Within current discourse on video for learning, there are many concurrent ideas on how to use video in educational contexts. These cover a wide spectrum, ranging from recorded lectures, or the Khan Academy video tutorials, (which have inadvertently given rise to the flipped classroom meme), to dedicated educational platforms that aggregate online video, for example Watchknow.org Sometimes video is mixed with other content using APIs, as on the HistoryPin website.
Other platforms such as EdMediaShare which uses the Dial-e framework, (developed at the University of Hull), are designed to promote an alternative way of using video. However the most frequent use of video in learning is still to illustrate or amplify subject matter or to present didactic information in the form of a recorded lecture or presentation.
This is understandable, one of the drawbacks of using video, as opposed to text, is that it cannot be searched in as easily as texts. Whilst it is straightforward to search search a library of documents for a word - sentence or paragraph but with video search relies on title or associated metadata. This may be about to change. Research at the Hasso Platter institute has come close to making 'semantic video' a reality. Using semantic media analysis; in the near future, it will be possible to conduct searches within video, (collections, and individual videos), directly by the content within them
Here are a few thoughts on how this might work, using some clips from EdMediaShare to illustrate:
- OCR, (search for text in shots of maps or signposts)
- Audio (the stirring music, so common in old newsreels, used to illustrate the Berengeria clip)
- Speech recogniton (look for topics with specific terminology, eg, Mobile learning.
- Motion Vectors (Tacoma Narrows)
- Visual analysis (identify structural changes in video; tone/colour/pace as in this JISC resource on copyright)
- Face recognition (identify specific speakers in the JISC collection)
It seems likely that such tools will completely redefine the ways in which we can learn through video. Hopefully some of these tools them will also be found within YouTube in the not to distant future.
The Slideshare presentation from Hasso Platter gives a very detailed overview of the underlying process and there is also a demo screencast here.
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