Last year, while driving to school one morning, my kids surprised me by having a heated debate on a current event. I can’t remember the exact topic but I do remember being impressed with their depth of knowledge. While I have seen them both glued to the television on numerous occasions CNN and FOX News have never made their list of favorite channels. I was curious about where they got their information. It turns out their middle school broadcasts Channel One every morning before the daily announcements.
Channel One News is a Peabody Award winning news show aimed specifically at teens. According to the website their “mission is to inform, educate and inspire by making news relevant and engaging for young people and sparking discussion around the important issues impacting youth today.” The 12-minute news broadcast, delivered daily, features unbiased news and other information. It is broadcasted to nearly six million students in close to 8,000 middle and high schools across the country. Hallmarks of the show are young reporters that cover the news from a teen perspective in a fast-paced modern style. In addition to the news show Channel One also has an award winning website. The website, www.channelone.com, has a lot of great features including some excellent resources for teachers (Channel One, 2011). Below is a video of a recent clip from Channel One News.
Channel One News is a Peabody Award winning news show aimed specifically at teens. According to the website their “mission is to inform, educate and inspire by making news relevant and engaging for young people and sparking discussion around the important issues impacting youth today.” The 12-minute news broadcast, delivered daily, features unbiased news and other information. It is broadcasted to nearly six million students in close to 8,000 middle and high schools across the country. Hallmarks of the show are young reporters that cover the news from a teen perspective in a fast-paced modern style. In addition to the news show Channel One also has an award winning website. The website, www.channelone.com, has a lot of great features including some excellent resources for teachers (Channel One, 2011). Below is a video of a recent clip from Channel One News.
In addition to broadcasting Channel One News, most of the schools in Troup County also produce and air their own news programs using their video distribution systems. When my daughter Bailey was in fifth grade she surprised me by announcing that she wanted to try out for the elementary school broadcast team. Bailey, who is by no means a wallflower, had also never struck me as the type who would be a natural in front of the camera. Fortunately she proved me wrong. That fifth grade audition and subsequent placement on the Franklin Forest Elementary School Broadcast Team turned out to be an amazing experience. In fact, Bailey enjoyed it so much that she continued her career in middle school where she worked on Gardner Newman News for the entire time she was a student there. At Hollis Hand Elementary they also broadcast the Annual Spelling Bee, a variety of school performances and the occasional message from the principal.
In addition to broadcasting school produced clips and shows the Media Specialist can run educational videos and DVDs at the teacher’s request directly into the classroom. At Hollis Hand they have three dedicated channels for this purpose so in theory three different programs can be distributed at once, although this rarely happens. Usually an entire grade level wants one video played at the same time. At Hollis Hand they utilize videos from Georgia Public Broadcasting and Discovery Learning is the main source of teacher’s videos. The media specialist noted, however, that as technology has improved over the years, the requests she gets for showing videos through the video distribution system has actually decreased. This is because it is now so easy for teachers to stream the videos from their personal classroom computer and show them from their Smartboard or television.
According to their website, GPB Education “is Georgia’s digital media content provider for the classroom offering locally produced, Georgia-specific content and digital streaming services across all subject areas to teachers and students. All GPB Education content is correlated to Georgia Performance Standards and aligned with Common Core Standards as adopted and implemented.” They offer numerous educational programs including
In addition to broadcasting school produced clips and shows the Media Specialist can run educational videos and DVDs at the teacher’s request directly into the classroom. At Hollis Hand they have three dedicated channels for this purpose so in theory three different programs can be distributed at once, although this rarely happens. Usually an entire grade level wants one video played at the same time. At Hollis Hand they utilize videos from Georgia Public Broadcasting and Discovery Learning is the main source of teacher’s videos. The media specialist noted, however, that as technology has improved over the years, the requests she gets for showing videos through the video distribution system has actually decreased. This is because it is now so easy for teachers to stream the videos from their personal classroom computer and show them from their Smartboard or television.
According to their website, GPB Education “is Georgia’s digital media content provider for the classroom offering locally produced, Georgia-specific content and digital streaming services across all subject areas to teachers and students. All GPB Education content is correlated to Georgia Performance Standards and aligned with Common Core Standards as adopted and implemented.” They offer numerous educational programs including
· And more
(GPB Education, 2011)
The website for GPB Education, http://www.gpb.org/education, is quite impressive. There is
a new free digital library that features over 14,000 resources. These resources can be
searched by grade level, subject area, media type, resource type, and even language. Other
nice features of the website include Monthly Resources, where materials have been
compiled based on themes and topics that occur in that month. For example, April includes
National Poetry Month, National Child Abuse Prevention Month and Earth Day. There are
also a wide variety of archived webinars as well as additional resources for parents and adult
learners (GPB Education, 2011).
Getting students interested and excited about learning is a major accomplishment. With
resources like Channel One and GPB Education this is easier than ever before.
(GPB Education, 2011)
The website for GPB Education, http://www.gpb.org/education, is quite impressive. There is
a new free digital library that features over 14,000 resources. These resources can be
searched by grade level, subject area, media type, resource type, and even language. Other
nice features of the website include Monthly Resources, where materials have been
compiled based on themes and topics that occur in that month. For example, April includes
National Poetry Month, National Child Abuse Prevention Month and Earth Day. There are
also a wide variety of archived webinars as well as additional resources for parents and adult
learners (GPB Education, 2011).
Getting students interested and excited about learning is a major accomplishment. With
resources like Channel One and GPB Education this is easier than ever before.
References:
Channel One News. (July 20, 2010). Who Are We? Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.channelone.com/about/
GPB Education. (2011). About GPB Education. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.gpb.org/education/about
GPB Education. (2011). Monthly Resources. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.gpb.org/education/monthly-resources
Molly,
ReplyDeleteI like the stories that you take us on about your children. It gave me a greater understanding of the impact that Channel One has on students. I work at a small alternative program and have been trying to get it in our school but the school district does not seem to think that the cost of the equipment (something like $300-$500)is worth it for our program. I feel that it is engaging and beneficial for our students who are able to view the programming at their home school. We know that the majority of our students are not watching the local or national news outside of school. If we can get it to them this way then that is what we should do. If they are in an alternative program we have to reach them via non-traditional means. This would be a great source of information for all students.
My school does have access to Discovery Education videos from Georgia Public Broadcasting but not many teachers use it. I spoke with one of the teachers who uses it at my school and she uses the videos as resources for her English and Social Studies instruction. The only complaint that she had is that it is slow and stops sometimes. Buffering happens to a lot of videos that are viewed over the Internet. We have to weigh our options and decide if we want to get it when we want it or when the media specialist can send it over the video distribution system.
Thanks for sharing,
Cynthia
Molly,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this terrific story on the Video Distribution Systems. I have never heard of the Channel One News before but can see how it is very beneficial in the school setting. It is very important to teach these students to pay more attention to the happening around there neighborhood and community and world. This should get them interested in learning of the news around them and see the value in it.
My school no longer has any cable or tv access so it is out of the question to be able to watch these types of shows. I have heard it was because of the budget that they had to cut out the cable access in the classroom.
Your information and references helped me realize that it can still be done with the use of the class computers that are available. The discovery program you discussed is also an excellent resource for the classroom!
It is also awesome how you discussed your daughter and used her to describe how it affects the young students. They do learn so much from this type of activity and it is important to continue with these in all schools.
Thank you for sharing,
Barry
I think that giving students access to news on their level and according to their interests is a great idea. Many students today do not care to know what is going on in the world around them. Providing this type of resource can encourage students to observe the world around them and to pursue more knowledge. This would hopefully encourage them to continue this behavior even after they leave school. Many schools now create their own news broadcasts. This teaches students about media as well as responsibility and pride in their own achievements. It would be very interesting to see if it could inspire some students to continue on into the world of journalism! It is true that United Streaming and other similar sites have decreased to number of videos that are shown through the distribution system, but there is occasionally some demand for videos in the classroom especially around holidays.
ReplyDeleteMolly,
ReplyDeleteI loved your blog. It shows the value in school video production programs. If the broadcasts get students to think and debate each other, it is helping students develop skills that they can use forever. I plan to share the website with our video production class.
I agree with your media specialist that closed circuit TV has fallen to the wayside. We have not used it for anything other than the morning video broadcast for the same reason…video streaming is easy for the classroom teacher now. As for GPB Education, the best feature is that it is correlated to the GPS. Sometimes I forget how far we have made it since I started teaching 24 years ago.
You shared a lot of great information here. I really appreciate the channelone video you posted as an example.
Molly,
ReplyDeleteWow! I really enjoyed reading your post. I liked that you included clips from Channel One for us to view. I think that Channel One is a great resource for students as well as teachers, I was very impressed by it. My daughter is in high school and is somewhat of an information geek so she is very interested in being on the TV News team at her school, unfortunately it is only open to 11th and 12th graders so won’t be eligible to apply until next year. I agree with you when you say that getting students excited about learning is a major accomplishment, this is surely one way to get them excited and leaning at the same time. Broadcasting current news and events into the classroom in a format designed for teens is a wonderful way to spark friendly debate and inform.
Thanks for all of the great information. Heidi
Molly,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the Channel 1 video clip. I had heard of it, though I’d never actually watched it before. I have a friend who teaches high school history and she says her students watch Channel 1 every day. She requires them to do current events assignments each week, and the Channel 1 broadcasts help them with this. I think it’s great for students to have daily exposure to the news, particularly the adolescents. So many in this age group seem to get caught up in their own little “bubble” of school and friends, and it’s good to remind them that there is a great big world out there that they are also a part of. I also like how Channel 1 provides unbiased news. So much of our media today is skewed heavily toward one direction or the other. Even if a student happens to catch the news on their own, either because their parents have it on or because they’re actually interested in a current issue, they may not always get a completely unbiased perspective from some of the major networks.
Terese Scheiderich
Molly,
ReplyDeleteYour video clip from Channel One was fantastic! It’s funny because today I was working with a media specialist that was telling me about Channel One. We do not have Channel One at my school, so I was really glad to see that there is web-based material available. I can’t wait to check it out.
I found it interesting that you stated that teacher requests for closed circuit video have decreased due to increased available technology. I, also, am more apt to use available technology, such as Discovery Learning/United Streaming than request videos over closed circuit. The web-based technology is easier and faster to access and it can easily be projected onto the Promethean Board in my classroom.
Thanks for such a great post!
I worked in a school that subscribed to Channel 1. I was really impressed with their coverage and non-biased look at the news. I was always amazed at how attentive the students were when it was on. One time I asked some students what news stations they watched. The overwhelming answer was Channel 1. Some are turned off by the advertisements. However, I don’t see a problem with them; a few advertisements are worth the benefits of a free news service that captures students’ attentions and helps them to become informed individuals.
ReplyDeleteBlake