School Broadcasting and GPB Resources

At Paulding County High School, we use Channel One as our school distribution system. This means of broadcasting information to the school can be wonderful, but also presents some challenges. One problem with Channel One in our school is that we have an entire building without Channel One TVs, so it is difficult to ensure information is getting to the entire school. The following are ways we have used Channel One:

1. Every night the Channel One News is downloaded into the box through a cable, and we can broadcast the news to classrooms at any point during the day. Some classrooms utilize this and others do not. Since we do not have a homeroom class period daily, many first period teachers do not have the time to show their classes the news broadcast. Educational videos are also downloaded into the box every month. We email out a list of these videos. If the teachers would like them to be recorded, we download them onto a DVD for them and catalog them into the system.

2. We use the inputs on the broadcasting system to display powerpoint presentations. These presentations are broadcasted to the classrooms, lunchrooms, etc. Power point presentations are usually on an automatic loop. A weekly news is broadcasted at Paulding County High School. We have used power point to broadcast new book purchases for the media center. Basically, we put the cover of one new book title per power point page and place on the loop.

3. Some special events are broadcasted through Channel One. This year, I broadcasted the presidential address to students through Channel One. I was presented with a number of challenges when broadcasting this event because I was afraid that live streaming would be slow through the web. (We found this to be the case with the presidential inauguration last year). I thought it would be more reliable to tape the broadcast, but found out there is no cable TV anywhere in the school. We eventually did work it out through the internet. (You can hook up a computer to the broadcasting box.)

4. Another way we use the Channel One system is for our school wide time. I have a digital clock with a video camera on the clock. I plug in the video RCA cable from the video camera to the channel one system. The audio comes from a boombox into the channel one box. This way, any teacher with a Channel One TV can turn to channel 3 and see the time. If they turn the sound up they will hear classical music. They can play this throughout the day for their students.

Regarding Georgia Public Broadcasting Resources, the main way teachers use these resources is through United Streaming. I hold pass code information in my office, and teachers may get the passcode from me anytime. Looking at the website, I see there are wonderful resources available through GPB, and a training on this resource would be beneficial for teachers.