A ‘web-cam wall’ is a selection of live-streaming web-cams embedded into a PowerPoint slide. An example can be downloaded here (PPT 103kb).

Building a web-cam wall.

The web-cam wall only works with live-streaming web-cams that are embedded Windows Media Players.

The following instructions are based on a user using PowerPoint 2003. It’s easier than it looks!

Firstly open PowerPoint, choose insert, object

In the dialogue box, scroll down and highlight Windows Media Player, click ok.

A Window Media Player will now appear in the PowerPoint. You now need to find live-streaming Windows Media web-cams.

When you have found a suitable web-cam, right click on the web-cam image and choose properties.

Copy the URL location that appears in the properties box.

Return to your PowerPoint, right click on the Windows Media Player and choose properties.

In the dialogue box that appears, paste your URL in the URL box. After this, you can click the red cross to close the menu.

View show to see if the URL is correct, you may have to wait for the feed to buffer.

To complete the process, repeat the previous steps.

In theory, you can have as many webcams as your connection can support. Background is up to you!

Top-Tip.

Alternatively, copying your first Windows Media Player, pasting and then just changing the URL in properties, when you find a new web-cam is much more time efficient.

The issues.

• Do older version of PowerPoint allow this type of resource? (Let me know.)
• Will your network allow access?To avoid wasting your time, try it with one webcam.
• The streaming of the web-cams will depend on the speed of your Internet connection.
• There is a small risk that some inappropriate action or behaviour may occur in front of the camera, try to use webcams that show a large scale, rather than focused on a small area.

Potential uses.

• The ability of adding one live-streaming web-cam to a PowerPoint may enhance a piece of work based on place, and means the teacher doesn’t have to break their ‘flow’ to access a website.
• Illustrating different seasons.
• Illustrating different time zones.
• Discussing differences and similarities between ‘places’.
• To consider the environmental quality of different ‘places’.
• ‘Six places, one time’, I like the idea of a bit of creative writing here.
• As part of a decision-making exercise, where would you like to be? What evidence from the webcams do you have? What evidence don’t you have? I like the idea of devising an exercise where students choose the best place to surf in the world, depending on the conditions. I’ll need Noel’s and Tom’s help for this. Where do we go on holiday? This may add another dimension.
• Odd one out?

Any others?

Listen to this podcast

11 comments
Posted in Teaching Ideas
Written on Mon, 02 April 2007 at 9:06 pm

If you liked this post, then consider subscribing to our full RSS feed.