The video distribution system utilized by Swint
Elementary is closed circuit cable. After interviewing the media specialist,
the following information was ascertained:
1) Does your school have one, and is it
working? Swint Elementary has a functional video distribution system which
includes one DVD, and four VHS devices.
2) What gets sent out over the video distribution
system? School news? Cable and/or broadcast programs? Channel One? What else is
it used for? The video distribution system is utilized for school approved
videos aligned to the curriculum. Teachers have access to limited educational
channels, including The Weather Channel, CNN, PBS, and Clayton County Public
Schools channel.
3) Do teachers have any input or control into the
distribution system and if so what (for instance, some video distribution
systems let teachers control what is sent over the distribution system through
the number pad of their telephone!). At this time, teachers do not have access
to control the video distribution system. The media specialist informs the
teachers about the school approved video, time, and channel.
4) Does your school use a digital system,
transmitting TV content over the data network?
Currently, the teachers utilized the digitalized classroom to view
instructional videos and the school news. Clayton County Public Schools are
digitalized classrooms, which allow teachers to access the digital system with
the wireless network via Clayton County laptop or desktop.
In 2002, Georgia Public
Broadcasting teamed up with Discovery Education in order to provide Georgia
educators access to video and video clips through a service called united
streaming, which is a web-based digital video delivery system. This service has
the largest video library for K-12 teachers with over 50,000 videos available.
In addition, the videos provided are correlated to Georgia state standards.
There are videos for all subject areas including music and art. The site also allows teachers to store videos
so that they can access them later. Another advantage to united streaming is
that teachers are able to download videos for educational purposes.
Aside from the fact that videos
can engage students, here are many more benefits that united streaming can
provide to teachers. United streaming
has a feature called assignment building in which teachers can assign videos to
students. In addition, assignment building allows students the ability to
access videos from home. United streaming also offers quiz builder which gives
teachers a chance to assess students after they have viewed videos. United
streaming allows students to work at their own pace so it is a powerful tool to
differentiate instruction. Students who are at different levels can access
videos more germane to their level of learning. Overall, the uses for united
streaming are limitless.
Even though united streaming has
many advantages, there are some disadvantages. First, united streaming takes
some time to navigate and to figure out the features that may work best for
you. Another drawback is that united streaming requires that students have
computer and internet access. United streaming is a great resource that
teachers should implement so that students can access pertinent videos.
Currently, my school does not
access united streaming as a whole. I know that individual teachers access the
site in order to enhance their lesson plans. Additionally, I think many
teachers are not aware of united streaming.
I do not think all teachers know of the advantages of united streaming.
I would like to see many more teachers take advantage of this great resource.
Furthermore, I would like to see a staff development course offered on united
streaming and how to incorporate it in the classroom. Does your school use
Discovery Education and united streaming?
Our school does not make use of Discovery Education nor United Streaming, but I believe they should. We just received a new (web-based) program for our school. The Devos4 system will allow me to do a running feed of announcements and the Multimedia class to show school videos. I'm working with our Tech Specialist here at the high school, but we've had glitches in how to get it shown in every classroom. We may have just put the proverbial cart before the horse. Since it is web-based, it requires internet connections. We do not have tvs in all classrooms and those that do are outdated and not capable of streaming without an additional device. So right now, announcements are verbally done over the intercom till we are up and running. The really funny thing is.... we've abandoned our old system of announcements (powerpoint on closed circuit) and no one has realized it yet. Two months into the school year & teachers still send me emails to put items on the announcements! What is working is that students are listening to the announcements. I don't think they want to read one more thing to get information.
ReplyDeleteAt my school in Bibb County, we no longer utilize a school wide video distribution system. Teachers may check out DVDs from the library and show them by using their laptops and digital projectors. We also have access to Safari Montage.
ReplyDelete"SAFARI Montage provides K—12 school districts with a fully integrated Digital Learning Platform, including a Learning Object Repository, Video Streaming Library, and IPTV & Live Media Streaming, designed to handle video efficiently." At this time, we are not taking advantage of the Live Media Streaming other than for school wide training for teachers or school wide meetings with the superintendent. Over the past year, and this current year, I have not heard of any of our teachers utilizing United Streaming, but this is probably because of our access to Safari Montage. It contains a large amount of Georgia Public Broadcasting programming. Safari Montage is also benefical because it allows teachers to share and upload lesson plans and resources with one another and with administration. Also, through the site, we have access to live tv programming that we can set to record and access later, so for say, Shark Week, we can program a recording to show our students later. It is a really great resource, but I'm fairly certain we have only scratched the surface of its true potential.
Quote retrieved from http://www.safarimontage.com/about.aspx
Matthew, Thank you for the thoroughness and clarity of your blog post. I liked reading about the video distribution system and GPB resources are used in this elementary school. There are both similarities and differences to how these things are used at my high school. We use the same type of system, but our media specialist has limited outside access to The Weather Channel. Teachers receive a copy of the GPB programming guide via email and are invited to request certain programs be recorded for instructional use. We are also able to request a DVD be played which can be accessed by a group of teachers using it in their classrooms for a specific purpose – such as a Bill Nye the Science Guy video turned on in multiple chemistry classrooms on a given day. Also like the teachers at Swint Elementary, we have access to United Streaming programming – but it is underutilized. Speaking for myself, I am unfamiliar with it, and find it much easier to rip a video from You Tube to enhance my lessons. All in all, my media specialist confirms that teachers’ use of the video distribution system and GPB programming has been in decline over recent years, likely due to the ease with which we can find what we want more conveniently (if not with as much power) on the internet accessed by classroom computers.
ReplyDeleteThe school I am currently getting my volunteer experience hours at does have a closed circuit television system in which they produce a student news show with, but I do not think that they do much more with it than that. The only other thing that my mentor, Ms. Rhonda Boggs, says that the closed circuit television system might be used for is if all of the teachers of a certain subject want to show a particular DVD to their students at the same time. The main problem with this is that a part of the school was not included when the closed circuit television system was installed. This makes it difficult or almost impossible for this type of activity to occur. The school that I am in does not take advantage of the Georgia Public Broadcasting/Discovery Education service, at least not through the closed circuit television system. I, as a homeschool educator, have used the Georgia Public Broadcasting/Discovery Education service. I found it nice, but not exactly user friendly. I found that while it seemed to have a plethora of educational videos, as well as some worksheets/teacher manuals, it was not very user friendly. It was hard to navigate and ultimately I got frustrated with it and quit trying to use it. I found that it required too much of my time just trying to navigate it.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that struck me about your post was the wealth of information on united streaming. I don't know if our media center uses it or not but it will be something I look further into for sure! I love the idea of having teachers assign students videos to watch, unfortunately for the demographics in my school and surrounding area, I'm not sure how that would work out since not all of our students have access to computers or the internet at home. We use Media Cast for our morning announcements and teachers tend to stick to YouTube to find educational videos and books to use as resources online.
ReplyDelete