Our school has a video distribution system. It is used so that several classes can view the same video/DVD at the same time. Teachers may request to use the video distribution system to show videos and DVD’s. Teachers must complete a video/DVD request form that must have prior approval from administration. The video/DVD must have instructional purpose. The request form must be submitted with lesson plans.
Another purpose of the video distribution system is to broadcast information to the entire school or sometimes different grade levels at the same time. The media center has used the video distribution system to broadcast upcoming book fairs. Also, our school started an anti-bullying campaign this year. The distribution system has been used to show the DVD that came with the anti-bullying campaign curriculum. Students watched the DVD during homeroom then took a pledge to not take part in bullying and to report bullying when they see it going on.
Teachers can not control the distribution system in our school. When they are ready to begin a DVD/video, they must call the media center, and the media specialist will begin the video/DVD. We do not have school TV news in our school, therefore the distribution system is not used for this purpose. The video distribution system in our school has the capability to broadcast two different things at the same time on different channels. That is the extent of our distribution system and what it is used for. Announcements are made over the intercom.
According to Georgia Public Broadcasting, “Georgia Public Broadcasting's education service is Georgia's electronically delivered classroom for all Georgia learners, and Georgia educators' source for top-quality multiple media educational products and services. With a network of 2,428 satellite dishes, GPB broadcasts educational video programming to every public school, regional library, adult technical education center, youth development center, and public college and university in Georgia, serving over 115,000 teachers and approximately 1.6 million students across the state via satellite, the web and open-air broadcasts.” http://www.gpb.org/about
GPB is an amazing place to go to find just about anything you need. The resources are unlimited. The ranges of categories are unbelievable. It starts with pre-k and extends to education for adults. I went in and found awesome educational games for children. I found resources and lesson plans for teachers. I found videos for all subject areas.
They have podcast available to upload for free. The podcasts cover a variety of topics. I found a lot of Georgia History and Biographies. There are websites to go to from GPB that are very educational. Some of the websites I viewed were rich with history.
I visited the WWII Oral History Project. I found a website that was rich with history of WWII accounts of men and women from Georgia whose lives were affected by the war. It was an awesome place to use to teach WWII history with a real life effect. http://www.gpb.org/wwii
When I went to Georgia Stories, another place that is rich with history and information about Georgia, I found that GPB has correlated GPS Standards with the content. This is another wonderful attribute to using this resource. http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories
This resource offers a host of services for teachers and students. A person could spend hours here and never see it all. The easiest way that I found to find what you want on this website is to do a search. I searched several different topics and found something on every topic I searched. I searched math, science, social studies, technology, and other topics. I never came up empty handed. This resource is invaluable with information for educators and students. I have been on it before, however, I have never investigated it as thoroughly as I have this week. If you have not checked it out, check it out now. You will be pleased with what you find. It has something for everyone!
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My mentor's school has a video distribution system through the web on the computers, the Rauland Media system. The teacher logs in and chooses the video/DVD, the time and date of the viewing and saves it. (The teacher must also put in a written request with the administrator tying it to the lesson plan and GPS a week prior to viewing.) The media specialist logs in each morning to see the requests and loads the video/DVD and sets the channel. When the teacher is ready, the teacher logs in, clicks the channel, and has control of the video through the computer. The teacher can pause the video to discuss and pick back up when ready to move on. No more having to send a student down to remind the media specialist that it's time to start the video. We have this at our school too, but it isn't being utilized due to lack of training. So we have to rely on the paper request and sending a student down to get the video started. Maybe, next year our media specialist will receive training and train us on how to use it. It sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteAs for GPB, what can I say? I agree with you totally that it is an invaluable resource. It was amazing to see how much is offered to educators. I enjoyed browsing through and seeing where I could find connections for my curriculum since we teach Georgia in second grade. I will be going back to GPB quite often now that I know more about what it has to offer.
We pretty much have the same routine except after we put the video in the distribution system the teachers can control it through their classroom phone. This is good because it doesn’t bother us during the day. It can get pretty busy and remembering a video or being interrupted to play a video is a hassle. This year we utilized our distribution system in a new way. We connected a computer to the distribution system. This has been wonderful; it has allowed Power Points to be shown school wide (This is great for CRCT) as well as to show videos from United Streaming and GPB.
ReplyDeleteI liked seeing Georgia Stories for the first time; it is a valuable resource for future reference. And while I’m a little jealous that there isn’t the same resource for my grade, a few of the short videos and topics look like they could still be adapted to use in the elementary curriculum.
ReplyDeleteBecause your video distribution system sounds pretty antiquated, I wonder if teachers also have access to other ways to show video in their classrooms. My elementary has the video distribution system, but teachers rarely use it because we all have projectors, DVD players, and VCRs in our rooms. Before we had these, I rarely showed a video to my class because of the paperwork involved and lack of control; but now I can show clips, short videos, etc. from the web or a purchased material without all the hassle. I think having access to play my own videos, or clips of a full video with stop/start power really boosted my students understanding of social studies (and their scores as well!). It sounds like a huge inconvenience to the MS if she always has to stop what she is doing to start someone’s video. Do many teachers show videos? Since we so rarely use our system, I’m curious to know how many schools use this system regularly outside of announcements. Thanks for your informative piece.
The video distribution system is interesting in our building, as there does not seem to be any consistent guidelines (that are enforced) in regard to whether teachers need to submit a video request/approval form, whether videos need to have originated within the media center, and so forth. There is only one channel available. And, on a personal note, I checked out "Black Beauty" from the media center the other day and, without previewing it first (I know! I know!!!), I requested that the media specialist play it over CCTV for the 3rd grade classes, who were returning from a field trip and who needed a nice, calming movie to segue into the weekend. However, I had to high-tail it up to the media center ASAP when the first curse (h word) was heard by half of my third graders (the other half yelling, "What did they say? What did they say?" because they missed it) and turn off the video before we found any more choice words. This just underlines the fact that 1)teachers need to preview material prior to screening it, as well as 2)we should never take for granted that just because it is in an elementary media center that it is always appropriate for all audiences in said elementary school. :-( The media specialist was just as surprised as I was, and she just pulled the video from the shelf.
ReplyDeleteBack to the actual posting....the GPB website is really great! Where else could you find a video of Robert Frost reading his own "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening?" I agree with Tiffany about the resources being aimed toward a certain population of older students, but I can also see many uses for the various videos. But, um, I must point out a *small* error on someone's part to make a video series concerning high school counselors trying to prevent the high dropout rate at the "fictitious" Callaway High School.....hello? Lots of great resources here, however.