Unit 6 – Educational Media: Video, Audio and Imagery

Module Overview

In this module, we will focus on using audio, video and images in our courses along with the copyright and fair use issues that surround them. We’ll look at both creating our own videos, audio, and images, as well as using those that others have provided.

Goals

  1. Describe copyright/fair use as they apply to online teaching
  2. Be able to list resources for obtaining copyright free resources and where to request copyright clearance at MSU
  3. Know basics (streaming vs. download, considerations for filming, how to rip DVD’s, where to store) of video production for online course use
  4. Understand the role images can have in learning, know options for obtaining and creating them
  5. Know how to find, create and store audio for online course use

Module Schedule

Rather than have any mandatory assignments in this module, I’ve instead given you a large number of activities to work on with regard to Audio, Video, Images, and Copyright. As you work through this material keep in mind that while you should read over all of the materials if a certain activity or suggestion doesn’t tie in with the work you are doing on your course you do not need to spend a lot of time on it.

  • Copyright and Fair Use
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Images

Readings

Jones, J.B. (2010). 5 Resources on Copyright Activism (The DMCA STILL Needs to Die). Profhacker.com, Retrieved October 14, 2010.

Logie, J. (2006).  Copyright in Increasingly Digital Academic Contexts: What it Takes. WIDE Research Center 2006 Conference.

Tanner, B. (2014). The Science of Orienting Response: What Is It About Media That Engages Learners?http://bryantanner.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/the-science-of-orienting-response-what-is-it-about-media-that-engages-learners/

Campbell, G. (2005). There’s something in the air: Podcasting in education. Educause Review, 40(6). pp. 32-47. This article is getting old now, but many people still aren’t fully aware of the possibilities involved with podcasting/”media to go” so I include it in the readings to give those of you who are more interested a chance to read more.

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Overview of Video

Classroom Video

Why Use Video in the Classroom? (modified from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/ntti/resources/video1.html)

Teachers who use instructional video report that their students retain more information, understand concepts more rapidly and are more enthusiastic about what they are learning. With video as one component in a thoughtful lesson plan, students often make new connections between curriculum topics and discover links between these topics and the world outside the classroom.

Video is uniquely suited to:

  • take students on (sometimes impossible) field trips–inside the human body, off to Jupiter, or just to a place that isn’t very easy to do in a class
  • take students around the globe, to meet new people and hear their ideas
  • illustrate complex, abstract concepts through animated, 3-D images
  • show experiments that can’t be done in class
  • bring great literature, plays, music, or important scenes from history into the room

By exploiting the medium’s power to deliver lasting images, teachers can:

  • reach people with a variety of learning styles, especially visual learners, and students with a variety of information acquisition styles
  • engage students in problem-solving and investigative activities
  • begin to dismantle social stereotypes
  • help students practice media literacy and critical viewing skills
  • provide a common experience for students to discuss

Tools for Editing Video

  • Windows Movie Maker – Windows Movie Maker is installed on all PC computers
  • Apple iMovie – Apple iMovie comes on Apple Computers
  • YouTube Editor – This is a free editor from Google that allows you to edit videos you have uploaded to YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/editor

Capturing Portions of a DVD

There are times when it’s possible copyright-wise to capture portions of a DVD and use them in your course. Generally speaking, you should limit the amount you are using to a small amount particular work that is an example of whatever topic you are focusing on. When capturing portions of a DVD you can use a program such as Handbrake to accomplish the task. You can find many tutorials on how to use handbrake on YouTube.

An example of using a small clip as a focus might be if you are teaching a class about how to shoot a fiction film, you might use several clips from films to show students examples of how a certain camera angle can produce the shot they are looking for.

Where to store your videos

As long as you are at MSU you’ll have access to the Media Space video and audio storage site. This site allows you to store video/audio files, share access to files and folders with others, generate links and embed code, and generate RSS feeds. You can access MediaSpace at http://mediaspace.msu.edu

Mediaspace is a storage system available to all MSU Faculty, staff and students and includes unlimited bandwidth and space on uploaded media. The login can be tricky to find so I’ve included a screenshot below to show where the login is.

What about if I want to capture a portion of a YouTube video?

Instructors often are interested in capturing a portion of a YouTube video. For instance, you may find a 1 hr. clip but only want your class to view 2 minutes starting 40 minutes into the video. In the past, you may have had to capture the video, re-edit it down to the portion you wanted, then put it back on the web. TubeChop is a tool that allows you to do this without all the editing. Simply put the link to the YouTube video, start and end times, then let TubeChop do the rest! When you are ready to use the tool head on over to http://www.tubechop.com/

Overview of Images for Learning

Images are very useful for e-learning as they allow you to convey sometimes complex information relatively quickly and easily and they also allow visual learners to gain a little bit more understanding of what’s going on in what’s generally a very text-based environment.

In order to understand using images for learning it helps to look back at some of the basic ways that the human brain works. When we look at the brain from a standpoint of someone who studies learning we look at the long-term memory (the memory that we can go back into and recall information) and the working memory (the short-term memory where learning takes place and ideas are generated). The information your working memory has processed then gets stored in your long-term memory for recall in the future. The problem that we have with working memory for learning is that it only is able to take a very small amount of information at a time. So we can’t overload it, because if we overload it that we don’t have the information going into our long-term memory.

Richard Mayer, a Professor at UCLA that studies learning has studied images and their uses in learning across his career. In one study he did, he used two different types of lessons on how a bicycle pump works (first one was text-only and the second one was text and images) he found that on average there was an 89% improvement in learning when the visual element was added. It is possible that you can add too many images to something as well. Mayer did another study where he did a lesson about lightning and in one version of it he had basic text with some relevant visuals and in the second version he did basic text with relevant visuals plus some extra visuals (because it was about lightning he added an airplane being struck by lightning, etc.) He found that the “enhanced version” (the version that had the extra pictures) depressed student learning dramatically.

General suggestions for using images:

  • You should use visuals that illustrate relationships in your content rather than ones that are decorative
  • Avoid visuals that don’t contribute to instructional goals
  • Do not use images that are animated unless they are showing something related to the content that must be seen as an animation in order to understand
  • Cartoon representations are sometimes better to use than lifelike ones, use your judgment for where an area may need to have a more light-hearted image

Visuals + Audio

Now let’s go back to thinking about working memory. There are two small areas within the working memory – one is to store auditory data and one is to store visual data. Your brain processes text, pictures, movies, etc. in the visual area, while it processes audio in the auditory area.

What happens when you explain visuals with words is that you overload that visual center. Therefore, explaining visuals with voice is much better as your brain processes the audio in one area and the picture in the other, so the two systems are working together and therefore maximizing the capacity of your working memory. So although it may seem like a good idea to explain a complex visual with both text and audio and actually can result in poorer learning on the part of this student.

But wait! What if we provide audio, visuals, and text? Won’t that make for even better learning? There’s a phenomenon known as the redundancy effect and that contributes to depression of learning because the working memory becomes clogged with excess visual information from the text and the graphics in addition to the auditory input. So it’s really important that we know this so we aren’t overloading the students with too much information.

There are some exceptions to these rules though; two major exceptions are listed below:

  • Directions or instructions for doing assignments, etc. are best done in text. This way the learner can easily refer back to the directions as they need to
  • When learners are studying a second language they need to have the on-screen text. This is important because they can then look at the text and read it rather than listening to the audio narration and, in turn, may end up spending more time on the text.

Audio

Audio is an excellent choice for use in online courses as it is modular, portable and flexible. Audio doesn’t need to happen in just one sitting, it is ready for you when you are ready for it. If you put your audio in the correct format (mp3, for example) you’ll find that students will take it with them and use the multiple opportunities they have each day to listen to it. Think about places where you have the opportunity to listen to audio on your iPod, phone or other mp3 players. Below are just a few examples:

Time spent waiting:

  • Due to flight delays
  • Driving or stuck in traffic
  • For a repair person
  • Due to meetings not starting on time.
  • In the doctor’s office
  • Traveling via public transit
  • For your significant other to get dressed, return from the store, etc.

So How Do I Record My Own Audio?

There are several ways that you can record your own audio that doesn’t involve plugging a microphone into your computer (though often that’s the easiest way to record audio):

  • Record with built-in recording software on your computer
  • Audacity (mentioned below)
  • Digital Voice Recorder (often you can get at a place like Meijers or Target for $15-20)
  • Smartphones have a large number of apps available for recording
  • If you have a project that involves a need for very high-quality audio we have a number of recording studios on campus to use

Using Audacity to Record Audio on Your Computer

Audacity is perhaps the easiest and most cost-effective (it’s free) way to record audio on your computer. It’s available for both Mac and PC, is pretty easy to use, and is quite powerful. I’m not going to require you to try out Audacity, but I’ve included a few links below to get you started with it if you are interested