Better than Streaming Idea...
Last month, we introduced the concept of the streaming service that the Media Centre has licensed for our use. It's exciting to think that we'll have the ability to stream video right into the classroom for educational reasons. The service, Learn 360, is tied directly to your Media Centre account. Just as you would book videos or kits or other resources, you can now order and see a movie on demand.
There are always issues that can pop up when you deal with anything coming from the Internet. When the connect to the site is good, things are very good. When they're not so much, well...
For a number of reasons, there are better ways to show streaming video. Streaming it live is fine for preview or if you're a risk taker. But, for the perfect lesson, and to integrate it fully with other resources, here's an alternative.
I've logged onto my MediaNet Account and I've searched Learn 360 for math resources. Here are the top seven.
The first entry looks intriguing so I'm going to select it by following the link and then clicking on the Learn 360 button.
By default, Learn 360 wants to play its videos in a Windows Media format which is just fine for preview. But I'm going to scroll down just a bit further and I have two options. I could switch to Quicktime format or FLV format. FLV (Flash Video) format is really exciting as you'll see in a second. I'm going to change to FLV format.
While I'm here, I'm excited to see that there is a download button under the movie. I'm going to download it to my desktop.
This gets very exciting because, if I play my cards right, I don't have to be at the whim of my connection, I don't have to be on the internet, buffering (and other words) don't have to be part of my language. If only I could play it. You absolutely can.
The SMART Notebook application plays Flash Video (FLV) files perfectly. All you need to do is select "Flash Video File" from the Insert Menu of the Notebook software.
There's another strong educational reason for doing this. Since the video is now in a Notebook, you can add additional pages. So, perhaps a couple of pages of activities need to be done before we show the movie. After the movie is shown, we can add a few more consolidation or follow up pages of activities. Our movie now becomes seamlessly integrated into our lesson.
This gets really exciting in a hurry.
Your school's CIESC will have more details about this exciting initiative. Make sure you ask. There will be more details as this resource is rolled out and functionality continues to be added to it.
Front Page