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Kendra Grant
Abstract
This chapter explores how rapidly changing and ubiquitous technologies, including mobile devices, free online tools, social networks and instant connectivity, have fundamentally changed the ways people interact, socialize and learn. However, new technology too often reinforces old methodologies. Rather than act as a tool for instruction or a vehicle for delivery, technology can serve as a catalyst for change. In this chapter, video, through both its familiarity and DIY potential, will act as this catalyst. Viewing and applying video in a very different way requires a series of lenses to examine practice, presence and production. The first lens frames technology’s use and encourages change. The RAT Model – replication, amplification and transformation (Hughes, Thomas, & Scarber, 2008) – guides the application and use of technology to help transform instructional practice. The second lens examines the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) created by the intersection of cognitive, teaching and social presence. This chapter explores how video can help create collaborative environments for deep learning by supporting each presence. The third lens explores design presence: a combination of production, accessibility, and aesthetic principles that help ensure a quality product (video) that supports social, cognitive, and teaching presence. Together, the three lenses take video, an often transmissionist tool, and examine it to help change pedagogical practices to support a positive learner experience (LX).
Keywords: video, community of inquiry, online learning, social presence, teaching presence, cognitive presence, design presence, connectivism, replication, amplification, transformation, accessibility, learner experience (LX).
The Transformational Use of Video in Online Learning
Rapidly changing and ubiquitous technologies, including mobile devices, free online tools, social networks and instant connectivity, have fundamentally changed the ways people interact, socialize and learn (Casares, Dickson, Hannigan, Hinton, & Phelps, n.d.; Milrad & Spikol, 2007). A recent University UK (2012) report noted that access to, adoption of and attitudes toward the application of technology in online learning in higher education continues to grow and evolve. However, the acceptance and use of technology is often limited to administrative and management improvements (University UK, 2015; Brown & Johnson, 2015). A systemic shift in pedagogy from the “content + discussion + assignment model” (Janssens-Bevernage, 2015) has yet to happen. An NMC Horizon Report noted that “rewarding teachers for innovative and effective pedagogy [is] a wicked challenge — one that is impossible to define, let alone solve. Many institutions provide more incentives for research over exemplary teaching” (Brown & Johnson, 2015, p. 1).
Changes Impacting Online Learning: Affordance, Connectivity, and Attitudes
Distance learning, in existence since