Click
here for unitedstreaming
First,
you should know that the Napa County
Office of Education has provided access to unitedstreaming,
a collection of videos—and now standards-based photographs as
well—for use in all classrooms in the Napa Valley. Each teacher gets a
user name and password for logging on to unitedstreaming's site.
Now,
most classrooms in the Napa Valley have fast Internet connections that
allow these videos to stream—meaning "transfer from their server to
your computer and be
viewed while the rest is still being sent"—but, unfortunately, many don't have the
special PC-to-TV video converters that are necessary for showing the
videos to the whole class.
There
are several ways to deal with this. One, gather your class around your
best computer with the biggest monitor and move them up close. This is especially good in primary
classrooms where your small class can assemble on the carpet as in morning
circle.
Two,
schools can purchase converters and put together one or more carts with
the right gear and check them out to the staff as requested.
Three,
individual classrooms can be fitted with the converter box. Click here
to view some choices at the great tech advice site, C|net.
Also, NCOE may still have a program for special savings on a PC video
converter. Check will Julie Scott,
streaming video coordinator.
A final way to display the video
is to hook up a video projector to a computer and project the image onto a
screen. Video projectors are pricey, but many schools, departments and
even individual classrooms are equipped.
How
to Use the Streaming Site
unitedsteaming
User Guide
(you'll
need the Adobe
Acrobat PDF Reader to read this file)
EDblog Quick
Guide:
Once
you're logged on to the unitedstreaming.com site, you'll be able to search
by keyword or by subject, topic and grade. Either of these methods is
superior—at this time—to a third method, searching by curriculum
standard, which is getting better as more videos are indexed to the CA
standards. I've found choosing by subject, topic and grade brings you the
best choices the fastest.
After
you've located the video you want to show, you've got a number of choices
to make. First, which media player should you use? Both Windows
Media Player and QuickTime
are available for both PCs and Macs, although unitedstreaming only
discusses Windows Media Player in its user's guide.
Next,
decide on streaming the video (playing it straight from the Web) or
downloading it for later play. I like the download option, as it let's you
get everything set up ahead of the kids. Both PCs and Macs default to
saving to the Destktop, where you can double-click on the file icon to start
it.
The
best way to present a video to a class is in full-screen mode. That's
available for PCs while streaming by clicking on the "full
screen" button on the embedded viewer on the unitedstreaming page.
With Macs, you have to click on the "S" streaming button, wait
for the Media Player to open and then go to "View" on the menu
bar and choose Full Screen.
Full
screen from a downloaded file requires users of both PCs and Macs to go to
"View" and then choose Full Screen.
A
last bit of advice: Check out the videos in advance for suitability to
your purpose. It's hard to guess just from the title or description
whether the video will be effective or engaging. Unitedstreaming is adding
more and better media all the time, but it's a work in progress.
Click
here for unitedstreaming
©
2003-2005 Calvin Ross & EDblog