Elgin Academy students learn Web-based broadcast

John Cooper says Internet broadcasts are the way of the future -- for better or for worse.

"Our theory is basically the Internet is going to trump everything," said Cooper, head of school at Elgin Academy. "It's going to be a very rich menu, a smorgasbord of options. For the most part anything can be archived."

If it's true that Web-based broadcasts are going to supplant traditional forms of media, than Elgin Academy students are getting a leg up on their peers.

The school started a new videography program last year, teaching students how to create, edit and post their own broadcasts and other multimedia projects online.

For now, the students are using a makeshift studio set up in one of the classrooms.

But school officials are building an even better studio on campus.

"Kids do the full range of things someone would do in a TV studio, from in front of the camera to behind the camera, two-or three-camera shoots, anchor people, teleprompters," Cooper said.

Students aren't confined to the studio either.

They can go out on assignment, just like a regular TV crew.

For instance, when Gail Borden Public Library hosted a live link-up with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, Elgin Academy students were on hand to cover the event.

"There's an example of kids who are doing remote television journalism," Cooper said.

That sort of real-life broadcast journalism will likely become more commonplace as the program matures.

It should be more interesting too, after school officials invested in a TV van for their students.

"Getting the TV van is just a natural extension of the field reporter concept," Cooper said. "The tower telescopes up about 40 feet. It works on microwave technology. You can send that signal, on a good day, good conditions, maybe 10 to 15 miles.

"You can take the van, go down to our playing fields, cover a sporting event," he said. "Go down to Gail Borden Library, cover an event. We've tried it out a few times. We're able to essentially stream video onto the Internet."

For now, the videography program is focused on Elgin Academy middle-schoolers.

But Cooper said students of all ages are getting at least some experience with the equipment.

"It's trickling up through the high school," he said.

The technology is also creeping into the younger grade levels.

"Third-graders who have a unit on tornadoes, their work product might be a class video," Cooper said. "We want to get them in a class where they learn the basic skills."

It remains to be seen what becomes of Web-based broadcast. And Elgin Academy's videography class is still a work in progress.

But Cooper said he likes what he sees so far.

"The presentation skills they're going to develop are so useful for what they're going to do in college, in graduate schools and in their careers," Cooper said. "We're very excited about this. It's kind of a new venture for us."