Internet Learning Volume 5, Number 1, Fall 2016/Winter 2017 | Page 48

Internet Learning Volume 5 Number 1 - Fall 2016/Winter 2017
Teach like a Video Journalist Thinks
Michael Saville Howarth, Middlesex University
Abstract
The author reflects on how video journalist training and education
producer methods can inform video as a core driver for teaching excellence.
The article draws on personal experience of making radio
teaching resources for BBC Education. The author also has recent experience
as a video journalist, and suggests that practice not theory,
and the craft of making teaching resources is still alive and well today.
In particular, the latest techniques used by backpack video journalists
may illustrate the way forward in education video. Video is now easier
to manage, is a hands-on practical activity, fits the individuality
of the lecturer, and provides a personal experience for students. Online
systems cannot deliver the learning experience students expect
in higher education without good content. Lecturers can create their
own video content with the quality to inform, educate, and engage.
They will also improve their everyday teaching, because the thinking,
planning, and execution are inherently educational. Future research
ideas are outlined.
Keywords: video for leasrning, online content design, academic writing
style.
Introduction
Good practical ideas for organization
and communication in
teaching can be learnt by the
lecturer from the way video journalists
work. Video journalist must tell
their story in minutes, think, write,
and focus on the key story, even present
it to camera and do all the work on
their own. Lecturers know the feeling,
though their own aim is to know the
finest detail of their subject, be able to
talk for hours, and write at length. Both
lecturer and video journalist have audiences
that demand to be informed and
educated. Both must engage and keep
their audiences interested, because
once bored they stop paying attention
and switch off.
Lecturers general use video in
four ways to achieve teaching objectives;
to create video learning resources
especially for online websites, to teach
students online with video, and to cap-
47