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| Digital Video Menu: | Digital Video Production (Decision Time) | |
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Unlike previous “promising” technologies that did not live up to their anticipated impact to advance teaching and learning (motion pictures, television), digital video can make a big difference, because it is becoming increasingly practical for a teacher to produce and disseminate instructional material in the form of “broadcast-quality” (not “postage-stamp”) digital video, with simple equipment, without a steep learning curve, and at a moderate cost. Recent improvements in digital video codecs (compression/decompression algorithms) and the use of digital video streaming servers (such as the Indiana University Digital Media Streaming Service) make it practical to send over the Internet “broadcast-quality” digital video to computers with high-speed Internet connections, such as those at Indiana University. Play some of the video clips that I have placed on the I. U. Digital Media Streaming Server. See section on Instructional Video Clips. Before you embark on digital video production, you should ask yourself two questions: 1. Digital Video, Yes or No?
Often a still picture is worth a thousand words and is good enough. Surely the picture shown here is more effective than a video clip on the same topic. Also, see Fig. 5.83 (pp. 138-139) and Fig. 5.84 (p. 140) in Felice Frankel’s book Envisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the Science Image (The MIT Press, 2002) for beautiful examples of instances in which a series of still photos is more useful than video. 2. Do It Yourself or Farm It Out? Farm it out? Video material produced by experienced professionals will be technically and artistically far superior to video produced by me (and you?). The downside of farming out is cost. For example, Instructional Support Services - Media Production at Indiana University charges about $5,000 for a 10-minute digital video clip. Most of the cost is post-production labor. However, you may apply for funding to cover some or all of the cost. Do it yourself? If you don’t have a camcorder or you have an analog camcorder, go to In a Hurry? Digital Video in a Nutshell and Raw Content Creation (Camcorders) within the “Production & Distribution of Digital Video” section. If you have a digital camcorder with an IEEE1394 output (Apple calls it FireWire, Sony calls it i.LINK) and an Apple computer of recent vintage, you can get started without any additional investment in hardware or software. However, I have zero hands-on experience with Apple computers, and on this Web site I will stick to what I know, so you Apple users please go elsewhere for specific information. Sorry. If you have a digital camcorder with an IEEE1394 output and your operating system is Windows XP Professional, you can start producing digital video after investing as little as about $50 in an IEEE1394 interface for your PC. See In a Hurry? Digital Video in a Nutshell. The rest of the Digital Video section of my Web site is targeted at amateur videographers (teachers). Go to Digital Video Production & Distribution.
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Is video the best way to enhance the
student's learning experience in your particular teaching
project, or are there better alternatives? You can find a
discussion of this issue in “
