Perspectives of the video medium

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Wetzel, C. Douglas, Radtke, Paul, H. and Stern, Hervey W. (1994) Instructional effectiveness of video media. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. USA.
Chapter 10 Perspective on Video Media

• The historical progression with new types of media was also accompanied by four other general trends. Primary among these was the shift from a behavioural to a cognitive emphasis, a reflection of contemporary views drawn from psychology and education. Behavioural approaches focused on environmental causes of behaviour change, emphasizing the role of external stimulus presentations designed to control behaviour… They came to be replaced by evolving cognitive theories where learning was viewed as a constructive process in which learners actively engage in the process of integrating new knowledge with old. A second trend concerned the desire to understand how individual differences of learners affect learning outcomes… A third trend … reflected a growing dissatisfaction with gross media comparison studies… Finally, media research has generally not been theory based. Cf. P 189
• Media as Vehicles: Clark (1983) criticized media in a widely cited paper that has since become a nearly obligatory citation by media researchers. “The best current evidence is that media are mere vehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more than the truck that delivers our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p445). P190
• ..media do not influence learning under any conditions… P190
• As Shramm (1977) noted “learning seems to be affected more by what is delivered than by the delivery system.” P190
• Evidence for novelty effects in media research is derived from empirical observations that studies of brief duration tend to show greater effectiveness whereas those of longer duration show a diminishing magnitude of effect. P191
• Media Attributes: A more redefined approach to understanding how media affect learning has been to focus on selected “attributes” of media. P192
• The usefulness of the media attributes approach is still being evaluated and may be seen as an evolutionary point in building a more theoretical framework relating media and learning. P193
• Kozma noted that information is not only represented in memory, it is processed or operated on by learners. Learners strategically manage their “available cognitive resources to create new knowledge by extracting information already stored in memory” (179) P195
• In distinguishing media by a characteristic cluster or profile of symbol systems and processing capabilities, Kozma cautioned that these are potential capabilities, which may not always be used, such as when a talking-head lecture in effect turns television into radio or when a linear playing of a videodisc provides a passive experience differing little from that with televised broadcasts. P195
• For Kozma, the cluster of cognitively relevant capabilities of media that interact with instructional methods are: (a) for books, the stability of print and its processing being under learner control; (b) for conventional television, the capability to convey a wide range of symbol systems including motion, the simultaneous combination of verbal and visual information, a transient presentation viewers cannot adjust to their own cognitive pace and the characteristically different way in which attention and perceptions affect the allocation of processing resources; (c) for computers, their dynamic control features to process, transform, and proceduralize information and actions to dynamically aid learners. P195
• Kozma characterized learning from books as a stable medium because it allows learners to recover from comprehension failures. Thy do this by slowing their pace, by rereading text, and by strategically skipping back
• And forth among sections of text. Text and visuals are characteristically processed in a more serial, alternating fashion with books than with videos. When pictures are available, readers use them to supplement the text for an alternative representation and use them organizationally to evoke a schema or mental model of the situation. Learners having less prior knowledge may benefit more form these visuals and use them as a continuing aid, in contrast to more able learners who use them more for an initial organizational aid. P195-196
• Kozma characterized the cluster of distinguishing attributes of television in terms of (a) the window of cognitive engagement, (b) the simultaneous processing of information from symbol systems, and (c) the transient nature of the information being processed:
• …The window of cognitive engagement refers to the collective set of findings concerning the relationship of attention and comprehension and that concerning viewer purposes and media perceptions…
• …Television is characterized by the simultaneous processing of auditory and visual representational symbol systems. Audio and visual information typically complement one another rather than compete for processing resources. Auditory information carrying sounds and language often helps in interpreting the visual information…
• … the transient nature of television may benefit comprehension when conveying relevant dynamic information, buy may be a potential problem when the continuity and pace of the presentation are inappropriate to the learner… (Cf. P196-197)
• Kozma generally hypothesized that learner characteristics can make a difference in learning from media. The learner’s prior knowledge and ability interact with complementary combinations of visual and linguistic information, such as when text is supplemented by pictures and when video combines audio and visual information. Books and television are similar with regard to offering visual information for organizational purposes or to evoke prior schemata applicable to understanding new material. They differ in that processing of text is more driven by the construction of a representation of linguistic information, whereas comprehension of video is more driven bye the processing of visual information and does not allow regressing over material as with books. P197
• Kozma generally hypothesized that learners characteristics can make a difference in learning from media. The learner’s prior knowledge and ability interact with complementary combinations of visual and linguistic information, such as when text is supplemented by pictures and when video combines audio and visual information. Books and television are similar with regard to offering visual information for organizational purposes or to evoke prior schemata applicable to understanding new material. They differ In that processing of text is more driven by the construction of a representation of linguistic information, whereas comprehension of video is more driven by the processing of visual information and does not allow regressing over material as with books. P197
• …Books and computers are media that enable individualized methods under the control of the learners, whereas television enables methods using multiple simultaneous symbols systems with motion. P197

Further reading

• Clark R. E. (1983). Reconsidering research on learning from media. Review of Educational Research 53, 445-459.
• Kozma R. B. (1991). Learning with media. Review of Educational Research, 61, 179-211.

Alberto Ramirez Martinell