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School news is live on Irish Web site [The Blade, Toledo, Ohio]
(Blade (Toledo, OH) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 18--Central Catholic High School is using a new media production classroom to stream school events live on the Internet and inspire students to embrace the career possibilities of the technology.
School officials spent the summer converting a computer lab into a new media production suite. The facility includes a television stage with theatrical lighting and teleprompters used in the broadcast of morning announcements, a soundproof recording hub capable of producing radio-quality audio, and a portable production studio with handheld high definition cameras and video mixer that can be easily moved to capture school events on or off campus.
Students are at the helm of the broadcasts, technology director Chris Hamady said. The students are in front of and behind the cameras during the daily video announcements that stream live online in a system dubbed the "Irish News Network." They also help broadcast school Masses and football games.
Rather than invest in closed circuit television -- which Mr. Hamady said could have cost $50,000 to $75,000 -- the school contracted with BitGravity, a California-based firm that charges a monthly fee to encode and stream video in real time.
In the classroom recently during morning announcements, student director Brian Hanley, 18, of Sylvania Township operated the video mixer as instructor Mike Heinze supervised.
"Run the intro," Mr. Heinze told his student crew.
From behind a desk draped in red with the Central Catholic logo, student anchor Joslynn Smallwood, 17, of Perrysburg, reminded viewers to volunteer as tour guides for an upcoming school open house, and to look for the class ring representative after school. She was prompted by a script scrolling on an Apple MacBook laptop computer.
"These are 21st century skills. Students gain real world experience, working camera, being the director," said Marie Arter, curriculum director for the high school. "In my opinion, students are more interested in that than simple book learning."
Fifteen students are enrolled in the media technology class, in which they are trained to use the equipment as well as to shoot and edit video and audio. Mr. Hamady said he hopes students will employ lessons in the media production facility as marketable skills in a tough economy.
"The manufacturing economy, I don't think anybody would disagree, it's really starting to disintegrate," Mr. Hamady said. "Media is growing. Content creation is growing. We're trying to prepare our students in content creation, to prepare them for a media-rich economy."
Contact Bridget Tharp at:
btharp@theblade.com
or 419-724-6061.
To see more of The Blade, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.toledoblade.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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