Video in education

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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 11: Discussion and conclusions

• A number of common themes emerged from the review and several of these are reflected through out the following discussion: (a) Video offers the capability to convey a wide range of content, (b) video offers the opportunity to convey many teaching techniques available in other media, (c) research findings strongly temper the assumption that ivusals enhance learning with the qualification that they must be used in meaningful ways, (d) some characteristic attributes of video may be adapted in some specific ways to be critical to learning, (e) an important cluster of factors related to pacing and control over the medium are a consequence of the transient nature of typical linear video presentations, and (f) many of the benefits of video are practical ones concerned with convenience, access, standardization and efficiency. P200
• The concern that educational television should not be worse than conventional face-to-face lectures gave rise to hundreds of studies. Reviews of these studies agree that there is little difference in student achievement between televised and conventional classroom instruction. P200
• The primary concern with instructional television revolve around not having personal contact with teachers, class, size, and with the presentation proceedings without the ability to ask questions, get help, or participate in discussions when desired. P 201
• Favourable student responses include perceptions that the presentations or teachers are better prepared, and these correspond to reports that television teachers do invest more effort in preparation. P201
• Distance education in the form of video teletraining attempts to approximate the live and interactive nature of face-to-face instruction by using two-way communications between teachers and distant classrooms. P201
• Student access and control over viewing are increased when programs are made available on videotapes. Students tend to view tapes more than once and employ them interactively by interrupting the tapes to review and clarify points for note taking. P201-202
• Videotapes have come to replace films because tapes are more easily reproduced, less costly, more easily distributed, and often retained locally instead of being requested from central libraries. Tapes are an accessible technology under the direct control of the classroom teacher because they can introduce the instruction at any time that it is optimal to do so, stop it at will for discussion, and rerun it for review at any time. This control allows the opportunity to use several techniques that have been found to benefit students learning: teacher introductions, postviewing teacher-directed reviews and discussions, rest pauses during long presentations, and the repetition of viewings. P202
• Idea: then video streaming is more student-centred than video tapes
• Transient presentations do not allow learners to recover from comprehension failures as they might with more stable media such as books where they can adjust their pace and reread to achieve comprehension at their own “cognitive pace” (Kozma, 1991). This control and individualization issues are also addressed in a number of other effective learner participation techniques. P203
• Attention-getting devices
• Over response vs Covert response.
• A prominent characteristic of video is its capability to convey a wide range of different types of information. These many representational forms are conveyed in realistic ways that simultaneously combine motion and a variety of visual, audio, and textual information. P205
• Convenience is a primary attraction for telecourse students in remote locations or for those needing personal scheduling flexibility. P201
• A number of commentators have observed that differences between media may be less important than the teaching methods used within a medium. P207

Alberto Ramirez Martinell