麻豆传媒AV

Night classes are usually reserved for post-secondary education, however Unity Composite High School staff and Journalism 20 students, dressed in their best, showed up in room 203, the evening of Jan. 23, ready to showcase their talents to a country half a world away.

An 11 and a half hour time difference wasn't about to deter any participant. Students had been working diligently and enthusiastically on a news magazine show in conjunction with the Uttam School for Girls in Ghaziabad, India. The blog for the project is located at http://partnersinjournalism.wordpress.com/.

A replica live news set was recreated in the classroom complete with a green screen, as is used in daily network news shows. The event was streamed to showcase news reports prepared by both groups - students in Canada and students in India - on topics such as food, transportation, family life, etc. Participants were patched in from India via Skype. The green screen technology gave a professional look and feel to the event.

The idea for the project was proposed in October as there was no provincial sporting event for the J20 class to cover this year, as they have been in the past. The class chose to prepare this joint project, which was done with great help from J20 student Kezia Tyagi, who was in India in December and has a strong connection with this particular school. The fact the students spoke English eliminated a language barrier.

J20 students prepared topics, performed interviews, did background studies and filmed and created everything leading up to the actual live broadcast. While not everyone was visible in the live show, all students' participation was essential in the overall success of the project. And even though the students weren't all shown physically on camera during the live streaming, their creativity and contributions were there.

Living Sky School Division assistant manager of operations, Ryan Kobelsky, was on board for much of the technology wizardry the class has grown to depend on. Kobelsy said, "I have been interested in this stuff since doing video work at Mclurg from Grade 7. It never gets dull."

Kobelsky said to set up an event like this takes about an hour, as opposed to the live sporting events needing portable cameras and stations which can take up to two hours to set up. Through practice with a variety of school media events, he has been able to fine-tune the process, indicated by the number of portable totes that were carted in and out.

Donna Desroches, technology learning consultant from Living Sky School Division, was also on hand for the live event and continually tweeted the action for others to follow.

The production had much background work done by the J20 students prior to live streaming. The broadcast featured of three news anchors, students Blake Robertson, Spencer Sperle and Logan Claughton, dressed smartly in suits and ties and delivering well-rehearsed lead-ins. At times they were called into quick, on-the-spot lead-ins when technology had some minor technical difficulties. All handled the task without fail, as though they had been doing this all of their lives.

Erling Lefsrud manned the teleprompter to aid the anchors in the delivery of their material. Erling was another member of the production who had to work on the fly when technical difficulties arose.

While Kobelsky directed, Mrs. Cey was overseer in the background.She kept the sense of calm for students, even when things didn't always work according to plan. There was never a sense of panic pre-show, wondering if Skype would work. Even short-term complications brought only some laughter in downtime, and co-operation from all participants, demonstrating just how intuitive, focused and resilient the group was.

Right from the initial callout "they're here" at the beginning of the broadcast through to the "we dodged a bullet there" comments, no one was rattled or overwhelmed by the task at hand. The anchors, put on the spot on more than one occasion, used their charisma, knowledge of the project and their job as anchor, as well as maintaining a sense of calm, to breeze through glitches like professional newscasters.

Quick reactions and thinking as a team, as well as patience, brought them all to the final sign-off and a big round of applause for themselves and their partners in India. The giant smiles and sense of accomplishment were evident of a job well done.

This latest J20 project was groundbreaking in that a task like this had never been attempted before. Each year the J20 class takes on some event which provides more excitement and more challenge to all those involved.

CBC radio interviewed Kezia Tyagi and Mrs. Cey, course instructor, on the morning of the project. CJNB also contacted Kezia for a brief interview.

It seems the J20 class has raised the bar once more.