At my school, we do have a closed circuit/video distribution system. We lost many of our cable television channels last month when Comcast went to a digital signal. Until Comcast installs a box at our school, we are reduced to a handful of channels. My school does not currently have a school run news show. We don’t have Channel One. We use our closed circuit system to show things like: movies, teacher training, webinars, and to facilitate presentations school-wide, like fundraising promotions. When I say school-wide, I mean that when videos are being shown, the closed circuit must be shut off to the rest of the school. No television can get cable reception when any movie is running. My school is the only school in the county with this setup. My media specialist says that two different opinions developed as to a fix. One guy claims he can fix it for two hundred dollars. The company who apparently has the county contract for the networking system doesn’t know how to fix it and says it cannot be done. If the first guy touches it, it voids the county warranty. Why nobody has put these two together to get it fixed is beyond me. We use the telephone to call the media specialist to start and stop videos which have been scheduled. If a teacher plans to watch a television show without checking the video schedule with the library, they may be out of luck when they turn on their t.v. Most classroom teachers use their own classroom VCR/DVD players.
I was surprised to learn that some schools in my county do have some control over their system. First, the teachers can find and select videos via the school internet. Once they schedule a block of time for their video with the media specialist, they have control to start, stop, pause, rewind, etc. during that block of time. This allows flexibility for the teacher. It also keeps all of the videos within the library. The teachers are required to give a day’s notice which cuts down on last minute demands to the media specialist. When the e rate changes, we are supposed to get this used system and the Title I schools will get upgraded.
My schools system does let teachers know about United Streaming. They gave us a school code to sign up for it and have a link to it on our county teacher website. It is up to teachers to use it as they decide. I rely on United Streaming heavily since I don’t have a smart board and so much content is blocked on the internet. I can show videos with my scan converter on my tv. I was shocked at how much was available when I took the time to look for this assignment at all that is available from GPB’s education area. I found all of the following resources for administrators, teachers, parents and students within the site:
Education news
Educational Games
Benchmarks
RTI
Research
Professional development webinars
Educators blogs, forums, events
resources technology setup
Videos and lesson plans
Puzzle makers
Clip art
Worksheets
Science curriculum
STEM activities
Read to succeed Six Flags Challenge
Brainboosters
Math
Science fair central (too late for me)
Hands on science experiences
Safe driver
New teacher central
Digital storytelling
Health
Environmental lessons
Web 2.0 presentation tools
Contests
Homework help by subject
Motivational / emotional support
PTA tool kit
Math help
Interactive videos by subject
I want you to know that you are not the only school in the state that has issues with closed circuit television. At my elementary school, which is one of the largest in our county and is not title 1, we use closed circuit similarly to the way your school does. The only difference is that if we have videos playing on closed circuit it does not block or override other channels. We too at one time had cable. Long before the digital age, we lost our signal. One day it was there, the next it was gone. After much research and a few principals later, I got an answer...kind of. They school system didn't know who was paying the cable bill. If we wanted it then the school would have to pay the 200$ bill. So they did, but now we still only have a few channels that come through very fuzzy.
ReplyDeleteWe use to use our closed circuit to broadcast our daily news program. Mondays were always fun. The tech gremlins would always come and visit over the weekend and something was always messing up. We had to shut down our production due to lack of space. We have since downsized, but our program is still not up and running. This is partially due to no one being willing to start it up again and no full time IT at the school to help get it going again. When it was in production, the kids loved it. It was completely run by them and was an excellent extension of learning for them. Once I am finished with grad school, it is my goal to get it up and running again (with the help of our media specialist and IT of course).
I too use GPB united streaming to help support my curriculum. I do not have textbooks and usually create my own lessons so I am constantly looking for supporting materials. United Streaming allows you to download books, videos, and lesson plans. It is a wonderful resource for teachers. I have set up a folder on our server for US downloads. This way, teacher can check to see if a video has been downloaded and they don't have to do so again. It also helps to free up space on their hard drive.
I do my field experience at a local middle school, and the school also has a closed circuit/video distribution television program. The teacher or librarian does have the ability to play a video on the closed circuit television, and it will not affect the televisions being used by other teachers.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your writing about the GPB website. I did not know about these resources; however, I think that they are appropriate resources for classroom teachers. A high school history teacher could use the Georgia World War II project to teach students about American History. A middle school Language Arts teacher could use the articles on the website to learn how to interact with students and improves students' knowledge of the curriculum. The elementary school teacher could use the Blossom and Snappy videos to teach students about numbers, fractions, and other mathematical subjects. I think that the teachers can use these videos to educate students and improve their knowledge of the curriculum.
I wish we were able to use United Streaming through our video system. Ours is a very limited system. Only one thing can be played on it at a time when coming out of the media center. Originally the idea was to have teachers request videos and have the media specialist load them at a certain time. Our last media specialist did not like technology so this was not done. Our new media specialist loves technology but doesn't have the time. The media clerk position was cut so she's always scrambling to get things done.
ReplyDeleteI think that my school will need to switch over to digital in order for this system to be more widely used. At the same time if all classroom eventually get smartboards and are able to use GBP or United Streaming in the classroom the need to upgrade to digital might not be necessary. The current closed circuited system is only used on Fridays for the weekly news program.
The video distribution system that is used at MMS is original to the school. There are 5 VCR players. Currently only one of them works with the remote phone operation. The district no longer takes responsibility for fixing them so it comes out of the media center budget. The others work but must be controlled manually. Ms. Maness has managed to connect 2 DVD players to the system that are connected by video cables. We are then able to run DVD’s through the VCR’s and distribute them. The “Jag News” is played each morning on channel 6 and the buses are run on channel six at the end of the day. A scrolling power point is run with announcements throughout the day on that channel. Of course a Video Use Form must be completed in junction to the use of the system.
ReplyDeleteTeachers use the GPB resources individually. Sometimes they save to a flash drive or download to a CD when they are incorporating a video. Recently, the social studies teachers have been using the Georgia Stories videos that are part of our text book. This is accessed through the CD which directs you to an online database. Great job listing all the sources for GPB, Jane. I was familiar with many but not all of them and glad to have a list because I love the ones I do know. I’m looking forward to becoming familiar with the others.