Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, has established a partnership with the San Francisco-based multimedia software company Macromedia to create M-MEDIA, the On-Line Interactive Curriculum Exchange.
Installed in the beginning of 1992’s academic year, this project is a repository node on the Internet containing demonstration versions of Macintosh-based multimedia courseware developed using Macromedia’s authoring tools, Authorware Professional, and MacroMind Director. Ten disk folders have been established to represent a broad range of curricula. Macromedia has authorized license-free education distribution of all Authorware and Director applications via M-MEDIA.
Any instructor who has developed or who is interested in multimedia courseware on Authorware or Director can submit a 1MB demonstration application of software to the repository via file transfer protocol (ftp) to the repository node address. Instructors can see what has been done with a certain kind of multimedia presentation, then download and use it. Developers are also able to share their programs through this network.
Those with a Macintosh can directly access the node using ftp or gopher technology. Users with dialup or hardwired serial access to a larger host on the Internet can transfer files from the node to the larger host and download them to the computer, or upload files from the computer to the host and then transfer them to the node.
It took most of the summer of 1992 to develop the right architecture to handle the volume of anticipated use for the project. A select group of beta testers helped work through the bugs. The system is now fully operational and is in a seeding mode, according to Kevin Howat of Macromedia.
At the EDUCOM conference in Baltimore, Md., this past October, Macromedia was able to demonstrate the project through a direct Internet hookup at the Apple booth. According to Howat, it was an effective way to communicate to potential users how easy M-MEDIA is to use.
For information, contact Kevin Howat at Macromedia, 600 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94103; (415) 252-2201. The repository node address is m-media.muohio.edu.
