Thing 9. Streaming Video

Usually the first time I try something new, I end up being very awkward and feeling disorganized. Streaming video was no exception. I thought that it would be easy. I thought that I would be smooth. I thought that since I had prepped everything on my desk top, hooked up my projector to my laptop, borrowed speakers to project the sound, streaming would be fun and the kids would love it. I wanted to show an eight minute video on characters in fiction before the students started writing their character papers on Lord of the Flies. Here is how it really turned out:

Hour One: my laptop needed something downloaded in order for the streaming to work. "How can this be?" I wondered for this laptop is much newer than my desktop. I tried downloading it, but it still didn't work. I passed out the paper assignment, explained the assignment, and had them work on it while I tried to figure it out. I downloaded the wrong plug-in, I didn't hit the right link to open the download onto my computer--the whole process was messy so I gave up and skipped the video for this hour.

Hour Three: Now, I think I am all set up. I figured out the downloading business during second hour. I play the video, but how to I get it to be full screened? I saw the icon a minute ago, but where is it now? It must be somewhere? I ended up clicking on several (maybe 10) wrong buttons while the students were dutifully trying to watch the video. After apologizing about the screens I was opening over the video, etc, I gave up and allowed them to peacefully watch the small screen version of the video. They actually seemed really receptive to the video and the paper intro went smoothly after that.

Hour Five: A student knew how to make the screen bigger, but it did something strange to the computer as well. It was alright, but overall--I don't know if I would use streaming very often after all this fuss. Is an eight minute video worth all the running? On the other hand, if the papers turn out better, it is worth it. I'll have to wait and see how the paper writing goes.