Four Things Media Students Should Learn When Their Lab is Stripped Away
Teaching Resources Guest Contributor Teaching Resources Guest Contributor

Four Things Media Students Should Learn When Their Lab is Stripped Away

As a high school teacher who uses 75 percent of class time for hands-on lab, if not more, learning from home meant re-framing all of my lessons or coming up with new lessons completely. The learning objectives became even more important because I had to come up with a new way to teach them. It was a beneficial questioning process because we can easily get so wrapped up in the technology and equipment we use, that we can forget the fundamental basics that require little more than a smartphone to create.

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Tips for Quality Video and Cable Care
Teaching Resources Guest Contributor Teaching Resources Guest Contributor

Tips for Quality Video and Cable Care

Our tools extend beyond our cameras, lights, and microphones to the various tips and tricks that we acquire along the road of practice made perfect. These useful techniques become the difference between knowledge and experience, which yields wisdom. To this effect, here are some helpful hints that might assist you in becoming a little better with your tools.

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Getting Creative with Google Classroom and Project-Based Learning
Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy

Getting Creative with Google Classroom and Project-Based Learning

While some school districts are deploying high-tech video production setups to completely recreate the classroom environment online, that’s not an option for districts whose populations skew on the lower end of the socioeconomic totem pole. Delta County School District 50J in Colorado has roughly 56% of the student population receiving free and reduced lunch. According to Rupp, computers are not a household staple, and some of the students don’t even have access to the Internet. Finding a virtual learning solution that was easy to deploy and access was paramount.

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Middle School Teacher Keeps His School’s Newscast Alive Remotely
Teaching Resources, Production, Streaming Kreativ Alchemy Teaching Resources, Production, Streaming Kreativ Alchemy

Middle School Teacher Keeps His School’s Newscast Alive Remotely

Happy Valley Middle School’s Media Arts teacher Steve Oliver was quick to act when his school switched to the online model during the COVID-19 crisis. He runs the school newscast to help lift the spirits of his school’s community. With the help of teachers, he has successfully increased viewership, engaged fellow teachers and students, and provided a therapeutic outlet for himself and others. It is not too often that middle schools offer a media arts program let alone have a news cast. Stream Semester spoke with Steve about his unique middle school news cast.

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Free Video Editing Software for Students 
Teaching Resources, Filmmaking, Production Kreativ Alchemy Teaching Resources, Filmmaking, Production Kreativ Alchemy

Free Video Editing Software for Students 

While your school computers might have the same video editing software like the pros, students don’t have the same access at home. Some students don’t even have computers. But that shouldn’t stop you from editing your films and newscasts remotely. We gathered our favorite free video editing programs for your computers and phones.

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Enrollment Marketing for Private and Charter Schools
Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy

Enrollment Marketing for Private and Charter Schools

As the 2020 school year comes to a close, focusing on school enrollment is high on the minds of private and charter school directors. Kreative Webworks’ Digital Marketing Blueprint for Schools analyzes your school’s website, competitors, and industry search trends to develop an improvement strategy that lands more eyes on your content and, in turn, more names on your waitlist.

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Free Professional Development Courses to Help Educators Move Curriculum Online
Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy

Free Professional Development Courses to Help Educators Move Curriculum Online

Casual chats over coffee seem like a distant memory for those self-isolating in our homes. For educators, these conversations sprouted new ideas for lesson plans, technology, and teaching methods. Especially during this virtual learning transition, these new ideas are the cornerstone of education innovation, and one company is fighting to bring them back.

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School Tech Director Shares How His School is Posting Lessons Online
Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy

School Tech Director Shares How His School is Posting Lessons Online

Christ Episcopal School’s Director of Technology Bob Krieger was overwhelmed when the Louisiana governor announced that schools would need to shut down and move online to combat the COVID-19 crisis. Using Google Meet, Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Mini switcher, and other online resources, Bob successfully got his school up and running online in just 4 days.

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Capturing Audio for Classroom Streaming 
Teaching Resources, Production Guest Contributor Teaching Resources, Production Guest Contributor

Capturing Audio for Classroom Streaming 

Presenting classes online is becoming more common every year. Streaming video of the instructor is quite easy, and using a wireless mic provides great audio from the instructor. In addition, it is rather straight forward to add a second camera to capture video of the students. The challenge, however, is to capture audio of student questions and interaction.

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Streaming to a Pre-Created Facebook Live Event
Teaching Resources, Production Kreativ Alchemy Teaching Resources, Production Kreativ Alchemy

Streaming to a Pre-Created Facebook Live Event

If you randomly go live on Facebook, your audience is primarily determined by who’s online at that very moment. Of course, people who log in later can still watch the video, but you’re missing out on a prime engagement opportunity by not catching them while you’re still live. In fact, people engage with live videos at 6 times the rate they engage with pre-recorded videos. Your goal as a streamer is to drive traffic to your live video while it’s still live.

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A Video Solution for Online Learning
Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy Teaching Resources Kreativ Alchemy

A Video Solution for Online Learning

Many schools and universities have canceled classes to prioritize health concerns. While many districts have pre-existing infrastructures to support online learning, some schools are left wondering how they can effectively educate and interact with their students when classes aren’t meeting in person. Sometimes, it’s not enough to add a voiceover to a slide deck. Certain class material requires discussion and demonstration. Live video conferencing can recreate the classroom environment online.

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What Video Production Careers Can I Get?
Teaching Resources, Production Guest Contributor Teaching Resources, Production Guest Contributor

What Video Production Careers Can I Get?

As a Video Production educator I often am asked, “How can I make money doing this?” That is a great question and worthy of an answer. Often times when people think of careers in Video Production their focus is narrowed into a small corner of the industry. In actuality there exists a wide gamut of jobs that are viable and realistic career options for those that wish to pursue them. This short article will list some of these options and hopefully pursue them in greater detail in the future.

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Sophomore Slump: 2020 Vision
Teaching Resources Tom White Teaching Resources Tom White

Sophomore Slump: 2020 Vision

2020 Vision is going to be the most cliche thing of the year. That and the “roaring 20’s.” I want to share my vision for 2020, which is to inspire something in you. My goals are not for everyone. I don’t know that I would even call these goals. I hope that I make progress in building my program. That’s it. I want to build my program. The plan is the key…

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Teaching Resources, Production Guest Contributor Teaching Resources, Production Guest Contributor

Company Profile: Conference Room Systems (CRS)

CRS (Conference Room Systems) is an ecommerce company offering a curated selection of audiovisual solutions for any organization. The parent company to CRS, Haverford Systems Inc., has been working within the audiovisual arena for more than 30 years as a Phila.-area installer and integrator. Following that legacy, CRS knew that they could also help DIY (do-it-yourself) customers across the U.S. With well-known manufacturers featured on its site, including Cambridge Sound Management, HuddleCamHD, PTZOptics and Magewell, CRS proudly offers the right balance of high-quality and affordability.

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Learn How Schools Can Stream Esports Tournaments
Teaching Resources, Production, Streaming Guest Contributor Teaching Resources, Production, Streaming Guest Contributor

Learn How Schools Can Stream Esports Tournaments

During the 2019 StreamGeeks Summit, a three-versus-three RocketLeague esports tournament took place. The event was live-streamed by a student-run team from New York City’s S.A.R High School and broadcast to Twitch. The student-run broadcast team used a Wirecast Gear video production system, which was connected to three PTZOptics cameras via SDI and seven gaming computers using NDI. The main PTZOptics camera was a 12X ZCam connected via SDI. This camera was used to capture the play-by-play announcer team from Hofstra University. Students from the S.A.R High School also had access to two PTZOptics 20X-SDI cameras they could remotely control using Wirecast and Xbox controllers to capture various views throughout the esports tournament.

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Why Can’t I Live Stream to Facebook?
Teaching Resources, Production, Streaming Guest Contributor Teaching Resources, Production, Streaming Guest Contributor

Why Can’t I Live Stream to Facebook?

If you’ve tried to stream to Facebook recently and encountered an error on your encoder, you’re not alone! At the beginning of May, Facebook started rolling out a new streaming protocol called RTMPS. As of November, the new protocol took full effect. Previously, Facebook - like nearly every other CDN - used the RTMP protocol for live streaming. Consequently, up until Facebook announced its update, most live streaming encoders were only designed to support RTMP. So, if your encoder is suddenly unable to stream to Facebook, you likely have Facebook’s streaming protocol to blame.

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Sophomore Slump: Wait! What?
Teaching Resources Tom White Teaching Resources Tom White

Sophomore Slump: Wait! What?

Here’s the deal. This semester, I had less than 20 students total. Before you go all “I have 348 kids in each class and only have 1 chair and 2 8mm cameras,” I am building a new program. Last year, I am fairly certain I had the highest failure rate in the southeast United States. When you have that, it’s hard to come back the next year and have a huge class load and still have kids progress through the system.

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