Emerging Technologies: The Case of Educational Streaming of Videos

In the field of educational technology innovations come from risks taken by true innovators. This risks can lead to advancements in academic achievement or can result in big failures that end up with the rejection of the new technology. As with any human activity in a market society, innovations come at a big economic cost to the institution that is investing. This economic investment is not easy to undertake and, if it doesn't translate into something that is ultimately adopted and benefits all learners many members might point it as an economic loss. Is it right to think of these investments, when they fail, as 'losses' or can we say they are 'opportunities' and 'learning experiences'?

Innovations come at a price, as already pointed out. As Dr. Solloway (n.d.) says, "if you're not failing enough, you're not taking enough risks.” With this said it would be safe then to point to a failed innovation as a standpoint for future investments. Right now in education institutions are facing budget cuts from the money that the government traditionally invested while at the same time that same government offers opportunities for funding that are innovative, such as the 'Race To the Top' grants. These grants give school districts the opportunity to receive large amounts of funds if they are committed to innovate the educational approaches of their learning organizations. This presents an opportunity to bring about change as we might find institutions that are already taking innovative steps taking them further with more funding. While it can be argued that this also leaves behind other districts, it is urgent and evident to modernize education and find new models that promote academic achievement for the new generation of learners, who seemingly are not benefiting from traditional approaches to education.

I work in the Office of Educational Technology that services the Bronx borough of New York City, the largest educational district in the United States. There are 1.1 million students in NYC and almost a quarter of a million of them in the Bronx. With these numbers the challenges to seeing how they benefit best from education are enormous, so the Department of Education has their hands full trying to find innovations that work. A few years back, around 2001, a new technology was incorporated to include different learning styles in about 1,000 schools. The technology consisted of installing a streaming service in the school server that would have the capability to stream video into every classroom. The technology was simple to operate and robust enough to sustain school demands. Professional development was offered to 'School Technology Liaisons' in every building, the necessary equipment was distributed which consisted of video players (VHS & Video Discs), cables and a video library to initiate the streaming. Schools would finally have a way to deliver content in an innovative way without this representing an obstacle for teachers as they would simply need to turn on a monitor and watch.

Today this technology is not operational in any school of the many that I have visited. Many reasons made it very difficult to adopt it. First, schools did not have a person they could dedicate for the task of designing, planning and delivering the video content to be streamed because every classroom is different and time for common planning is mostly non-existent. Second, it was never a priority to address different modalities of learning, and where it was they would take more simplistic measures. Third, the idea of streaming to several classrooms was never appealing to teachers as not all agree that visuals are as effective as other modes of deliverance. Fourth, the growth of video streaming services on the internet gave innovative educators the option to choose videos that served their purposes to meet their student's needs so without the support of leaders in the building other educators were never even aware of the technology.

Video streaming is one of the most widely used and fastest growing services on the internet. Millions watch videos on youtube everyday. Others watch TV exclusively on the net. In some instances there have been more viewers online than on standard TV broadcasts. There are even specialized ones that serve specific populations. Services such as Discovery Education StreamingTeacherTube and SchoolTube are free but do not include sophisticated content to the extent that Discovery does give educators access to thousands of videos from experts in virtually every field but is not free. Other services such as

These services are all available to the mainstream public but schools have not adopted them widely yet. The idea of delivering content through visuals benefits many but it seems at first sight that educators are not yet ready to adopt it as a genuine component in the classroom. One of the problems encountered is that most of these free tools have been blocked in schools by the filtering system, which to a given point is understandable. Not all content is appropriate and without guidance learners might not benefit as they should from them. Another challenge is that using videos for instructional purposes requires knowledge about planning and designing instructional activities that promote their use and include the right approaches. Researchers such as Roxana Moreno and Richard Mayer have made great contributions to this area and will help shape how multimedia instruction will be designed in the near future.

Streaming video is mainstream already, yet educational video streaming is still emerging. Differentiating between emerging and mainstream is not this simple of course. The distinctions make no difference in the technology itself, but they have an impact in its future. What happens with a given technology in the future has much to do with future innovators, and those are sitting in our classrooms. The more they are exposed to these technology the more they will get used to it for a given purpose. If schools continue to negate access to video content in the classroom then students will only associate something they use everyday with non-academic activities only. If schools start incorporating more video content in their curriculum students will associate the use of visuals with academics and in the future we might have some innovators bring about changes that will benefit more learners.

References:

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York: Free Press.

Thornburg, D. D. (2009b). When is a technology emergent? Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Thornburg, D. D. (2009a). Current trends in educational technology. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Soloway, E. (n.d.). Emerging vs. emerged technologies. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4008117&Survey=1&47=5590091&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1&BrswrOK=1&PrevRef=http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn%3FCourseID%3D4008117%26Survey%3D1%2647%3D5590091%26ClientNodeID%3D984645%26coursenav%3D1&submit1=Continue

Thornburg, D. D. (n.d.). What is emerging technology? [Vodcast]. Retrieved from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4008117&Survey=1&47=5590091&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1&BrswrOK=1&PrevRef=http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn%3FCourseID%3D4008117%26Survey%3D1%2647%3D5590091%26ClientNodeID%3D984645%26coursenav%3D1&submit1=Continue