I interviewed my mentor, Mary Allen,
regarding our video distribution system at my school. As a teacher, I have to say I did not know
much about it. This is how she answered
the questions:
1. Does
your school have one, and is it working?
Yes, we have one and it is working.
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?
We can only broadcast over a few channels, but we can
choose which ones they are. One station
is the School Information Channel which shows the scrolling announcements. One channel if for broadcasting video to the
entire school, and then the others are of our choosing (or the principal). So, we broadcast a local news channel, the
Weather Channel, the History Channel, and CNN.
We do not broadcast Channel One.
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!).
No, this
system doesn’t allow for that. We
control it from the Head End Unit in the library. For example, whatever we choose to broadcast
over our channel 12 is the same channel seen in all classrooms.
4. Does
your school use a digital system, transmitting TV content over the data
network?
No, we do not. This is very old system.
5. How
does your school and district use Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) Resources?
We use this service over the
internet. The school has an account that
the teachers then create their own accounts from.
I got my school code from my mentor
and started to explore the resources on GPB.
There are thousands of videos and other materials such as lesson plans
and student worksheets available for anyone with a log-in. There are also categories to help teachers
narrow their search. For example, you
can narrow your search by subject: English/ Language Arts, Mathematics,
Science, Social Studies, Health, Careers/ Work Place Skills, Research/ Study
Skills, Teaching Practices, Visual and Performing Arts, and World
Languages. It also allows you to filter
your search based on grade level: K-2nd, 3rd-5th, 6th-8th, and 9th-12th.
Before this week, I had visited the
PBS site a few times to supplement my lessons, as well as NPR, but I had never
seen anything about GPB. I have to admit
that I was a little put out that I have had access to this resource probably
for my entire career, and had no idea it was available to me. I think what I liked most was the fact that
some of the videos were in the neighborhood of 2-6 minutes, which is the
perfect length for a lesson activator.
Kids love seeing clips because it helps them understand things so much
easier. I am looking forward to using
this resource in the future, and I encourage all of you to check it out as
well.
(M. Allen, personal communication,
October 22, 2012)
I am so glad you were introduced to a new resource! You should definitely spread the word among the other teachers. This could even be incorporated into a staff meeting or a training.
ReplyDeleteI have never been on the GPB site either. I have seen a little on the PBS site, though. We use it for playing learning games in our home.
It is a little disappointing that the video distribution system is limited to only one channel. It seems like they could have two or three that would be able to play different channels or videos for different age groups. I like that they can show channels like CNN and the Weather Channel. That can be useful if the channels are showing something important regarding current events, such as presidential election information.