The Public Service Announcement A laboratory assignment for COSC 311

PSA Characteristics Short 30 to 60 seconds Seeks to change behavior or create awareness Often site a statistic Concludes with a strong statement urging action Often has an easy to remember phrase “Only YOU can prevent forest fires”

PSA topics for COSC311 Involve a digital technology Involve society in general or college student population Examples: Software piracy Identity theft Online scams Computer waste threatens environment Avoid repetitive stress injuries

How to create a PSA, part 1 Topic – discuss with instructor Powerpoint – outline and speaker’s notes Print speaker’s notes for announcer to read Export PPT slides to JPEG image files Move images to network server

How to create a PSA, part 2 On instructor’s workstation Run program: Vicdlt Studio –View your slides as you speak –Video and audio to.mov file –Slide timing goes to.sml file Run program: Real Producer Compresses the.mov to.ra Run program: Real Viewer –The.sml file is the main file

Conclusion PSA’s are a way to … become familiar with some important problems with digital technologies Learn about digital multimedia Be creative Be ready for the “report” team project assignment which uses the same techniques

This public service announcement was brought to you by the course “Digital Technologies in Society” -- COSC 311 of Towson University Prof. Jeff Schmitt, Instructor Produced September, 2005 © 2005 by Jeff Schmitt