The Art of Web Broadcasting and Beyond
Next Scheduled Live Web Broadcast
Short broadcasts now occur each Thursday from class. (Check this web page
for the precise date and time of forthcoming broadcasts.)
Example Broadcasts
Once standard knowledge in oral cultures such as ancient Greece, the skills
in rhetoric that such work requires have formerly been reserved for specialists
in Mass Communications and businesses with access to very expensive broadcast
studios. One of the major outcomes of such work is that participants
learn that even as beginners they can shape a visual and aural message
and communicate it with minimal instruction and that with time their work
can become very polished when needed.
Web Design Issues
One of the significant design or setup issues involves the capacity of
those in other locations to see the broadcast live or archived. The key
component of this problem is the concept of bandwidth. Bandwidth is a measure
of how much computer data can be moved from computer to computer per second.
Fast networks do video better than slow networks. Bandwidth is the Achilles
Heel, the breaking point, that determines whether others are successful
in seeing your video creations over the Internet. Bandwidth is the critical
measure by which any data arrives in a reasonable time period, not just
video data. Though futurists argue that bandwidth is a short term problem
and that ten years from now we will have all the bandwidth we need, at
present there are serious difficulties with bandwidth.
There are many short term solutions to sharing television or video broadcasts
over computer networks. One solution is not to use a computer network at
all. Though expensive, the regional TV stations can be paid to broadcast
a video production or may do it as a public service. The video might also
be kept on videotape and transferred to other videotapes, CDs or DVDs and
mailed or shipped to potential viewers. If a computer network is used,
it is likely that only a small percentage of users will be able to see
high quality video that compares to standard video watched when we see
movies at home. Much lower video quality can still have a significant communication
and educational impact. Video quality varies with the number of frames
per second watch, the amount of color information in each image, and the
size of the image, along with other factors.
School Design Concepts
The examples of this web page are based on 320x240 pixel size video displays
on computer screens, software running on desktop and laptop computers,
consumer and prosumer level digital camcorders and an ethernet connection.
As bandwidth increases and technology improves, educators will see opportunity
and need to work with larger numbers of people, with displays that entire
classes can see and be heared and that handle multiple display screens.
This more powerful arena is called called videoconferencing. Videoconferencing
is already a common practice among university campuses. The topic is currently
beyond the scope of this textbook and course, but represents a future topic
of some importance for this chapter. Many K-12 schools now use videoconferencing
rooms to manage distance education courses for their students. Videoconferencing
units are currently being considered for supervision use in classrooms
where students from Western Carolina University will serve as teaching
interns.
With a laptop, a digital camcorder and an ethernet jack, any classroom
can now be a video transmission center, but the quality is low compared
with current television standards. With dropping costs and increasing portability,
the day is coming when any teacher's classroom will be a quality broadcast
studio, or a quality videoconferencing room, in addition to being a classroom.
Room design issues with light levels and sound will be solved. The day
of the classroom serving as a private teacher's stage once the door is
closed are fast dwindling. Once the video transmission potential of the
Internet is understood, there will be certainly be growing interest from
parents to "visit" the room electronically from their work desk and from
teachers around the world that wish to share methodology and concepts with
each other. All of this will raise numerous new issues of policy and practice.
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