Video Distribution System:
It seems that in our school district there have been numerous issues over the proper way of distributing videos to the classes as a whole. We no longer have the capabilities of simply using the closed circuit network and a television, which we still have the systems for but no way to distrute and show. Every classroom has a projector and a computer that is wired into the network. Therefore, in our district, if there is a video that we wish to share or a live broadcast (which is basically impossible), we have to download it to the warehouse drive on our server and then go from there. However, that causes technology problems with overloading the system and memory of the servers. Gone are the days of creating news broadcasts and streaming them live at our school. One school in our district used to do a news show, however, when the media center specialist there left, they haven't continued using it because the technology aspect is a weakness for her replacement. The sad reality of it is that even though we are advancing with some areas of technology, others are falling miserably behind. It seems that once a "new piece of technology' finally gets installed in all the rooms, it is time to move onto something else.
A good number of us like to use the videos from United Streaming, but when streamed live, they tend to take up too much time when buffering and loading. We have resorted to saving them and then replaying them; however, this too causes much chaos with the server.
The district is moving to tv's, iPads, and Apple TV for the presentation tools in the classroom. With that being said, I feel that the schools will once again be able to use the closed circuit system. However, there are multiple websites that can be used to produce and share the videos. If we were able to use, YouTube, TeacherTube, or something to that effect, I believe that we would be able to use them now.
I would love to be able to do a news show like the ones that we reviewed! There is so much talent that was illustrated by the kids and the teachers/media specialists that are putting it together.
Wow Erin,
ReplyDeleteYou brought to light such a strong reality for some schools. You are spot on with your point about technology advancing, but falling behind in other places. Our school still runs on a closed circuit system, so I am able to play the recorded announcements on all of the TVs (if the teachers turn them on). However, a lot of schools in my district are switching to Media Cast and getting rid of the closed circuit systems due to cost of replacing them. I'm not familiar with Media Cast, but know if we switch, we lose the opportunity to play announcements for everyone. I hope we keep the closed circuit system for as long as we can because the students on the News Crew really enjoy doing that everyday. I'm so sad to hear that your school is faced with such restrictions, even though having that technology sounds good on paper, in reality it isn't always what's best for education.