When I first saw this list I was surprised that I had only missed a couple of the top 20. There is no denying that TED, Youtube, and video, in general, are changing the way that we think and learn.
Please note the links to the above TED talks to go Youtube. If you wish to view the talk on the TED site and have access to the transcript then refer to the original Business Insider post.
How many of the top 20 TED talks have you watched?
I have spent the past 7 days at Silverstar Mountain on a downhill biking trip with my boys and I am always amazed at just how much we learn while working on our bikes after a hard day of downhill riding. Perhaps more important, is that the learning that is happening would fall under the category of informal learning–which is learning that occurs in a variety of places, such as at home, work, and through daily interactions and shared relationships among members of society (Wikipedia, 2012).
The notion of shared relationships is key to learning in the Downhill biking community. One of the most important Downhill Biking community access points is a website called PinkBike.com. A novice or hardcore rider will not only find the latest Downhill biking news or the latest Downhill video they can also find out how to repair their expensive rides and even find their next ride in the sites Buy & Sell section.
The Tech Tuesday section of Pinkbike has been used very frequently by my boys over the past few weeks as we prepared our bikes for our trip and, now that we are on the mountain the site, helps us with our daily maintenance. We have learned how to bleed our Avid brakes, setup our SRAM derailleurs, determine the best handlebar length, rebuild front and rear hubs, setup our suspension and much more.
The Tech Tuesday section includes a detailed video that walks you through the procedure and is then followed by a step by step description of the procedure with detailed pictures that allows you to focus on specific details that you want to review without having to rewind the video.
It is an excellent combination. The video sets the context and provides the overview and then the step by step provides the full details. An iPad rounds out this combination by giving you the ability to use these resources when you are working on the bike.
An objector could easily state that media may be useful for something as simple as bike repair but it may not be useful for something more complex. Most people do not realize that Downhill mountain biking is an extreme sport that requires great skill and amazing equipment. Since I have been dealing with the bike repair topic I will address this part first. Entry level bikes start at $4000 and if you want reliability and quality you are paying over $6000. These are finely tuned machines that require continual maintenance–remember downhill mountain biking is all about riding a bike down a mountain over cliffs, rocks, roots and trees at breakneck speeds. Just keeping the bikes functional on a daily basis requires significant knowledge and effort.
My younger son, Caleb, spent this past week in a Bike Camp put on by 3 Professional Downhill riders and he didn’t miss a single run because he maintained his bike each night after the hard day of riding and when something did break, like a spoke or shifter cable, we were able to replace the part in a matter of minutes. Part of the nightly maintenance revealed excessive slack in the rear hub which meant that it needed to be rebuilt. This requires a complete disassembly and reassembly of all the components of hub and was something that happened twice. In order to determine the type of sealed bearing that needed to be replaced, the hub had to be fully disassembled. Since we didn’t have these bearings on hand they had to be ordered so the hub components were fully cleaned, greased and reassembled so that the bike could be used the next day. Fortunately, the local bike shop happened to stock the bearings so the next day we picked up the parts and that night did a complete disassembly and reassembly of the hub one more time. This time we replaced the worn bearings.
While rebuilding the hub, my son and I had a discussion about radial and lateral forces on the bearings and he very quickly realized that the next time we do this we may want to see if we can get better bearings that will handle the lateral forces that are such a big part of downhill riding. We also recorded the bearing type and added it to our growing biking parts database so that we wouldn’t have to pull apart the hub again just to find out the type of bearing we would need the next time we need to do the rebuild–which would more than likely be in the next 4-6 weeks. Whatever we need to do, maintain or repair on our bikes there will either be a video on Pinkbike or Youtube to which we can refer.
The videos on Pinkbike and Youtube not only cover bike repair they deal with all aspects of Downhill riding from racing to slopestyle to freeride. My boys spend several hours a day reviewing new videos as well as some of their favorites. The 3 professional riders putting on the bike camp are well known to my boys because they have been watching their videos for many years. My boys don’t just watch the videos for their entertainment value but they use them to learn how to ride better and to perform stunts like “poping off the lip of a jump” in just the right way to be able to do a tailwhip or table. They also watch these videos to get a better sense of what line should be taken on specific runs. They not only watch other’s videos, they watch their own. Both of my boys use GoPro cameras that they mount on their helmets or chest that allow them to record each run. They go through videos at the end of the day to see what worked and perhaps what didn’t. It is interesting to watch the two of them critique each other’s runs and grown empathetically at each other’s crashes.
Professional athletes have been using video for many years to improve their game so it is not surprising to see how video can help aspiring athletes grow their own game to the level of the pros. But video and media in general in downhill mountain biking is used for much more than improving one’s riding. It is used to make a living. The 3 professional riders putting on the bike camp are examples of how one can leverage video to get paid to ride. Each of these riders no longer competes at the same level they did when they were younger. They now spend most of their time shooting and creating video. Sponsors are recognizing that young aspiring riders will spend hundreds of hours watching pro riders videos so their brands can be promoted as well on Youtube as they are on the race or slopestyle circuit. These videos not only show up on Youtube and Facebook but on sites like Pinkbike that bring this unique biking community together. If you we recall informal learning happens through daily interactions and shared relationships among members of society.
While it is clear that the nature of extreme sports or sports in general and the vocational aspects of learning how to repair and maintain sophisticated equipment can be augmented by media, one may still question whether media plays a role in informal learning in disciplines like the natural sciences. I will once again return to my boys experiences in this past week and point to my older son Levi’s decision to not take a Advil to help him deal with his sore hands because of the adverse affect it could have on judging just how far to push his riding with his slightly healed broken collarbone.
The first 2-3 days of riding results in VERY sore hands. Even though my boys ride often there is nothing like the actually riding down the mountain to remind one of just how hard this sport is and how much of an impact there is on the human body. Fortunately, my boys seldom rely on medication and will often suffer a bit of pain rather than take a pill but you really want to use some Advil the first few days of riding in the mountains. It helps take some of the edge off the pain in your hands and allows you to ride a bit more. Unfortunately, Levi broke his collarbone a couple weeks before we left for the mountains and the doctors have cautioned him to give the bone at least 4-6 weeks to heal. He has been riding long enough to know that pain is a good indicator that you need to take a break and pain in his collarbone is going to be a good indicator that he may be pushing things a bit and he needs to ride smoother and not push his body too far. Levi asked if he could take some Advil to help with his hands. Rather then try to explain how Advil or other pain relievers work I simply sent him the link to the following Ted Ed video:
After watching the video he understood that pain relievers don’t know where the pain is and that they simply dull the pain everywhere which could prevent him from telling just how far to push his riding and not adversely impact his healing collarbone. Rather than take a pill he knew that he would have to take a break and rest his body. It generally takes 4-6 weeks for a bone to set and a good 8 weeks to be pain free so at 2 1/2 weeks he is pushing the limits of his body and pain is a good thing that he needs to listen to in order to not set his riding back any further.
Once again a 4 minute video provided not only the context for why one should or shouldn’t do something it provide a learning opportunity that my son will never forget. Learning through experience and through the combined knowledge of a group is central to downhill mountain biking which means this discipline relies on informal learning. Media in also central to downhill mountain biking and when you add this to the informal learning environment you have an wonderful opportunity for growth and innovation.
When you consider a video like Socialnomics 2011 you must acknowledge that the media component of this social media phenomena we are experiencing is every bit as important and perhaps even a prerequisite for the social aspect of this revolution. With Youtube ranked as number one search engine with the under eighteen year old population and the number two search engine overall, there very little room for dispute that we are living in a media dominated culture. This is much more than just entertainment when you consider that the protein causing AIDS in rhesus monkeys that hadn’t been solved for 15 years was finally solved by Foldit, a multiplayer online game that challenges players from across the world to solve difficult protein-structure prediction problems. Media plays an extremely important role in the all of our lives and especially the lives of our youth.
So what is the best way for our educational systems and in particular high education to address this phenomena? There are three primary options that are being are currently being considered or implemented:
Do nothing
Offer a specialized Media/Visual Arts program
Embed media into all programs
The first option “Do nothing” is by far the most popular option in higher education and is characterized by the “Turn Off Cell Phones” signs that are posted at entrances of many classrooms and labs. The option is further reinforced by the faculty preventing students from using laptops or tablets to take notes in their classrooms. The advantages of this option is that there are several hundred years of tradition in the lecture structure that was foundational to the first universities. An additional advantage is that this option requires virtually no professional development or support–faculty simply pass on this long standing tradition. The disadvantages are that while this method represents the primary form of instruction in higher education there is a growing body of research and evidence to show that it is not very effective. The research shows that at best the lecture method allows for information transfer but the lack of engagement and significance prevent any aspect of deeper learning.
The second option, a specialized or dedicated Media/Visual Arts program is the second most popular option in higher education and will usually be part of either a Fine Arts, Graphic Arts or Communications program that will include but not be limited to: digital art & design, film studies, computer animation, game art and development and web design and development. The following video highlights Full Sail University which offers arguably one of North America’s best programs:
http://youtu.be/HNLgbqDxBWU
The advantages of programs like Full Sail or the more generic programs like Fine Arts or Graphic Design programs you will find at many colleges, universities or even trade schools is that students receive very specialized instruction and training. The Fine Arts programs at universities will offer more of the theoretical or foundational aspects of the discipline while the polytechnics offer the pragmatic instruction that deals with instruction in the software and related tools required in the discipline. Students are able to go from these programs to work in very specialized fields. The disadvantages of these programs is that they are generally very small and only prepare limited numbers of student to create media. These programs are very costly to run because they required very specialized software, hardware and support. Perhaps one of the most limiting aspects of this option is that so few people are actually empowered to create media.
The third options is to embed media creation into all programs. The is by far the least popular options and perhaps the most challenging option to realize. The biggest challenge in realizing this option is the challenge of changing a culture. Up until the emergence of Youtube and the popularity of media on the Internet the notion of embedding media into all programs within a university or college curriculum would be fool-hardy. In the pre-Youtube days one would need to employ a highly trained and skilled videographer or media specialist to shoot the video who would then rely on extremely expensive equipment to provide the necessary post production to create an acceptable product–and we haven’t even discussed the challenges in distributing this type of content.
With multiple pixel cameras on most cell phones today and HD video capability on smartphones and Digital SLRs, the ability to shoot extremely high quality images and video is within the grasp of most people. When you combine this with software tools like Garageband, iMovie, Final Cut Pro/Express and the whole compliment of Adobe products the post production side of creating rich media is also within reach of most people. Youtube, Vimeo and many other sites provide the distribution channel for media which means the creation and distribution of rich media is within the grasp of anyone with a smartphone, iPad, computer and the internet. One could argue this combination of pre and post production technology and the ubiquitous nature of the internet will have a similar impact on communication as Guttenburg’s printing press had upon the world centuries ago.
This takes us back to the challenge of culture. As was the case in Guttenburg’s time, change is difficult. It took almost 75 years for the printing press to begin have an impact the world. Fortunately, in this day and age technological change happens much more rapidly but most people are still relatively slow to react and the academy is the slowest of all institutions to embrace this type of change. Youtube was founded in the spring of 2005 and it wasn’t until the fall of 2006 when Google purchased it that the video sharing site started to have a significant impact. By 2008 Google had fully established itself as a media phenomena and the youth of the world started to see youtube as the first source of information and as an outlet for their creativity. While most youth embrace the creative options that their smart phones, iPads, digital SLRs and the internet provide most faculty still see youtube and the internet for the most part from the perspective of consumption rather then creation.
Communication in higher education is still viewed primarily as the written and spoken word. Video, audio and all other forms of communication are still viewed as being beyond the reach of the average individual. But this isn’t he case. The following video was created using iMovie; the sound track was recorded using a USB microphone plugged into a laptop and some of the picture were taken using a smart phone.
This two minute clip conveys a message that would take more than a thousand words to describe. Media can be used to engage students, to provide a context for new information, and to to make our learning environment more significant. More importantly we are at a point in the development of technology and the internet where the creation of media by all students must become part of all of our programs. We live in a media rich world and if we are truly preparing our students for the world of tomorrow then we have the responsibility to learn how to create media ourselves so that we can help our students to fully utilize media as a communication tool. We would be wise to head John Dewey’s warning:
If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.
Concordia University has an opportunity through the Learning Portfolio initiative to provide a way for our students to demonstrate their ability to communicate through written and spoken word and through all aspects of media. Concordia faculty will also have an opportunity develop their media skills through digital story telling and Pecha-Kucha workshops as well as working with their colleagues on the institutional website and other media projects. Concordia has an opportunity to take a leadership role in incorporating media into everything that we do, and when we do this, we can proudly state and demonstrate that our graduates will be recognized nationally and internationally for their knowledge, skill, integrity, and wisdom.
I initially started writing this post several days ago and decided to give my frustration with this research time to subside. Even though I have giving this a few nights I am still annoyed because these researcher are missing a fundamental point about what media and the Internet really are. The post is actually called “Going 24 Hours Without Media” and if you look at the 15 surprising facts they do make sense in context of highlighting how students feel when they have to give up their “media”. The notion of being addicted to the Internet or to media is also reasonable if you hold that we just use the Internet to consume media.
This is where I vehemently disagree with the researchers and anyone else who posits that the Internet is really just about media consumption. I would argue that this a classic NOOB (newbie) error and while I respect the intent of the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda I think they are either making a NOOB error by positing that the Internet is used for primarily for media consumption or they are very wise marketers who know how to get the biggest response to their work by leveraging the “addicted to the internet/media” angle. To clarify, a newbie is someone who over enthusiastically embraces only parts or limited aspects of a system while missing the power of the whole. Seeing the Internet primarily as media delivery platform extremely limits the power and potential of the Internet and really misses what the Internet really is–a communication platform.
So if you understand the Internet and the media that exists in it as part of our global communication platform/system then asking students to not communicate with each other for 24 wouldn’t even be considered because we are social beings and we know how important communication really is. If we want to be isolated we go backpacking for the weekend and leave our cell phones behind. It is good to get away from the “noise” of the world but that was not the intent of this study. They were really asking students to give up communication so should we really be surprised by the results? I suggest not. How would you feel if you were asked to give up communicating for 24 hours?
In moving from US to the Canada recently I went nearly a week without a cell phone, texting and ubiquitous Internet access that I am normally accustomed to. While I don’t consider myself addicted to media and I do rely heavily on being able to communicate with everyone when I need to and not having that ability was very unsettling. Was it unsettling because I am addicted to the Internet–NO! It was unsettling because I had to function in an uninformed fashion. I was making choices and decisions without having full access to all the information sources that I generally use.
In 20 or may even as few as 15 years from now we will look back at research studies like this and chuckle at the naive questions that were being asked. The Internet and the wide assortment of media and related tools make up our newest form of communication. By our very natures, humans are social beings so the idea of being addicted to communicating or being social is nonsensical.
