Video Distribution Systems and GPB Resources: Great but Under-utilized Tools

My mentor Jessica Airman was the one who was mainly responsible for the video distribution system at Cartersville Elementary School last year when she was the media specialist.  The system that they use is closed circuit TV, and it is not digitally transmitted over a data network, rather, it is sent through a cable distribution system which is transmitted from the media center to a specific channel on all of the TVs in the school.  The teachers do not have input into what is transmitted, and usually the system is used to show special, school-wide videos such as those for Red Ribbon Week and Read Across America day interviews.

Last year Jessica was also in the process of working on a video news production for her school, and although she was heading up the project, a few social studies and special area teachers worked with her in a support role to create the student-led news show.  A group of about 5-6 students were on the show, and they were chosen based on an application and audition process, which was voluntary.  The group changed periodically so that more students were able to participate in the program.  The students made school announcements, told the date, said the pledge, read the day’s lunch menu, read about the week’s character trait word (i.e., “Perseverance” and what it means), and often the principal was a guest speaker.   This is the same kind of information that is given over the loud speaker most mornings of the week.  The video broadcast news show was in its developmental stages last year, with the intention of making it an every-Friday event (at her previous school, it was a daily production), but they were barely able to get it off the ground before Jessica’s position was cut by the district and she returned to a fourth grade classroom as a full-time teacher.  Since then, because there is no media specialist to produce the video, there hasn't been a student-run video news show at Cartersville Elementary school.

I also asked Jessica about the Georgia Public Broadcasting resources that are available to teachers in her school.  Not many of them use the resources, but she says that some let the children do the reading activities on PBS kids.  She also said that a few teachers used Discovery Education’s resources, like the streaming videos and the puzzle makers. 

  In my opinion, if the GPB resources that are applicable for the students in a particular school were collected for teachers in an easily accessible place, like a LMC website, it would be much easier for teachers to get to them and use them in the classroom.  That’s why it’s so sad that schools are cutting media budgets- without the manpower and expertise that media specialists provide for  running programs like student-created news video productions and updated resource collections like a great LMC website, access to technological resources becomes very limited for teachers and students in schools.  In a learning environment where technological tools are often the best and most interesting way to learn, the students who don’t have access are really missing out.