The Ellicottville Central School district is being recognized for their innovative work with video.   Chris Edwards, Technology Educator and District Webmaster has shared with the team, how he his currently utilizing a live streaming platform called Ustream, to host and feature videos of district related activities and events.

 

The videos are available via links that are posted directly on the district homepage for easy access.  After a user clicks the video link, they are taken to the ECS Eagles Ustream broadcast page.  Chris custom designed the background with images of the school building and grounds.  The interface is simple to operate, with the main video displaying in the center, and a list of related videos to the right.

 

The district posts a variety of content, from daily announcements to graduation ceremonies and live school events, such as band concerts and choral performances.  The site itself also contains a built in tracking mechanism and the ECS Eagles have over 2,000 viewers to date!  Other options include, commenting, highlighting a portion of a video, and simple ways to connect with popular social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.  There is a free version of Ustream available, however advertisements are not excluded unless a membership is purchased.   Presently, Ellicottville is using the "free" version which means that a brief advertisment will play at the beginning of each video.   

 

Click the link below to access the ECS Eagles Ustream page:

 

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/holiday-concert-ecs