At Fairview Elementary we have a video distribution system. Pre-recorded announcements, videos/DVD’s and morning Math and ELA trivia questions are among the items that are delivered to the classroom televisions via the video distribution system. In addition, our school system has provided access to a limited number of cable channels such as the weather channel and PBS. However, this system is mainly used to show the many educational videos and DVD’s that our media specialists have amassed over the years. In addition to educational videos, the system is used to broadcast the occasionally non-educational video/DVD for students with good behavior. This activity is called Principal’s Movie Choice. Students really enjoy this fun activity and work hard to earn it. To avoid copyright issues, our media specialists purchase a “right to show” agreement that allows movies produced by certain companies to be broadcast legally in our school. The video system is controlled by the media center but movie can be loaded in a VCR and teachers have the ability to start, stop, pause, and rewind them using their telephone keypad. Before showing any video in the classrooms teachers must complete a video use form. If the video/DVD is not apart of our collection, the video must to approved by an administrator. In some cases parental permission must be gained for students to view video materials.
The Georgia Public Broadcasting Resources are available to all teachers in our building and are used quite frequently by many. The most popular component of the resources seems to be access to the Discovery/United Streaming videos. Teachers are able to stream these video directly to their student via classroom computers. One component that is not widely used in my school but looks very interesting is the Digital Library. The Georgia’s back roads contain short video clips about interesting places in our own state. This would be an awesome tool for teaching about our state and the information is already compiled in on easy to locate place. This site is an excellent tool for teachers. The New Georgia Encyclopedia can be accessed from the GPB resources page as well; it too is a great tool.
I have read about so many neat things as far as video distribution goes that I was previously unaware of. When you were talking about how teachers can pause, fast forward, etc., you said they did this with their telephone keypad. I am assuming that means that each teacher has a telephone in their room?? We don't have anything like that, so I find that very interesting. The movie reward thing also sounds like a great idea. I am going to talk to my media specialist about the copyright issue. I would assume that the movies that are shown are shown legally, but I don't know. I have never heard of a 'right to show' agreement, so that is interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe use the GPB resources very frequently at my school, so I was aware of that stuff. :)
Amanda
Rhonda, while I have used some of the videos located on GPB, I was completely unaware of all the other various components of the website. The Digital Library seems like a wonderful resources, as does the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
ReplyDeleteThe various uses of your school's video distribution system caught my attention. First of all, I love the Principal's Movie Choice activity. I appreciate your media specialists attention to the issue of fair use and copyright. I feel that this is one issue with a video distribution system that many media specialists, teachers, and even admin overlook. Even with one of these striving to adhere to laws, it does take a drive of everyone in the school to correctly adhere and follow the copyright laws placed in schools. Therefore, again, I applaud your media specialist for her drive to follow these laws.
I love that y'all are able to control the videos (that are being run in the media center) from your telephones. I am under the impression that our video distribution system does have this capability, however the current media specialist was never taught how to use it, therefore it has never been used (since I have been working there).
Finally, I also applaud your media specialist for requiring a video (not currently in the media center collection) administrative approval. I do feel as if many media specialists have this intention in mind, however, I guess forget when push comes to shove. I do feel that this fair use and copyright issues are of importance and should be addressed in those media centers that are not currently giving them the initial attention that they deserve. Thanks Rhonda for reminding us of how a responsible media specialist operates and addresses these issues!
At Evans Middle School we also use the closed circuit system to show videos for reward activities. I am pretty sure that we don't purchase the "right to show" agreement, which we should do. That's a great idea. I am also surprised to hear about using the telephones to control the VCR. We have telephones in all of the classrooms, but I don't believe we have that kind of ability. I would like to find out how that works! When I was working in the media center at Elm Street Elementary, the media specialist told me that at the end of the year the teachers start requesting videos to be shown. This makes it really hard to keep up with because like five teachers will call up and say, "Can you play this movie at this time?" and "Will you put this one it at another time?" It gets really crazy and confusing. It makes it hard on her to try to help everyone! Having the control right from the classroom might take some of the burden off of the media specialist.
ReplyDelete