Vcasmo

**1.** **Description:**
[|Vcasmo] is one of the free technological tools. It is “a multimedia presentation solution for personal photo-video slide show, business presentation, training, academic teaching, [|sales pitching], seminar, conference, [|press release] meeting, live event” ( [|Vcasmo Home Page] ). Anyone can use Vcasmo for their own purpose provided that they have a computer with an internet access. Users do not have to buy or install any extra software when they wish to use Vcasmo. However, they can buy a webcam and a microphone if they want to use the live recording feature in Vcasmo. With Vcasmo, users can easily and precisely synchronize videos (It accepts [|WAV] , [|MPEG audio] , [|AVI] or [|MPEG video] ) with specific slides or images in the show. [|It] converts all videos to [|Flash video] so users can be much faster to get the asset ready to use. The maximum video size for users’ uploads is 100 MB. Hence, custom audio tracks, music and individual images can be uploaded. Videos is hosted at the Vcasmo site. They can be downloaded as movies or as [|Javascript applications] that users can host on a different site. Vcasmo hosting is free but free accounts are limited to 1GB in total storage and 200 MB upload/ download daily. However, there is not this kind of limitation to paid accounts. Furthermore, Vcasmo supports any language contents. However, interface-wise Vcasmo has so far provided English, Japanese and Chinese with a fully working interface. Automatically, Vcasmo can create both a [|RSS 2.0] and an Atom feed for users’ shows which can be subscribed to any standard [|RSS reader]. Vcasmo is a [|web 2.0 site] and because it is a [|web-based service], users can use it anywhere and anytime. It allows commenting, email-sharing, translatable content, ratings and bookmark of favorite shows. Also, it supports tagging, full shareable embedding codes and full screen-viewing for all the shows. Vcasmo has two screens (called dual-screen): the left side for videos and the right side for slides. It has many features as follows: If you would like to explore each feature, please visit this following link: http://www.vcasmo.com/my/feature
 * § Variety of file formats;
 * § Synchronization;
 * § Simple editor;
 * § Video seeking;
 * § Live recording;
 * § Subtitle;
 * § Linkable slide;
 * § Blog;
 * § Presentation group;
 * § Permission control;
 * § Embed in your blog;
 * § Comment;
 * § Add favorites;
 * § Tracking;
 * § Polling;
 * § Offline version;
 * § Facebook application;
 * § Presentation engine.

Inside Vcasmo, there is an [|Instant-VcasmoNew] which is a free and quick (without any sign-up) service. Users can input a [|YouTube] embed code and [|SlideShare] embed code, and then, input the slides change timing. Additionally, users will get a HTML code for embedding the presentation in their website/blog.


 * 2.** **History:**

Vcasmo is a joint project of Luar’s Production (a Hong Kong-based Web and Multimedia Development and Consulting Company) and Japan-based System and Management Computer Consultancy Inc (SAMCC). It is a follow-up innovation of a video presentation solution which was invented by Luar’s Production in February 2005. In May 2007, working on the joint project – Vcasmo – started. The team focused on studying how to make the old video presentation solution become more user-friendly and automatically for the clients. They targeted at helping clients shoot videos, convert PowerPoint and synchronize with videos manually, and provide hosting and video streaming service. Finally, Vcasmo serving clients for putting video and PowerPoint presentation on the web was launched on July 30, 2007. And, Luar Yen (the founder of Luar’s Production) and Yoshida Mitsushi (the CEO of SAMCC) are the co-founders of the joint project – Vcasmo.


 * 3.** **Impact on Teaching and Learning:**

Since Vcasmo has a variety of features as aforementioned, it will be a very useful tool for the sake of enriching teaching and learning approaches. It can also be considered as an ideal tool for e-learning, which will bring a learning opportunity for a lot of people who cannot attend face-to-face classroom courses. In this case, the teacher can broadcast his/her lectures on Vcasmo. Then, students can see the teacher’s gestures in class and also see the content of the lesson shown on the left-side screen of Vcasmo. By that, it is said that the teacher has been able to move the classroom to Vcasmo or to the web. "Vcasmo provides necessary social communication features for users to easily communicate with their friends, and for presentation share permission" ([|Vcasmo about us]). Additionally, it has a group access feature which can be controlled by the teacher. Therefore, Vcasmo is really an appropriate teaching and learning tool in which class activities such as pair work or group work discussions can be organized and controlled. Students can submit their work to Vcasmo via the [|blog feature] and then, they can give any comments on each other’s work. In addition, it has a subtitle feature so the teacher can take use of this to create a caption just in case some students need to read it. The subtitle/ caption will be of a great help for those who are deaf but desire to pursue their aspiration of getting higher education. They cannot hear but they can see and can read the lesson content shown on Vcasmo dual-screen. In conclusion, Vcasmo, with its all features, will have a great impact on teaching and learning if it is applied into the field of teaching and learning. It helps convey the knowledge through the internet to all kinds of learners. Most of Vcasmo’s features are free to use so it becomes more ideal to some people who want to make the best use of technology for the purpose of teaching and learning.


 * 4.** **Practical applications:**

Vcasmo is a multimedia presentation solution so it can be used for multi-purposes. In education, it is used to create an online presentation which the teacher needs to give students a chance to study at home. All kind of students can study with provided that they each have a computer with an internet access. Many in-class activities can be found in Vcasmo as well. For example, as mentioned above, students can work in pairs, in groups or can comment on each other’s work. It also can be used to create some tutorials for students’ reference. And in business, people can use Vcasmo for a business presentation and sales pitching. Or they can give a full demonstration on a product in a seminar or on any events so that the customer or audience can know about that product in detail. Vcasmo is a tool helping create an online multimedia presentation so it can be used in seminars, conferences, press release meeting, and live events, too.


 * 5.** **Examples or demonstrations:**

a. To create a multimedia presentation on Vcasmo, users just need to sign up so that they can own free accounts.

b. This is an example of <span class="wiki_link_ext">Vcasmo with a dual screen. The left side is for the videos and the right is for slides. People can watch the video whereas they can see the corresponding content of what the presenter mentions in his/her demonstration.

media type="custom" key="2066530" //(Source: From http://www.vcasmo.com/video/HHMIUCI/2522 )// c. Because the slides will show what the presenter says, people will wonder how each slide can automatically fit each scene in the video. The answer is that the [|simple editor] will let users define exactly where in their video their slides change. It is a user-friendly visual editor to arrange the slides in a timeline. Please see the picture. d. When users have a PowerPoint presentation and a video clip, they can upload them on <span class="wiki_link_ext">Vcasmo and then, make some adjustments so that the online presentation can match users’ expectation by clicking on one of the tools displayed below. e. Following is the demonstration of the [|Instant-VcasmoNew]. [|It] is a quick version of <span class="wiki_link_ext">Vcasmo which lets users synchronize the video in [|YouTube] and PowerPoint in [|SlideShare] through embed codes. When the codes from YouTube and Slideshare are input, click on the "Next" button and then, the following presentation will show. At the same time, Vcasmo defines the total time for each slide. From that, users can adjust the time of each slide so that it can fit the process of the video. media type="custom" key="2066492" //(Source: From [|http://www.vcasmo.com/instant/vcasmo/49)//]//

f. Users can use <span class="wiki_link_ext">Vcasmo to create a movie with a subtitle in multi-languages by choosing the screen format and using subtitle feature to make a caption for the movie like the one below. Below is a movie with a subtitle in Chinese and it is embedded in a blog environment.

//(Source: From// //[|http://labs.vcasmo.com/examples/skin/skin.php?skin=3&pid=83&st=43)]//

Vcasmo: http://www.vcasmo.com/. Retrieved on September 13, 2008; http://labs.vcasmo.com/en/home. Retrieved September 13, 2008. Vcasmo About us: http://www.vcasmo.com/company/aboutus. Retrieved on September 13, 2008. About.com: Financial software: http://financialsoft.about.com/od/glossaryindex1/g/WebService.htm. Retrieved on September 13, 2008. Cnet.news: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9770144-2.html. Retrieved on September 20, 2008. RobinGood: http://www.masternewmedia.org/presentation/multimedia-presentations/syncronize-PowerPoint-slides-with-video-recordings-Vcasmo-showcase-20070907.htm. Retrieved on September 20, 2008. Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIb1q-Bddvs. Retrieved September 22, 2008. Online Experiential Marketing: http://www.e-xperiential.com/?m=200710. Retrieved September 21, 2008 UK Web Focus: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/initial-experiences-with-vcasmo/. Retrieved September 20, 2008. Mashable (All That’s New on the Web): http://mashable.com/2007/08/31/vcasmo/. Retrieved on September 14, 2008.
 * 6.** **References:**

MPEG.ORG (MPEG Audio and Video): http://www.mpeg.org/ Wikipedia about AVI (Audio Video Interleave): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Interleave Wikipedia about WAV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV Wikipedia about Web 2.0 site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 Wikipedia about Flash Video: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Video Wikipedia about RSS 2.0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_2.0 AudioEnglish.net: http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/sales_pitch.htm Media Design: http://english.mediadesign.nl/helpdesk/glossary/ Javascript applications: http://webliminal.com/jscript/index.htm Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/
 * 7.** **External links:**

Hong Ngo //Department of Educational Technology// //University of Hawaii at Manoa// //Email//: // hongtp@hawaii.edu //