The current instructional problem I would like to discuss is a disconnect that faculty have today with media and technology, and how that translates to denying students exposure to new multimedia experience.
In a paper written by Tina Seidel, there seems to be a lack of training when it comes to student teachers on how to integrate video into their curriculum (57). My experience during my career as a student and as a staff member at UTSA is that educators are not as comfortable with technology as their students. Donna G. Wake wrote about how even though schools do see Digital Storytelling as a powerful way to bring students out of their shells, it is still a difficult task for teachers to integrate technology into their instruction (34). I think one of the main reasons is that, plainly enough, technology is a very difficult concept to grasp, especially if you haven’t done a multimedia project on your own. Inexperience seems to be an issue.
Another of the issues that I have seen is that professors do not want to change their curriculum in order to dovetail with multimedia/online courses. They may have an online presence, but most of the materials that will be covered in the assessments are based on classroom lectures. Michelle A. Drouin found this correlation between posting recorded video lectures online adversely affected attendance and achievement in the course that was being studied (17). However, this seemed to stem from the fact that the material was following the textbook very closely, so students were not incentivized to show up for class. The online material was basically a video recording of the live lecture, so students assumed they could get it from the book. Therefore, it was questioned whether or not the videos played a large part in the lack of achievement in the course.
Conversely, a study by Yi He shows the opposite effect (1132). The study focused on online video tutorials that were offered to students in a Chemistry course. The students were grouped into three parts: Above Average, Average, and Struggling. The best response was received from the Average and Struggling student group, who used the videos to understand problems and concepts they had not grasped before viewing the videos. This positive response was shown by higher grades. Using the multimedia as a supplement to live lectures seemed to the big difference from this study and the study by Drouin.
Ashley Thesen postulates that it is the educators’ duty, not choice, to introduce technology to create digital narratives (100). Thesen wrote of introducing animation, background music, storyboarding, writing, and other highly sophisticated methods of pre-production and production with second and third grade students. I strongly believe that in order for students to embrace “educational technology”, students need experience the creative freedom they can get from the technology, first. Thesen discusses how teachers should encourage children to write stories about previous experiences, images, and ideas, and the teacher would act as the “principle storyteller”, guiding students in proper story structure (94). Technology should be introduced to young children as an artistic tool, not as a rote process to regurgitate data to a roomful of bored fellow students.
How would this be possible? I would suggest starting young, making digital arts and crafts a required course in elementary school. Computers and tablets should be used as coloring books, not as worksheets. Then, as the child is comfortable creating digital creations, whether it be animations, movies, or drawings, they should be expected to use that skill in their studies when the enter middle school. Digital storytelling and short movies should be as common as PowerPoint in the middle school classroom. Middle school would be the place where a student may find their niche; perhaps animation, or maybe they really get video editing, or perhaps they have developed a unique drawing skill that can be used for graphics or character animation. Then, in high school, more should be expected from the students and their digital presentations. Artists will work with directors. There will be some people in front of the camera, some in the back. Some people will shine in Post Production. And the final project will be a collaboration of all the different creative talents. It would be GRAND. Seidel insists that Instructional Technology needs to be balanced with a background of pedagogy in order to successfully integrate it into a lesson plan (64). I think the pedagogy should include creativity in the way the students express themselves and demonstrate how they have understood the subject matter.
But how would this happen? As Drouin theorizes, a professor should be able to manipulate his curriculum in a way that multimedia would be a positive part of the hybrid/online learning experience (18). One of the ways you can manipulate curriculum to favor multimedia and video would be to give more weight to online material towards tests as opposed to putting importance on attendance and in-class lectures. Another way would be to suggest video presentations instead of live ones. Students just need the chance. Reward creativity.
One of the things that come to mind when I discuss this wave of Digital Creativity is the issue of the Digital Divide. Maybe even as little as last year, you needed a large investment in hardware and software in order to give this opportunity to a student. iPads are purchased, high speed internet, software licenses, etc. However, I suggest that the answer to the Digital Divide is a cell phone call away. Christopher Stork finds that mobile smartphones are being used to bring the internet in poor countries in Africa, bypassing all the expensive data and power infrastructure that would have needed to be created to offer a public building that housed desktop computers for people to use (48).
Stork also states if you are an undervalued member of society, using social media on cell phones gives can users a freedom to not only see other points of view, but to publish their own views (36).
I suggest that this concept of bridging the Digital Divide with low cost tablets and smartphones, with built-in wireless access through mobile carriers may be a quick way to close the gap, if only a little. A child can potentially use a 200-dollar Moto G cell phone to locate a Ted Talk video on YouTube, and then, using a 35-dollar Chromecast player, play it in front of a classroom.
Is this ideal? Most probably not. But if there is one thing I know about children, if you give them something, they’ll wring out every bit of usefulness out of it.
References:
Drouin, M. A. (2014). If You Record It, Some Won't Come: Using Lecture Capture in Introductory Psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 41, 11-19.
He Y., Swenson S., & Lents N. (2012). Online Video Tutorials Increase Learning of Difficult Concepts in an Undergraduate Analytical Chemistry Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 89(9), 1128-1132.
Jensen, S. A. (2011). In-Class Versus Online Video Lectures: Similar Learning Outcomes, but a Preference for In-Class. Teaching of Psychology, 38, 298-302.
Seidel, T., Blomberg, G., Alexander R. (2013). Instructional strategies for using video in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 34, 56-65.
Stork C., Calandro E., Gillwald A. (2013) Internet going mobile: internet access and use in 11 African countries. info, 15(5), 34 - 51
Thesen, A. , & Kira-Soteriou J. (2011). Using digital storytelling to unlock student potential. New England Reading Association Journal, 46, 93-100.
Wake, D. G., (2012). Exploring Rural Contexts with Digital Storytelling. The Rural Educator, 33, 23-36.
