"Uploading and accessing online content" was the original title of this project. I deliberately kept it vague because I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do. I'm the learning manager of the Precision Machinist program at the Holland College Aerospace Centre at Slemon Park. In industrial trades and technology programs, the majority of the learning is done in a hands on fashion with a shop as the setting. I wanted a project that would fit into this environment. I knew it would have to photo or video related. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures. This project has been an evolution of a vague goal of logging activity with video and easily accessing it.

I dug out my dusty 3 year old camera that probably had less than two hours total use and from which I had never downloaded video. I had a fuzzy idea of making a video, uploading it to YouTube, and sharing it. Initially I was able to retrieve photos from the camera, but not video. I was missing part of the software that came with the camera. Then somebody asked me if I had an SD card reader. "You don't need any software", they said. Plug it in to any USB port anywhere and retrieve all your content. Doh! After completing this step, I realized the videos were too long and awkward. Unless you operate your camera with 100% of your attention, the videos won't be very attention grabbing. We've all come to appreciate the Commoncraft videos for their brevity and conciseness. Editing would be required.

"No problem", I thought. I'll download Windows Movie Maker and do some editing. I proceeded to a download location and discovered that Movie Maker requires a Windows XP or newer operating system. I was running Windows 2000 Pro and if WMM wasn't installed in our computer lab I would have to have everyone download and install it. I started looking for online applications and discovered jumpcut.

Wikapedia defines a jump cut as a cut in film editing where the middle section of a continuous shot is removed, and the beginning and end of the shot are then joined together. The technique breaks continuity in time and produces a startling effect. Jumpcut, the online application, will produce this effect and perform many other functions. Jumpcut is a Yahoo owned site, so content, such as photos, can be imported from Flikr.

The file size of a video clip is very large, relative to the length of play. A collection of them can soon become unwieldy. Jumpcut provides a way to manage, store, and share videos, as well as edit them into a concise, fast paced method of presenting informatiom. Short videos can be embedded or shared in a presentation.

The drawbacks are:

1. Once uploaded, your content becomes the property of the jumpcut site.

2. You must constantly check the private checkbox when you are creating content, if you do not wish your video to be shared. The checkboxes always default to a public setting, so users always have to be aware of this. If you forget to check off  "private" on every clip of a movie compilation, you may find your content being shared. Even if you go back later and check the "private" setting, it's too late. If another user has used your clip in their content, it's too late. It's out there.

3. Content can be deleted, but if it has been shared, it's too late. It's out there.

4. Another checkbox to be aware of; is the one that asks you if you'd like to receive e-mail updates. If you don't like spam in your e-mail inbox, say no to this one. This is advisable when joining any site online.

5. The jumpcut site is still under development, so content can't be retrieved or downloaded. This is slated to change in the future, but I'm guessing that downloading may come at a cost.

For more info go to: http://jumpcut.com/company/faq

In a classroom situation, I picture jumpcut as a useful tool for bringing videos into a multimedia presentation and a tool for students to share videos. This is especially true in a trades & technology environment, where much of the work is done in a shop environment. Video could be a method of documenting work.

KenM