BECON Distance Learning Offers Outreach Activities
Attention teachers, curriculum specialists,
and school leaders!

Are you looking for exciting and creative opportunities to enhance learning and student motivation in your classrooms? BECON Distance Learning is pleased to offer a variety of outreach activities brought to you live through videoconferencing.

All activities are free to schools, so why not take advantage of these innovative opportunities for students to learn from outside experts and interact with students from around the world? For a complete list of BECON

Distance Learning Outreach Activities,
please visit us on the Web at
(www.becon.tv/distance_learning) and click on Outreach Programs. You may register for all activities on the Web site or by calling 754-321-1005. Be sure to reserve the videoconferencing equipment at your school after registering for a BECON Distance Learning Outreach Activity.



Eye-Opening Programs
Join BECON-TV Lineup

BECON-TV is proud to announce the addition of two new programs to its lineup: Celebrate South Florida and The New Haitian Generation.

Celebrate South Florida is a unique, three-station collaboration with WLRN and the Education Network in Palm Beach. This monthly half-hour magazine-format show profiles interesting people, places and events in the tri-county area. It airs on Mondays at 7 p.m., Thursdays at noon and Saturdays at 4 p.m. According to Dr. Phyllis Schiffer-Simon, Director of BECON, the collaboration is a good one. “It’s been a great experience partnering with our sister educational television stations.”

The New Haitian Generation runs on Mondays at 9 p.m., Wednesdays at noon and Sundays at 6:30 p.m. This half-hour talk show profiles successful Haitian Americans who have made names for themselves in both cultures. The goal of the program is to encourage other nationalities to become familiar with the positive side of the Haitian community.

For more information on BECON’s broadcast schedule for the community and the classroom, visit (www.becon.tv) or call 754-321-1000. Comments on programming can be E-mailed to (feedback@becon.tv).

Video Furnace to Bring Video to Your Computer Screen

Education Technology Services (ETS) of Broward County Public Schools is currently piloting a video distribution system called Video Furnace. This device has the ability to bring both live and stored video content to your computer screen over the District’s Intranet. Currently only available to employees at the K.C. Wright Administration Center, BECON and ETS, plans call for its availability to expand to schools with the adequate bandwidth and appropriate infrastructure. Schools will be contacted to participate in the extended pilot during the school year.

Users simply need to access the Video Furnace Web site to view live broadcasts from the Broward Education Communications Network (BECON). Five additional channels could be used to air a variety of programs including current BECON shows, school board meetings and training videos.

Compatible with Windows, Mac, or Linux platforms, the delivery of curriculum content, just-in-time training, archived videoconferences, and live or taped meetings are just a few of the uses for this tool. Video Furnace holds the promise of offering the school district Web-based access to live and stored video content that can be used by students, teachers, and administrators.

For further information about Video Furnace, contact Kevin Williams, Conferencing Services, 754-321-0375.