Technology is changing the mediums through which we consume content, as well as changing the content itself, and through the content and the medium, changing people and society as a whole.   Ok, so that’s the broad statement out of the way, but zooming in and looking at a smaller scale, within education, what is the impact of this change in medium and the move away from physical media such as DVDs?

In my experience, in schools, there is still a lot of physical media in use.  By physical media I mean CDs and DVDs, and I suspect the odd VHS or audio tape may be kicking around in places.    Yet, these are technologies that are disappearing, or in fact have all but disappeared from mainstream use.   Looking at DVDs, when was the last time you saw a laptop with a CD/DVD player?    For now, schools continue using their DVDs, using the DVDs in existing desktops but what about the future when you can’t get DVD players or more importantly, when all the new content is only available online via streaming services?  And I cant see that being all that far away.

For some this leads to some bending of the rules.   So, staff using their own personal streaming accounts in lessons.   But the terms and conditions often make it clear that the account is for personal use and should not be used in the context of a school, so this runs the risk of the individuals account being suspended despite the fact they are paying for it.   

For others the solution is to rip the DVD content from existing physical media so it can be stored ready for use, being possibly stored on school user accounts on in shared spaces for access by students.   This one for me is a more serious issue as it runs into the issue of copyright, a legal issue.   Although it may be fair for a teacher to show physical content in a classroom this is based on the medium it was purchased in and provides no right to transform it into another medium.  Making this other medium, a digital version of the content, available to students then runs the risk of the students copying it and sharing it which would impact the copyright holders possible earnings from the content.   This wanders into dangerous ground and possible legal proceedings.

Now some will feel I am going a bit overboard and that bending of the rules is almost considered acceptable.   I know of one streaming service with educational content but where there is no educational account to access it so it needs accessed from a personal account.   This seems to encourage bending of the rules.     I have tried to actually spark up a dialogue with some streaming services and after some back and fore found that, to me, they didn’t seem that interested, yet this problem will continue and only grow as physical media and the hardware to play them become obsolete.    And I worry that in bending of the rules, this may be fine until it is not, and who wants to be the school or the teacher who is the first to fall foul of the terms and conditions or a copyright challenge.

The issue here is we need to consider this now, ahead of it being an immediate issue, and there needs to be some discussion so that schools and colleges are prepared for the loss of physical media and still have access to the content they want and need.    I don’t think this needs much other than for the streaming services to give it a little thought and to engage with the education sector.   I therefore reach out to all in the streaming services world as the potential to be the service to lead the way beckons.