Internet: www.learn360.com
The Learn360 video streaming service for K-12 education now offers a My Learn360 homepage designed to individualize the user experience for educators. The page provides a variety of teacher-requested tools developed to help educators complete tasks quickly and strengthen communication with students and colleagues.
The new page features access to activities and teacher's guides, as well as tools for creating assignments and quizzes, uploading and sharing documents and media, publishing classroom blogs, developing a personalized calendar, and podcasting.
Some highlights among the new offerings include the ability to create multimedia assignments and quizzes, pull questions from an existing question bank, create quizzes that are easily assigned and automatically graded, upload and instantly share a diverse variety of document types (Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV, RTF, TXT, SMART Notebook, and Promethean Flipchart), and add podcasts to iTunes in one click.
The Learn360 service offers materials selected to provide targeted curriculum support from a variety of educational video producers such as PBS, National Geographic, Standard Deviants, Slim Goodbody, Sunburst Media, and others. The service includes thousands of educational videos, video clips, newsreels, audio and video files, and still images. All of the full-length videos and video clips are aligned to state standards. New content is added on a regular basis as Learn360 develops or licenses new materials.
Each video is available in three formats for viewing and downloading: Flash, Windows Media, and Quick-Time. Still images are offered in .jpg format; audio files are in MP3 format. The internet-delivered content can be offered on LAN (local area network) or WAN (wide area network) systems.
Users can add links to their own content in any digital or audio format. Districts or schools can customize their Learn360 site to provide access to additional previously owned media. State standards correlations can be added to the Learn360 database.
The service provides flexible administrative features and Flash tutorials on Learn360's components and functions. Toll-free telephone technical support is available every business day from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern Time.
Learn360, for Macintosh and Windows users with internet access, is offered as an annual subscription that allows on-demand access for educators, administrators, and students using school and home computers. The price includes access to all content (including premium National Geographic and PBS brands, as well as optional local hosting) with no additional fees. A free 30-day trial is available at www.learn360.com.
By Kathie Felix
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I found the above article through a search of the UF libraries. It reviews a paid service provider of video and software for the classroom. With our study of how to use media in new ways, this article points out some pretty boring options like making up quizzes and making a calendar. The open aspects are the ability to podcast, develop multimedia lesson plans tied to state standards, and setting up student blogs. The offer of technical support is also important as few schools have IT specialists to assist teachers in their classrooms. The 30 day free trial is a bonus!
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Really interesting stuff. I never thought of video streaming having all of the abilities that are discussed. I do agree that the quiz and calendar making could be left out. Video streaming to me was always just video found and shown based on certain subjects. United Streaming was the only service I even knew of. I would be interested in seeing learn360 in use in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteThis site seems like it could be a good resource in the classroom. Like Jennifer, I was only aware of United Streaming. My school subscribes us to the service. Like Learn 360, it has streaming video and a number of other tools. I use the video options all the time. It's so much easier to click on a video segment compared to rolling out a tv and finding the right spot of tape or dvd. I'm really starting to phase out 2-3 day videos and I'm increasing 15-20 minute clips. I feel like students take a lot out of the quick clips. Sometimes I feel like interest is lost on a long video, even a high quality one. The other resources like photos, audio, and quizzes are usually something that be found just as easy by searching Google.
ReplyDeleteHi Pam;
ReplyDeleteWe could have used Learn 360 as one of our good websites. I tried to check the state standards link out of curiosity but would need to download the 30 day free trial to view. I did not see any reviews of the site maybe since it recently launched. It would be interesting to check back in a few months and read what people are saying.
The thing I liked was there was a toll free telephone # listed at the bottom of the home page. That's unusual anymore on websites. I also liked that the videos are offered in different formats.