Thursday, November 26, 2009

Technology in the Classroom: Video Clips and Their Potential Impact on Student Thinking

This is a great example of professors using technology in their classrooms. Dr. Michael Mackert, Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising at The University of Texas at Austin, required his students to submit video links pertaining to health. He made the assignment very broad because he wanted to gauge the students' interpretation of "health on TV".

One of the students submitted the following video which is based on one person's negative experience with a flu shot.



But wait! She IS getting better! One of the professor's teaching assistants found an update video. Here's the interesting aspect, she stated that people have actually hacked into some of her social networking accounts. This prompted her to use another website to post updates on her illness.



The interesting aspect of this classroom assignment is that the students were able to see the "before" and the "current status" of the woman in the two clips. However, if the students were not exposed to the second video, many of them would make an assumption that the woman is not making any progress. Not only do we have to encourage students to dig deeper with news articles, but we need to encourage them to search for updates regarding youtube videos and other new media.

It would be INTERESTING to see if students would be less likely to obtain a get a flu shot after viewing the first video and then seeing if their thoughts change after seeing the second video. However, the changes of IRB board approval would be highly unlikely (at almost any institution). :)

What do you think?

J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

1 comment:

  1. The impact of media on students as well as the rest of the population is tremendous. There is a reason why corporations spend millions and millions of dollars on taking advantage of social media by using it as a vehicle for advertising. It is important to teach students to be skeptics when it comes to social media and learn how to substantiate the information they are exposed to.

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