{"id":4249,"date":"2017-04-21T12:06:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T19:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/?p=4249"},"modified":"2017-04-21T12:35:58","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T19:35:58","slug":"facebook-live-in-higher-education-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/2017\/04\/21\/facebook-live-in-higher-education-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Facebook Live in Higher Ed Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

This has been one of those extraordinary weeks in teaching. I have been edified by what I've observed about my students' experiences in my classes this semester. This week, my consumer behavior classes showed off our learning through a poster sessions event (originally inspired by Doug McKee\u2019s experiences in his economics courses<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be writing more about the poster sessions event, overall, once the pictures are in from the photographer we used<\/a>. In the meantime, I thought I would share about my first experience using Facebook Live, in conjunction with the poster sessions.<\/p>\n

Facebook Live Successes<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ll admit to being somewhat reluctant to try out Facebook Live<\/a>. There was this feeling of trepidation (based on fears like: What is no one shows up? What if it doesn\u2019t work \u201cright\u201d? What if (in this case) people are uncomfortable sharing in this venue?)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"sample<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to look at these sample Facebook Live videos of Jane Goodall, Martha Stewart, Seth Myers, Adam Grant, and Amy Cuddy<\/a> and not think that maybe this stuff is best left to the professionals.<\/p>\n

But, I do enjoy experimentation and live video is becoming so widely used in education and in business, I decided to give it a try.<\/p>\n

Here are some of my successes:<\/p>\n

Selected a Great Host<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Since I knew I would be busy facilitating the poster sessions event, I had found a couple of students who were dynamic and articulate.<\/p>\n

Sadly, one of them got sick at the last minute, so we wound up with only one host. She was absolutely fantastic, though, and also had previously recommended a smart phone accessory that made needing a second host a bit less essential.<\/p>\n

Purchased a Hand-held Stabilizer Accessory for My Phone<\/h3>\n

Our\u00a0Facebook Live event host had suggested that I purchase a stabilizer for my iPhone. She found this one on Amazon<\/a> for only $15 (at the time of purchase) and I didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n

It serves two purposes. You can hold it in what they call \u201cpistol\u201d fashion, so you can aim your phone in different directions, without having the wobbly, hand-held effect on the video. Or, you can separate the top section and turn it in to a small tripod.<\/p>\n

I have an iPhone 7 Plus, which has some built-in stabilization. There didn\u2019t seem to be anything on the accessory that was stabilizing the camera, but maybe this is just my not understanding how these kinds of accessories work.<\/p>\n

\"Smartphone<\/a>
This accessory was a lifesaver for our Facebook Live experimentation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All I can say is that this is the best $15 I\u2019ve spent on a phone accessory in a long while<\/a> and I would highly recommend it for anyone planning on doing some kind of Facebook live recording at a fair-type event, where you\u2019ll be needing to walk around a bunch during your filming.<\/p>\n

This video with all sorts of options for mobile LIVE streaming gear<\/a> makes me think that I could just be getting started with my accessories for this sort of thing.<\/p>\n

Just Went for It<\/h3>\n

Finally, I\u2019m glad I decided to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. As you\u2019ll see below, it wasn\u2019t all roses and unicorns. However, I followed my teaching philosophy of experimenting and taking risks\u2026<\/p>\n

Facebook Live Failures<\/h2>\n

Despite finding a terrific host, having solid equipment, and being willing to experiment, I did make some pretty big mistakes for my first Facebook Live experience. I didn\u2019t notice most of them until after I was done recording, which is kind of disappointing, since they were all correctable.<\/p>\n

This post from Mashable with 15 tips for using Facebook Live<\/a> would have been helpful for me to read before my first experiment, but has been now bookmarked for future reference.<\/p>\n

Here are some of my Facebook Live failures:<\/p>\n

Camera Orientation was Locked and Caused a Sideways Video<\/h3>\n

This was the biggest technical hurdle I experienced (and didn\u2019t realize until about 75% through the event, when someone pulled up my Facebook account on their phone and showed me that the video was sideways).<\/p>\n

\"Facebook
When your camera orientation is all wrong when using Facebook Live<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It turns out that with an iPhone, as long as we start our Facebook live recording in landscape, it should theoretically work correctly. However, I had my lock orientation activated on my iPhone, which then meant it didn\u2019t matter how we started the recording. I still wound up with a sideways view of the entire event.<\/p>\n

I found this quick video super helpful in providing the answer to Why your Facebook LIVE videos are sideways and what to do about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Text Orientation was Reversed, Making All the Poster Sessions Unreadable<\/h3>\n

The other big technical issue that arose was that all the text was backwards to us, the viewer. There\u2019s a way to fix this as you\u2019re recording, but I wasn\u2019t even aware that it was happening, so didn\u2019t know that things were amiss until almost to the end of the event.<\/p>\n

\"Facebook
Another Facebook Live Rookie Mistake: Text Was Backwards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The quick way to correct backwards text in your Facebook Live videos is shared on this post: Horizontally Flip the Camera to Avoid Backwards Text<\/a>. If you go back and forth between your front camera and your main camera, you may have to switch this setting multiple times.<\/p>\n

My Biggest Suggestion<\/h2>\n

You probably saw this coming, but my biggest suggestion to you, in terms of Facebook Live, is to give it a try. You can test it out by changing the privacy settings on your stream<\/a>, which lets you keep your broadcasting to yourself, as you work out any kinks.<\/p>\n

Let me know if you have started experimenting with live video in your teaching, yet, and how it has been helpful to you. If you have any stories of failure to share, as well, we can all contribute to others not having to go down the same paths we did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This has been one of those extraordinary weeks in teaching. I have been edified by what I’ve observed about my students’ experiences in my classes this semester. This week, my consumer behavior classes showed off our learning through a poster sessions event (originally inspired by Doug McKee\u2019s experiences in his economics courses). I\u2019ll be writing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"coauthors":[195],"class_list":{"0":"post-4249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-educational-technology","8":"entry","9":"gs-1","10":"gs-odd","11":"gs-even","12":"gs-featured-content-entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4249"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}