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The first moving pictures appeared in the 19th century and transformed the 20th century. \u00a0Film in the first half of the century was complemented by broadcast television in the second half. Nearly 99 percent of all households had a television by the 1970s, watching more than four hours per day on average. It could be argued that broadcast television not only covered history but altered its course in some instances (Watson, 1997).<\/p>\n
The ubiquitous presence of digital video is permeating every aspect of life in the 21st century with equally profound implications. Widespread video recording capability in the current generation of cell phones combined with dissemination via sites such as YouTube has changed the way in which video is created and consumed (Gannes, 2009).<\/p>\n
In the first year of use after YouTube was established, individual users created and contributed more video than the three original television networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) had produced in the half century since they were founded. Five years later, hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded to YouTube every day, at a rate of more than 20 hours of video per minute (YouTube, 2009). In other words, it would take nearly a full day to watch all the video posted to YouTube in a single minute. Subscription services like Discovery streaming offer thousands of educational titles, and many more educational videos are available across the Web at sites such as NextVista, SchoolTube, and TeacherTube.<\/p>\n
Because video can be created and watched on portable devices such as cell phones, its use is becoming casual and conversational. Among many of today\u2019s youth it has become a primary form of communication. Although it is not always used in a constructive or responsible manner, video has become a way to share experiences, express creativity, and convey ideas. Because video about nearly any topic is becoming available, some students are beginning to employ it as an initial point of reference when they have questions about a topic (Helft, 2009).<\/p>\n
Affordances for Classroom Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n In the midst of this cultural shift, some teachers and teacher educators have become more open to its use in the classroom, as well, judging by the increasing number of journal articles and conference presentations on the topic (see, e.g., Kearney & Schuck, 2005; Pace & Jones, 2009; Shea, 2000). For decades educators have found films to be valuable for transmitting some types of information in the classroom. Although digital video is easier to capture and more readily accessible, it also possesses some affordances that broaden its usefulness beyond information transmission. A few examples of the affordances of existing video include the following:<\/p>\n When students or teachers create their own video, editing is made easier by user-friendly (and often free) software packages. These video files are relatively easy to share, whether the audience is the classroom, school, home and community, or the world.<\/p>\n Digital Video Plus Effective Pedagogy<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite these affordances of digital video, learning with digital video requires effective pedagogy. Digital video is not a teacher-proof educational tool, just as film never was. Video content should be closely matched to an instructional goal. Students need prior instruction about what to look for in a video and debriefing afterwards to ensure they attended to targeted information (Dale, 1969). Teachers must also attend to potential cognitive overload caused by too much information being presented too quickly or by the simultaneous appearance of moving images, narration, and sometimes onscreen text. (Pace & Jones, 2009; Tversky, Morrison & Betrancourt, 2002). Without an active teacher who attends to these issues, pausing video at strategic points, replaying key segments, and assessing understanding, video and animation may actually decrease students\u2019 comprehension of a concept.<\/p>\n As teachers develop technological pedagogical content knowledge specific to digital video, they discover that they can actively engage students by asking them to observe, answer a question, or interpret a message. Video can become an object of analysis, sometimes even in combination with other interactive measurement technologies. Students can also create their own videos as a form of knowledge expression (Hofer & Harris, 2009), synthesizing and communicating what they have learned (Bull & Bell, in press). In each case, video pedagogy is not generic. The way in which teachers can most effectively engage students with digital video is specific to the content being learned (Table 1).<\/p>\n Table 1\n
\n<\/strong>Student Engagement with Digital Video by Content Area<\/p>\n