Learning Curve

Guest Blogger: William Kennington, junior, SHS
Cross-posted on PA DEN

Last week, on May 27, 2009, four groups at Salisbury High School in Allentown, PA presented their Integrated Project. IP is year-long endeavor for students who enroll in the courses of AP US History and Honors English 11. IP is a research-based project that incorporates a final multi-media presentation as well as a stage production that lasts for 45 minutes. We streamed our presentations using two backchannels, one focused on the stage and one on the projector screen. We had no problems streaming it, but the recorded videos were corrupt. You can still watch the two separate stream as they were the day we went live, but the downloaded video was buggy. Therefore, a compiled version of the presentation can not be made at this time, but we are working with ustream to resolve this issue. I have tried converting the presentation thus far with vixy.net, zamzar.com, ffmpeg, adobe media encoder, vlc, and other free media encoders. Ustream has been working on a way to convert their video directly through their website, but this feature is still unfinished and unavailable. Hopefully once this feature is implemented (or when we find a way to convert the video), we should be ready to release the compiled video for each of the four IP presentations. We used Discoverystreaming videos in creating our factual and counterfactual histories, so when we get this problem fixed, we can show you how factual Discoverystreaming videos can be used to make counterfactual scenariors look real.

Interesting and timely, Mogulus, which has often been a go-to choice, has changed its name and website. Mogulus, now Livestream, always supported multi-camera streaming but didn’t have have high quality resolution, but with the difficulties we have encountered, we might switch to Livestream. From their newsletter, here’s what’s new with Livestream:

Recently we changed our name from Mogulus to Livestream, and you can find us at our new home at www.livestream.com. As much as we loved our old name, it was time for a change that reflects our growth and more clearly communicates what we do. We hope you like “Livestream” as much as we do.

Along with the new brand and domain come a re-designed website, and most importantly for you, another simple way to broadcast from the Livestream website.

This new tool offers instant streaming from any page on our website. Just click the red ‘Broadcast Now’ button or go to your ‘My Account’ section.

Go live with one click from almost any webcam or camcorder, and chat or Twitter to promote your channel, all right within the application.

Of course you can still use Procaster (our downloadable desktop application) for the highest possible quality, but for instant no-fuss streaming, the new broadcaster is great.

Now that we’ve changed, what do you need to do?

In short, nothing!

Your channel pages and embedded players will continue to function just as they did before. You may want to update any links to your channel page (i.e. change from “www.mogulus.com/yourchannel” to “www.livestream.com/yourchannel”), but the old links will still work even if you don’t get around to it.

If you’re using the old logo, we’d appreciate it if you update it to the new Livestream logo. You can download it here.
» More Details

For more info on the change, below are a few links to the press release and related stories. Or, follow us on Twitter @livestreamcom.
Discoverystreaming
Ustream.tv
Livestream
IP (Integrated Project)
Education
Technology
Turbo Tagger

A year’s work, a team’s countless hours, a group’s research, monumental collaboration, an individual’s presentations on film footage and live on stage. It’s showtime for 23 students, and no matter how you spell it, IP is a multimedia educational in-house field trip worth taking. Join us on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at Salisbury High School’s auditorium, or if you cannot attend in person, you can participate virtually in real time by joining our backchannels on Ustream.tv. You can attend by clicking this link, and you can participate in a chat format as well.

If you are new to the Integrated Project, this year’s venue, which explores factual and counterfactual history, asks and answers this essential question: What if there was no news? What’s news? So, why not join us as students rewrite the history of an era as it was, and as it might have been. All times are ET.

8:51-9:51 An Era on Air: 1920-1933–Brandon Aversano, Chloe Frick, Olga Karounos, Erin Lobach, Dennis Peterson, Meagan Walsh

9:55-11:00 Uncovering Coverups–Nadia Daher, Hayley Joseph, Laudi El-Kareh, Kelsey Molseed, Andrew Samy

12:23-1:30 Generation X–Peter Cialkowski, Skye McCarty, My Phan, Fatema Rajmohammed, Hannah Rucker, Courtney Weiss
1:34-2:40
9-11: Broadcasting Terror–Matt Eherts, Sarah Gracely, Joshua Gregory, William Kennington III, Brandon Lansing, Shannon Safi.