Andy Losik’s Islands of Geektopia

Like in schools around the country, many students at Blue Star Elementary in Hamilton, Michigan watched history unfold as Barack Obama took the oath of office and became the 44th President of the United States of America. The big difference though was the fact that nobody at Blue Star watched it on a TV. Every teacher streamed the ceremonies over the Internet.

For whatever reason, the local cable companies never saw a need to run wires down 58th street. The area is comprised mainly of dairy, beef, and hog farms with a couple of subdivisions scattered off to the side and luckily upwind of the pigs and cows. Trying to get an over-the-air signal is difficult as well and we don’t have satellite dishes.

What we lack in traditional broadcast TV reception we make up in broadband. As part of the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District and  Regional Educational Media Center (REMC) 7, and some district investment we are fortunate enough to have fiber optic connections to the Internet. This allows us to stream video quite easily. Thanks also to some administrative foresight from our current and past building principals, and an enthusiastic staff every teacher now has a mounted LCD projector to show the streaming media.

Now I understand that just as rare as a school not having access to television might be, a rural school having such a nice web infrastructure is probably just as rare. The point though  I am trying to make is that we at Blue Star are actually an example of a big paradigm shift that we are seeing culturally as people no longer rely on TV alone. The irony is that it was the television network websites that provided the streams.

Will the TV in the home ever go away? I am guessing someday but I doubt many of us will be around to see it…especially as nicely as the flatscreens continue to evolve. What I see happening though is the ability to harness the media on the web via the living room. We have seen attempts at doing this with Apple TV and the device I am craving, the Sling Catcher. These are beginning to bridge the gap but the real traction hasn’t happened yet. I am hoping it happens quickly as crowding around the laptop to catch a past episode of the Bachelor you forgot to record (not that I would ever actually watch it or anything…even though Jason should have cut Megan loose a long time ago) just isn’t the same as being able to stream it to your plasma or LCD.

The networks are really enhancing their program with on-demand episodes and extras. Maybe they will be the ones who eventually invest in the R and D of magic device connecting these two worlds.