Digital Applications Classes 2007-2008

Welcome Class! First you will learn generalities about Digital Technology and the iLife Suite of products: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand. What is Digital? What are pixels? What are file formats? What are the iLife applications? How are they important in manipulating digital media? What can we do with these programs? Be patient! You have to learn the essentials. The faster you learn the faster we can work on interesting projects and fun hands-on activities.

Then, you will start working with each iLife application more extensively, following exercises and learning how each one works and how we can integrate all of them when we are creating digital media projects.

The first program that you will learn is iPhoto. You will learn to download, organize, edit, and share digital photos; you will be able to create your own albums, books, slide shows, web pages and movies. You can also store and organize photos for use in your digital movies (using iMovie). You will also learn to select music from iTunes to accompany a slide show and to create special sound and visual effects.

We will start using the iLife 05 Textbook, pages 67 - 77 (Lesson 3). Most of the computers in the Mac Lab have the 2006 Version (or higher versions) of the iLife products. I will guide you through all of the exercises and teach you the differences between the different versions. We will learn mostly by putting in practice what the textbooks, my presentations and my explanations teach you. The more we practice, the faster we will learn...

Read pages 64 - 77 very carefully and follow the first exercise (L3 Student roll1 - which will be called "Student roll 1" later on). You have to work individually to complete this one. Do not hesitate to ask me any questions. The important thing is to follow the instructions carefully and to fully understand the exercises before continuing with the next ones. DO NOT RUSH, work on each exercise slowly and attentively; it is important that you understand the different steps - like how to download the pictures, how to organize them, etc.

Class Homework: Copy or type the last three paragraphs on page 77, the Note on page 71 (note that the Command key is the "apple" key on the Mac Keyboard), and the Tip on page 75.

Also, answer the following questions - you can work in groups of two to answer these:

1. Where are the “Sources” in the iPhoto Window? What’s in there? Check page 67.

2. What’s an “album”? – page 67.

3. How are iTunes and iPhoto similar? (Mention at least three similarities)

4. What happens to the photos when you import them in iPhoto (where do they end up)? - answer on page 69.

5. When you are importing pictures from a digital camera, how do you know iPhoto is ready to import them?

6. How are the Library photos organized in iPhoto?
7. What is the default view of your photos?
8. How do you open and close a roll?
9. Where is the roll label?
10. How can you change the roll name?
11. How do you delete unwanted pictures?
12. How do you rotate or reorient your photos?
13. How do you change the default direction in which the Rotate Button rotates your photos?
14. How do you select consecutive multiple shots at once?
15. How do you select shots that aren't next to one another (non-consecutive)?

You will have to study these notes and questions for your First Quiz - September 20.

* If you complete the exercise and the class homework before other students, you can do the following practice: download pictures of your choice (one theme, ie. flowers) - from the Internet or from your digital camera (you can also connect to the Server and download photos from the iLife 05 folder - ask me for more directions). Organize them all in one film roll. Change the name of the roll to the "theme name". Delete unwanted photos, rotate the ones that are not right side up. (This will count as Extra-Credit)