WHAT’S THE IMPACT OF OFFENSIVE MEDIA CONTENT ON STUDENTS?

IMPACT ON STUDENTS (continued)
My previous blog listed 6 possible negative effects of offending any student in your class. So what’s the impact?

DISCONNECT: Does the word disconnect come to mind? It should. It's the paragraph head. Those emotional effects can squash a student’s motivation and spirit. More importantly, a single offensive comment can irreparably damage your relationships with those offended students. If collaborative learning activities are an integral part of your teaching repertoire, that collaboration could be uncomfortable or impossible based on the offensive remarks you made to any student. That student may intentionally avoid you to minimize the chance of confrontation. This is an individual issue in each offense because what is offensive to one student may not be offensive to other students.

CONNECT: The aforementioned negative effects of offensive media content are exactly the opposite of the positive effects to accrue from many of the uses of media in the first place. One primary purpose of humor, music, and videos is to improve relationships and connections by leveraging content and media to which students can relate. For example, nonoffensive humor and media content can break down barriers, relax, open up, and reduce stress, tension, and anxiety to foster connections between you and your students. It can grab and maintain the students’ attention and ability to focus or refocus on a particular point.

BEST TEACHERS: Furthermore, consider the characteristics of the “best teachers.” Use of offensive material is inconsistent with some of the affective character attributes of effective teachers, such as sensitivity, caring, understanding, compassion, and approachability.

MAJOR CATEGORIES OF OFFENSIVE CONTENT
In the humor research literature, joke types usually fit the following themes: superiority, aggression, hostility, malice, derision, cruelty, disparagement, stupidity, sex, and ethnic put-downs. Is there anything positive or nonoffensive in that list? I don’t think so.

The problem is that these themes are also prominent in music, movies, music videos, YouTube, and other media products that we could potentially use in our classroom as teaching tools. For example, some music, videos, and comedy with big name performers carry warning labels of “Adult Content.” These media have become increasing risqué by attacking and maligning the police, women, and political and “establishment” figures and issues. They are also chock full of obscenities, profanities, vulgarity, and other crude and explicit language.

I’ve identified seven major categories of offensive content: (1) put-downs, (2) sarcasm, (3) ridicule, (4) profanity, (5) vulgarity, (6) sexual content and innuendo, and (7) sensitive personal experiences. This material appears in jokes, music lyrics, and video content.

My future blogs will address those 7 categories.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

HOW TO ADD VIDEO CLIPS TO YOUR POWERPOINT! Part III

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

HOW TO ADD VIDEO CLIPS TO YOUR POWERPOINT! Part II

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

HOW TO ADD VIDEO CLIPS TO YOUR POWERPOINT! Part I

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

Secret Strategies for Writing "Academic" Books: Part II

As a follow-up to my previous blog, I would add one more criterion to the list for Picking the right topic: (c) Fill a need and want in your niche. That can greatly improve the salability of your book. What information does your target audience need and want? The trick is to match your expertise, passion, and your niche’s need on the topic. That magical match will produce a book that’s credible, salable to your audience, and fun to write.

Now let’s move on to the next strategy:

2. How to Create Chapters Quickly and Easily: Writing chapters from scratch or even a detailed topic outline can be excruciatingly painful. Where do you begin? As I’ve said elsewhere, “It’s like eating one of those dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. Once you forklift your filet of T-Rex off your grill, which is the size of Wyoming, where do you take your first bite? Tough decision.”

Fortunately, as academicians, we’re not only required to write books, but also journal articles, chapters for edited volumes, research reports, wedding invitations for our daughters, and parking violations. So we have plenty of writing practice. Here’s the SECRET STRATEGY I’ve used for years (Are you ready? Getting excited? Bet ya thought blogs couldn’t be this much fun!): convert your published articles into chapters. There it is. It takes the guess work out of what to write because you already wrote it. Ah Ha!! Some of you may already do that. As most pastors say, “Let’s unpack this a bit further.”

Here are a few issues to consider:

(a) Write articles on related topics: Most of us generate articles and research publications that follow one major theme or passion of ours. They should hinge together under a common head or rubric. (Personal Note: For example, over the past decade I was passionate about testing new teaching techniques to connect with this Net Generation of students. Almost all students hate statistics, but this generation had other characteristics that made stat more challenging to teach. My research and articles focused on these techniques: humor, music, videos, and improvisation. I also did keynotes and workshops for faculty and administrators on those topics, plus continued to test the effectiveness of the techniques with keynotes to student audiences in the U.S. and overseas. Do you see where I’m heading with this? Me neither. I’m just rambling in the longest “personal note” in history. End of Bloated Note 2.)

(b) Why use articles? Articles test the criteria stated in my previous blog. Does your article contribute something new or better than what exists? Does it fill a need? The review process will answer these questions. Your work also goes through the rigor of peer review, with detailed feedback from reviewers, maybe rejection, maybe resubmission after revision, maybe submission to another journal, and copy editing before publication. After this beating is over, you usually have an article that is appreciably better than it was originally. Given the length of the journal review process, this could take 2–5 years for a bevy of articles to be ready for book conversion. Keep in mind you’re still scoring field goals with these articles or chapters. The book will be the culmination of all of that work, that is, the touchdown. (Note: This is football season, right? You can expect football analogies and metaphors. Watch out!)

(c) Start hinging your articles: Find that rubric that draws your body of work (articles) together. Think about that hinge as you begin to write each new article. You may also write pieces that have nothing to do with that hinge for different reasons. (Personal Note: This will be shorter that the bloated one above. As you may have guessed from my article topics above, my hinge is: “How to NOT Get Whacked by Your Institution!” Haha. A little hinge humor. The topic is: “Teaching Strategies for the Net Generation.” Among the 30+ books on the Net Generation, is there a book on this topic with the content I have chosen? No. Is there a need? No. Does anybody care? No. I hope I’m kidding. End of Semi-Bloated Note.)

These paragraphs should get you started. The next blog will be “How to convert articles into chapters without violating copyright.” Stick around for my next installment.

COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

Misuse of PowerPoint in the Classroom

Based on the results of the survey of students in England, reported in yesterday's blog, the manner in which professors use PowerPoint in their classes contributed significantly to the students' boredom. I don't think those practices are that different in the U.S as well as in most other countries. Lecture with PowerPoint is still the predominant form of information delivery in college classes.
PowerPoint is a perfect example of a technology that is frequently used inappropriately in teaching. Basically, it’s just text material projected on the screen rather than in a book, although graphics and images may be included. If the slides are jam packed with tons of content too small to read from the students' seats and professors just read those slides to the students as if they were three years old, the students should be bored as well as insulted. That practice has been called "death by PowerPoint," and a slow and painful one at that. It may be the simplest and laziest use of the technology, albeit, also an ineffective use. If you post the slides on the course Website, the students don’t have to come to class and, in fact, many of them don’t.
Fortunately, there are effective applications of PowerPoint that some professors are using. They amplify, interpret, animate, discuss, and/or question the slide content to engage the students and/or incorporate music, sound effects, and videos into the slides. In large classes, in particular, some use clickers to solicit opinions or to test their understanding of the content being discussed. ENGAGEMENT is critical to grab and maintain the students' attention. PowerPoint can engage students, even with lecture, when used appropriately.

COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC