Live streaming our School's Nativity

After viewing numerous Teachmeets recently it has got me thinking about streaming some of the events in school. It is always hard for some parents to get time of work and so this may method may help them.

Streaming an assembly or performance may give some parents the chance to join in with the school celebrations rather than miss them due to work commitments.

As Christmas approaches there are going to be numerous opportunities to broadcast some of our celebrations with our school community.

The first event that we are going to try and stream is the first Advent assembly we will have on Monday 3rd December. During December, our Junior department hold daily assemblies to remember the Christian tradition of Advent. We sing songs, read parts of the Advent story and light the candles on our wreath. I will be streaming our first Advent assembly to link with the Global Classroom Christmas around the World Project that I have been involved in co-ordinating.

If successful, I am hoping to then stream the EYFS and Key Stage 1 Nativity play for any parents or classes involved in the project that want to view it.

Over the last few days I have been looking at the best ways to stream in school.

There are different ways to stream, based on the device you have, these are the best options I have found so far:

From a PC: The best and easiest way to broadcast on a PC is using Google Hangout. This is a free service that basically lets up to 10 people join a video conference. At first I was worried as to whether the 10 can be  extended as I would expect/hope more than 10 would watch. After tweeting other teachers it was @DeputyMitchell who made me aware of the Youtube add on. This allows you to broadcast your live hangout on YouTube providing a link for anyone outside the hangout to view! Once the hangout has finished YouTube automatically turns it into a YouTube clip. Sounds perfect and saves time! Problem??? The YouTube option is not available on tablets or phones.

iPad/iPhone - I was distraught to realise that the Google+ app, although it supports Google Hangout, does not have the YouTube public broadcast option! Ideally it would be the iPad I would stream from due my PC laptop only having a webcam attached to the top of the screen therefore making it very impractical to record a school assembly or show. The iPad is perfect as it is lighter more easily maneuverable.
I was getting frustrated and put out a tweet hoping to find an answer. Some teachers got back suggesting some apps that allow you to stream from your iPad such as Ustream and LiveStream. However the free options allow you to stream but will interrupt with adverts every so often, my worry is whether the adverts will be appropriate and may lead to a parent missing the crucial line of their child therefore rendering the whole process pointless!

Finally I have found probably the best options for using an iPad. The app webcamera turns the iPad into a webcam for your PC over the WiFi. You need to buy the app and then download the free PC software. But after testing it seems to work well meaning that the Google Hangout can be set up on the PC linking with YouTube but the webcam being the iPad.

I did initially download iWebcamera first!! (So annoying when you buy an app to find a better one!!) however this app does not have audio support, meaning the iPad will be the camera but if the laptop is out of reach no sound will be recorded.

I am still not sure which is the best option however I am looking to test both methods - Google Hangout on PC using Webcamera on iPad and the Ustream on iPad. I will report back on which I feel is the best and most efficient method however after two days of investigating I wanted to share the options if anyone is thinking about doing the same.


Comments

  1. iPhone UI Designer6 March 2013 at 01:16

    I was distraught to realise that the Google+ app, although it supports Google Hangout, does not have the YouTube public broadcast option! Ideally it would be the iPad I would stream from due my PC laptop only having a webcam attached to the top of the screen therefore making it very impractical to record a school assembly or show. The iPad is perfect as it is lighter more easily maneuverable. UFC 158: St-Pierre vs. Diaz

    ReplyDelete
  2. Miss Nielsen6 November 2016 at 01:45

    Hi Mr P. I am researching live streaming some of our assemblies this year. This post came up in a Google search, but as it is 4 years old I thought I would ask if you have any updates to it. I've seen Facebook steam, but not keen to hand a kid an iPad that gives them access to my Facebook account. Do you have any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Lovely Poem for Your Leavers Assembly

Image
I am always asked to put a little video together for our Year 6 show and end of year assembly. Each year, I always include a special poem that I finish the end of year video with. It is called Leaving School by Jade Hughes and it is beautiful: We've now left school, It's how the story ends, Tears of happiness is what we recommend,   It's what we say, But there's always a little pain, Because once you've left, It's not the same,   You could walk through school and you would see, Your friends who have grown up incredibly, But now you've gone, It's not the same, As you may never see them again,   Your friends who have grown up right beside you, Who have helped you through your daily strife, Will go ahead and leave behind them, You who wants the same old life,   But you can not live your life in the past, Hoping that the same memories will last, You have to move on and just be glad, That leaving has made you so sad, As this just shows that...
Keep reading

Using Disney Films for Geography!

Image
Last week I came across a tweet sharing this picture: I thought it would be a brilliant way for children to learn about the location of different countries around the world.  Before we looked at the map, I asked the class to list as many animated Disney films (excluding Pixar) as they could think of. We shared some of our ideas and discussed the origins of some of these stories. Some were books, others fairy tales, legends or folk tales.  This gave us a link with Literacy to discuss different types of stories, how most films are derived from written texts and also looking at some famous authors. We also talked about whether they could remember where in the world the film was set.  I then shared the map with the children and gave them time to look and see whether they knew any of the countries themselves. They had to make estimated guesses as to where they thought each film was set. After they had had a go at trying the name all the countries, they t...
Keep reading

Teaching Direct Speech Punctuation using the iPhone text messaging!

Image
Teaching direct speech is always a tricky aspect, there is so much to remember and very few useful visual pictures that clearly help children know what and how to use speech punctuation properly. Lets look at some of the tips to remember: The words that are spoken have to go within the speech marks. Any punctuation needs to also go inside the speech marks. A reporting clause, who and how they said it can go before, middle or end. A comma follows the reporting clause at the beginning. You need to start a new line when a new character speaks.  I think that is most of them?? I have heard of endless different ways to try and get children to remember these tips - keeping the sheeps in the pen  or speech mark sandwich  which are a couple of examples however they do not have any visual help for tips such as starting on a new line, which is something some of my children find hardest to remember.  I decided to use a different approach, to help cover the...
Keep reading