The Byzantine maze of formats and codecs make the delivery of audio and video in the classroom a chancy affair. This is especially true of schools that have a limited network image on their machines so each room has its own idiosyncratic constraints. IT departments can hardly be blamed for this, as Quicktime, RealMedia and MediaPlayer constantly fight for default rights and constantly toss pop-ups, ads and updates on the screen. And none of those three main players can help the teachers who have taken the time to dodge the YouTube block by downloading an .flv file at home, that would require a fourth media viewer. So teachers in a school with ceiling mounted data projectors in every room still have to be nimble to present media to their classes.
We are left with yet another fine example of the complexity of technology that throws tricky little troubles in the face of teachers who, if experienced, jump through a couple hoops and make it work. At the same time, inexperienced teachers are left with yet another reason to believe that technology is unreliable or impossible to figure out.
Cornel has a great site on the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, but the recordings of survivor interviews are only available in Real Media. This may work fine during first period in one room, but what happens when the mobile teacher is in another room for third period and the audio “does not work”? They may be the type of teacher who does not know about formats and doesn’t know anything else other than “it does not work”. Or the teacher may know full well that they need Real Media, but don’t have the admin rights to install the program.
The fix? Throw the names of one of the survivors into Google alongside the word “triangle”. The fourth hit brings the same interviews at The Authentic History Center in mp3.
The real fix? Spend ten minutes at the next faculty meeting and explain formats using an 8 track, a cassette tape and a vinyl LP as props. Back in the good old days, different formats didn’t even fit into each other.