Video Use In Higher Education

The article I chose to review can be printed at http://www.streamingmedia.com/r/printerfriendly.asp?id=10966. This article focused on the increased use of video in higher education courses and institutions. There was a noticeable increase in such use in the year 2008. Whereas prior to that, the use of video was generally limited to recordings of classroom lectures. But there has been an increasing use of video presentations to both enhance lectures as well as replace face-to-face lectures.

One of the pioneers in the use of videotaped education was MIT physics professor Walter H.G. Lewin when he posted his lectures on iTunes U. In addition, both iTunes and YouTube became platforms for a data resource to be utilized when videos on topic related issues were desired. Over time, this trend has continued until now there are literally hundreds of institutions offering educational video offerings. Some colleges, such as Texas A & M include videos made by students for students on their website. Rather than just offering an FAQ section, they have videotaped students answering questions many new students have. The name of their program is "Do You Wonder?". These are available at http://doyouwonder.tamu.edu as well as on iTunes U or YouTube. Many other colleges now use these same social platforms as a source of both marketing and video storage locations. For instance, classroom students can access these websites to review a missed lecture or to review lecture content. The students surveyed have stated that the use of lecture videos is preferred in their courses rather than ones that do not videotape their lectures. The students feel that having a chance to review adds great benefit to their educational experience.

The next expected steps will be in the capturing of audio through podcasts. Many institutions have jumped onto this technology but the industry expects to see this trend continue. With the direction of education headed towards online venues, the use of video will allow not only for valuable resources by the institution sponsoring it, but also in the name of collaboration by others as well. This is a step away from the old days of each college being concerned about their proprietary property designed by their own educational staff.