Digital Video on Blood

The above digital video is an example of something I was hoping students would be able to produce for either a homework or assessment task.  The context would be that after topic was covered, an individual or small group of students would be given the task of summarising the key information and answering an application question related to that information.  For this example, Year 11 Biology students are required by the Queensland Studies Authority (QSA, 2006, p. 8) in Key Concept 2 to understand that “multicellular organisms are 
functioning sets of interrelated systems. “  Furthermore, students are to understand that “systems of the body work together to maintain a constant internal environment” (QSA, 2006, p. 8) and that “malfunctioning in one system or part of a system may affect the whole organism” (QSA, 2006, p. 8).  To try and get the students to understand these concepts and to be able to monitor how that understanding is progressing, after each human body system is covered in class a small group of students would be assigned the task of summarising the key functions of that body system and then giving one example of how malfunctioning in that body system affects other body systems or the whole human body.  These videos would then be posted on a class blog where all the students can view them, leave comments, ask questions and also return to later to use as a study tool.

For me, the outstanding feature of the video making process was the difficulty and great amount of time spent just trying to make the video.  The amount of time needed to gather the required information and write a suitable commentary was very small compared to the amount of time needed to actually produce the video.  The first time consuming task was deciding on the appropriate hardware and software to use to make the video.  I have no previous video editing experience and so was looking for a simple way to add audio to a series of still images and text.  I decided on using PowerPoint to create the series of still images because it was a software program I already had experience in and one that I had access to.  Finding and/or creating suitable visual aids was the next time consuming task.  Not possessing the artistic ability to draw my own pictures, I then spent time finding websites that contained images covered by copyright rules allowing me to reuse those images.  Once those websites were identified, time was also spent searching through the databases to find the desired images.  Once the appropriate images were found or created, the PowerPoint slides and audio commentary were created with relative ease.   The last hurdle involved converting the PowerPoint presentation with audio into a movie format that could be uploaded to YouTube for embedding on a blog site.  Whilst I was led to believe that this conversion could be performed by the PowerPoint software itself, I soon discovered that that option was not available for Apple computers running PowerPoint.  The slide presentation with timings was converted to a movie file, but no audio was included.  After numerous hours of troubleshooting, the problem was finally solved by transferring the file to a Windows-based computer and performing the conversion there.  All the time spent on creating the video would essentially shift the students’ attention from considering the biological content knowledge to creating the medium itself.  In other words, what has remained in my memory is not how the blood affects the whole human body (one of the original learning aims of the task) but how hard it was to create a digital video.

A PMI analysis of this task is presented below:

Plus

•  Presents the class information according to a different learning style
• Students can present the information using language they understand
• Uses Bloom’s higher order thinking skill of creating
• The videos should show images the students can associate with important pieces of information to help them recall this information later
• Students get to practice oral skills without having to stand up in front of the class (something students may find stressful)
• In a group situation, each student can be assigned a task to suit their strengths

Minus

• Large amount of time consumed not working on the content but working on producing the video itself
• Need to find a software program that students of all technological experience can use
• Need to spend time covering copyright guidelines for producing the video
• In a group situation, it is difficult for a teacher to determine what contribution has been made by each student

Implications

• Large amount of class time needs to be allocated to learning about creating the video and copyright guidelines
• Once the skill of video making and following correct copyright guidelines has been mastered, this activity can be used again with less preparatory time needed
• Is a skill that can be used in other subjects and in their every day life
• Once posted on the blog, the videos are a resource all the students can use throughout the course

References

Queensland Studies Authority (QSA). (2006). Biology Senior Syllabus. Retrieved from www.qsa.qld.edu.au