. It can be confusing because there is a web voice recorder in the Slideshow section used to record a description of the photo directly from the user's computer.
Although an audio recording can be made directly on sldeshow photos, this is still found in the My Slideshows section of the site. Conversely, My Audios is the audio upload section which happens to have an associated photo that can be uploaded with the audio. So, a Pict-Oral recordings can be created in either section. It's a matter of understanding how and why.
The My Audio section contains "pre-recorded" audios that may be from digitally converted reel-to-reel or cassette recordings from say early childhood, recitals, favorite music or oral histories, etc. With each audio in this section you can also upload a cover photo just like appears on any music CD. You can upload a more lengthy oral narrative (up to 50MBs or about 1-hr in length) along with a photo of the person or event in the "My Audio" section, essentially creating a Pict-Oral Memoir there too. The audio recordings in My Slideshows are limited to only 3 minutes in length. So there is a very distinct difference. Scroll up and you'll see both in the main menu.
This video describes the My Audio section of the website.
CLICK THE ICON ON THE LOWER RIGHT CORNER OF THE PLAYER TO VIEW FULL SCREEN
REVIEW POINTS
- Select an album from the drop down list or create a new album (All account types can have unlimited audio albums)
- Choose photo (.jpg) and (.mp3 or .wav) audio files from your computer
- Click check box to delete an audio
- Download link saves the audio file to your computer
- Leave a comment to encourage others to do the same
SPECIAL NOTE: Pict-Oral memoirs are intended to deliver content to today's Twitter generation where attention spans are limited to 140 characters or less. We face the reality that future generations will find ways to consume even more content with less time commitment.
In the interest of penetrating the ever-increasing volume of noise our children our subjected to we must deliver these Pict-Oral recordings in a format they are familiar with or the effort becomes far less impactful. To that end, our photo slideshow web voice recordings are limited to a maximum length of 3 minutes and the iPad app is limited to 5 minutes maximum recording time per photo narrative.
When recording with an external device such as a digital voice recorder, the length of each recording is only limited by the recorder's storage capacity. Although the website accepts recording file sizes up to 50 MBs which could equal as much as 1 hour recording time, for purposes of appealing to the broadest audience, each recording should not exceed 5 minutes in total length per photo narrative. Keep a timer handy.
CREATE A PHOTO ALBUM AND SLIDESHOW
In this section you will learn how to upload a photo into an album and create a simple slideshow for the 5 vintage photos.
CLICK THE ICON ON THE LOWER RIGHT CORNER OF THE PLAYER TO VIEW FULL SCREEN
REVIEW POINTS
- Free Shoe Box accounts only receive one photo album with a 100 photo limit
- Archive Vault accounts receive unlimited photo albums and up to 10,000 photos
- Hold down control key to select a group of photos to upload
- Make sure there are no special characters in the photo file name such as ( ' , & " )
- Refresh the browser occasionally to clear cache memory when uploading multiple photos
- Click on the thumbnail photo to start slide show beginning with the selected thumbnail photo
- To select a cover for the album select the preferred thumbnail to expand to full view. Click on the "Select as Cover" breadcrumb link
- Add description of photo when in slide show view
- Click the Download button after saving the recorded narrative. Save the file to your desktop
- Rename the audio file and related photo to the same names.
Recording Pict-OraLS WITH THE WEB VOICE RECORDER
Wherever you have internet service, wireless or otherwise, you can create a Pict-Oral recording directly from your computer or laptop by using the site's web voice recorder. Simply upload the 5 photos, begin the slideshow and ask the client to describe the photos, one at a time.
After saving each recording you will see a "Download" button to place the audio file on your desktop in preparation for creating the client's DVD. Rename the file to match the same name given to the original photo you uploaded into the slide show.
CLICK THE ICON ON THE LOWER RIGHT CORNER OF THE PLAYER TO VIEW FULL SCREEN
REVIEW POINTS:
- Need current version of flash media player
- Make sure your microphone is working or you've chosen the correct one
- Rerecord as much ss you want
- Make sure to click "Save" before closing out of the recorder window
- Click the green Download button and save to desktop
- Rename the audio file to correspond with the same name given the uploaded photo
- Burn the corresponding audio and video files to an archival DVD
- Use the share feature to invite family to view the Pict-Oral slide show
LESSON 4 QUIZ:
Demonstrate that you know how to create a Pict-Oral recording by uploading an audio recording with photo to the My Audios section of the website or by uploading 5 vintage photos into a photo album in the My Slideshows section and record with the web voice recorder. Doing this creates your own demo and at the same time starts your own Pict-Oral Memoir.
If you opted to use the My Audio section to create your Pict-Oral recording, go to My Audios then click on the title of the selected audio. Then click on the tiny envelope icon on the 'Share This' tool bar to send an email message to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Or copy and paste the URL on that same page into your email.
If you created your Pict-Oral recording by using the web voice recorder on photos in the My Slideshows section, the correct page is found by clicking on My Photos, then click on the album, then click on any one of the thumbnail photos included in the album. Once in full view with the recorded audio playing, click on the tiny envelope icon in the 'Share This' tool bar and send a message to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Or, copy and paste the URL on that same page into your email.
