It is simply amazing to see how far school broadcast technology has come in the last few years. I first became involved with school broadcasting about 8 years ago. A friend of mine had just become the school’s media specialist and he decided to take on the broadcasting project. It proved to be a little overwhelming for a first year media specialist, in a school that had never before done a news broadcast. He asked for my help because I had a small amount of experience in production. We started out with a very simple form of broadcast that had a group of students that would video tape their broadcast and then we would show it during homeroom the next day. The problem with this was that there were a lot of announcements that did not make it in time to be broadcast. Plus, the quality of the broadcast was just not that good.
Now, we use multiple cameras and blue screen effects to achieve a great live news show. The students love working on the show and the school enjoys the broadcast. I have gotten a lot of good ideas from looking at other examples of school broadcasts done at other schools. I think that the main thing that I have seen on all of these school broadcast is that it is a student driven project. Too many times, I think that we (teachers) try to get too involved in projects of this type, and we don’t allow students to learn and grow.
I am at a middle school and we have a brand new high school across the street from us. They have several classes in broadcasting. The high school has a news room that rivals any of the local network news rooms and an equally impressive production room. Hopefully, my small program at the middle school will encourage students that have an interest in broadcasting, to pursue it further at the high school level and maybe even beyond.
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Wow, how incredible to be a part of something from the beginning and see how successful it has become. With social networking sites for videos like youtube, students' desire to be a part of video editing and even the school news will increase. However, this medium teaches students how to convey pertinent information in an organized and professional way. As the students become more and more proficient with creating and writing the scripts and even reading them, their self esteems and confidence will increase as well. Thank you for sharing your experience.
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool. I had no idea that so much has changed in school broadcasting. My school attempted to have a school news broadcast a few years back and all we had was a camera and a microphone. We had to create our own physical background. There were no blue screens or capabilities for mulitple camera shots during the broadcast.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that middle schools and high schools have classes in technology that are cutting edge and parable to professional standards.
I hope to take on this project once I become a media specialist. I think your friend was very ambitious to take this on his first year. Good thing he had some help!
Super --How exciting-- I am just waiting for that to happen our school. We have a new technology teacher who has some great ideas. I expect to see him writing some grants for our school to obtain some broadcasting equipment.
ReplyDeleteOf course, all the other schools in our district have been renovated to include new technologies. Each of these schools have a great broadcasting system. They broadcast live each morning.
I feel that being able with broadcasting enables students to feel more connected to their school.
It is great to hear that some schools are growing and supporting the needs of our students in technological ways. I'm sure that the students learn so much more doing it themselves for themselves. I also agree that it gives them a purpose and a sense of connection.
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