Students choose remote learning for several reasons. They could be on a sports team with the inability to be in school full-time, sick in the hospital, or live out of the area. Before the pandemic, Education Data stated that one-third of college students took at least one online college course. Then the COVID-19 pandemic forced a lot of schools to do live-streaming virtual learning so that school could continue. Now, teachers and students see the value of teaching with film as 68% of educators believe it stimulates conversation and 62% believe videos help teachers be more effective. Live streaming has the power to change education so everyone can take part in school more than they ever have before.
Educational films already have a place in the online world. YouTube channels have free, educational documentaries to show to students. Streaming platforms like Netflix have documentaries you can access for educational screenings. But with the ability to live stream a lesson, students far and wide can watch these lessons as they’re happening in real-time and not feel like they’re missing out on anything by not being in the classroom. Applications like Panopto can allow viewers to connect with each other by posting questions and comments.
Parents and/or students may not attend certain events that they wish they could show up to in person. With live streaming, people everywhere could attend anything they wanted to. Award shows, talent shows, school plays, guest speakers, and more at schools and libraries are no longer missed with online access. And if worse comes to worst that you can’t see the video live, you can save live streaming videos on the platform and send those who can watch on their own time.
Many online platforms can hold live streaming videos you can later add to your film archive to view later. Facebook Live can have you stream a video on a page or a group. The administrator would schedule a planned screening and send alerts out to everyone in the group or page about the video. Teachers, administrators, and even academic librarians can use hashtags in their live videos to ensure everyone around the world can find relevant videos like that one.
Skype in the Classroom can also provide quality live media programming for educators around the world to see. There are so many features that can inspire learning like virtual field trips, lessons, guest speakers, and Mystery Skype which is a global guessing game to help kids learn about geography. YouTube also has a live streaming feature that would enable educators to inspire YouTube viewers to see different parts of the world. For example, Explore.org’s channel shows animals on land and in the water in their natural habitat. When you search for live streams on YouTube, filter out the selection by picking “live” under the features tab. If you choose to see the videos at a later time, they will still be available on YouTube.
Schools and library programming can benefit well from live streaming. Anyone who cannot attend schools or libraries when lessons are being given can attend online live as they are happening. And if they cannot attend live, they can watch the video when they have the time. This way, being sick or not having a lot of time on your hands can be excuses anymore for not attending school functions. Live streaming will change education by encouraging more people to take part and engage in discussions the same way they would if they were watching fun videos on social media platforms.