Accelerated Broadcast Club Curriculum
Good for you! You are interested in taking your broadcast club experience to the next level with ABC2. The Accelerated Broadcast Club Curriculum (ABC2) is a 100% free online e-learning course designed to accelerate extra-curricular learning for student members of broadcast clubs around the world. Learning through the ABC2 program is supported by this book available via paperback, Kindle and audio formats, designed to inspire members of broadcast clubs at all educational levels. This curriculum has been crafted through many productive consultation meetings with elementary, middle and high school program directors. Our goal is to uncover the most effective learning strategies used by educators in the classroom and in the field. The course thoughtfully presents instructional content designed to help students learn one of the world’s most powerful communication mediums. That’s right broadcast television, streaming media, and the art of visual presentation.
ABC2 was made to educate students on the basics of video production principles and techniques which included printed materials, online quizzes, and video tutorials to accelerate learning. The program includes sample lesson plans designed to ignite student interest surrounding the exciting live streaming and broadcast technology available today. Throughout this book, you will go behind the scenes with the Griswold High School Broadcast Club, and study the group’s impeccable organizational structure. You will see how the SAR High School uses Google Apps for Education to organize their broadcast club with over 50 members. You will get a tour of the new Union High School broadcast club launched this past year in San Jose, California. Finally, we will meet with Gary San Angel from the Keck School of Medicine of USC (University of Southern California), to understand what it’s like to pursue a career in video production and support a video production studio at the university level.
This course is presented to you by the StreamGeeks hosts Paul Richards and Tess Protesto. The StreamGeeks will teach each lesson inside their professional video production studio equip with entry-level video production equipment attainable by any school district. Students are encouraged to join the StreamGeeks, as they breathe new life into the video production industries best practices and workflows on their live shows available on both YouTube and Facebook. Following the ABC2 educational curriculum, students and teachers alike can follow along with some of the world’s most successful broadcast clubs.
As an added bonus, the StreamGeeks are going to take readers on site to experience live streaming a rock concert. We will test your knowledge and take you behind the scenes as our team reviews what it takes to prepare for onsite live video production. Whether you are interested in improving your school morning announcements show, broadcasting school sports, or live streaming an on-site event, we are going to use all of these use cases to broaden readers knowledge about video production in an educational environment.
About the StreamGeeks
The StreamGeeks, include myself (Paul Richards), our social media manager Tess Protesto and our director/photographer Michael Luttermoser. From the very start of StreamGeeks, we all knew the power of live streaming was on the rise. After about a year of live streaming full time, making every mistake in the book, we realized that creating live video was starting to become a manageable process. Some of the older members of your club may feel this way after many hours of practice. Remember how hard it was to ride a bike for the first time? By now I’m sure you barely even think about balancing yourself as you ride down the street effortlessly. This is when the rubber starts to meet the road. This is where I want you to be with video production at the end of the ABC2 course. We want you to be able to branch out on your own creativity and create something that is uniquely your own. With the wind in your sails, you can follow along with the StreamGeeks, as we set out to document what we do and share our process of live video production. I hope that this book will help readers go from a crawl to a run when it comes to understanding the world of video production technology that can fuel your next creative idea. We want to help inspire your message, whatever it may be so that you can be seen and heard in a way that only you could create.
Broadcast clubs have changed quite dramatically since I went to high school. The first iPhone didn’t come out until I was in college. Tess was only a freshman in high school! Still, our team started StreamGeeks in an effort to capture educational value in an industry with new products and technologies being released every month. Ever since Facebook introduced live streaming, the industry has never been the same. The number of businesses searching for new employees trained in “video production”, “radio broadcasting” and “social media marketing” has exploded. Just take a look at this data from LinkedIn showing the most scarce skills in the nearest major metropolitan area to the StreamGeeks headquarters as of July 2018.
It’s was surprising to me when I first saw Radio Broadcasting and TV & Video Production as number 1 and number 2 on LinkedIn’s list. It actually makes a lot of sense when you think about the wide-reaching change YouTube and Facebook are having in the world today. Organizations across the world are having to rethink the way they present themselves in a world shifting toward social and digital media online. If you look at this list, you will find “Photography”, “Marketing Event Management”, “Social Media Marketing” and “Music Production” all on the top 10 list (LinkedIn, 2018).
When the world changes, businesses need to shift in order to stay relevant. As our culture becomes more active online, the demand for newly trained employees in the workforce increases. If you are a creative student interested in technology, you can rest assured that there are multiple career paths you can follow using education in video production, broadcasting, photography, digital media or social media management. Heck, the StreamGeeks even have a program helping small video production companies utilize our shared resources to start their own businesses.
In addition to this book and the online course, ABC2 includes a special Facebook group called “Schools That Broadcast” for students to collaborate among like-minded peers. This group is for broadcast club students, faculty members, and industry professionals. Inside this group, you will find a mentorship program helping students work with professionals in the industry who are willing to provide one-on-one guidance. I hope to have many of my peers in the industry join our mentorship program. The program uses Facebook’s new online system for pairing up individuals with unique professionals’ skills and/or strengths with those who have similar interests.
Finally, before we start, I would like to extend an invitation for readers to join our StreamGeeks live broadcasts hosted every Monday from our downtown West Chester, Pennsylvania studio location. Having produced live shows as amateurs ourselves, we have steadily worked our way toward a professional level by learning from experience. Our show explores the ever-evolving broadcast and streaming market while engaging a dedicated live audience. If you have a question, this is your chance to engage with our team in real time online. As you will soon learn, the exciting world of online media is changing rapidly (for the better).
The ABC Curriculum
The Accelerated Broadcast Club Curriculum is an outline that Broadcast Clubs can follow to consider high-level questions about student involvement and learning opportunities. The outline includes advice from some of the top broadcast clubs in the United States on topics that range from timing and scheduling to administration’s involvement and support. You should find ABC2 to be a great checklist for your club to review and consider levels of learning that include collaboration tools, graphic design, video production, audio engineering, and video animation/editing.
For example, the SAR High School Broadcasting Club in the Bronx, NYC reviews with us how they use their campus subscription to the Google for Education Suite. The live production team uses Wirecast on a Mac computer for live streaming and recording, but they use also use iMovie and Final Cut Pro in post-production. The club’s usage of online collaboration tools is sure to inspire. Josh Lewis, the club leader, shares his organizational structure which leverages student access to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google Sheets, and Google Sites all with structured management and faculty oversight.
Throughout the curriculum, we will discuss how broadcast clubs are extending their involvement with sports teams, drama clubs and distance learning programs. We will discover student roles and provide insights on the “do’s and don’ts” for each major role in the club. The curriculum will include an overview of basic audiovisual principles, cables, and technology which will include cameras, microphones, software, social media, web development, and IP networking. We will leverage the Adobe Creative Cloud for Students and provide tutorials on Adobe After Effects, Photoshop and Premiere. We will also provide in-depth tutorials on the free live streaming software Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), vMix and Wirecast. If your broadcast club is using one of these video production software suites, I will include access to free training courses specific to each.
Once we have reviewed the commonly used software applications in video production, we will move on to basic, intermediate, advanced and expert topics. The basic lessons will include an introduction to audiovisual principles and cables. In this section, we will break down the organizational structure of broadcast clubs and the specific roles members can fill. There will be tutorials for graphics design and animation as it applies to video production that provides basic media knowledge helpful for broadcast clubs students at all levels. The intermediate lessons will include introductory knowledge on bandwidth and video resolutions. This is where students will learn about the building blocks of live video production workflow. The advanced sections will include camera exposure, color matching and audio mixing. Here students will learn how to tune audiovisual equipment and produce highly professional videos in a live environment. Finally, the expert sections will include introductory learning about IP networking and IP video production.
By the end of our course, students will have a better understanding of digital collaboration tools, live streaming workflows, and club management. We will review case studies from the Griswold Elementary School, SARS High School, the Union High School and the University of California. Each school provides insights into the strengths of their programs which include live streaming school sports, student announcements, student training, and social media distribution tactics. I have included the Accelerated Broadcast Club Curriculum outline at the end of this book for your reference. I would also like to note that updates to the curriculum will be maintained online and available at streamgeeks.us/curriculum.
Learning Opportunities
optimize OBS
I love extra-curricular clubs because students have the opportunity to develop skills based on their own interests and aspirations in life. Unlike, math and science which all students are required to take, extra-curricular clubs are electives selected by students based on individual interest. Something magical happens when you bring together like-minded individuals around a collective set of goals. Your homework is no longer a requirement; it’s a passion. I think you will find that the sky’s the limit when it comes to what you can learn and achieve in extra-curricular clubs. This course is made for the students who want to go the extra mile and create something special.
Joining the broadcast club at your school can help you develop skills in several unique roles including web development, social media management, video production, camera operation, announcing, on-camera presentation and organizational management. It’s common for broadcast clubs to work closely with sports teams, musicians and theater departments. Through a close connection with your school and the support of your school’s administration, the broadcast club can provide many hands-on learning experiences in video production, broadcast, radio, photography, graphic design, communications, and other important skills you can apply in many valuable careers.
This online course is going to be fun and the book is going to be a breeze to read or listen to. You can download the audible version of this book and listen to it on the bus or on the walk home from school. This course will build upon your knowledge of live streaming with an exciting finale as we take you backstage to live stream a rock concert. The final chapter of this book will take you into one of the countries most advanced educational live streaming studios at the University of Southern California. It will be here that we will discuss what it’s like to pursue a career in video production.
For those interested in video production, your school’s broadcast club resources will be an amazing chance to get hands-on with video equipment. This is a great way to explore different types of video cameras, understand how to use camera focus, work with depth of field and camera exposure settings. In this book and our online course, we will discuss how to choose the correct shutter speed and match up your video selections with the live video parameters required for Facebook and YouTube. We will review core camera techniques and principles you can apply to photography, video and live production. More importantly, you will learn about teamwork and the importance of various roles inside a production crew. You will see the real-world production teams from multiple broadcast clubs use teamwork to make the dream work.
For those interested in social media marketing, Tess will focus on her role here at StreamGeeks as our social media manager. She will demonstrate how you can connect your school broadcasting efforts with online audiences on Facebook and YouTube. Tess will share her social media promotion process and review the ways your school can become more active with your broadcast club. Many broadcast clubs have found that broadcasting school sports can become incredibly popular for both students and family members at home. Online video has changed the world in so many ways. High school athletes are getting scholarships based on games that have been recorded and sent to college scouts. Your club could be helping athletes at your school get into college!
For those interested in graphic design, we will discuss industry standard photo and video editing software. We will review much of the Adobe Cloud for Education Suite with a focus on the applications useful to the broadcast clubs including Adobe Photoshop, Premiere and After Effects. Throughout our course, you will learn how graphics and overlays are used inside live video production software. Students interested in graphic design can work with the social media and web development teams helping craft the look and feel of the broadcast club and the live video content. We will look at the “Graphics Chief” role inside a video production crew and review some interesting ways this role can provide real-time graphics for the team’s production.
For those interested in live streaming and video production software, you will get a crash course in all things live video. We will provide a high-level overview of live streaming software, IP networking and a look at how everything integrates together to create a live broadcast. Learning about live streaming software also requires knowledge about cameras, social media, and graphic design. You will learn all of the vocabulary needed to understand the world of streaming media with an included glossary at the end of this book for your review. In this industry, we always say “the only way to learn about live streaming is to start live streaming.” At a certain point, you will need to get out there and see what it’s like to produce a live production for yourself. And that’s why you joined the broadcast club in the first place right?
Who are the club’s announcers? Your next live sports game is going to need a good announcer and Josh Lewis from SARS High School has included his “Dos and Don’ts” list for good sports broadcasting. Student sports announcers are quickly becoming one of the most popular positions in broadcast clubs. This is a great chance to learn the importance of articulation and public speaking. Plus, who doesn’t love calling the plays of an exciting sports game?
Finally, who are our web developers and software geeks? The web development role is absolutely crucial for the club to maintain an online presence. We highly suggest using Google Sites to manage your website. If your school has the Google for Education Suite, this is something to review your on-campus technology department. Google Sites is great for sharing the management responsibilities for your website with multiple members. Teachers can allow editing access to specific portions of the website for students to maintain and update. We will discuss roles inside your group for maintaining your live show schedule, embedding the latest live videos and updating the public blog with the club’s latest news.
An important part of joining the broadcast club is determining what your own strengths are and how they can best fit into the broadcast club as a whole. As you read through this book, take note of the topics that peak your own personal interests. Do you have a personal project that can use some of the skills we are talking about in this book? Could some of your own personal aspirations for life benefits from additional knowledge in a specific area of learning?
