morning our students pull the announcements that teachers, coaches,
and administrators submit using a
Google Form and put them into a
homemade teleprompter. Then students proofread the submissions and
organize them into a script. Once they
are finished, the on-air talent practices
reading the text.
Our students went from using
premade graphics to designing everything from the lower third—the title
graphic that appears on the bottom
of the screen—to a weather forecast
graphic that students create fresh
every day and appears next to the
weather reporter. The custom-made
graphics are a far cry from the cookie-cutter look and feel of the past, and
they have allowed the group to develop a unique aesthetic.
Students in the studio communicate to the mobile weather team to
test audio and video, select the best
shot, and cue the reporter. Although
we supplied the students with walkie-talkies, they have experimented and
found their own cell phones to be the
most reliable tool.
When Things Go Wrong
Hopefully, this description does not
suggest that everything goes perfectly
each day. As the broadcast has grown
in complexity, the possibility of prob-
lems has also increased. Since there
is no studio identical to ours and we
have limited resources, our students
play a key role in identifying the
causes of problems and finding the
best resolutions.
Last fall we encountered a software
bug that caused a video and audio
“stutter” in the broadcast. Our students were able to identify the events
that would trigger the problem. We
shared this information with the manufacturer and are waiting for a fix. This
has led our students to become some
of the most technically savvy kids in
the school.
Digital Citizenship
As the broadcast has grown, students and parents have asked for the
video to be uploaded to You Tube or
streamed through our school’s website. This suggestion opened the door
to conversations about fair use and
copyright. Because we use a daily
clip, “This Day in History,” from
Learn360, we cannot put the show
on the internet. We have a group of
students working on their own video
series that eventuall will replace “This
Day in History.” Our goal is to have
student-created content from start to
finish.
—Kristopher Hupp is a 21st century teaching
and learning coach at Cornell School District
in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. Before earning his
master’s degree in instructional technology, he
taught social studies. He can be contacted at
khupp@cornell.k12.pa.us.
As the broadcast has grown in complexity, the possibility of problems
has also increased. Since there is no studio identical to ours and we
have limited resources, our students play a key role in identifying the
causes of problems and finding the best resolutions.
Meeting the ISTE Standards
This project meets the following ISTE Standards:
Creativity and Innovation
1.a. Apply existing knowledge to generate new
ideas, products, or processes
Students improved the quality of their broadcast
by experimenting with new techniques for
delivering the news by virtual cameras and
mixing prerecorded video with live video.
1.b. Create original works as a means of
personal or group expression
The news team creates an original work each
day that includes aesthetics they design.
Critical Thinking, Problem Solving,
and Decision Making
4.a. Identify and define authentic problems and
significant questions for investigation
Students identified technical issues, such as an
unreliable microphone on a remote camera, and
took steps to find the source of the problem and
a resolution.
4.b. Plan and manage activities to develop a
solution or complete a project
The news team helped create steps to test
each part of the broadcast before going live
each morning to reduce the chance of technical
errors.
Digital Citzenship
5.a. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and
responsible use of information and technology
Students were active in discussions about
copyright as it related to audio and video clips
that they used in the broadcast.
