Note: If you are having issues sharing your screen, please read our other article specifically describing how to use this feature.
In this article, we explain how to:
Share a YouTube video through the classroom so the student can watch it along with you in sync.
Take .mp4 or .mp3 files saved on your device and share them through the classroom for your students to see and hear.
Sharing a YouTube Video
This is really simple using the new feature in the 'resource library' of the classroom.
Click the 'Library' Icon in the classroom. It looks like this:
Select 'Shared Video' from the default 'Apps' tab of the library sidebar:
Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to share and paste it into the box. The thumbnail of the chosen video should show. Now click 'Share'.
The YouTube video will now be presented as a new video input (like sharing your screen). You can pause, play and scan through the video, synchronised with your student.
By default, this will take up the main classroom presentation space.
To temporarily hide the video, simply click another tab in the classroom or use the 'three dots' in the top right-hand corner of the video to 'Stop Presenting' the video to keep it for later, or 'Stop Video' to remove it.
Sharing Video or Audio Files
Note: This process can be a bit fiddly. We highly recommend using the 'Share YouTube Video' feature above by uploading your files or sourcing all the videos and audio files you will need for lessons to YouTube.
To share a video (.mp4) or audio (.mp3) file with a student through the classroom, you have to first open the file in a tab on your browser, using it as a media player (we recommend Google Chrome for this).
Locate the files on your device. Ensure you have them labelled appropriately (this will help later, especially if you plan to use several different files in a lesson).
Drag and drop them from your file explorer into a new tab in your browser window.
Alternatively, right-click (Right Click+Hold Option on Mac) on the file that is on your device and copy the file path. This is a description of the location of the file on your computer.
Copy a File Path on Mac:
Copy a File Path on Windows:
You can paste that file location into the address bar of a new tab in your browser to open it!
Once the files are open in separate tabs and you are in the classroom, share the screen as normal and select 'Share tab' option.
Locate the chrome tab with the same name as the file you want to share, check that the 'Share audio' box is checked, then click 'Share Tab'.
The file will then be presented as a Chrome tab in the classroom!
Important: To control the media file, you will need to go back to the tab it is located on to pause, play or skip through it. This method uses the 'share screen' function to share the contents of the tab through the classroom, you are not able to control the media directly from the Sherpa classroom.