Free and Awesome: Georgia Public Broadcasting

Me, the longtime PBS fan.
I love The American Experience series, Nova and Antiques Roadshow. I have a lot of admiration for Bill Moyers, ever since The Power of Myth series, and his fight for the regular citizen. The kid's programming is wonderful... my personal favorite: Clifford the Big Red Dog.

So what else, besides this great TV programming, does PBS have to offer? Wow, you can only imagine! Georgia Public Broadcasting's great website, www.gpb.org, has information about it's many programs and in many cases the ability to download and view them from the site. Go to the education section and be taken to "GPB Knowledge" the new channel with an assortment of educational content such as NOVA and History Detectives. The Programs: Kids section has information and links to most of the show's own websites with interactive games and other ideas. Checkout the Edu+ category and find GED Connection, take the Road Trip around Georgia's technical colleges, get motivated by Dr. Wayne Dyer, download the series Art of the Western World. or watch inspiring Graduation Stories. You can also listen to shows from Public Broadcasting Radio or find out about local news and programming.

English Lit refresher, anyone?
Teacher resources linked from GPB include very interesting professional and personal development videos such as Literary Visions: "A video instructional series on literary analysis for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 26 half-hour video programs and coordinated books... Illuminating excerpts of short fiction, poetry, plays, and essays — both classic and contemporary — highlight standard literary forms and devices including plot, myth, setting, and character."

Of course, we all know something about GPB Education Streaming, or Discovery Education Streaming. Tens of thousands of videos and clips on every topic are available here for watching or downloading. Training and how-to guides on the site make it easier than ever to learn to use this classroom streaming service. DES has their own "Community" for teachers with a blog, forums and discussions so we can all share and learn from each other.

Here's another little known offering by DES. Training Webinars. One being offered this Tuesday: A Tangled Web of Content Untangled for Educators. "During this session we'll explore the web to find safe source material and interactive web 2.0 sites that you can use to engage your students. We'll also examine different ways in which you can marry this new found content together with the content you already have access to within Discovery Education Streaming." It only lasts one hour and sounds really useful.

Spend an hour or two on GPB and it's sister Discovery Streaming, and you will leave with a hundred ideas for using video and the internet in lessons.

Thoughts and Resources on School News Broadcasting

I work at a school which does its news the old fashioned way ala Principal McGee in Grease. Over the PA. So I can't say first hand how taping and broadcasting the news should be done. However, I found some resources on many sites, read a teacher interview on the subject, a lesson plan, and viewed some interesting taped shows and got a feel for bad, so-so, and really good news broadcasts.
There are several things I learned about taping and presenting a quality news show. First, you actually need some decent equipment. Although it can be done with a video camera, a computer, and a feed to the TV, to get a truly good show, you need more. You need monitors, sound systems, a real stage, perhaps even a green screen. You need to allow enough time for plenty of rehearsal. Good shows are usually produced in pieces, either a few hours, or a day before. Some portions may even be taped the week before and everything is then spliced together. Good shows are paced well, there are no slow, dragging areas. Good shows are produced by the students themselves although there is obviously direction and training by knowledgeable adults. Lisa Carlon, a teacher at Cedar Ridge Elementary in Branson, Missouri, talks about the many facets of producing a news broadcast in an interview (at www.intime.uni.edu/video/016moms/0rom/default.htm). She says, "The process of creating a daily newscast entails many responsibilities that cover a broad range of topic areas. In addition to strengthening curricular skills, this program also utilizes teamwork and individual responsibility to get the job done. Life skills necessary to everyone are practiced daily."
In addition there are multiple areas of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•S) taught when students produce a news broadcast. Ms. Carlon explains her students must focus on:

Research: Students must use a variety of sources to research and gather information for the newscast. Weather reports and other items are found on the Internet. Special features and reports are researched wherever appropriate for the topic. Writing: Using the research information they have gathered, students write reports and scripts for use with the newscast. While their research may be extensive, their reports must be brief and concise. Proofing and Revision: Students are responsible for creating, proofing, and editing their work before taping it for the broadcast. Filming, Reporting, Editing, and Broadcasting: Students work cooperatively to film the newscast, edit the varied components together and critique the final product. These tasks thoroughly incorporate all six of the NETS standards.

An excellent site to watch school news productions is SchoolTube. Some of the videos I watched are below. These range from ‘needs some tweaking’, to pretty good, to amazing!

www.schooltube.com/video/2975/Methacton-Warrior-News

www.schooltube.com/video/30304/Minutemen-TV-April-21-2009

www.schooltube.com/video/51145/10-29-09-Pioneer-Middle-School-AM-Announcements

www.schooltube.com/video/51001/LHTV-Oct-28-09

School TV News-Williams

Producing a school news program is a very difficult task. One of the most important aspects of a news program is technology. Technology must be in place to be able to support a quality news program. I currently do afternoon announcements everyday via a news cast at my school. The students come in the morning and we pre-tape the news. We use an old camcorder that uses VCR tapes. There is one camera operator. Two students sit at a desk in the media center (sometimes there is only 1 due to the fact no one else shows up) and read the announcements teachers have emailed to me. This has to be done while the media center is open. It is quite difficult to get the students coming into the media center to be silent. I also have the problem of the front office calling over the intercom that a teacher has a phone call. In the afternoon, a student comes over the intercom and announces for teachers to turn to channel 4 to view the afternoon announcements. Another student then starts the video and stops it when it is through. I have one student who is in charge of the news crew, yet I am usually the one who makes sure the students have the camera and the announcements. It is as bare bones as it gets. I hate that the news program at my school is not a very good quality production, because I feel it is an important part of the media program.
The news casts were started about the sixth week of school. Students who were interested in joining the news crew had to fill out an application. They had to give a paragraph on why they wanted to be on the news crew, the student and guardian had to sign they understood the rules, and a they had to get 2 faculty recommendations. Since this was the first year, any student who turned in a completed application was selected for the news crew. Next year I will hold auditions. The students are on a rotation schedule. They work on the news cast for one week a month.
I am hoping next year things go smoother.

Social Networking-Williams

In my county, we use Destiny. The version we use allows students to log onto Destiny Quest which incorporates some social networking components. Students can log on and interact with the catalog system. They are able to search for books within their school's catalog, put them on hold, and even give a book review and/or rate them. This is a wonderful feature and the students love being in control of their library account. As a media specialist, I love the fact my students can interact with both the catalog system and me. Yet, I wish there was more. I believe there is a place for more social networking within the media center and the school.

One such social networking tool I wish media center's used is librarything. I love librarything and believe students, media specialist, and schools would benefit greatly if they could use this sort of social networking tool in the media center. Students could tag similar books. This would help me in assisting students who come to me saying, " I loved this series (whatever series they are reading), but I have read them all. Is there another series like this one?" or " I love books with action, etc." If I needed help coming up with titles, I could simply go to students' tags and get book ideas. Students could also see each others tags.

I do believe that incorporating social networking and the media center will become more prevalent (in a modified way) in the near future.

Media Center Webpages

The county I work for uses "School Wires" for their webpages. This program allows teachers to create pages for thier classes, clubs, & organizations from the school's main page. All pages have similar formats, but the content can be as simple or complex as the creator wants. School Wires offers blogs, surveys, photo slide shows, links, calendars, even offering a simple way to upload podcasts, allowing users to implement Web 2.0 technologies. By having an interactive, up-to-date website a media specialist can create a buzz about the programs in the media center.

The website is available when the media center is not and should be a tool students can use when conducting research from home. Media Specialists can upload pathfinders for both teachers and students, pointing to helpful websites for unit building or research. A blog that students can respond to, interest surveys for collection management, a calendar of events, and informational podcasts can help extend the media center beyond the school's walls.

Social Networking- C. Wilson

This is a very timely topic for me right now. One of my reading teachers has been using Shelfari in her reading class. Students had to create accounts and profiles and join the group she set up. Students have a "shelf" on which they put books they have read and are going to read. They can send messages to each other and to the teacher. Also, once they have read the book, they write a review on it. It has been going well until last week. Several of the students have set up or joined other groups besides the teacher's. My media clerk has a son in the class, and like a responsible parent, she checks his Shelfari account often. She began noticing a strange person in several of the groups. We did a little digging and this person is a high school student (our kids are middle school) who apparently likes to cut himself and talk about it on the internet. After we started checking up on some of the other students in the class, we realized that they are joining all kinds of random groups. We really have no control over which ones they join and who they contact. We can tell them to only join the school's group and only talk to kids they know, but it is really up to them and the parents to be responsible. It's understandable that this is why filters are in place and some systems don't allow access to anything like this, but that is really to harsh. The kids are actually enjoying this. They want to put books on their shelf and write reviews. For once they are actually excited to be planning what they are going to read next!

What we ended up doing was to send a note home in the classroom newsletter that students should only be in the school's group and should only be talking with kids that they know. We also had a very serious chat with the students and some of them were told to remove people from their groups.

Media Center Web Pages-Williams

Media center web pages are a great resource for media specialist to create. It offers information 24/7 to teachers, students, and parents. The type of information found on media center web pages varies with each media specialist; however, there are certain areas that must be included. An introduction of the media center is helpful. It allows patrons to know the hours, staff, policies, and mission statement. Another key component is the resource links. These links help students access reliable information and show them how to cite it correctly. Plagiarism is another problem students encounter; therefore, links to plagiarism and copyright sites are a must.
A really great media center web page not only lists the above information, it gives additional information. Recently, I added a checkout/research calendar to my web page. I noticed teachers were constantly coming to the media center to see when they were scheduled to checkout books. One teacher even brought her kids on the wrong week. Now teachers simply check the calendar to see their library schedule. They can also reserve library time by simply sending me an email. Being able to search for books and reserving them at home is also helpful to students.

Some other links that are helpful are:
Booster Club, AR, Lexile, Reading bowl, and any other information pertinent to your school.

Remember, in order for a web page to be beneficial, it must be updated regularly.