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Hardware

In this first part of the book, we look at some basic skills that are necessary for any teacher who wishes to work with online video.

Of course, technology is constantly changing and there is no substitute for learning by doing or learning by watching. But our primary aims here are to demonstrate possibilities and to offer solutions to common problems.

In some cases, you will need to carry out further research and training. For this, the following resources are highly recommended.

Other teachers: The staffroom is a great place for informal learning. There is sometimes at least one teacher who is head and shoulders above the others in terms of technological knowhow. Such individuals can be invaluable. Take advantage of their expertise and pay them generously with coffee and chocolate.

Young people: It is difficult to find a teenager who has never created and shared a video clip online. Online video is so often a fundamental part of their lives. Make use of your students or your own children to teach you the tricks of the trade.

Video sites: A site like YouTube is host to a huge number of videos which demonstrate how to sew on a button, make the perfect cup of tea, or tap dance. There are also ‘How to’ videos for virtually any standard technological problem or query you may have. Try searching for ‘How to connect a computer to a television set’, ‘How to change the lamp in your projector’, or ‘How to embed a video clip into your blog’.

Microsoft, Apple, and other software manufacturers often make use of instructional videos to demonstrate how to use their own products (Windows Movie Maker and iMovie, for example). Finally, you can take advantage of specialist instructional video sites for educators, such as TeacherTrainingVideos (see Appendix 8).

Online forums: As well as turning to video sites for answers, try typing your query into a standard search engine. There are many online forums where you can find answers to specific questions.

Instruction manuals: If the instruction manual for your classroom projector has been thrown away, try looking for an online version. Type the exact model of your machine into a search engine along with the words ‘instruction manual’.

THE PERFECT CLASSROOM

As teachers, we need to know how to make the most of the technology that we have, and how best to survive without that which we would like.

We are going to start by examining the individual components and devices necessary for bringing video into the classroom. For each one, we consider the ideal equipment and teaching conditions. We will then consider how to make the most of the circumstances which may be more familiar to many of us.

THE TEACHER’S COMPUTER

Our perfect classroom would be equipped with a reliable computer, powerful enough to handle large video files without problems. It would be up-to-date, with video-related programs and applications (Adobe Flash player, for example, which is required by a lot of online video websites). If the computer wasn’t up-to-date, you would have administrator’s access and would be able to run installations without the need to contact the person in charge of the school’s IT.

In fact, in our perfect world, the classroom computer would serve only as a backup device. You would have your own tablet computer or laptop which could be used to prepare lessons at home and brought into the classroom each day.

Such personalization is considered essential by many. By taking your own device into the classroom, you put yourself less at the mercy of the unknown, the unpredictable, the unforeseeable. Consider how well you know your own computer – you know where everything is or at least how to find it. Consider how convenient it is to have access to your own settings, your own bookmarks, or your own files. Now consider all of the potential unwelcome surprises that a communal computer can throw at you: it uses a browser that you are not used to; it refuses to recognize the video file on the memory stick that you have brought into class; you forget the logon password.

In an ideal world, we would all have our own tablets or laptops which we would take to work every day. We would walk into our classrooms, take them out of our bags and connect them to the projector and audio system. Taking comfort in the familiarity of the technology would allow us to relax and do our jobs better. This is the beauty of technological personalization.

DISPLAYING VIDEO IN THE CLASSROOM

Ideally, we would be able to connect our computers or mobile devices to a wall-or ceiling-mounted digital projector. The projector would have two inputs – one for the permanent classroom computer, and another for your own device.

The projector would have a good resolution and contrast ratio so projected images would be sharp and clear. Colour production would be excellent – reds would be reds, and greens would be greens. Importantly, the projector would have a light output perfectly suited to the classroom so it would never be necessary to block out natural light and turn the classroom into a cinema. Also, it would probably be a ‘short throw’ projector – that is, one that can be mounted a few metres away from the screen and, therefore, doesn’t shine in the user’s eyes. And, of course, the projector would be silent – no distracting hums or buzzes!

FIGURE 1.1 An ideal classroom for video projection

The screen itself could be a standard whiteboard or an interactive whiteboard. Both of these would allow the teacher or students to get creative and combine projected images with handwritten text and hand-drawn objects.

IMAGE 1.1 A whiteboard combining video and handwritten text

As well as the big screen, there would be a perfect audio system: a wall-mounted speaker system capable of producing crisp sound at volume levels which can reach everyone in the classroom. There would be no annoying background hiss from the speakers to distract teacher or learners.

There are other dream possibilities of course. I have seen schools which equip their classrooms with large wall-mounted flat screen televisions connected to computers.

However, in reality, many of us will be dependent on communal portable equipment which we have to reserve and set up in the classroom 15 minutes before the lesson begins. Although less convenient, this is better than having no big-screen display option at all.

Getting it right

Connecting a PC to a projector

LCD projectors are probably the most common type to be found in schools. As is the case for most computer monitors and high definition television sets, the standard way of connecting an LCD projector to a computer is through an analogue VGA