The Whiting Lane Junior Video Team

IntroductionJan Bos

Technology Outreach Coordinator West Hartford Community Television

West Hartford, CT

• Coordinates Be The Media Video Teams at a number of West Hartford Schools

• IT/Network Administrator• Video Production• Outreach

• Computer Science Major at Tunxis Community College

• Figure Skating Instructor at Veterans Memorial Skating Rink

Lee GluckLibrary Media Specialist,Whiting Lane Elementary

West Hartford, CT

• Liberal Arts Education at Connecticut College• News Production, WFSB-TV• Community Relations Director, Mystic Community Center• Elementary Certification PreK – 8• Wolcott Elementary School• Whiting Lane Elementary School

Demographics - Whiting Lane Elementary School

Special Programs • % of K-12 Students in Bilingual Education Program or Receiving English

as a Second Language Services - 9.9 • % of Identified Gifted and/or Talented Students Who Received Services -

100.0 • % of Special Education Students Attending This School Who Spent Over

79% of Their Time with Their Non-Disabled Peers - 49.2

Instructional Computers and Library Materials • # of Students Per Computer - 3.9 • % of Computers with Internet Access - 100.0 • % of Computers that are High or Moderate Power - 100.0 • # of Print Volumes Per Student - 25.0 • # of Print Periodical Subscriptions - 26

http://www.whps.org/pubs/ssp/0708/whitinglane.pdf

Demographics - West Hartford Community Television

• West Hartford Community Television(WHC-TV) is the designated Public, Educational, and Governmental channel provider for West Hartford, CT. WHC-TV delivers video content to the community through Comcast Cable Television on Channels 5, 95, and 96.

• WHC-TV also streams to the web and makes content available on it’s website – www.whctv.org

• WHC-TV has about 20,000 Comcast Cable Subscribers in West Hartford

• Any resident can become a producer and prod

Our Collaboration• Jennifer Evans, Executive Director of WHC-TV is a parent with

two children at Whiting Lane School• Jennifer Evans and Lee Gluck discussed how to increase

awareness of Whiting Lane’s quest to bring the Greenhouse back• Jan Bos and Lee Gluck met to encourage student participation in

Be The Media program.• The ideas of a “Junior Video Team” was conceived – a group that

would produce stories about school events• 4th and 5th graders were invited to submit letters of application to

become a member of the Junior Video Team.

“Be The Media”“Be The Media,” is a new initiative proposed by West Hartford Community Television that

trains and imbed citizen journalists in our schools and neighborhoods so they can present local news, unique perspectives and community activities about West Hartford.

• August 2008: West Hartford Community Television(WHC-TV) applied for a Public Educational and Governmental Programming and Education Technology Account (PEGPETIA) Grant ( www.ct.gov/dpuc )

• January 2009: WHC-TV awarded grant funding for Be The Media by CT Department of Public Utility and Control

• April 2009: WHC-TV’s Board of Directors met to develop guidelines for the program within the schools (View guidelines at www.whctv.org/bethemedia )

• In April 2009, WHC-TV met with West Hartford school principals to deliver cameras and guidelines

• Cameras were also distributed to Town Libraries, Community Centers, and Non-profit Organizations to capture life in West Hartford

“How the Video Team Covers a Story”•Click here.

“Digital literacy has been variously defined in literature, but all definitions agree that it is more than the ability to read and write. Students must be able to gather information from any format and, more importantly, make sense of that information, use it, and communicate it to others.”

Digital Inquiry Skills• Connecting ideas to personal interests• Desire to know• Asking questions beyond simple fact-gathering• Investigating answers from multiple perspectives• Constructing new understandings• Expressing new ideas through different formats• Reflecting on the process and product of learning

School Library Monthly/Volume XXVI, Number 8/April 2010

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/quarterly/0907/pdf/StriplingModelofInquiry.pdf

Stripling Model of Inquiry

Linking to the Curriculum•Writing Curriculum•Storytelling

Candy For The Troops (March 2010)•Click here.

Equipment•Presently, we use the Flip Mino HD

camera for ease of use and intuitiveness of the editing software

•We are looking into alternative HD handheld cameras such as the Kodak Zi8 to address present issues such as sound quality, etc.

•We also have advanced video production equipment available, such as the Panasonic AG-HMC70P

Whiting Lane Videos on WHC-TV’s Website•Videos: Click here.

Whiting Lane Junior Video Team Blog•Click here.

Challenges•Working with time constraints•Collaborative editing•Acquiring student release forms before

telecast•Editing Software: Balancing ease of use with

functionality•Cameras: Using the right equipment for the

job•Sending large video files over the internet

for telecast

Questions?

Ask us now or email us.

Resources and Contact InformationLee GluckLibrary Media SpecialistWhiting Lane Elementary SchoolLee_gluck@whps.org

Jan BosTechnology Outreach CoordinatorWest Hartford Community TelevisionJan.bos@westhartford.org

Jennifer EvansExecutive DirectorWest Hartford Community Televisionjennifer@westhartford.org

ALL RESOURCES FOR THIS WORKSHOP CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.WHCTV.ORG/TOOLKIT