3. VIDEO CLIPS (CONTINUED)
SOURCES OF VIDEOS: There are three principal sources from which to obtain the videos: original DVD, the Internet, CD clips with book. There are several factors to consider in using these sources. If the video segment needs to be extracted and converted to a format compatible with Microsoft’s PowerPoint® (PP) for PCs, you will have to do the extracting and conversion with specific software.
SOFTWARE ISSUES: Here are a few key questions that you should be asking me:
a. Why do you need software? The videos from the above sources are in the form of complete tracks and typically NOT in a format compatible with PowerPoint. You may need only a tiny clip. The software allows you to extract that clip and convert it to an appropriate format.
b. How expensive is the software? Ones I’ve used range from free to $100. The cost is minimal.
c. Once you pick the video, how long does it take to extract the clip, convert it to MPEG, WMV, or AVI, and insert it into your PowerPoint slide? Once you learn the process, it can take 15 min.
d. Not all software work with all videos. The “blocks” on the DVDs to prevent piracy can prevent the software from functioning. The software are inconsistent also because the different manufacturers of DVDs use different blocks. Sometimes you may need to try several pieces of software to do 1 extract and conversion. Check with your IT experts or computer services for their assistance and recommendations.
SOFTWARE OPTIONS: (NOTE: Mac users may not need the software described below.) As a nontechie, I taught myself how to use some of the software programs 4 years ago and have been using them ever since, although they have been inconsistent. Here are a few to try. There are many others.
Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Version 7 or 8 (~$100)
DVD Shrink 3.2 (FREE—for extracting clips only)
Cucusoft Pro Version 7.07 (~$30—for converting clips to MPEG only)
MPEG Streamclip 1.2 (FREE, requires Quicktime Player)
Jingproject.com (FREE)
Zamzar.com (FREE—for YouTube conversion)
Tubesock (~$30--for YouTube conversion)
JibJab ($4 and JibJab will sent you version for use in PowerPoint)
RECOMMENDATION: Just as with the music software, I strongly suggest soliciting HELP from personnel in your IT department, a computer science student, one of your students, or your own kid to walk you through the above software.
Once you have completed your 1st video clip insert, you will enter another new world. Your conference audience or students will be very appreciative of your video clips. What a way to start 2010 and your spring semester. Have a blast.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
3. VIDEO CLIPS (CONTINUED)
As promised, this blog will list types of videos to consider and a dozen generic techniques you can include in your PowerPoints. Details with examples are provided in my 2009 article mentioned previously.
TYPES OF VIDEOS: There is a wide range of video categories that can be used in professional presentations and the classroom. The actual choice will depend on the instructional purpose or outcome and the characteristics of your audience and their interests. In the mean time, here is a shopping list to keep in mind: (1) drama, (2) action, (3) romantic, (4) comedy, (5) romantic comedy, (6) documentary, (7) TV programs, (8) commercials, (9) college music videos (mtvU), and (10) faculty or student made videos.
12 GENERIC TECHNIQUES: Over the past decade, I have accumulated the BERKO Collection of video techniques that have been tested with undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in teaching and learning conferences. Are you ready? Here they are:
1. Provide Content and Information
2. Illustrate a Concept or Principle
3. Present Alternative Viewpoints
4. Apply the Content to Real-World Applications
5. Serve as a Stimulus for Learning Activities
6. Provide a Good or Bad Application to Critique
7. Exaggerate a Particular Point
8. Snap Students to Attention
9. Insert into Collaborative Learning Exercises
10. Motivate and Inspire
11. Provide a Commercial Break
12. Class Brake at Break
The impact of these techniques in your presentation or classroom to attain specific learning outcomes can change your entire learning environment and atmosphere.
My next blog will suggest specific software for extracting your video clips and inserting them into your PowerPoint. Start picking your videos. Don't pack up your PC just yet. You have 1 more day!
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
3. VIDEO CLIPS
In our Top 10 countdown of techniques you can use to pump-up your PowerPoint, we’re down to the final 3. These are duzzies. They can make or break your presentation. I think I may have said that before. Sorry. Anyway, let’s leap into videos before the new year arrives.
BACKGROUND: Videos permeate every aspect of our lives. “Why?” you ask. Perhaps it’s because they have such a powerful and memorable impact. Once we have seen a particular clip from a movie or TV program, YouTube video, student-created video, or one that we wrote, directed, choreographed, or starred in, it may be deeply etched in our noggins.
Using videos in conference presentations or teaching can have a similar effect on our audience. Of course, some of you have incorporated videos into your presentations for centuries. They date back to prehistoric times when cave instructors used 16mm projectors to show cave students examples of insurance company marketing commercials in business courses. Now even DVD players are history.
SO WHAT’S NEW? There are changes in four areas: (a) the variety of video formats, (b) the ease with which the technology can facilitate their application in most any venue, from classroom to coliseum, (c) the number of video techniques a presenter can use, and (d) the research on multimedia learning that provides the theoretical and empirical support for their use as an effective teaching tool. A PC or Mac and LCD projector with speakers can easily embed video clips for a PowerPoint® presentation on virtually any topic.
When I have seen video clips in national and international conference presentations, I walk away with those images and they stick over time. Sometimes I can't unstick them. I want my presentations to be just as memorable.
My upcoming blogs will list the (1) types of videos you could use, (2) generic techniques for infusing music into any presentation, and (3) available software for importing video clips into your PowerPoint. Before proceeding with those topics, check out the source below.
BERK SOURCE: I recommend you download my most recent article on videos from my Website (see link in right margin) which reviews the research and describes the techniques in depth with loads of examples (click Publications, then Articles):
Berk, R. A. (2009d). Multimedia teaching with video clips: TV, movies, YouTube, and mtvU in the college classroom. International Journal on Technology in Teaching and Learning, 5(1), 1–21.
My next blog will cover types of videos and a dozen generic techniques. See you then. Let me know if you have experimented with video clips.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
After 40 years and more than 4100 episodes broadcast in 120 countries, Sesame Street has established a standard for education of all youth. This Emmy-award winning program is the most effective educational children’s program in history. The creative forces behind Sesame used engagement techniques and technology before it was easy and fashionable. What can higher education learn from Sesame Street?
In this visual-learner, wired-for-sound Net Generation of students, 1st grade through graduate school, should we consider integrating live people (faculty and students), muppets, animation, cartoon characters, celebrities, music, and video clips with people and animals in our teaching? Sesame Street is fun and funny. Their use of parody and satire is brilliant. Isn't learning supposed to be FUN? Why do so many faculty dismiss "fun" as a criterion for learning? They have probably sucked the life out of their teaching and students. Sesame models basic principles of teaching we all should follow.
Multimedia-wise, the music and videos are used almost nonstop throughout the programs and even in the extremely popular “Elmo’s World” segment. A multimedia approach undergirds the teaching of basic academic and life skills. The lyrics are chock full of content to help kids remember numbers, arithmetic, geometric forms, letters, words, cognitive processes, and classification. Catchy melody, upbeat tempos excite children and keep their attention, while slipping the content into long-term memory. Researchers found that when the music and action was stopped, such as on Sesame Street during dialogue between adults, the children stopped watching (Fisch & Truglio, 2001).
This music-action-video formula to learning deserves serious consideration by all faculty. It is especially apropos for this generation of students. They have minimal patience with course requirements and the attention span of goat cheese (Berk, 2008a). They want everything NOOW.
Their behaviors, however, are by choice. They can spend hours playing video games or other activities in which they are interested and engaged (Prensky, 2006); they just find most courses boring. For more than a decade, 40+ % of college students nationwide report “they are frequently bored in class” (Pryor et al., 2009). Unless the content is on their radar screens, it’s likely to be rated “boring.”
Can faculty create adult student versions of Sesame Street in their live face-to face and online classrooms? Sure. Why not? The application of music and video technology will be a start to break the mold of traditional teaching practices. (Note: Instructors at not-for-profit teaching institutions are permitted to use music and video clips in their face-to-face as well as online classes under the “Fair Use” doctrine of the U.S. Copyright Law.)
For further details on using music and videos in teaching, you can download two articles on those topics from www.ronberk.com (under dropdown for Publications, click Articles and links to 2008b and 2009b PDFs).
Today’s blog was brought to you by the letter “M” and the number “40.” I wish Sesame another 40 years of amazing success with our little tikes and their parents, some of whom may even be faculty.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
I just finished auditioning for a role in a commercial video course on statistics in a studio in Austin, TX. It was a “screen test” where I presented two 10-minute segments on stat topics of my choice. It brought new meaning to the phrase putting it on the line.
I recently published “A Tribute to Teaching: Putting It on the Line” (College Teaching, 2009, download from www.ronberk.com). The video series combines the human element in teaching with the high tech capabilities of video graphics. It put my teaching mind, body, heart, and soul on the line in front of the camera in a different way from teaching in the classroom. I don’t know what will happen yet, but it was a challenging and humbling experience.
LESSON LEARNED: At every turn in academia, we are given two choices:
(1) thoroughly do your homework and prepare to the max (aka 150% effort) in all of your close encounters with teaching, research, RFPs, publications, committee leadership, etc. OR
(2) compromise that preparation in favor of other priorities. I still live with these options daily in my speaking and writing.
A lesson that was indelibly etched in my brain by the fictitious law Professor Kingsfield in the 1973 movie The Paper Chase (and subsequent TV series) was NEVER EVER COMPROMISE your preparation for the courtroom, classroom, video studio room, or any other room. It is so tempting to pull back, rather than preparing and practicing over and over again up until the last minute. This screen-test experience affirmed the Kingsfield message. At least, when it’s all over and you’ve finished class, submitted the RFP or article or book manuscript, or completed the screen test, there’s the consolation that you know you have done your best. Even if you get whacked, which will happen, you put it all on the line. That’s still worth a lot. You can win or lose with your integrity intact.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
