The Auricle

by Derek Morrison, 6 November 2008

In the menu of this blog you will find I’ve created a new link category in Auricle for what I’ve called “YouTubes”. At the moment it contains links to a diverse collection of videos archived on YouTube which have caught my attention because I think they are potentially useful learning objects. Some inclusions might surprise Auricle readers, but my approach is to envisage myself in a small or large group interaction in which these could be used to illustrate, stimulate, support, exemplify, or reinforce a point of view. Once I had created the new link category it stimulated me to embark on a broader reflection into the world of online video in Higher Education; consequently, in this two-part posting while I certainly include YouTube I also meander through some other online video alleyways, as well as invite readers to consider if one video genre may be more effective than another. This is part 1 of a two-part posting. In the second part I will be considering alternatives to YouTube as well as some of the issues related to it and other such services.

What genre?

There is a lot of online video material out there and preferences about what genres are most appropriate or effective will depend on the value perceived by/objectives the user/viewer rather than necessarily the objectives of the producer/director or the primary ‘actor(s)’ in the video, a point I made in an earlier posting Psst … want to ‘see’ a good podcast? (Auricle, 15 June 2008) where I said:

I think the intrinsic relevance of podcasts (and indeed other artefacts/resources) also depends on the perceived status of the podcast developers/authors/presenters. Such status doesn’t necessarily mean that to be a successful podcaster one requires a Nobel Prize or a Reith Lectureship, but simply to be perceived as important to the life of the user. Viewed from that perspective, the views of and artefacts produced by a peer may be as, or more, important as that of a prince or princess depending on the context …

So established genres like the tradtional expert “talking head” certainly have their place, e.g. Gilly Salmon’s “no busking” message on YouTube but, as we will consider later, it’s also interesting to contrast these with genres where the producer/director has become the ‘star’ with, at times, productions that have no key performer at all. The advent of online video has, nevertheless, certainly created its own generation of ‘stars’ who demonstrate that a dynamic and authoritative figurehead can still reach out and stimulate the neurones of an audience even at a distance. For example, the Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) site sets its own uniquely high standard in this regard in that only authoritative figures get invited. One such TED invitation went to Carnegie Mellon’s Johnny Lee who in April 2008 in his presentation Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote showed why he is also very much a YouTube star with an impressive set of contributions to that service. Johnny Lee’s message is that YouTube provides an excellent medium for dissemination by the research community. He certainly conveys excitement and possibilities.

As indicated above there is a genre of online video that attract plaudits for putative micro producers or directors as a result of the audience’s appreciation of what they have produced rather than for the intrinsic star quality of one or more speakers/presenters.

Let’s consider a way-out example. In my new ‘YouTubes’ category I’ve included the Addictive TV combo because I think they illustrate the emergence of a new type of reuse, repurposing and remixing in which audio and visual content is synchronized in a way never conceived of by the generators of the orginal material. As a callow youth I remember attending one of the concerts of the orginal line-up of Pink Floyd in Edinburgh in the late 1960s and being impressed by the then leading-edge “lava-lamp” type light show but the Addictive TV approach gives a new meaning to creativity, art forms, and the potential scale of a canvas. I could, however, pass one of the Addictive TV combo in the street and not recognise who they are but nevertheless be immensely impressed by how they have mastered the concept of rip, mix, feed forward and thus effectively created a new genre.

In my suggestion that video stars are not an essential ingredient for online video success/recognitition I would also include the fair smattering of comedy YouTube clips that are by acting unknowns I link to, all of which I think illustrate a point rather well. For example, the 15th century email example neatly illustrates that new technology and old thinking can make for a deadly match. But I wonder how many of us still delete a whole line when we make a mistake even though we know the technology doesn’t require us to? 🙂 The Medieval Help Desk link both captures the agony of being both the helped and helper when a new technology, in this case the book, first comes on the scene. Fast forward to 2008 and think blogs, wikis, Facebook, Flickr et al. And what if the potential anarchy of some online discussion fora were the norm in face-to-face meetings. The Internet Commenter Business Meeting says it all (N.B. this not one for those with a low abusive language threshold).

My main point here is that these materials on YouTube were not created with an educational purpose in mind, they were designed to amuse and entertain but they are also artefacts which can be repurposed when introduced into another context to illustrate or reinforce a point.

In the producer/director catetgory I’m particularly impressed by the approach taken by Michael Wesch and the Digital Ethnography team at the Kansas State University. Wesch demonstrates how to transcend speech and access the emotional centres of the brain by using video. His production Students Today of course made him a YouTube star in his own right. I also liked Wesch’s the Machine is Us/ing Us production; basically it’s Web 2.0 in 5 minutes. To balance his stardom, back in January 2008 the Chronicle of Higher Education article Dueling Videos: Scholar Creates Remix of Another Academic’s YouTube Hit highlighted the rather delicious and subversive repurposing and remix of Michael Wesch’s “blockbuster” Students Today. The comments at the bottom of the Chronicle article offer further points for reflection.

Arguably, another UK example where the style and purpose transcends the ‘actors’ is the Quirkology YouTube channel founded in 2007 by the ever-popular psychology author and former progessional magician Professor Richard Wiseman. This YouTube channel enables visitors to view some of his mass participation experiments.

I also worth reflecting on whether local productions “starring” local people recognised by their local community are likely to be more effective educational vehicles. For example, one enterprising GP Practice in Builth mid Wales provides one example of a local patient education enterprise which could be built upon.

Finally, the ALT, HE Academy, JISC supported Exploring the Tangible Benefits of e-Learning report identifies the video case study as a genre whose authenticity can make it a potentially powerful learning artefact.

Higher Education YouTubers?

Finding out whether such YouTube channels exist is currently a pretty tortuous activity because there is no standard convention for naming such channels. For instance the University of Leicester’s channel is in the form “http://uk.youtube.com/UniversityLeicester” which is fine but unless everyone else adopts this form life become considerably more difficult, e.g.” http://uk.youtube.com/UniversityChester” yielded nothing whereas “http://uk.youtube.com/UniversityCambridge” yielded a hit although the channel appears as yet unpopulated. Part 2 will consider this issue in more detail but there is perhaps some ‘missionary’ work here for my colleagues at JISC/MLA’s Web Focus, the Heads of e-Learning Forum (HeLF) and the Higher Education Academy’s Subject Centres?

But I’ve had a stab at starting an overview of this particular part of the ‘e’ landscape.

On the international stage the University of California, Berkeley has had it own YouTube channel since at least 2007. As has MIT, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, and Carnegie Mellon.

But have we any comparative UK examples? Type ac.uk into the YouTube search field and at the time of writing there were 2,440 videos available most of which appeared to be one-off pieces of work. So any equivalents to UC Berkeley? Type in “Open University” into the same search field yields 13,400 items but for those wishing a more focused approach the UK Open University appears offer more than one YouTube channel, i.e. OUView, Open2.net, OpenLearn, and OULife. The University of Leicester has its own YouTube channel with a Gilly Salmon contribution about the Media Zoo. Other UK HE YouTube channels I uncovered include:

• University of Nottingham – Periodic Tables. See also the University of Nottingham news item about this (15 July, 2008). But there are also other, less publicised, examples of module level work at Nottingham. For example, Christopher Barnatt, Associate Professor in Computing & Organizations, has created a channel which supports the module “Technology and Organization” taught in the University of Nottingham’s Business School.
• St George’s University of London e-learning unit offer us Clinical Skills Online via their YouTube channel.
• The University of Sheffield’s Teaching Commons channel offers “videos made by and for people involved in Learning and Teaching at the University of Sheffield: their thoughts, opinions and short clips of events that have taken place.”
• The University of Brighton Information Studies channel contains videos related to the postgraduate library and information courses at the University of Brighton.
• The University of Salford offers a Salford Phones channel which focuses on the story of telecommunications, how it works and how it impacts our lives.
• Durham University’s YouTube channel provides information about the University but don’t appear to be used in direct supporting of learning and teaching.
• The Scottish UHITV YouTube channel has a small presence but appears to be limiting the use of online video to “how to” access/use different parts of UHI rather than offering substantive subject-specific content.
• The University of East London offers us their LATERSatEUL channel which they describe as “a 10 part series about the highs and lows of four students starting at UEL”. Pity about the sound quality on some of this material.
• The University of the West of England (UWE) have a MyFuture YouTube channel which is part of “an employability learning resource for UWE student and graduates.”
• Particular plaudits to the BioMed Central YouTube channel. BioMed Central describes itself as “an independent publishing house committed to providing immediate open access to peer-reviewed biomedical research”. I think it is scholarly domain support specific enterprises like this that will do much realise promote the potential of online video in the learning armoury.
• Even the UK Research Councils appear to be dipping their toes in the YouTube water. For example the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) established a YouTube channel in Feburary 2008 and stated “Videos posted on this channel will highlight and explain cutting edge bioscience research”. To date, however, only six videos have been posted into the channel.
• The Higher Education Academy’s Social Policy and Social Work (SWAP) subject centre has its own YouTube channel although it appears to be a few months since there have been any additions.
• The VetCareers YouTube channel is produced by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons with the support of the Universities of
  Bristol, Cambridge, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Nottingham veterinary schools, DEFRA and DIUS.
• For my final UK HEI YouTube example I offer the Oxford University’s Said Business School.

Some reflections on YouTube usage

The above examples certainly contain a fair smattering of self-promotion/advertising by HEIs encapsulated within clips illustrating aspects of student life at whatever institution. But it is the relatively few examples of substantive subject-specific content which I find particularly interesting. Such examples would include the St George’s University of London Clinical Skills Online, and BioMed Central (see their humorous The World of Chemistry example), the University of Nottingham’s Periodic Tables of Videos, and of course the UK Open University’s OpenLearn channel. The University of Nottingham is a particularly intersting example because it has one relatively high profile channel but it also provides us with an example of the lone academic attempting to support his teaching through online video, i.e. Christopher Barnatt’s module “Technology and Organization” which is taught in the University of Nottingham’s Business School.

I suspect there are many other Christopher Barnatt’s out there that we may never get to hear about. I also suspect that there is a wealth of subject-specific video material within institutions that merits wider dissemination and that whilst not bringing wealth would certainly bring well-deserved recognition for the creators. There is perhaps and opportunity here for those responsible for facilitating/supporting e-learning in institutions to discuss the possibilities of realising such wider dissemination? There is also perhaps an opportunity for subject co-ordinators/facilitators to consider the same?

As indicated earlier I found the process of locating substantive YouTube video material rather a tedious process. A far better strategy would be to focus in either a major video channel on YouTube like the Open University or undertake a search on a major specialist medium. For example, undertaking a search on The Scientist magazine proved quite worthwhile (registration required but useful information can be gleaned from the search return). Similar searches on other media, e.g. New Scientist et al could be equally fruitful. A search on the JISC/MIMAS Intute service also proved somewhat useful albeit with returns that appeared to be politics inclined. A similar search on Edina, as expected, offered various articles and postings about YouTube but offered little in the way of identifying channels.

The problem of searching for and finding multimedia material to support research, teaching, and learning is recognised. We should, therefore, look with interest at what transpires from the outcomes of the JISC supported Visual and Sound Materials Portal Project (VSM) which was funded until January 2008. Although interesting the VSM portal demonstrator is understandably a long way from offering an AOL Truveo, AT&T Videocrawler, or Blinx type service for Higher Education. The latter three examples perhaps have an easier task because they only need to focus on indexing all of what is available rather than seeking to offer a quality and relevance dimension for HE use. Of course some may argue that, as Google Scholar demonstrates, if a major commercial player offering a ‘free’ service enters this space there may be undermine the need for a centrally supported HE service. Although I’m not necessarily comfortable with such an argument IngentaConnect, for instance, already provide extensive search and access services to HE and Ingenta plc have an established relationship with Google.

From my perspective it would be good to see more examples which play to the moving image’s particular strengths. There may be other media better suited to communicating factual information but well-crafted film and video are hard to beat when it comes to offering vicarious experiences and enabling the viewer to empathise with (or reject) viewpoints as well as the sometimes explicit, and sometimes tacit, messages incorporated into the production. A significant proportion of the human brain is devoted to visual processing and such processing goes well beyond the factual. The best productions recognise that film and video can also engage the emotional centres of the brain in a way not possible with other media; whether that engagement be as a result of identifying with a ‘star’, a music back beat, or a novel multimedia experience. One significant US political figure has clearly recognised that reality as evidenced by the material in his YouTube channel. I will leave Auricle readers to decide if any of the above YouTube orTED examples achieve this emotional level of engagement despite the, at times, low fidelity experience offered by online video of the YouTube ilk.

{end of part 1 – part 2 will be posted on 13 November}