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Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

New PBS deal could shake up video streaming market for schools

SAFARI will be adding 300 PBS programs and series to its digital platform, on top of the 650 it currently offers.

A new agreement between the Public Broadcasting Service and SAFARI Montage will make SAFARI the main provider of national PBS video content streamed to schools—an arrangement that could shake up the market for school video streaming services.

In the figurative arena of content distribution, it seems that SAFARI Montage—a K-12 digital media management and distribution solution—has been taking no prisoners, as evidenced by the company’s announcement of a deal with PBS to provide hundreds of additional PBS videos. The deal also reportedly terminates PBS’ national contracts with other major players such as Discovery Education and Learn360.

Building on a working relationship that dates back nearly 25 years and has encompassed now-obsolete technologies such as VHS and Beta tapes, SAFARI and PBS have struck an agreement that not only renews their current contract, but expands it to include hundreds of new titles—and makes SAFARI Montage the primary major commercial digital distributor of PBS’ library of full-length programs to schools nationwide.…Read More

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Texas district streams video wirelessly on demand

Keller ISD installed a video-on-demand solution to enable the school district to deliver rich digital educational content to classrooms throughout the school district.
Keller ISD installed a wireless video-on-demand solution to deliver rich digital content to students' mobile devices.

A Texas school system has set up a wireless network infrastructure that is capable of streaming high-quality video to students’ mobile devices—enabling true anytime, anywhere learning to occur with the help of visual media.

The Keller Independent School District recently began using a wireless video streaming solution that supports its effort to put mobile devices in the hands of every student. Using the Video-on-Demand (VOD) and Digital Media Management solution from SAFARI Montage, Keller ISD can stream rich digital content to students throughout the school district wirelessly, which enhances their overall learning experience, said Chief Technology Officer Joe Griffin.

“Our existing wired infrastructure limited where and how users could access the content,” he said. “We needed a cost-effective solution that could provide high-speed, district-wide coverage and ensure seamless delivery of multimedia content to students and teachers, while supporting our efforts to expand these capabilities to all classrooms.”…Read More

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UCLA resumes streaming video after legal complaint

UCLA's video streaming lab will have extended hours this spring.
UCLA's video streaming lab will have extended hours this spring.

In the latest development in a dispute with broad implications for colleges nationwide, UCLA says it will continue to stream online instructional videos to students. The move comes after a trade group urged the university to review copyright laws and threatened legal action if campus officials did not stop offering free unlimited access to the educational content.

UCLA officials suspended their streaming video program in January after the Association for Information Media Equipment (AIME)—a nonprofit organization that advocates for “fair and appropriate use of media”—said the university didn’t have permission to offer unlimited access to students through its password-protected class web sites.

A university IT official said March 3 that UCLA’s resumption of the streaming video initiative was a necessary stand against opponents of open access to educational resources.…Read More