Journal # 3

"Video in the Age of Participation"
By Glen Bull

Modern technology amazes me more and more each day. I had no idea that via webcam, every day people could pretend that they were an observer up in a tree in Africa watching the comings and goings of a waterhole. Technology and video is enabling the every day man or woman to step into a world they may only dream of. It is exciting to read that educators are collaborating and tapping into available resources where they can edit videos via sites like MotionBox, JumpCut and VideoEgg that allow teachers to create their own educational videos by editing others. With this technology available there is no excuse for outdated 1960s Life Biology films describing the food chain. In this case, a teacher can access the live video feed of the watering hole in Africa and see the food chain live. Also, since there is currently no direct connection between the video content and instructional objectives, this video streaming system allows for teachers to add their creativity to the lesson plan and make it specific to what they want to address to their students. Discovery Education has also made available videos and multimedia that a teacher can download prior to class and no matter if internet connection is available or not… can be used whenever necessary. Discovery has also made possible the ability to only use specific parts of a video. That way a class doesn’t have to watch an entire video when only 5 minutes of it pertains to their learning objectives. With technology it seems as if the sky is the limit. Education was once a text based learning system, but now with the addition of web streaming and live video feeds teaching can reach another interactive and up to date level.

1.) How do online communities of educators like DEN promote the use of Web videos for the future?

By creating the community, fellow educators communicate and give each other feed about the videos posted. The fact that a community that began only two years ago and now has over 15,000 members speaks for itself. Videos are only shared within the community. With 70% of schools nationwide participating in some kind of unitedstreaming program given the opportunity to join DEN I can only see the membership soaring. Anything in the field of education that promotes collaboration, especially with technology, will benefit the students in the long run. With 1/10th of DEN members currently remixing and editing videos for themselves and fellow members, the DEN community will remain fresh and up-to-date.

2.) How is Next Vista different from DEN and what are the pluses of the organization?

Next vista similar to DEN has a goal for distributing open educational media, but with Next Vista, the videos are all teacher and student made short videos. Also Next Vista is a free site for students and educators alike to view at their leisure, where membership is not necessary to view the educational materials. The focus of Next Vista is to make learning more engaging, which for all of us that have had to sit through many educational videos from the past, this is an enticing idea.