Streaming Live Video on UStream.tv
Posted by jamesfrankel on April 29th, 2008
This past weekend, Barbara Freedman, from Greenwich, CT, invited me to a live streaming broadcast of a session that she was presenting at PodCamp 2.0 in NYC. Although I have heard of live streaming video sites before, this was the first time I actually logged on to an event to watch. She used a website called UStream.tv to broadcast her session. I was amazed that the website allows anyone to create a virtual TV channel for FREE! I decided to set one up to see how difficult it was.
In short, this is one of the easiest things to set up - even easier than creating a blog! Simply sign up fr a free account, enter some preferences (what video camera and microphone your computer has) and you’re finished. You simply click “Broadcast Now” and the site does the rest. You can send out an invitation to your friends and/or contacts to watch your show live. The great thing about the site is that it archives your shows so that if people miss the live broadcast they can always watch the video at a later time.
I believe that this site has some pretty big implications for education. Teachers could broadcast their lessons to students who are not able to be in the classroom. Distance learning could be greatly enhanced by teachers recording actual lectures to students around the world. It is also a great way for students who attend the class to review what was covered later in the day or week. Conferences of all types could be broadcast over the web so that others could virtually attend (even if a small fee was charged). Students could create simple TV shows and/or podcasts as assessment opportunities. The possibilities are endless.
I urge you to check out the site, create a free account, and start streaming video today.
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April 29th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Thanks for the shout out! We had a few glitches in the live stream (no fault of Ustream!) so I am uploading a complete version of the broadcast as captured by the video camera. Viewers can watch the full version later today. There is a little write up about Ustream in education and my first streaming experience on my blog. I welcome any comments or questions people might have. PEACE!
April 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
We here at Ustream are thrilled with the way the educational community has accepted Ustream, in fact an educational high school channel was one of the first broadcasters on ustream!
So In that vein the tricks, tips and techniques available in using Ustream are numerous and will solve most every problem you are likely to run into so feel free to contact ustream in the manner that best suits you or your veiwers. Besides email you may also post in the forums or stop in and visit one of our live community channels
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ustream-users-community-forum or http://tinyurl.com/2zadfd
or http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aeiz
p.s. another possible use for the Ustream technology happenned recently to my daughter(a fifth grade teacher) when a neighb oring school district had a visit from a visiting astronaut. the event was broadcast into her district where everyone could watch and most importantly ask questions live, incredible!
April 29th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Thanks so much for commenting Ustreamtech. I am thrilled that you found my blog. Barbara Freedman turned me on to this site and I think that we will see many more music educators (all educators for that matter) creating accounts in the near future!
James
April 30th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Wonderful that there are tools like this becoming available every day. Since the technology is relatively simple (computers can easily handle the data), server space is cheap (the videos can be stored for playback), and broadband is becoming ubiquitous (connection speeds can handle the data), all kinds of possibilities emerge. Being able to broadcast and save any event, lesson, movie, or whatever one wants—and being able to access it for free anytime—means that not only can any individual experience all the material that others create and provide, they can add their own material about any subject or event they wish.
Particularly exciting are the many new opportunities regarding one-time events, or ones separated at a distance, similar to the astronaut example mentioned. Now, interested people can experience these events without needing to go anywhere, at a given time, or paying any money (if the broadcast is provided free). If teachers know about these broadcasts, it is a simple matter to provide the information to students and parents, and to work the experience into the course or lesson. Without real-time interaction with the guest, something is lost, but a lot is gained in that the time restraint is removed; likewise, the presentation would not have to account for questions, which of course has its pros and cons. I can envision so many applications for this kind of technology in a school or on a college campus—connecting professors to classes outside their disciplines (for example, providing examples of math in a physics class; comparing the art and music of a particular period; making connections between political history and economic trends; and so on). These methods of bridging often-separated subjects can be highly illuminating for students as well as professors, and at the very least will get more faculty networked together. Imagining the many possible connections goes a long way towards critical thinking about a subject and how it relates to others.
Beyond education, of course, such technology provides so much convenience, it’s hard to imagine what a “typical” workday will look like in five years, let alone twenty. As more and more people can be connected virtually, and with more and more “reality” in the connection (video, audio, chat, etc.) there will be little that cannot be accomplished (in some fashion at least) through online interaction. Of course, with more technical possibilities like this, there will continue to be more information and networking possibilities as well; similar to the “you can find anything and everything online, including garbage”, people will need to continue evolving in their organization and filtering capabilities. This will be a long process, but an extremely valuable one—having so many possibilities at one’s fingertips is incredibly powerful, but vastly more so if one is savvy about what they’re looking for and what they pay attention to.