Streaming Video

[Lori Holcomb]

After reviewing the examples of streaming video, share your thoughts and opinions here. How does streaming video tie in with the goals and missions of the 21st century?

[Joyce Boone]

Streaming video provides so much more depth and richness to the learning of children and is consistent in many ways with the mission and goals of the 21st Century. For example, it is consistent with the mission of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills in that it facilitates a collaborative partnership among students and leaders in various communities, ranging from the education community to the business and government community. The video example of NASATV was a good example of this.

Streaming video also ties in with the goals that have been established for 21st Century Children. Knowledge of how to use and create messages using this technology will help children and workers succeed as effective citizens, workers and leaders in the 21st century. In the college study and workplaces of today, streaming video is often used. Using this tool in the K-12 classroom and getting students familiar with the use of and creation of them will expose them to the benefits and flexibility of streaming video. It is very useful in bringing the real world into the classroom environment, which is very empowering to students, helping them to make important connections about how certain concepts apply to real life.

The desired skills set for 21st Century Children includes highly developed information and communication skills (information and media literacy skills; communication skills). Streaming video is a powerful tool that allows students and workers to create, edit, and share information while still retaining ownership and rights to it. Thinking and problem-solving skills can also be fortified with a firm understanding of the use (and creation) of streaming video. In the 21st Century workplace, change is constant and often rapid. The media of streaming video allows information to be quickly captured and circulated, faster than print media. Students can take advantage of this, along with supporting means of gleaning information from previous learning, conversations and text. A combination of these encourages the identification of new problems and solutions.

Streaming video is also instrumental in promoting Interpersonal and self-direction skills and a sense of global awareness. Students can not only use streaming video to self-publish but it also gives them the power to collaborate with others and exchange information. Youtube.com has been a powerful avenue for this. It promotes increased awareness of what is going on among their peers whether they are local or on the other side of the world!

Joyce

[Jennifer Cable]

Joyce,
You made several excellent points in your posting. I had not thought about how much video is being used in upper education. I think exposing younger children to this will help them when they get older.

Youtube is an excellent example of streaming video. I know that many of my students look at this site regularly. Whether positive or negative, they are being exposed to other people's ideas and thoughts. This is creating global awareness.

I agree that streaming video is an excellent tool to use when trying to incorporate more 21st century skills into the classroom.

[Jennifer Cable]

For me, streaming video is an excellent educational tool. It is a valuable way to have a large amount of information presented to students quickly because they do not have to read the material. It allows students to visually see and listen to the presentation of information and even see concepts demonstrated. For many students, they learn this way best. I enjoyed the streaming video examples we were assigned to watch. I picked up several tips from the teaching literacy to 3-5 graders that I plan to use in my classroom. Personally, I am not an avid reader. I would much rather watch a video or television program. To have to read all the information presented this week would have be difficult for me to get through. I think this is the beauty of streaming video. The Internet is full of videos that are easily accessible because of broadband. There educational potential is unlimited. Streaming video can be seen in its entirety or in segments. This gives teachers much control over what they are using in the classroom. Streaming video can enhance a lesson by providing the teacher with another way of presenting information. Streaming video should not take the place of teaching though. It should be used as a supplemental tool in the teaching of concepts.

Alignment of streaming video with 21st century goals:

• Enhancing technology – students will being using one of the latest technologies available by accessing the internet, locating a video, and watching it

• Core subjects – students can access streaming video on all core subjects which can deeper or improve their understanding of these topics

• Information and Media literacy – student will be accessing , integrating, and evaluating a new form of media

• Problem formulation and solution – students can use streaming videos to analyze and solve problems

• Self-direction – using streaming video will allow some students to monitor and enhance their own learning needs and transfer the learning from one domain to another

• Streaming video can help students learn academic content by viewing real-world experiences

[Joyce Boone]

Jennifer, thanks for your comments. You also bring out several thought-provoking comments about the use of streaming video in the classroom. What stood out most to me in your statements was your observation that video allows the transfer of a large amount of information quickly. I agree that streaming video can also be quite useful as a supplement to text, lecture, classroom activities, and other methods. What one student may understand better by reading, another may understand better by doing. Streaming video gives another opportunity to be exposed to the content in a video/audio format, which at the very least can serve as a supplement to their learning.

Joyce

[Zeynep Yurtseven]

Jennifer all points you pointed about 21st century goals are important. I especially liked the real- world experiences one. I think in some areas in higher education students real need to see real life practices,and there is some units in K-12, too. These are be able to explain best showing a video of practice.

[Natalie]

I'll start by saying that I answered the questions that were posted on our class website more directly than the one stated on this website in the attached document. Students must be self-directed to utilize streaming video. It can be used in all core subjects. Communication skills are a must to use streaming video, especially for those that are creating the video. Streaming video is also a new technology that can also teach about new technologies.

[Zeynep Yurtseven]

Natalie I agree with you about the drawbacks to fail while loading, glitch, and accessibility. I think in this case Dr. Shephard`s determinations about integration of resources, infrastructure and skills are appropriate. Educators need some ICT professionalists` help.

[Rhonda W]

There are really two components to streaming video. The first, and what seems to me to be far more common, is the availability of videos to enhance instruction. Teachers can log onto a streaming video site such as the Discovery Streaming site and search for videos that are appropriate to illustrate a particular lesson. Teachers have the ability to select an entire video or a portion of the video, and even to construct their own videos from segments available. However, based on my interactions with teachers, it seems that few of them have the time or resources to customize their own videos. They are looking for something that is ready to be used without a lot of extra work on their part. I was disappointed in the videos available for this purpose on the sites we reviewed. They didn't appear to me to be much different from what teachers already have access to using existing media such as video cassettes or CD/DVD, with the added potential of technical difficulties. From an educational evaluation perspective, they seemed to have the same problem as Kerry Shephard warned about in his article: little or no interactivity or opportunity for active learning. Of course, I didn't look at all the videos, but most of what I saw was talking heads. The advantages of use of streaming video include elimination of a VCR and television, but overall I don't see it as a tremendous improvement over what was available previously.

The second purpose for streaming video is for student projects. This would provide an opportunity for students to learn to use cutting edge technology to create materials, which enables them to increase their technical expertise and to better master the course content. For example, one of the videos I looked at on the Discovery site was about careers that do not require a college degree. Rather than watching a canned video, how much richer the experience would be if the students created their own video, interviewing people in certain careers in their communities and creating a resource that could be used with other students. Such an activity would link directly to 21st Century Skills such as creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration, and ICT literacy. The downside is that it could be very time-consuming and might take more class time than is appropriate for a given topic. Whether this activity could be fit into class without losing something else important would have to be a teacher decision. In addition, using this technology may require hardware and software not currently available in a classroom, and it could strain teacher expertise to the breaking point.

A few other comments about the sites we reviewed. I was really disappointed in the quality of the videos. I expected something vastly improved from what has been available and I really didn't see it. Today's students, raised on the high production values of commercial television, will likely be unimpressed by what they see here. Also, I was unable to get the Discovery site to work on the Macintosh even after downloading the required plug-in. (I was able to access it easily with a PC.) Given that most professionals in video and design use Macintoshes, a site that provides an introduction to that technology should work on the Mac. The NASA site was interesting but not sophisticated. The last video site looked slicker, but I could only get a few seconds to play before it crashed. Finally, as I've said previously in connection with other topics, the legal and ethical considerations involved in using the work of others need to receive a substantial amount of attention here. It is not good to teach students how to use the technology without making sure they understand where and when it should be used.

[Loretta Batchelor]

Streaming videos allow you to play videos that are more up-to-date then the videos you can purchase. I teach in Chatham County and we have a county wide membership to United Streaming which allows you to search videos by subject area, download the video and watch it using Windows Media Player. This allows teachers to use videos right off their computers as part of their lectures and not have to get a TV and VCR or DVD player. Instead, they just use their computer and LCD projector to view the video. I just embed the video in their power point presentation and play it and then return to my lecture.

The mission of 21st century technology is to allow people to find the information they need in a timely manner, have real time up-to-date information about current events and happenings in the world. Streaming video meets all these requirements and is available 24/7. What more could you ask for?

Loretta

[Karen Hughes]

Loretta you made an important point about being able to keep our material up-to-date if we use streaming video. I know when we have to pay for supplemental material for our lessons we feel like we have to use it for a while in order to get our money's worth.
Karen

[Charley Norkus]

I use streaming video quite often in Social Studies - the PBS series "Freedom: A History of US" is one really good example. The vignettes are short, to the point, and graphically appealing. At the break-neck pace we must keep in order to "cover the material" of US History, there is no time any more to show full-length movies (except after school) in class; the streaming video provides the best alternative. I liked the NASA site's use - to introduce and cover a topic like the failed Discovery mission. Each segment could be a stand-alone, but taken as a whole, they told the story in a very engaging manner. Great way to start a class - a bellringer activity - especially when it includes a leading or essential question.

[Laura English Lewis]

As an upcoming educator interested in Business and Marketing education for students. I personally find that the Internet provides a substantial business opportunity for companies. Companies that implement a sound online business model that integrates synergistically with their offline strategies are likely to see significant increase in revenues. This is just what streaming media provides for us in education, a way for educator to have a tool to use to help provide a significant increase in our students learning abilities.

As educators by incorporating the technology of using streaming media in our classrooms provides opportunities to integrate new computer based learning for our students at a level previously not possible. By using streaming media we will be able to keep our students captivated a very important part of 21st Century learning for today’s students. Using an engaging environment that allows students to interact with online media will make our students more motivated to hear, see, and respond to our message as teachers.

As educators we all know that students are spending more time on the Internet than ever before. The Internet has reached into and, in some cases; the Internet has just about reshaped every aspect of modern life. The Internet has changed the way we obtain information on everything from the latest news event to medical and health issues.

In the Lifesign Project the use of streaming video was used to support learning and teaching in higher education by showing student a video in class on how to measure a person blood pressure. Our reading indicated that this was a ‘live’ stream, and that the video stream was available as an online resource after the practical session. This was just one example of the educational use of streaming media.

When we look back to the mission of the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills extensive guidelines were laid out to support learning that facilitated a collaborative partnership between the teacher and the students. If we remember that streaming media technology enables the real time or on demand distribution of audio, video and multimedia on the internet, so that it is received as a continuous real-time stream, isn’t that what we as educators want for our students: To teach students continuously in a real-time stream so that they have the skills and are ready for the jobs of tomorrow.

Again, we use the power of the Internet to entertain ourselves, educate ourselves, work , shop, bank, and stay in touch. In fact the Internet has become a normal part of our lives, and for those who do not utilize the web for some type of daily activity constitutes an ever shrinking minority. Streaming video is a form of technology that brings courses alive and as learning online becomes more of a common practice in education I believe that streaming videos will continue to play a bigger role in delivering online course material to online learners.

Streaming video is a form of technology that can be used for online and in class learners to help students use their visual and auditory senses to learn complex concepts and difficult procedures. As we have all learned in our online classes there are always various hardware and software drawbacks that must be overcome and the same will be true incorporating streaming media in our regular classroom.

What we must remember however, is that by incorporating streamline media in our classroom the benefits to our students out ways the problems we may in- counter as educators!

- Laura