Straight from camera to YouTube
Technology keeps getting… easier.
Vidnik is a new Mac application that lets you record from your built-in iSight camera, and posts the video straight to YouTube. They give the idea of keeping a video diary.
Keeping a video diary intrigues me, but I also don’t always like to watch videos. Sometimes the written word wins: i.e., I can listen to music while I read blogs. Second, I don’t always sound succinct or lucid if I just “hit record.” Maybe you don’t either. And does that matter, sitting side-by-side more polished writings and presentations?
May 14th, 2008 at 10:59 am
This is why I hesitate when educators get excited about podcasts as a (nearly) required classroom tool: audio and video are not really user-friendly.
When you provide text, I can read it at my own pace. I can manipulate it, highlight it, circle something, draw a line to the margin and add a note (or just add the note in the file on the computer). I can do the interactive things that help my brain remember the content.
With audio and video, I’m limited to a specific pace.
Compare it to Online Defensive Driving. Online defensive driving is structured so that you must sit in front of the computer for 8 hours (it requires this by requesting some kind of input from you every few seconds and by forcing you to wait a certain number of seconds before you can give that input). It uses a slow pace as a punitive measure to make you sit and think about what you did and how to drive safely. (If it weren’t intentional and punitive, then it could be replaced with an online test and you could get credit in 30 minutes or less.)
Audio and Video force students to do the same thing: they must sit in front of the computer for a set amount of time. I completely accept that for some students it’s a great way to learn…but for most students, requiring them to sit and listen or watch is a punishment, not an education method.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
@ Dave from Texas:
Dave I appreciate your comments. In the future, please leave a real e-mail address if you want your comments to appear here on Hendron’s Digest. Thanks.
Regarding video as a learning medium, vs. text and vs. audio: I agree I like the visual concreteness of text and also maps and diagrams. Like you say, I can draw, highlight, and “get my hands” on the concepts as they appear on paper.
I’m not sure video alone, however, makes students captives undergoing punishment. Seeing the number of kids who enjoy watching YouTube videos, I’d agree with many educators that video and imagery help feed our visual learners. I’m guessing audio feeds, likewise, our auditory learners.
What I will add, however, is that the time element audio and video presentations is difficult to manage. With text, I can scan it within seconds and then focus on an area of interest. Because of the technology and our own human nature, finding a portion within an audio presentation is difficult; the same goes for a video.
The advent of the moving playhead in online multimedia presentations is a help. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Viddler Flash player, but it presents a video timeline that can be studded with comments and markers. You can go “right away” to a particular section, even out of order. I like this! This is a great solution.
Similarly, Quicktime supports chapter markers, and the author of the enhanced podcast can offer similar functionality.
When video and audio is used in the classroom as a medium for instruction, it should break out of the mould of your average instructional VHS tape. It ought to be broken-up into segments, it ought to be appealing, and better yet, it will be more valuable if it has an interactive component. This could be links, markers, or even the ability to add to it (like VoiceThread).
As new tools like Vidnik become available, few will be perfect for all learners out of the box. But a short video snapshot from a student (likely published in-house or through e-mail, and not YouTube), detailing what they learned and what questions they have, might make for a nice way to assess student progress throughout the year.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
John, given our interest in video forms that are as mallable as text, take a look at Seesmic.com as a crafted service for communal video conversations. I’m interested to try this out with my students to see if more interactions and thought processes would occur.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Sounds interesting. Does anyone know if their is an application where one could broadcast strait to Ustream from the camera on their phone? That would be interesting.