mom2bee Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 So I'm trying out the sample/free trial of Discovery Education and seriously considering keeping the service or buying a years subscription BUT I find the navigation and such clunky... For example, it ticks me off that I can't seem to view 'channels' or profiles of individual publishers. Like if I want only media by "KX5" or "Channel 4" Also, the episodes aren't numbered!!! There is no real sense of sequence for things (I am thinking of Extr@! Spanish, I had to jump around to find all of the episodes and create a list IN ORDER just so that they'll appear 1, 2, 3...13, rather than 13, 9,7,3,5,6,12...--yet there seem to be very few episodes that are numbered/sequenced) Also, I read information on the website about being able to download videos to my computer/network, yet it doesn't seem to work! There is no link/button to download anything that I've seen. Am I missing something? I do love that they have (cc) for so many videos, that I can search educational programming in a wide variety of languages (Magic School Bus, Telling Tales, Hi-5, Language of Science and more 100% in Espanol!!!) and the collection/selection seems to be massive!!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2bee Posted July 31, 2013 Author Share Posted July 31, 2013 Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samiam Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I've been using DS for about 5 years, yet I've no idea what you mean by "channel". What is Channel 4? Do you mean, like YOUR local Channel 4??? Cuz that wouldnt be in DS. Local channels don't create their own stuff, 99% of the time, except news. But the rest of the shows, that's usually created by studios and/or networks...your local channel just plays it. Sorry if you mean something completely different, and explain please? :). As far as the order of Spanish, yes, that is random and has been commented here before...it's super frustrating to get it all organized in order, because it doesn't come up in the search in order. Made me give up on it completely! For the rest, I just do searches by topic. That usually pulls up choices galore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2bee Posted July 31, 2013 Author Share Posted July 31, 2013 I've been using DS for about 5 years, yet I've no idea what you mean by "channel". What is Channel 4? Do you mean, like YOUR local Channel 4??? Cuz that wouldnt be in DS. Local channels don't create their own stuff, 99% of the time, except news. But the rest of the shows, that's usually created by studios and/or networks...your local channel just plays it. Sorry if you mean something completely different, and explain please? :). No, I mean...you know how on YouTube, if you like a persons videos or playlists you go to their user profile (their "Channel") and all the videos made by that person and hosted online by them are accessible through their profile? Is that feature not available on DS or do I need to have a paid account to use it? Its such a great resource, but it is...cumbersome to navigate. I wish that I could go the publishers profiles so that you have a way of looking at videos only by that publisher. I was just using Channel 4 as an example, though they are a real media company, apparently. Also, what about downloading? It says in the TOS we're allowed to download--yet, I can't figure out how.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I don't think you can download the videos on discovery streaming... the TOS says a few clips are designated for download. But from my recollection of using DS a few years ago it wasn't a lot of videos that could be downloaded.. I never really learned how to navigate everything.. I looked up stuff that I was interested in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 A few years back we bought a 1 year subscription from homeschool buyers co-op, and I was very disappointed. I thought the videos were uninspired, particularly compared with all the cool educational videos available on youtube for free. But maybe I was looking in the wrong places. I agree, their UI is very clunky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsmm Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I have a subscription (free through my mom) and I don't love it. I have downloaded a few clips for the kids, but I find the site super hard to navigate. Also, I don't think it works on an iPad. Perhaps I'm wrong. I find that Netflix and the library are more useful. Also salsa for Spanish rather than the Spanish on discovery streaming since I can never find the episode I want when I want it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samiam Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 I guess it's a matter of perspective, lol. I don't like or use YouTube much (and so I can't help or even understand much on OP's YouTube/Channel 4 example). Whenever I've tried to use YouTube, so much other stuff comes up, that's unrelated to my search and then the things I try to use are usually just snippets. A waste of my time for a 30 second clip. Now DS, on the other hand, like I mentioned, I've been using for about 5 years, and use it 2-3 times a week, mostly for Science and History. I'm not understanding the search confusion (except the Spanish thing, yes, that's a mess). I simply put in a topic, and even I'm ambitious I even select grade level, and I'll get 1-20 pages of options. We are doing Earth Science this year, so I've got my science Lesson Plans all done, and I was able to go into DS and find videos on each topic, and save them into a Earth Science Folder. So the day I need it, 20 seconds and it's up and playing. Same thing with History. We are doing SOTW Vol 2, and I've got a ton of videos already lined up in my Middle Ages Folder on DS. I'd go through and say "Okay on this day we are talking about Joan of Arc" Do a search on Joan of Arc, and wala, there's some shows on the topic. "Okay, on this day we will be talking about Knights"...search and there's a plethora of options. I guess it's just become second nature of the years of using it. So I guess it's just perspective. DS is a HUGE plus to us. It brings a visual to our history and science topics like none I've ever used. We also use Brainpop, which is great, but that's cartoony and brief. As far as downloading, I don't think that's an option...thus the Streaming in the name :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoo_keeper Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 Maybe it depends upon your subscription level and/or the series in question, but I'm able to download. I did it earlier today, in fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samiam Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 Maybe it depends upon your subscription level and/or the series in question, but I'm able to download. I did it earlier today, in fact. Huh! I'll guess I need to go try, I've never really thought about downloading stuff, other than the Spanish worksheets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 We used DS via homeschool buyers coop and via Calvert. Only schools have the download feature so you cannot download via homeschool buyers co-op. You can downlad any instructional materials that go with videos I believe such as those that go with Elementary spanish. Yes, the search feature is not great. I found using the advanced search feature to be better. You can go to advanced and select all videos for example to get an idea of all of their videos. Also, homeschool buyers co-op has links to the lists of videos available. However, I did find sometimes that the search feature was sometimes so finicky that even if you plugged in the name of the video exactly that the video would not show up in their search even though it was offered. In those few cases, I managed to find the video by using the advanced search feature and selecting full video. Then you can narrow search by selecting grade ranges and topics. Overall we loved DS and may get it again. As for lists, you could copy links to videos into a word document for further use or into favorite links on your browser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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