The California Missions On-Line Project

This site was developed for California 4th grade students and teachers by Rob Garretson, 4th Grade Teacher at Los Amigos Elementary School in Rancho Cucamonga, California, in partial fulfilment for the Masters of Arts in Educational Multimedia at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, California.

System Requirements - This site requires a Java enhanced browser, JavaScript, and the HyperStudio, QuickTime and Vivo Player Plug-Ins

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Missions | Assessment | Additional Mission Sites

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Why was this site created?

I decided to create this project on the California Missions to aide and assist students and teachers throughout California. The impact and importance of this particular site is the inclusion of streaming video on each web page. I did not try to recreate what already exists in the form of texts, books, teaching units, pre-recorded video etc. I did want to create an all-encompassing site on the California Missions which would be easy to use for students and teachers and include something that does not presently exist on the Internet; videos of each Mission. There are pictures and graphics available on the Internet, but video that downloads and begins playing automatically for the viewer, (streaming video) before the entire file is completely downloaded, has not been available until this site was created.

Included is this site web pages for each of the 21 California Missions. Each Mission page has streaming video of the front of the Mission, inside the main church and the quadrangle. Many of the pages have more videos based on the remains at each mission. All of the videos are viewed through the use of a plug-in which is available for free on the Internet and installed on a PC running Windows or, of course, a Macintosh. (See system requirements below for more information). All of the information on this site, including pictures, text, and video clips are copyright free; in other words please feel free to use them. Each of the Mission pages have links to other sites on the web. There is a page just for students with information and video about building your own California Mission model. It also has links to web pages created by 4th grade students. The Teachers page includes links to teaching guides, units, and other materials available on the Internet. It also includes lesson plans, objectives, student made projects, and other multimedia projects complete with templates for you to download and use in your own classroom, all for free.

This site developed by Rob Garretson as part of the Masters program at Cal Poly, Pomona. I created all of the pages on a Power Macintosh 6500 from Apple. I personally visited each of the missions during the summer of 1998 and shot the video myself. The video was then digitized and compressed using Adobe Premiere and VivoActive VideoNow. Graphics were developed using Adobe Photoshop. The guitar music that you hear is something that I wrote, played and recorded to reflect the music during the mission period. I used Claris Home Page to write the individual web pages and incorporated the Java and JavaScript into each page on the site to further enhance the user's multimedia experience. A main source of information came from a series of booklets "The Missions: California's Heritage", written by Mary Null Boule, Merryant Publishing, Vashon Washington. I highly encourage the use of these small booklets for students of all ages wanting to learn about the California Missions.

****Updated July 15, 2010 - all videos are now streaming using QuickTime ****

The site requires Java and JavaScript which are included in Netscape Navigator 2.0 and higher, Netscape Communicator, and Internet Explorer 4.0. They will not work using the America Online browser before 4.0. If you are using an AOL browser prior to 4.0, you may soon download their beta version from keyword "upgrade". You may also sign on to AOL and then launch one of the other browsers. They are available online for free. *Note - Both Macintosh and Windows '95 using AOL 4.0 and the Internet Explorer bundled with AOL 4.0 works fine. I have just found out that this also will not work on WebTV. (Thanks Parrotheads). The VivoPlayer requires a PowerMacintosh with System 7.0 or greater; and Windows 3.1, '95 or '98.

Your name:
Email address:

Was the site helpful? yes no

Were you able to view the streaming videos? yes no

Were you able to hear the sounds on the main page? yes no

Are you a ...? student teacher parent other

Did you pass the Assessments? yes no almost I didn't take the test

Did you visit any of the additional web pages linked to the site? yes no

Would you like this site to be continually updated? yes no

Did you find any links that were not working? yes no

Is, so which ones?

Which mission page did you use the most? The Main Page San Diego San Luis Rey de Francia San Juan Capistrano San Gabriel Arcangel San Fernando Rey de Espana San Buenaventura Santa Barbara Santa Ines La Purisima Concepcion San Luis Obispo de Tolosa San Miguel Arcangel San Antonio de Padua Nuestra Senora de la Soledad San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo San Juan Bautista Santa Cruz Santa Clara San Jose San Francisco de Asis San Rafael Arcangel San Francisco Solano

Any additional comments or questions?

You can read the written portion of this project on-line. Click here if you are really bored!

This project written by Rob Garretson in partial fulfilment of the Master's of Arts Degree from Cal Poly Pomona

Please send questions and/or comments to Mr. Garretson

This site last updated on February 28, 2015