(Read more interesting articles on Moodle 1.9 here.)

Writing a sentence using two images

It was such a beautiful day on the beach. The sun was shining in the sky, the sand was clean and glittering, the sea was clear, blue, and full of waves to play with. A perfect day to go for a swim.

Alice and her little brother Kevin ran towards the sea together. They played, jumped, and slid with their body surfing boards and the waves. Suddenly, an animal appeared swimming between them. It was a dolphin. It jumped and threw water at them. Awesome! Alice was so happy because she had a new and very special friend on this vacation.

Time for action – looking for two images to generate the exercise

We are going to search for two royalty-free photos related to the beach in two specialized web pages. We are then going to use them to create a rich activity.

1. Create a new folder in Windows Explorer (C:Beach).
2. Open your default web browser and go to http://animalphotos.info. This web page allows us to search for royalty-free animal photos.
3. Enter dolphin in the textbox and then click on the Search button. Browse through the results and select the desired photo of a single dolphin, as shown in the next image:

   

4. Right-click on the desired image with the dolphin and select Save picture as in the context menu that appears. Save the file as image030101.jpg in the previously created folder, C:Beach.
5. Open your default web browser and go to http://freedigitalphotos.net.This web page allows us to search for, and download, royalty-free photos.
6. Enter sea in the textbox and then click on the Go button. The available photo thumbnails related to the entered keyword will appear. Browse through the results and select the desired photo of the sea, as shown in the next image:

   
7. Right-click on the desired image thumbnail with the sea and select Save picture as in the context menu that appears. Save the file as image030102.jpg in the previously created folder, C:Beach.

What just happened?

We searched for two royalty-free photos related to the beach. In this case, we worked with two web pages, http://animalphotos.info and http://freedigitalphotos.net.

We now have the following two digital photos ready to be used in our writing sentences using two images exercise:

• image030101.png: A dolphin
• image030102.png: The sea and the shore

It is very important to use photos in this exercise because the idea is to train the description of real-life scenarios.

Time for action – searching for related sounds

We have two digital photos and we want to add related sounds to them. We are going to search for MP3 files to use as sound effects for the scenes in The Freesound Project website (http://www.freesound.org/):

1. Open your default web browser and go to http://www.freesound.org. This web page allows us to search for, and download, sound files. It is necessary to register on this website in order to be able to download its files. The registration and access to its content are both free of cost.

The Freesound Project website offers high-quality sounds with a Creative Commons License. The website offers thousands of samples.However, it does not offer songs.

2. Click on Search under Search/Browse.
3. Activate the Filenames checkbox. This way, the website will also search the file names of its sound files database.
4. Enter sea mp3 in the textbox and then click on the Submit button. The results with the details of many sound files will appear. You can click on the Play button on the left-hand side of each sound file’s name and preview the recorded sound, as shown in the next screenshot:

   

5. Click on the selected file name (WavesOnBeach.mp3) or on its waveform. A new page with more detailed information will appear (http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=14777), as shown in the next screenshot:

   

6. Check the license information about the chosen file.
7. Right-click on the Download label, located on the upper right-hand corner, and select Save target as in the context menu that appears. Save the file as sound030102.mp3 in the previously created folder, C:Beach. As this sound is related to the sea represented by the photo named image030102.jpg, we use the same name and another extension (.mp3 instead of .jpg).
8. Next, go back to the web browser and repeat the aforementioned steps (2 to 7) to find and download sound related to a dolphin in MP3 format. In this case,repeat those steps searching for dolphin mp3 and save the sound file as sound030101.mp3 in the same folder. A nice recording of dolphins found on this website is common_dolphins_isla_san_jose_16jan2002.mp3 (http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=52099).

What just happened?

We searched for two sound files in MP3 format because it is easy to integrate it into a Moodle exercise. We now have the following two digitalized sounds ready to be used in our writing sentences using two images and their related sounds exercise:

• sound030101.mp3: Dolphins on San Jose island
• sound030102.mp3: Waves on the beach

Time for action – activating the MP3 player in Moodle

As we are going to add the aforementioned sound files to our exercise in Moodle, we have to make sure that its multimedia plugins are enabled.

1. Log in to your Moodle server.
2. Click on Modules Filters | Manage| filters on the Site Administration panel.
3. If the Multimedia Plugins filter appears in grey and displays a closed eye icon in the Disable/Enable column, you must click on this icon to change it to an opened eye icon. This way, Moodle will enable the multimedia plugins, as shown in the next screenshot:

   

4. If you made changes, click on the Save changes button.
5. Next, click on Modules Filters | Multimedia Plugins| in the Site Administration panel.
6. Make sure that the Enable .mp3 filter checkbox is activated. If it is not, activate it and then click on the Save changes button.

What just happened?

We made the necessary changes in Moodle’s configuration in order to make it possible to use its MP3 player. This way, we are going to be able to embed the sound files associated with the photographs, offering both visual and auditory perception resources in the exercise.