Week 2

So it’s my first official assigned EDCI 339 wordpress blog post.

I though I’d start with a review of the streaming video mini-lectures:  They’re great. Never before have I been able to attend a lecture in my Pajamas – without looking weird.  The streaming video quality is absolutely superb. I’ve never seen dual-screen streaming – let alone dual window HD streaming.  Less than a couple of years ago Vimeo.com was the first to offer free HD video streaming, and since even then internet speeds have sped up enough that these services are viable – and YouTube has since too upgraded to offer free HD streaming services.

I was encouraged in a 3D production class at the University of Lethbridge to explore dual-screen video presentation (something that is very rarely done), and it works well in this case. On the other hand, while streaming both videos works great most of the time, I’ll suggest that Valerie cut our class lectures down to just her camera ‘s video window. Viewers can simply download the PowerPoint slides and follow along with her rather than suffer (like I have, albeit only a very little) sitting through video re-buffering half a dozen or so times throughout the lecture.  Also, I was able to read the slides just fine in from the screen.  Let’s all save some bandwidth. (:

Web 2.0 is only in its infancy and it’s already offered us a myriad of potential for furthered education. Last semester I took EDCI 338  – Mass Media and Education, in which we were required to contribute to a collaborative blog hosted on blogspot.com regarding topics of mass media and advertising’s affects on children and education. It was the first time in a class that I have been encouraged (required) to engage in collaborative online learning and sharing of thoughts/findings.  I’d like to share one my posts from this blog now regarding educational possibilities on YouTube:

Everyone knows the internet is today’s largest resource for information on any and every subject, for good and for bad. But I’m a visual person, and going online in the past for educational purposes often hasn’t resulted in greater results than I have gotten by referring to books and other printed ‘traditional’ material. I’ve always learned most efficiently by having something explained to me visually with examples with live explanation.

This is one reason why the internet, now, has become such a valuable resource for me in both academic and personal education. Perhaps it’s a false dichotomy to separate academic and personal learning, so I will simply emphasize that Youtube, for me, has become a valuable resource for learning in subjects both directly related to my current studies and my personal pursuits.

I’ve found that even tech-saavy students I’ve talked to are unaware how valuable Youtube can be. Talking to another student in one of my classes who was, like me, having difficulty understanding the course material, he was astonished when I told him that on Youtube there were numerous very helpful and very clear tutorials on the same subject and lessons we were learning in that class at the time.

A few years ago I had some articles of clothing that I still liked but that had gone limp, and, having heard of it but never having grown up in a house where it was used, I had no idea how to use starch for clothing. Sure enough, I Youtube’d it (I’ve dared to use it as a verb!), and in moments I had mouse-click access to a little old lady showing me and explaining how to iron with starch. Absolutely awesome.

You can learn almost anything on Youtube. Try searching for ‘how to’, ‘how to use’, ‘lesson’, ‘for beginners’, ‘tutorial’, etc along with another keyword relating to the subject you’d like to learn or know more about. Thousands of tutorials and lessons exist in every subject and topic ranging from advanced math, lessons on how to play an instrument, applying makeup, using software, formatting a paper in MLA format, how to tie a tie, how to change the oil in your car, to how to use a toilet. (I’m not kidding)

While Youtube is an excellent resource, like any online source one must be both wary to the information it carries and patient enough to sift through the myriad of poorly made and taught lessons. Many universities, professors, and teachers though have begun posting quality online lessons and lectures opening up doors to all kinds of further and distant online learning.