Using Video CDs For Education

Phil Shapiro writes: "Video CDs offer one of the lowest-cost ways of distributing training and instruction. They can be duplicated much faster than VHS videotapes, the media is much cheaper and the postage costs are much cheaper. Learn how and why we ought to be exploring the educational potential of this new media."

Comments

New Media?

[DeepZenPill]

VCD's aren't exactly new media. They've been used for years, just mostly in asian markets. Advocating their use now just delays even bigger acceptance of DVD's. Instructional use is one thing that could further drive the DVD format, and even more importantly, set a real demand for recordable DVD's. Sure sticking with CD's might seem good now, but it just hurts the impact of media designed for such video uses.

Re:New Media?

[alienmole]

Realistically, though, it'll take time for DVD recorders and media to reach the cost levels of CD recorders and media. So for applications where cost is an issue - especially education - VCDs may make a lot of sense right now. And since they work on the same players, there's no compatibility or upgrade issue for the players.

I doubt anything will "delay even bigger acceptance of DVD's" - I mean, your local video store carries DVDs, it's not exactly a struggling medium at this point. VCDs could actually help drive the market, they may not be a zero-sum game with DVDs.

More access to learning opprotunities?

[dakoda]

The article starts:

The education deficit in this country and others occurs because the quantity of student learning needs boosting. Students need access to more learning opportunities.

More access to learning opprotunities? What they need is more of a will to use the opprotunities they have. The unfortunate truth that I have at least witnessed is that most students don't care to learn. those that actualyl do want to learn often find their own means when their opprotunities aren't enough. agreed, some do not, but i believe a far greater number simply do not care.

They go on to say how video is the best way to learn? haha, i don't think so. interaction is needed for real learning. and then, the cd's only hold 70 minutes. what can one really learn in 70 minutes? a lot for some things, but almost nothing for others. a lot of subjects are either a lot of practice (calculus, for example), or just a lot of material (french language). because this offers no interaction (practice/ Q&A sessions), the only application would really be subjects that are volumnous, and those may not fit all in 70 minutes...lots of cd changing is in your future =)

i dunno, it just seems like a waste to me. not that the current education system is anywhere near perfect (indeed, i feel it is far from it), this doesn't seem to me like it would enhance it much. anyone get to watch those science laser disks in science class? interesting pictures and demonstrations, but most of the actual content of the class was drawn on the chalkboard.

Re:More access to learning opprotunities?

[Em Emalb]

Amen.

The old expression you can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink comes to mind.

In some areas, yes, this would address some of the issues caused by the school districts not having the money to throw at vcrs, tapes, etc. However, if the child doesn't have the interest in learning, then it won't work.

Of course, if you can reach just one child...then your job is done. :)

Re:More access to learning opprotunities?

[FattMattP]

I can't believe that your post got modded up. You sound like some privileged, middle-class kid from America who's never left his country. The original article, which you quote, states that he's talking about not only his own country but others as well.

You begin to make sweeping statements that students need to have more of a will to use the opportunities that they already have. Please, tell us about those opportunities that they have in, say, poorer parts of India, Brazil, or even the United States. Why do you feel those opportunites are enough? Don't you think that choice is good? Don't you think that having more educational options available to people is a good thing? Do you think that everyone has access to the same materials that you do? That the libraries throughout the world or even your country have a wealth of materials such as the ones you have access to? You know, there's a lot of places in the world where quality education isn't ubiquitous.

You also make the mistake of thinking that education can only be gained by sitting through a lengthy class and not from watching a 70 minute video. Who says that one VCD, or many, have to teach you French or calculus? And why do you think they can't? Sure, interaction is important, but haven't you ever sat down with a book and learned something from it? There's plenty of people who've taught themselves things from reading a book on how to do it. I learned how to draw and paint from reading a book. I also learned to program Perl from a book. There's no reason that a video makes it any different, it's just a different medium.

Thankfully, there are people such as ADUni that continue to make quality educational programs accessible in spite of your defeatist attitude. Not only do they provide the videos but they also provide the materials so that people can learn by practicing.

quote:

i dunno, it just seems like a waste to me.

There are a lot of less foutunate people than yourself who are quite thankful that others in this world such as Phil Shapiro do not share your views.

Goodbye VHS, Hello VCD

[silentbozo]

Just like how VHS replaced 16mm film (do any teachers know how to thread a reel these days?), the VCD should replace VHS. The reasons why:

VHS tapes get chewed up with use, VCDs don't degrade with repeated playback and if they are damaged, just burn a new copy from your master.

VHS tapes need rewinding, placing wear and tear on capital equipment (VCRs), VCDs don't suffer from this to the same degree.

VCDs can be played by individual students, using a donated computer - no need for those bulky media labs.

VCDs are cheap to mail, so you can trade a bunch of instructional media for less than a dollar.

The only caveat is that the cheapest VHS players are less expensive than the cheapest DVD players (at least, as far as I've seen.)

An additional plus is if this takes off, we can add ANOTHER arena of fair use that uses the "evil" blank CD that the RIAA wants to continue to tax and regulate. The more legit uses we can find for blank CDs, the stronger the argument for banishing the CD tax, and tossing out any notion of regulating recordable media.

At home, I'm spec'ing out a project to convert all analog media that I have (video tapes, audio tapes, etc.) to digital equivalents (VCDs, CDs), and storing copies of them on a big LAN server (MPEGs and MP3s) for my personal library. I expect my tapes to completely degrade in another ten years, so this is one way of safeguarding my investment. On a related topic, does anyone know if there are archived copies of periodical articles, like you can find on microfilm, but on CD?

what about questions?

[chicoy]

"If someone is the best teacher in a country at a particular grade or on a particular subject, their instruction and explanations deserve to be videotaped."

What makes the best teachers the best is because they can respond to my questions. Most of the time, they only need to reword some sentences to turn the light on. With this technology, I cannot ask questions, and therefore, not getting the 'best' from the best.

"They deserve to be compensated for their excellence. And the resulting video ought to be made available to the public for free..."

How are they being compensated?

Good idea though, but like everything, it has limitations.

Chicoy#13

Text&Image is better than Rolling Video

[LionKimbro]

You can read text/image faster than you can listen to a person talk. You can search text faster than you can search a video. You can perform minute fast forwards and rewinds with much greater speed than you can through a video- just move your eye, rather than fiddling with a UI. I could go on for some time with this.

This isn't happening already?

[whee]

I went to a smallish private school in Delaware and we used VCDs in the French language courses. As much as I hated the class, VCDs were a nice choice for learning a language -- quick playback for review, easy to maintain, simple to use. (If anyone cares, the material was French in Action.)

I find it odd that techniques like this aren't used more widely; My school wasn't large or that wealthy, yet they decided to use VCD to teach the course. It seems that VCD isn't widespread just because it takes a little more work to generate a course around it; My French teacher worked hard for a high school level class, but I doubt most do.

The only disadvantage to using video material is the fact that it's video material -- television anyone? It's very easy to stare at a screen and completely zone out, ignoring whatever you're trying to be taught. If not interrupted constantly for questioning and such, VCDs are useless.

more potential applications

[cowtamer]

The idea is that VCDs are an excellent medium for any instance that require you to distribute video.

I admit that in most cases, video is not the best medium for instruction. However, there are many more applications:

1) Archives of videotaped university lectures at the library [my school had real videotapes and I found this extremely helpful, but they were somewhat jelaously guarded]

2) Sharing video with semi-computer-literate family: Sending out cousin Larry's first piano recital to all the aunts and uncles, mailing a copy of the wedding to all the guests, etc.

3) Distributing underground "cult classic" movies, favorite TV episodes, etc. Demos for independent filmmakers

4) "Handouts" for students in film/advertising class

4) Ticking off the MPAA

5) etc.

I'm sure you can think of more. What kind of geeks are you???

Why do you need video at all?

[g4dget]

It seems to me books or e-books are all around better: they can be read at the user's pace, they are easier to produce, and they are more compact. Videos might be good for an occasional clip demonstrating something that is difficult to describe; when that is necessary, they are easy to include in e-books. They might also be good for people who are illiterate, but perhaps the first thing to do for people who are illiterate is to teach them how to read.

So, altogether, I just don't see the point of producing a lot of video at all.

How old VCD really is ..

[JupiterX]

Everybody's arguing about how VCD is not a new format, but nobody seems to know how old it actually is. Some think it actually came out around the same time as DVD. The fellow who wrote the article thinks it's a new format. One fellow isn't sure, but thinks it might be even older, but isn't quite sure. Egh. Apparently I'm the first who actually bothered to Google it. VCD is fifteen years old. It was created in 1987. Now, was that so difficult? And as a matter of trivia, the compact disc was originally invented with video in mind.

Re:Watch out for CD-R VCD in older DVD players

[bsane]

Unfortunately that's not always the case. I have an Onkyo that won't play any recorded media. Also many manufacturers have been removing VCD capability from their players. I found this really strange since all the ones I tried still supported MPEG1 when burned to a DVD-R. They still support the data stream, but intentionally (or so it seems) remove VCD playback.

I would recommend checking www.vcdhelp.com for capatability info. Don't trust the info about mp3 playback unless someone specifically talks about it in their review. Of all the players they say support mp3 id tags only the Daewoo 5800 really does... (didn't test them all though)