DragonFly TV

When Apple upgraded iTunes and the iTunes store to offer movies I could not resist. I paid my $10 and downloaded Pirates of the Caribbean just for the experience. My problem is that I am one of those people who has a TIVO, netflix and several cable movie channels and watches about one movie a month. At present, I am not certain what this will have to do with classroom applications, but the convergence that some have long predicted may now be more obviously on the way.  The device for connecting computers to new large screen TVs demonstrated in the release announcement (to be released early next year I think) may be useful in classrooms.

The video experience reminded me of a topic I wanted to explore. Classroom video is changing. Cindy is presently implementing a grant intended to allow Grand Forks teachers to compare two commercial classroom streaming video systems and they content each provides. I will likely describe this project as it develops because the impressions of teachers may be informative to others.

Here is another resource that falls within this same category. I recently encountered the Dragonfly TV web site. Dragonfly TV is a PBS science program for adolescents I would describe as focused on hands-on science and the exploration of scientific principles as applied to daily experiences. I was aware of the program (see concluding comments) but had not encountered the web site. Among the resources the site makes available are segments from the program – each 30 minute program consists of multiple segments. Science educators might review these clips with the intent of locating resources for classroom demonstrations. The clips are even available as podcasts for collection within iTunes or on your ipod.

Here is the little twist. Tomorrow our son Todd starts his second year doing the Final Cut Pro work to edit Dragonfly TV. The frenetic pace of the program – complex multimedia, rapid pace, etc. – is what he and the other editors create from the raw video content. Those of us who have done simple video productions in iMovie may now appreciate just how much of the complexity in polished professional productions is created by the editors. Part of the concept of what it will take to make the program appealing to adolescents is the presentation. It is kind of like MTV meets Mr. Wizard (if this makes no sense Google Mr. Wizard).