I.
Introduction
A. The Influence of Mass Media in Society
B. Educational
Video as a Medium for Learning
1.
The Constructivist Learning Theory
2. The
Cognitive Processing Theory
II.
Body
A. The
Advantages of Educational Video
1. The Pro-Social Benefit of Video Learning
2. The Sesame Street Case (Academic Benefits)
B. Disadvantages
of Educational Videos
1. The
Limitations of Educational Video
2. The
Issues and Challenges of Educational Video
III.
Conclusion
A. Recommendation
for makers
B. Recommendation
for users
A
New Way to Learn Through Educational Videos
In
this fast paced modern world, the influence of mass. The mass media has a huge
influence on people of all ages and teenagers are the ones who are more exposed
to media than any other people. It
influences teenagers on their way of dressing, speaking, behaving, and thinking.
The media, in the forms of movies, television, radio, and print as well as the
new electronic communications media of the Internet, helps to connect
individuals to one another and to the world (Jectic, n.d). Moreover, in today’s
society, the influence of mass media is very remarkable because several people
nowadays use it for entertainment, sports, health, social living and even in
education. It also plays an important role in shaping modern culture, by
selecting and portraying a particular set of beliefs, values, and traditions
(an entire way of life), as reality (Srygley, 1978).
Among
all these influences of mass media, education is considered as the most remarkable area that media has touched on
because it provides students a different style of learning. In fact, the
approach of mass media in the academe is extensive. Some schools use mass media
such as the internet, Facebook, Twitter as a method of teaching the students.
Moreover, some teaching professionals use educational programs such as Math
Tinik, Sineskwela, Bayani and Hirana to provide general information to students.
Some schools like UST, UP, DLSU use E-Library like EBSCO and J-Store to make
the students comfortable looking for sources in their researches, thesis,
essays and others. The most common type of mass media that has been used by
various teachers is the educational television. According to research, video is
a rich and powerful tool in providing different kinds of information. It can
present the information in an attractive and reliable manner. Studies show that
the students exposed in instructional video can outperform the students in
traditional face-to-face classroom (Zhang et al., 2006). By this experiment,
some theories in the style of learning are proven. The first one is the
Constructivist learning theory. The theory says that constructivists create
their own understanding and knowledge of the world through unique versions of
internal representations (Taber, 2011). They call for a less classroom type of
environment for a richer and a wider scope of knowledge (Zhang et al., 2006).
They prefer graphic, video and other media for absorbing knowledge. Another
theory is the Cognitive Processing Theory. The theory says that the individual
receives and stores more information when he/ she looks closely at how,
independent of the context, stimulation from the environment goes through the
processes of attention, perception, and storage throughout a series of distinct
memory stores (Moos, 2005). It is
comprised of an organized system of processes and of organizations of memory
contents.
In addition, even educational
television shows a great potential on new ways of learning; it has its own
advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of educational television are
shown in the study of Fisch (2005). He pointed out the pro-social benefits of
watching educational televisions by children. Children who watched educational
television are friendlier, cooperative and have self-control (Fisch, 2005). Another
advantage of watching educational television is its benefit in the academe.
According to Bogatz and Ball in 1971 and in 1970, as cited by Fisch (2005)
“among 3 to 5 year olds, heavier viewers of Sesame street showed significantly
greater growth in an assortment of academic skills related to the alphabet,
numbers, body parts, shapes, relational terms and sorting and classification”
(p.10). T Results show that those
children who are frequent Sesame Street viewers can outperform their
classmates
who are not watching the TV series (FIsch, 2005). Apparently, the boost of
educational programs in social media has become noticeable in such a way that
every TV station, whether local or international, has educational programs for
children and teenagers.
Despite the possibility of educational television to
start the new era of learning, there are still limitations that exist and
issues and challenges that need to be addressed. One of the limitations of
educational television is its limitedness to transmit effectively and quality
of the topic to the transmitter. The problem exists between the subject
specialist (text writer) and the television program maker (Akyurek, 2005). Both
have different points to consider. For instance, “Educator has a tendency to have effective
presentation from an educational view point and want to limit presentation this
way” (Akyurek, 2005, p.56). Onthe other side, in Cassirer’s study (1960,
p.163), as cited by Akyurek (2005), “professional directors would not agree
on letting only educators decide on what
needs to be presented and they find distracting to use too much visual and
dramatic parts in them” (p.56). It only means that there must be a
collaborative team effort for both the educator and the director to prevent
this kind of issue.
In conclusion, educational video has a
long way to go to prove to be the new tool for learning. It is mass media’s aid
in the academe to provide a very wide source of knowledge to everyone. It can
present information in a more attractive and reliable manner. Unfortunately,
the negative side of using educational video is its limitedness to transfer information
to its audience because of the conflict that might arise between the educator
and the director. There must be a co-operative effort between them to make such
educational video a reliable source of knowledge and information. For the users,
it is a must to know that the influence of mass media is not always either
right or either positive. They must pin point what lacks and what needs to be
done. For young users, they must have parental/teacher guidance to be able to
explain to them what is the video all about because videos can have a great
impact on anybody’s lives.
References:
Akyurek, F. (2005).A
model proposal for educational television programs. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 6, pp.
55-64.
Fisch, S. (2005).
Children’s learning from television: It’s not just violence. Televizion, 10-14.
Srygley. S, K. (1978).
Influence of Mass Media on Today’s Young People, pp. 526-529 Retrieved Fromhttp://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_197804_srygley.pdf
Taber, K. S. (2011).
Constructivisim as Educational Theory: Contingency in Learning, and
Optimally
Guided Instruction, 2, pp. 39-61. Retrieved from http://camtools.cam.ac.uk/access/content/group/cbe67867-b999-4f62-8eb7-58696f3cedf7/Educational%20Theory/Constructivism%20as%20Educational%20Theory.pdf
Zajc, M., Alic, K.,
Battelino, I., &Tasic, J. (n.d.).Challenges of Interactive digital
television for t-learning.
Zhang, D., Zhou, L.,
Briggs, R., &Nunamaker, J. (2005). Instructional video in e-learning: Assessing the impact of interactive
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