October 23, 2008~ It worked!! They all cheered, slapped high fives and then said "Awesome"! That was the response when the test run of their weeks of hard worked paid off! The televised "live to tape" morning news program worked. It started off as a morning announcements over the all call system in the morning. However, the students wanted more. "Can we do PowerPoint announcements over the television in the classrooms?" they asked..Certainly! And they proceeded to work on just that..BUT..yes, there is always something. The media specialist (who is assisting us with our endeavor) spoke up..mentioning we better make sure all TVs in the classroom are working. They weren't but at least it was a connection issue and not lets get a bunch of new television issue. In the middle of verifying all TVs in the classroom worked one of the crew said..why not put video on the PowerPoint announcements? We did..and it worked but a little cumbersome having to move from one computer station to another. You see..as technology goes some times...We are able to connect to our broadcast system on an older Gateway that has the RCA port and our newer Dell does not. Their first attempt with the embedded video did not work because the way the student embedded the video. After a few more attempts, it finally worked. (Of course, all along our journey the students were still doing the AM announcements via the all call system while they worked out the kinks).
OK..this is where I just had to speak up..I kept quiet as they worked through their chain of events using the technology they were familiar with and understood. They never gave up and persevered after many issues and I am very proud of them!! Finally, I made one suggestion. Movie Maker. That is all it took..now, as they have watched their final product several times they want more..Can we do it outside, can we use a map, can I wear a birthday hat when I do birthdays? uh, oh..I need to sit up straight..I cannot wait for tomorrow..yes, unfortunately due to technical difficulties there was not a production today but isn't that all part of the learning process??
