Publish at October 27 2014 Updated November 04 2022
Video has invaded ADT. Not that "all-text" online courses have disappeared, of course not, but inexorably the moving image is gaining ground and pushing textual proponents to the margins of contemporary learning.
Educational television was first replaced by iTunesU, a portal of university mini-channels. Slowly, French-language institutions got on board. We then discovered the pleasure of "making ourselves a course" as we "make ourselves a movie", going from a financial analysis course to a French grammar course, from a Mesopotamian history course to a series devoted to cognitive psychology. What did we learn? Nothing more than from watching TV. Sometimes less.
For the role of spectator is not frankly favorable to learning. Even less so when one is confronted with a recording not edited, not prepared for the small screen, outside of any supportive environment.
Then one wonders why radio stations don't have a place on iTunesU: in their most erudite programs, they bring in teacher-researchers, the very ones sometimes seen in the lecture recordings produced by their universities. Opposite these wells of science are agile journalists who ask the questions that save precious minutes of development time; technicians who ensure the quality of the sound, the packaging and the rhythm of the program through editing.
Television programs of this level have practically all disappeared, but the principle of professional treatment of the expert's intervention, considered as raw material to be mediated, remains valid for the image as much as for the sound.
So what fly has bitten educational institutions that they all feel they can produce video programs? The equipment one. The availability of relatively affordable and easy-to-use digital tools has made people forget that you don't become a director, journalist or even a good speaker at the snap of a finger. The feedback from these early media experiments was often cruel.
.The vogue for Moocs, of which video is a centerpiece, has further intensified the mass movement of teachers toward the camera's eye. And while many have now succumbed to "media training," as they say, poor-quality videos still pop up here and there, featuring teachers standing still and stiff as justice or nodding their heads to accompany their monotone delivery for long minutes.
What does it matter?
What does it matter, you may say: the main thing is the content! Certainly. But what is content worth without its packaging? It spills out, escapes, cannot be grasped. Worse still: if we consider that the teacher embodies his knowledge, then it is to show little regard for that knowledge to inflict such (non-)treatment on it.
Let's call on the pros then. To the journalists, to the media specialists to make attractive videos, edited in such a way as to keep the viewer on the edge of his seat and where people familiar with the green background, the lighting and especially the precise elocution that subjects of a few minutes impose. Indeed, the first moocs produced by media organizations are admirable... for the quality of their image. Because for the pedagogical path, the capacity to animate a community, the quality of the proposed learning activities, well... It's not that yet.
Frédéric Duriez pointed this out with his usual humor last spring:
In an increasingly competitive context, invested by more and more varied players, some of whom have impressive expertise in one or another of the trades required by the design and distribution of a mooc it would be futile, unless one assumes a clear out-of-market position, to persist in trying to do everything alone. For a mooc or any mediated online course of any magnitude is in fact the synergy of three projects and two cross-functional functions:
The media project alone is a continent. If you're lucky enough to have an in-house media manager who has worked his or her way up in an audiovisual production company or TV station, you'll quickly understand that recording and editing are just micro-actions integrated into a complex chain.
If you don't have that kind of skill set available, by all means, hire an outside company that has mastered audiovisual production. Expensive? Not so much: it will take a professional 3 days where you will spend 15. Unless you consider your time and effort worthless, the math is quickly done.
Similarly, media pros do well to partner with e-learning specialists. This will prevent them from falling into the illustrated lecture and will considerably enrich the training paths. Because training know-how does not appear on its own, like leaves in spring. It grows slowly, thanks to experimentation (avoid doing the same thing over and over again...), reflection and a solid bank of pedagogical situations. Without this, apprentice trainers are at great risk of recreating grandpa's school - in color.
More than anything else, the conjunction of talents and skills broadens everyone's horizons. By working together, everyone emerges stronger, more knowledgeable, more capable. This raises the overall level of achievement and stimulates the search for innovation. This synergy is not magic. It is built on a solid organizational foundation and trust that is built day by day. Without this, the partnership can quickly turn into a massacre. Here again, it is the professionalism of the teams that is at stake.
So it's not about "doing it alone," nor is it about "getting it done," but about "doing it with." Doesn't that remind you of something, fellow educators?
References:
Duriez, Frederic. "A lot of moocs in the last few months... Some deserve an award!" Didac2b. 18 April 2014. http://didac2b.wordpress.com/2014/04/18/recompense/.
Vaufrey, Christine. "Christine Vaufrey's Blog " Blog Archive " MOOCs, the new educational TV." EducPros blogs in the service of higher education - Educpros.fr. 4 February 2014. http://blog.educpros.fr/christine-vaufrey/2014/02/04/moocs-la-nouvelle-tele-educative/.
Vaufrey, Christine. "The End of Garage MOOCs." Never Without My Laptop. 11 October 2014. http://christinevaufrey.wordpress.com/2014/10/11/la-fin-des-mooc-de-garage/.
Callat, Sophie, and Estelle Dumout. "Our (honest) lessons on the Social Networks Mooc - The New Observer." Rue89. 6 June 2014. http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2014/06/06/enseignements-honnetes-mooc-reseaux-sociaux-252738.
Training design ideas from Cathy Moore. Accessed October 27, 2014. http://blog.cathy-moore.com/.
Illustrations: Title: stock_shot, Shutterstock.com
Text body 1: F. Duriez
Text body 2: C. Vaufrey
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