Closed CaptionsMore Than Just Scrolling Text!

Matt Monjan

What are Closed Captions?

Closed captioning allows persons with hearing disabilities to have access to television programming by displaying the audio portion of a television program as text on the television screen.

http://www.captions.org/index.cfm

And…

Closed captioning provides a critical link to news, entertainment, and information for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

For individuals whose native language is not English, English language captions improve comprehension and fluency.

Captions can also help improve literacy skills.

http://www.captions.org/index.cfm

Opening up the Closed Captions

1. To help hearing impaired students

2. To reach visual learners

3. To reach ELL students

4. To enrich a grammar lesson

5. To teach a vocabulary lesson

6. To work on predicting outcomes

Why might we want to use CC in the classroom?

What types of video files work with CC?

Windows Media Player files “.asf” are fully compatible with CC. These files can be streamed and/or downloaded

Mac users can install a Windows Media Player on their machines and Stream CC videos/segments and Download CC videos/segments. When downloading videos on a Mac, users should choose the .mov or QuickTime files

Are all of our videos/segments closed captioned?

No, currently about 30% of the basic DE streaming is captioned and 19% of Plus is captioned

It breaks down like this:Basic DE streaming = 1,149 full CC videos and 11, 729 CC video clips. Plus = 1,456 full CC videos and 16, 272 video clips

Finding Closed Captioned Titles

Click on the Advanced Search Link

Scroll down and place a check in the Include Only Closed Captioned Titles box

Turning CC files on

1. Check the Enable Closed Captioning box in the Media Settings area

2. Set CC as the default in your My Preferences Area

Playing (streaming) on a PC or Mac

On both of these machines, make sure that the Windows Media Player is installed and selected. Then place a checkmark in the Enable Closed Captioning box

Downloading CC videos and CC Files on a PC

• Create a CC folder• Find ANY video in DE streaming and download it

into your Close Caption Folder • Right-Click on the blue download icon and either

Save Target As (IE) or Save Link As (Firefox)• Right-Click on the CC icon and either Save

Target As (IE) or Save Link As (Firefox) Save file in the same folder

Downloading CC videos and CC Files on a Mac

• Make sure that the Enable Closed Captioning box is checked and that the Windows Media Player option is selected.

• Download the CC file of the clip you that wish to play later by holding down the Ctrl Key and clicking on CC icon

• When prompted, choose Save to Disk and click OK.

• Change DE streaming Media Settings to QuickTime

Downloading CC videos and CC Files on a Mac - continued• Download the .MOV file of the clip that you wish to play

by holding down the Ctrl Key and clicking on blue download icon

• Once you have downloaded both files, put them in a folder on your desktop.

• To play your video with closed captions, you will need an application called VLC. It is free. You can download VLC at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

• Open VLC and select Open File… from the File menu. • Check Load subtitles file: and click Settings…

Downloading CC videos and CC Files on a Mac – last steps!

• Browse to the .smi file in the folder you created on your desktop, then click OK.

• Browse to your .mov file in your folder you created on your desktop by clicking the Browse… icon, then click OK.

• The video should begin playing with closed captions.

Note about Network Manager

• You can queue the CC file to download at the same time as the video but it is not necessary – i.e. CC text files are can be

downloaded at any time on both PC and Mac.

Playing CC videos full screen on a PC

1. Open your Windows Media Player

2. Click on the word “Play” in the tool bar and scroll down to Lyrics, Captions, and Subtitles

3. Choose “On if Available

Note: this only works on Windows Media Player 10 or higher

Playing CC videos full screen continued

1. Click on the word “Tools” in the tool bar and choose “Options”

2. Place checkmarks next to:- “Run script commands when present”-“Show local captions when present” (1st and 4th boxes)

3. Click on the Apply and OK buttons

Neat Trick – Enlarging Close Captioned Text

• Once the files are downloaded open up your CC folder

• Right-click on the .smi file and open with a text editor like Notepad

• Change the Font Size to 20 and/or color to red, yellow, etc..

• Change the actual text! “Sharks are top predators This trick is awesome…”

10 pt

30 pt

Before and After Shots of the CC Trick

CC Text That You Can Change and Play

Need a recap – check out the streaming A-Z blog (best blog in the blogosphere)

http://tinyurl.com/5ledbo