FUTUREWATCH: EDUCATION

f
a

a.

critical decisons

3
a

Paul Riismandel

he trajectory of educational video typically follows that

J of the outside world. But with education, the goals of
H popularity, audience size, and hits take a back seat to
T learning effectivenessat least that's what we strive
for The questions for educators are to what extent do we follow
the trends and how do we make sure that it's not a snipe hunt
or a wild-goose chase.
The runaway success of the iPhone and the rise oftiieinexpensive,
ultraportable laptop "netbook" and other wireless devices
make it clear that we live in a mobile world defined by access
to information unbound by location. Mobile is clearly the next
frontier for online media, and, therefore, it is also the next step
for educational media.
Frankly, educational media is already there, to some extent.
Podcasting is really the technology that launched mobile
educational media, such that countless schools and universities
have gone online with thousands of podcasted lectures and
classes. Companies that focus on education, such as Apple.
Sonic Foundry, and Accordent, have all rolled out tools making
podcasting easier, But does making a podcast of a 1-hour
lecture for a student's iPod really count as mobile media?
This is the year that mobile audio and video will move from
downloaded podcasts to on-demand availability, whether the
device of choice is a mobile phone or a laptop. The line
between Wi-Fi and cellular network is getting blurred as
devices become equally adept at using either type of connection
with iess user intervention. Educators have every right to be
excited at how these technologies continue to lower barriers for
students to access educational content. But books are pretty
darn portable too, yet for decades students have found plenty of
excuses not to read their assignments. What will compel students
to take full advantage of mobile media?

Just as the consumer video market is driven by the quest

for eyeballs and by efforts to create content that goes
"viral," each technological progression also presents new
challenges to educators to keep students tuned in, even as it
offers opportunities.
Thus, my predictionand, one might say, hopefcr the
coming year is that there will be a sharpening focus on
pedagogy, brought on by the ubiquity of media at home, m the
classroom, in the lab, and on-the-go. Motivated students will
take advantage of course lecture recordings and other course
54

STREAMING MEDIA INDU5TRV SOURCEBOOK 2 0 0 9

media. What about less motivated students? How do we reach

them and keep them engaged and attentive?
The other side of this question is how we can use media
production as a learning tool, shifting students from being
passive consumers of media to being participants and
creators. Mobile tools will be instrumental in this too. At the
2008 Streaming Media East show, I watched video biogger
Steve Garfield and the guys behind Qik demonstrate how
cellular broadband and camera phones can be used to stream
live video from any place in reach of a cell signal. Some
schools and colleges are already experimenting with this
technology in their journaiism programs. But what happens
when every student's mobile device is a two-way device for
receiving as well as transmitting live and recorded audio and
video to their teachers, professors, and fellow students?
The opportunity for students to send audio and video from
any location opens new doors for new-media literacy and
student evaluation, Imagme the old-fashioned language lab
taken on-the-go: A teacher could listen to and evaluate a student's
pronunciation and grammar recorded from any networked
location. Or consider the value of a student practicing an oral
presentation from his or her mobile phone and then posting it
for peer review without having to own a computer or a home
internet connection. The future lies not in finding ways to exploit
the newest technologies but in looking for innovative teaching
and learning methods that are otherwise constrained by the
time and geographical limits of the conventional classroom.
How can mobile video technology bring the tutorial, the study
session, or the instructional video to students using a device
they already own and pay for?
This brings me to another big trend I see developing in the
new year: the convergence of telepresence and streaming.
While I kind of hate this new, manufactured buzzword
"telepresence," it nevertheless serves as an umbreila for a
bunch of related technologies, such as video chat, VoIR and
videoconferencing. In the past year, we've finally seen these
technologies go from being bleeding edgeand barely
bleeding workingto being platforms that are stable
enough to rely on for distance and blended learning.
Videoconferencing has been used for education in the U.S. for
more than a decade, especially to hnk up schools m remote
rural areas in the West, But the classes tend to be ephemeral

unless they are recorded to videotape or DVD. Web conferencing platforms such
as WebEx and Adobe Connect have offered similar conferencing ability, with a
focus on nch presentation visuals usually ccmbmed with conference calling over
traditional land lines, but this also offers limited recording functionality.
Now that the VoIP and video functionality of online conferencing platforms have
finally become usable and reliable, their ability to record conferences becomes
all the more valuable. At the same time, the major players in the videoconferencing
arena, Polycom, Tndberg, and Cisco, are offenng solutions to record, manage,
and stream content as well. This mirrors the growth m lecture recording in the
traditional brick-and-mortar classroom. The quantity of educational content
recorded in the physical or virtual classroom will continue to grow quickly, if not
exponentially As a result, the need to catalog and manage all this stuff becomes
even more crucial.
Nearly all of these platform vendorswhether the platform is videoconferencing,
web conferencing, lecture capture, mobile streaming, or podcastingoffer a
content management solution. What worries me is the proprietary nature of these
catalogs and archives. If your school or institution can standardize on a single
platform for all of your media needs, this is less of a concernthat is, until you
realize that your students aren't able to access content with a particular browser,
wireless network, or device. The even greater concern is what happens if a
particular vendor goes belly up or if your school can't afford to keep up with
version upgrades.
The question of standards always looms large ever the online video world.
Whether it's mobile, downloaded, or streamed, you don't want your content locked
up in a format that might not be watchable or editable down the road. Open
standards are also the key to archiving and catalogmg media created in different
platforms. The value of classroom lecture videos and vidoconfrence recordings
only increases when they are available across multiple devicesincluding
mobilethrough a single catalog and interface.
In 2009,1 certainly hope we'll see more platform vendors support standard formats,
such as H.264, and open metadata standards. As the iTunes music store and
YouTbbe have demonstrated, having common portals for finding video content offers
immense value to students and the general public alike. However, as of yet, content
in iTlmes is invisible to someone searching YouTlibe and vice versa. Students
shouldn't have to make the academic equivalent of the iHmes or YouTlibe, Coke or
Pepsi decision to get their curncular content. They shouldn't have to go through
multiple portals or interfaces to find content from different classesthat's just
asking them to ignore the stuff that is less convenient to access.
It's an exciting time to be working in educational media, but it's also a critical time
as we make decisions on platform, content, format, and management that may well
determine the equality of students' learning for years to come. 9

Paul Riismandel |paul@riBdiageek,iietl is tiie director of curricuiaf support for the school of communication
al Northwestern University. He blogs and podcasts at www.mediageek.net,
Pomments? Email us.at leflers@streaniingmedia.corn, or check the masthead foi oihet ways to contact us.

Taking
Stickiness
to a Whole
New Level
Onstream
1.877.932.3400
WWW .onstreammedia. com

WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM

55