I Still Believe in Online Video Learning (Thanks, Crash Course)

**1969-04 MV Downstairs Den: Joyce, Joe & Matt watching TV**

I wasn’t must of a reader as a kid. I learned everything through watching everyone around me and TV. It’s a bit ironic given that I’m trying to make a living writing words, but reading wasn’t that important to me until much later. Then, as an educator, I saw similar tendencies in my students, and especially when attempting to teach technology, words on a page weren’t getting it done. So I found myself painstakingly creating step-by-step videos as often as possible to make the information more accessible. I thought that this technological solution would get the job done. I may have misdiagnosed the problem.

After doing this for 28-years I have to say the problem wasn’t reading words on a page versus watching a video. The problem was a bit more basic than that. I kept the videos short, made sure I didn’t leave out any steps, good lighting, clear sound, I even added interactive questions to my videos¹. The specific problem that I encountered a fundamental “public school” kind’a problem. Turns out that because my robotics and media were “elective” courses that wouldn’t prevent failing students from going to the next grade level, and the reality (given teacher shortages) that many of them did not pick media or robotics for their elective, than they just weren’t going to bother to try the assignments. There were a few who had selected media or robotics as their elective and were actually interested in what I was teaching and the videos did their job. Of course, these students probably would have done fine with written instructions as well. This wasn’t a problem that a technological bandaid was going to fix. Also, when current students do resort to video learning via YouTube or TikTok or Twitch, there is a definite video production aesthetic that most classroom educators fail to recognize or provide.

Several years ago I had the pleasure to stumble upon the Crash Course World History video series and I couldn’t get enough. Way back early in my teaching career I taught 6th grade social studies Ancient Civilizations and this would have been perfect (assuming I could get those students excited about Gilgamesh and Enkidu…). It’s such a great series with humor and excellent visuals and writing. I remember playing the videos back to back for hours while I worked around the house. Brilliant. Here’s the first episode of the series:

Crash Course World History
Crash Course World History
Crash Course World History
Crash Course World History
Crash Course World History

I’ve always had a “multimedia” approach to teaching using video to do the intro or ask a question or to be different point-of-view. My JBB’s Daily Reflection (Writing) Prompt usually featured a short three- to five-minute video followed up by my prompt question. It’s just a habit of beginning my lessons with more than a talking head (mine).

Two Crash Course series that I would have loved to have used with my Media Art & Technology classes were their Media Literacy and Navigating Digital Information courses. I discovered the courses too late for me to include them in my classes and also they might have been written at a level just a bit too deep for my somewhat disinterested middle school students. Which doesn’t mean that I can’t explore them with y’all. I really do love this stuff and the Crash Course folks do such great work. I hope you don’t mind that I share these series with you in the coming weeks. Here are the intro videos to Crash Course Media Literacy and Crash Course Navigating Digital Information. Enjoy.