Live & Streaming In PE

Over the last few months, a number of apps have been released that are revolutionising the way in which we think about LIVE streaming video. Once reserved purely for companies with big budgets, it’s now possible to download an app, click one button and be streaming your video direct to a potential audience of millions. All for FREE.

Here’s a look at two of the big players in the space; and how exactly I have experimented with and plan on using them for Physical Education & School Sport Days

Ways to Use Live Streaming

1. Instantly Stream your schools swimming, athletics or field day carnivals direct to parents and anyone else unable to attend.

2. Have a LIVE Streaming role in a Sports Education Unit. This role could be used in conjunction with the media crew.

3. Have an injured student join in on the PE practical classroom by having them be responsible for the live stream until they’re ready to join regular classes.

4.  Create a Physical Education Faculty show, where the teachers/students showcase upcoming events, news and highlights.  This show could be a great way to advocate the quality of your programme to the community.

5. Stream your schools weekly assembly or other important events for anyone unable to make the event. Think of it as an addition to the schools flyer or newsletter.

6. Have students teach a wider audience through LIVE streaming, with those on the other end able to interact and ask questions. Imagine a school in Australia teaching a school in the USA how to play cricket.

7. LIVE stream professional development sessions to those who cannot make it. I plan on using this approach at my upcoming workshops during key moments.

With an endless amount of possibilities, which tools can you use to bring the above ideas to life in a matter of minutes?

Meerkat

Meerkat

Meerkat had the advantage of being the first in the new generation of streaming apps which connect to Twitter. Over the last few month’s this has translated into an enormous amount of growth with celebrities and major news organisations getting on board.

The app is simple to use and enables anyone with a Twitter account to login and schedule or broadcast instantly to those people they follow. If your school has a Twitter account, you could instantly start streaming with the broadcast message going out to your followers to see

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The thing I LOVE about Meerkat is the fact that only the people who follow you will be able to see the broadcast notification, meaning that you have a little more control over who gets to see the LIVE broadcast. Perfect for Schools.

Periscope

Periscope

Periscope has only recently arrived on the market, but it has the distinct advantage of being Twitter owned, meaning that it has the backing of one of the largest social networks on earth. This basically translates into growth that will make it the go-to streaming app.

On first use, Periscope is a little more difficult to navigate, filled with LIVE videos which are popular across the entire periscope network.  This results in a random collection of videos that I’m personally not at all interested in watching.

Streaming is, however, dead simple to achieve, with one click making it possible to simultaneously tweet to your followers. All streams are also recorded, meaning that if you miss the LIVE event you can watch later.

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However, one of the features that I dislike about Periscope is the openness, which means that anyone using the app could join and watch your feed, even if you they don’t follow you on Twitter.  While this is 100% ok for the general public who want to showcase their talents to the world, it’s a little more daunting to schools looking to communicate to their communities.

With this feature in mind, I strongly recommend Meerkat over Periscope due to the fact that you can truly limit those who see the stream to your school. As this technology matures, we’re going to see an enormous take-up by schools, community groups and organisations as they look for ways to engage and communicate with their communities. How would you use LIVE streaming at your school?

 

 

 

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