Lights, Camera, ACTION!
Stacie Brownell
“One of my favorite activities as a media specialist is producing a morning TV news show,” states Jolaine Sims, media specialist at Buchanan Elementary School located in Buchanan, Georgia. Depending on your point of view, one of the best or worst parts of any media specialist’s day is the time spent producing a daily school news show. This time can be an engaging, fun-filled hour overflowing with creativity and hands-on learning activities for your students, or you can view it as a lost hour, a frustrating time when you could be doing other more important things to make your media center run smoothly (Stephens, Franklin, 2007). Many times, those that see producing a school TV news program as a horrible part of the day, simply do not know enough about television production to feel comfortable with it. For those who are new to the profession and who may have had very little training in video production, the school news show can be a scary time. Trying to teach students how to use all the technology involved in the production process while you yourself are just learning how it works is intimidating to say the least. I can also be embarrassing because your learning curve involves a daily public performance viewed by the whole school. No one else on your campus is held up for such scrutiny (Stephens, Franklin, 2007). Video production and TV news programs have become a standard part of the school setting and curricula across the nation. State of the art production facilities are built into new schools and older schools are retrofitting spaces to accommodate the necessary equipment. While some schools have elaborate equipment and production areas and use special effects and fancy graphics, others may simply use a camera mounted on a tripod that is focused on an improvised desk. The success of most television production programs rests squarely on the instructor. It is their vision, their willingness to learn the equipment and spend experimental time creating projects and then teaching them to students that makes a good program work. While some schools make different arrangements, in many schools that instructor is you, the media specialist (Stephens, Franklin, 2007). DNN, or Daniell News Network, delivers the morning announcements daily via closed circuit television. In addition to the morning announcements, CNN students news is broadcast on a daily basis. Occasionally other copyright cleared videos are shown school wide, such as: videos that are shown by all subject area teachers in a grade level, Book Fair videos, etc. The closed circuit system is an old system that contains two channels. The system is controlled by the media center staff and teachers are able to request use of the system. Teachers may request that copyright cleared videos are played or that a video from United Streaming is aired. Every teacher has access to United Streaming so the media center rarely has any requests to play from United Streaming/Discovery.
DNN is only in its second year of production and the morning announcements are on the low end of the scale. The morning announcements are broadcast live daily and are the responsibility of the technology teacher and the media specialist. The announcements begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and contain announcements, birthdays, lunch menu and a weekly riddle. The news team contains 5 teams that rotate duties weekly. All members of the team submit an application and are chosen by the technology teacher and media specialist. Technology problems and lack of commitment are the most frequent problems faced by the daily broadcast.
School TV news resources:
School Video News, E-magazine, http://www.school-video-news.com/
School TV.com http://www.schooltv.com/
Georgia Educational Technology Consortium http://gaetc-ejournal.org/
GPB Resources
Check out the Georgia Public Broadcasting resources! They have links of examples and how-to’s for Edublogs, Podcasts, and Wikis. This website contains a plethora of resources for educators.
Georgia Public Broadcasting (2011). GPB Education. Retrieved from the GPB website:
Sims, J., (n.d.), Upgrading a School TV News Show. Retrieved from: http://gaetc-
Stephens, C., Franklin, P., (2007). Library 101: A Handbook for the School Library
Media Specialist. Westpoint, CT: Libraries Unlimited
Stacie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your points. The closed circuit student video production can go either way. I have worked in schools where it was a smooth process and in schools where it was an arduous task. The technology being used must certainly be reliable, and the fewer steps the better. I went to Barrow Elementary, in Athens, last week, and Andy Plemmons, Media Specialist, had a nice set up that worked well. He had some newer equipment and some dated pieces. He spoke about the days with tech trouble being the most difficult. Like you mentioned, he rotates his crews as well.
My daughter, who is in college, was on the morning news crew when she was in elementary school as the weather girl and the sports girl. She was famous…as famous as an average fifth grader could be. I remember she went through the application and interview process to get the job. It was a great experience in many ways. As time consuming as video production is, it offers a lot for students, and if you rotate crews more students have opportunities to learn. One of the best things that came from my daughter’s experience was an awareness of proper grammar.
I am at a high school now and our morning broadcast is not handled by the media center but rather by the media production class. Their equipment is far from basic. The students involved in the class actually take on the broadcast outside of the regular course with great enthusiasm.
You gave a good report with a lot of real issues to consider.
I agree that producing a morning show can be an engaging, fun-filled, and creative process for the students. I am not sure if I would enjoy it as much as I am easily frustrated when it comes to the technology and equipment. However, I would be willing to learn for the sake of the children. The benefits seem endless. I see it as being an opportunity to showcase the students, boost their self-confidence, improve their written and verbal communication skills. They gain more technology skills, they experience success, and they feel like they are making a contribution.
ReplyDeleteStacie,
ReplyDeleteYour post was great. You did a terrific job of considering all sides of the issue. It can be very intimidating to take on something that can be very overwhelming. The technology, managing and coaching the students, coordinating the news stories, editing the video - that would be considered a major project for anyone to undertake, even just once, much less weekly or (aaahhh) daily. Not to mention, it is all out there for everyone to see your mistakes or failures as you learn. It is certainly intimidating to me. It would certainly be a something that you want to think through, get advice and tips from other media specialists and plan out very carefully.
Suzanne
Stacie,
ReplyDeleteYour blog looks great and I found it interesting to read!
While many schools have embraced the idea of producing daily morning shows, some have not. I work at a high school with a large PA department; however media production is not a part of the curriculum. Our Morning show consists of two students announcing school news and information over the intercom, occasionally there is a guest announcer. I think that having students produce a daily show is a great way to get them involved and enhance learning. Students need to know not only discipline-specific content but also critical thinking skills, communication skills, social skills, and computer skills. Teachers who incorporate technology into their classrooms to foster these types of skills will help students prepare to enter an ever-changing world as life-long learners.
Heidi