It always feels like a small twist of fate when you are covering a concept in class and something profoundly relevant comes on the TV that evening that you would like to share with your students….
Excited, you fumble to find a tape that is rewound, you stuff it in the video recorder, and you mash the buttons on the VCR hoping one of them is the record button. By the time you start recording, you have probably missed too much to make it useful for your class the next day.
Fortunately for teachers, more and more TV stations are making their shows available, so that you can download them to your computer… both legally and for FREE. For example, The ABC have made a number of their great programs available including Catalyst, Behind the News, Media Watch, Lateline Business …. and many more. You can download these directly through the ABC website: www.abc.net.au or you can search for and download these programs, and many more, through iTunes (to download iTunes for free, go to: www.apple.com/itunes/download).
In fact, I subscribe to The Gruen Transfer using iTunes because I play pool on a Wednesday night and I always miss it. That way, the latest episodes are delivered to my computer for me to enjoy and I can even put these on my iPod… Mind you, I don’t recommend this anymore, because one may be tempted to watch ones favorite shows while waiting in the doctors surgery, and even though it might make ones wait more pleasant, it tends to unnerve other patients when one spontaneously bursts out laughing!
Written by Callie Whelan.Melbourne Beyond Chalk Facilitator
