For the Auteur in You

By Meg McCaffrey -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2005

A new collection of streaming video clips is likely to unleash the inner Spielberg in kids (and librarians, too).

Discovery Education recently unveiled about 1,000 editable clips in its unitedstreaming video-on-demand library (www.discoveryed.com). Streaming video has been available for awhile now, but with this collection, students and educators can download selections and use editing software to fuse the clips into PowerPoint presentations, classroom lessons, and digital movies.

The resource addresses an array of K–12 curriculum concepts. For example, a math student can convey a geometric principle by showing a clip of a baseball player throwing a curveball, while footage of the International Space Station will add luster to any earth science lecture.

Sure, video makes for fun in the classroom, but there's also a need for it. That's because it's difficult to find high-quality content for the classroom that is also copyright-free, according to David Pendery, Discovery's communications director. All necessary clearances have been secured for unitedstreaming's new collection and more clips are being added. The editable library comes at no additional cost to schools that own a site license to unitedstreaming, a $1,000 annual fee per school for unlimited usage.

Patricia P. Dunlap, the dean and technology coordinator of the Harvard School in Chicago, IL, recently asked two eighth-grade girls to put together a project on conflict resolution using some of the clips. The assignment was an alternative to the girls being suspended from school for bad behavior. "First they had to view each segment, take notes, and then put it into a PowerPoint presentation," explains Dunlap. The presentation was a huge success, greeted with applause from a captive audience. Dunlap says the girls "turned that negative issue into a very positive one."