Radically Reforming Public Education--and How Video Can Help

By the time stu­dents finish their sophomore year of high school, they should know how much they have yet to learn about financial literacy and maybe even have a good idea of what they want to do in life. This is where streaming media comes in: Online video and books can provide for rich, specialized independent study to any community with motivated students.

Effective K–12 Video Strategies

The revolutionary change over the past 10 years has made production technologies accessible to teachers and even students. And 4 years ago, of course, almost everyone was forced to rely on educational video to keep schools asfunctional as possible. Today, we can identify several use cases of teacher-produced educational video that are particularly effective.

WCAG 2.2, Web Content Accessibility Standards, and You

Instead of a patchwork of accessibility standards for California, Illinois, Europe, and everywhere else, the current standard is set by a broad cross-section of experts from the industry and published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Backward Design for Educational Video Production

Software developers are trained in accessibility issues for front-end development and basic concepts like labeling control elements and reporting state changes to assistive technology—screen-readers—are part of a professional developer's code testing procedures. Despite this progress, two very different forces are swirling with the potential to push back on the trend towards better technological inclusion of the disabled.

An Impending Accessibility Backlash

Software developers are trained in accessibility issues for front-end development and basic concepts like labeling control elements and reporting state changes to assistive technology—screen-readers—are part of a professional developer's code testing procedures. Despite this progress, two very different forces are swirling with the potential to push back on the trend towards better technological inclusion of the disabled.

Follow-the-Presenter Tools for DIY Instructional Videos

Until fairly recently, if a teacher wanted to produce a DIY instructional video untethered to a fixed point in front of a camera, they'd need to remotely control either a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) head or a multicamera switcher. With the arrival of competent and inexpensive facial recognition software, several consumer videoconferencing cameras now offer automatic framing to allow teachers or other presenters to move around a scene to better engage with viewers and interact with props and visual aids.

Learning on YouTube

YouTube Player for Education is something to keep an eye on as it matures in 2023. I don't expect it to be a particularly disruptive technology, but it will prove a welcome way for teachers who are exceptionally on camera to augment their teaching salaries.

Teaching With Dante

A commonly used streaming media technology at schools, conference centers, and houses of worship is Dante (Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet). A Dante-enabled device can be plugged into a Dante network using a standard Category 5e or Category 6 network cable; the network connects devices using either 100Mbps or gigabit network switches, typically with Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities.

Gear for the HyFlex Teaching and Learning Space

The name of the game for designing a hybrid classroom or meeting space is balancing inclusivity of the remote and on-premise audiences that a colleague sometimes refers to as the "zoomers" and "roomers," respectively. Here's a look at some gear that can help you achieve that balance.

Rotoscope with AI Assist

Want to give your video the look of the "Take on Me" video? Here are some tools and tips that will let you create a rotoscope version.

How to Choose A Video Management System for Schools and Universities

So you need a new video management system (VMS) for your organization? Here are some suggestions for making sure your VMS doesn't compromise your school's or your students' data.

Online Video Learning: Just as Good as In Person?

There's been a lot written about online educational video since the beginning of the pandemic, and the results are surprising, though far from conclusive.

Pandemic Mergers and Acquisitions in Educational Video

Three transactions from the last year illustrate how educational video providers are capitalizing on trends in streaming media, both specific to e-learning and more broadly

How to Design a Hybrid Classroom

In-person or virtual? It's no longer one or the other, and schools and universities need to have clear strategies for delivering hybrid education to their students.

Back to School with New Video Teaching Skills

Educators learned a lot about video learning over the last 18 months. With most schools reopening this fall, how do you integrate those new skills and techniques into the physical classroom?

Reaching the Global Classroom

China provides a particularly interesting global classroom case study, due to both its huge population size and the difficulty of operating in its networks.

Educational Video and Protecting Student Rights

Both student privacy and accessibility need to be considered by any school, college, or university that's using video for education.

The Digital Divide and COVID-19

One of the few upsides of the pandemic is that many schools whose students were on the wrong side of the digital divide now have access to high-speed internet

Rasing the Bar for Educational Video

It's time to "level up" your video instruction strategies. Here are a few concepts to rally around to help you do so.

Are Schools Missing the Podcast Wave?

Podcasts have swelled in popularity. So why aren't more schools and universities riding the rising tide?