Overview of experiments conducted in the ViSuAL project from autumn 2018 until spring 2019.
Some experiments also have videos on the ViSuAL project´s YouTube channel.
Experiment n.º 3
JAMK University of Applied Sciences (Music) and IRIS Connect
The experiment – recording sessions of how to teach to the play kantele – started in November 2018 at JAMK, School of Music. Kantele is a Finnish national instrument which has 39 strings. Kantele is still quite uncommon instrument having small number of BSc-students nationwide.
One Bachelor´s Degree music student participated in the teacher diploma training by video recording her kantele teaching lessons twice a month. It was easier to teach the students when there were no audience in the class.
The recordings were uploaded in the Iris Connect video technology system and shared them with tutor teacher and peer reviewer. Peer-students can be from another UAS and they are not participating at the same time or at the same place as the student. They all analyzed and discussed the video recorded teaching practices together.
In this video (link) the experimenter Tiina introduces her experiment with kantele teachers.
Experiment n.º 5
JAMK University of Applied Sciences (Business) and EdVisto
The experiment takes place at Operating Environment Analysis course in Master’s Degree in Tourism and Hospitality Management at JAMK University of Applied Sciences as a group assignment. In the experiment, we used online EdVisto program as a tool to present the future of operating environment analysis in their field of expertise.
Students formed groups of about 3-6 persons and worked together on a broader vision (Pecha Kucha video) of the future vision of the given sector in 2030 based on more detailed reports. Eight videos were created by student groups. To ensure collaborative learning, each group also commented on one other group’s presentation.
First experiment was held during 11/2018-1/2019. Master’s students made collaborative videos in the end of the course and investigated the future trends and possible scenarios in their own field. A total of 35 students completed the assignment. Feedback on the video assignment and EdVisto program was given at the end of the course.
Students also reflected on the video assignment and its impact on learning in their self-reflection reports. In addition, the link to the feedback questionnaire is shared in the learning environment. Teachers will finalize their video assignments during 4/2019 and summarize the student feedback during the spring 2019.
In this video (link) Elina explains this experiments in more detail.
Experiment n.º 6
JAMK University of Applied Sciences (Business) and Flowbox
This experiment takes places at YZ-Generation Management Development Project. The aim of the project is to develop management and leadership practices in order to enhance the commitment of employees of YZ-generation in Tourism and Hospitality business organizations. Participants are managers in small and medium-sized companies with various educational backgrounds. About 20 managers from five companies participate in the experiment.
The purpose in the experiment is to use video for recording management situations with Y and Z generations. Additionally, videos are utilized for collaborative learning aiming to improve leadership skills of managers and to develop common management practices in companies.
Flowboard/Flowbox video sharing space is used as a video technology in the experiment.
At first, managers make videos about their own managerial work and reflect their leadership, interaction and behavior with employees. These videos are shared in Flowboard. Secondly, managers reflect their managerial work and generational differences together with peers and their coach (a teacher) in small group meetings with the help of videos. Topics arising from the YZ-Management Survey in the beginning of the YZ-Generation Management Development Project, are emphasized in the discussions.
Above steps of making videos, sharing them and having collective reflective discussions based on the videos, will be repeated at least two times in the experiment, to enhance the development of leadership both individual and organizational level.
Experiment n.º 8
Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT and Flowbox
The pilot test took place at the LUT-University with adult students from master’s programme of industrial engineering and management at the end of last year. The experimentation was a part of a Digitalization and sustainable organizational development course. The aim for the pilot was to encourage (adult) students to utilize videos in their learning.
During the course, students were instructed to record a short session while group working (mandatory). Additionally, students were able to do rehearsal and record their final presentations for the seminar day in December 2018, for the last day of the course (optional).
A light version of Flowboard from Flowbox was part of this pilot i.e. Flowboard was not integrated into the Moodle pages of this course. Flowboard was used via group-based folders online, which are secured by passwords. Teacher in charge in the course is Professor Helinä Melkas and responsible teacher-researcher in this pilot is Dr. Mirva Hyypiä.
According to the feedback from students, Flowboard was very simple and easy to use for uploading and sharing the videos. However, students question why to use this additional platform in studying as the platform did not allow them to edit the videos or share other documents.
Experiments n.º 9, 10 and 11 by University of Évora with Bloco Gráfico, iVideo.education, EdVisto
University of Évora reflects their project activities in the ViSuAL project blog. Please visit the project blog (link) to find out more about their experiments they conduct by using Bloco Gráfico, iVideo.education and EdVisto technologies.
Experiment n.º 12
Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET) and iVideo.education
SFIVET experiment takes place within a 3-year basic training program for Vocational Education and Training (VET) in-service teachers in Switzerland. The experiment adopts a situation-based approach, thus enabling a smooth connection between authentic professional practices experienced by teachers at school and the training course. At the same time, it fosters the development of professional competences and a seamless integration of theoretical, explicit knowledge with implicit practical knowledge.
The experimental activities are integrated in a training module preparing the teachers for their final practical exam and will consist of a reiterated formative assessment of the teaching practices. The participants are 37 VET in-training teachers. They are divided in two groups based on the similarity of subjects they teach. For each group, participants work in pairs. They are split into two conditions based on their preferences: half of the sample will provide feedback and conduct a self-observation on video-recorded lessons supported by the iVideo.education video annotation tool.
The remaining participants deliver feedback and conduct the self-observation task by writing a report through direct observation of in class-examination of peers’ and one’s own lessons. Specifically, in the video annotation condition, each teacher in the dyad video records a part of her/his own lesson (15-minute video) in which the defined activities are carried out; the video of each teacher is uploaded onto the iVideo software, where teachers reciprocally write feedback on the video.
Upon completion of this task, the course supervisors enter their feedback as well. In the direct observation condition, participants follow the same procedure, with the exception of the use of the video annotation software for feedback sharing; they in fact visit and observe an in-class colleague’s lesson. Feedback on the examined lesson are then delivered through a written feedback report on the selected foci of their observation.
The reciprocal peer observations and feedback are carried out for a total of two other-practice analysis. In the last part of the experiment each teacher video-records a part of one’s own lesson to self-analyze one’s authentic practice. The design of the experimentation is structured to implement the capturing, transferring and sharing of authentic situations experienced by teachers in their classes in order to facilitate both reflection-on-action and reflection-for-action, in an instructional scenario where the collaborative analysis of practices is meant to lead to a self-analysis that will engender teaching change.
Hence, reflection is fostered by the activities of delivering and receiving feedback through peer-to-peer, expert-to-novice, and group analysis collaboration, as a means to consolidate effective teaching practices, to improve unsuccessful ones, and to develop a critical perspective on one’s own professional behavior.
In this study, the role of technology through the employment of the iVideo.education tool, serves to increase the number of occasions participants have to analyze one’s practice and to investigate the use of video annotation to generate contextualized, situation-based, concrete, written analysis of practices.
Experiment n.º 13
Aeres University of Applied Sciences Wageningen and IRIS Connect
The experiment takes place at the Higher Education Institute Aeres Wageningen (HEI AHW) with teacher students who reflect on their development during their study. Students are teaching with collaborative learning and reflect on their teaching at the university. The reflections are about collaborative learning. It implies that students reflect on their lessons and build knowledge with these reflections.
The experiment takes place at (pre) vocational education during teacher education. The students are teaching at the secondary schools for vocational training and film parts of their lessons. At the university the students will reflect and react on their teaching via IRIS Connect and knowledge building approach. With the dialogue about collaborative learning the understanding of collaborative learning will increase.
Experiment n.º 14-a
Aeres University of Applied Sciences Wageningen and EdVisto
The experiment takes place at the Higher Education Institute Aeres Wageningen (HEI AHW) with teacher students who reflect on their development during their study. Students film moments and reflections and share this in EdVisto. Knowledge building will improve their reflections based on the reflection experience with the movies in EdVisto.
How these videos can improve own development in competence?
How do peers and discussion tribute to the deeper understanding?
What is the student first idea (concept) of reflection and value?
Does that idea change over time by discussion and input from peers?
How does reflection contribute to teachers´ professional development?
Narda introduces this experiment in this video (link).
Experiment n.º 14-b
Aeres University of Applied Sciences Wageningen and EdVisto
In this experiment the students start conversations with their mentoring pupils in pre-vocational education. They record these conversations and discuss their technical coaching skills in peer groups. They can watch the films remotely and in lessons they discuss the films and the feedback given by the teacher and peer.
They analyze the phases in the conversation and other aspects. On the basis of given criteria aspects they discuss and provide each other with feedback. Students formulate their own learning points and next time they show their improvement. At the end they give a presentation of their growth, from the beginning to the end, with a presentation with a film in EdVisto (constructed during the process). With the dialogue about coaching skills we hope the understanding of ‘how to be a good coach’ will increase.
Narda explains how this experiment went in this video (link).
Experiment n.º 15
University of Tartu and IRIS Connect
The experiment is conducted with speech therapy and special education teacher training students. It takes place in the courses “Seminar of Speech and Language Assessment” and “Practical Work in Speech Development”. Both courses are intertwined.
During the experiment the IRIS Connect Discovery Kit Go Live is used. In a practicum where students counsel children with speech impediments and their parents, the teacher observes everything from another room. With the Iris Connect Discovery Kit Go Live the teacher can give feedback without physically interrupting the counseling session of the teacher student. The teacher also has the possibility to add time-stamped comments which allows to analyze the students counselling techniques.
The goal is to improve collaborative learning and to increase the impact of the counseling sessions, especially for those who are located outside of Tartu. The hypothesis is that the students will see the live ear coaching as something that supports their development and that observing the student activities through a video has the same effect as watching through a window from a room next door.
Here is a video (link) explaining how this experiment went.
Experiment n.º 17
University of Tartu and IRIS Connect
The experiment takes place as part of teacher education practice course titled “Continuous Pedagogical Traineeship” at the University of Tartu. This is a compulsory practice course for all student teachers and it aims to link theoretical studies with practical experiences at schools and to develop student teachers’ reflection skills.
Two teacher education curricula groups are involved in this experiment: teachers of several subjects in basic school (master level 1st year students) and teachers of vocational training (bachelor level 1st year students). With this experiment we are developing a learning environment in IRIS Connect platform for student teachers who are already working as teachers and carrying out this practice course based on their own work.
The developed learning environment aims to create opportunities for teachers to reflect collaboratively and thereby support each other’s reflections. Additionally, step-by-step support is created to guide teachers’ reflection and creating links between theoretical knowledge and practical experiences (including video examples, guiding questions, theoretical reading materials etc).
In this video (link) Liina introduces this experiment in more detail.
Experiment n.º 18
University of Tartu and Flowbox
The experiment is conducted with bachelor level 2nd year teacher-students on “Observation and Pedagogical Practice” course. These students are studying to become teachers of several subjects in middle schools and this course includes their first school practice.
The main aim of the practice is to analyze learning and teaching activities. During the practice period they participate in the planning of lessons and they also get their first teaching experience. The practicum lasts one week and every day the student reflects on their activities.
Students usually write a diary to reflect upon their practice days. Video diaries are an alternative for written summaries, which support reflection skills of future teachers and help convey their emotions. The course group is divided into two – those who keep written diaries in Moodle and those who make video diaries in Flowbox platform. This enables them to practice the creation of videos, oral reflection and allows to widen the knowledge horizon of future teachers.
Students comment on written or video diary posts from their fellow students. This enables collaborative learning. It allows the students to share with fellow students what they experienced in the school environment. The goal of the experiment is to find out how the video diary format suits the students for reflection and also for learning from each other´s experience.
Creating videos for professional activities gives students the confidence to create and use video-based learning material in their future practice. They also have the chance to get used to hearing their own voice and seeing themselves on video. The latter could also enable the students to create more videos in their future professional work. Flowbox Online Video Platform provides easy ways to upload, share and comment the video content. This enables collaborative learning and group reflections.
Here is a video (link) where Liina explains the results of this experiment.
Experiment n.º 19
University of Tartu and EdVisto
In the subject of environmental education one task is to complete a journalistic article based on a real-life problem connected to sustainable development. Some students are completing their tasks in Google Docs. Others complete their task using the EdVisto technology. They create a short video together based on the problem and its solution.
The goal of the experiment is to figure out if the video co-creation environment is suitable for learners for knowledge building, problem solving and collaboration. During the environmental education course it is determined how the video form of presenting the information could be appropriate to enhance the cooperation between students. The experiment is carried out with 1st-3rd year bachelor level students who will become teachers of social and humanitarian subjects in basic school.
Students learn a different form of collaboration via creating videos together and using contemporary mediums at the same time. EdVisto enables the co-work with teachers in the same school as well as in other schools in future.
EdVisto platform enables to use the collaborative video editing possibilities to initiate a collaborative content creation. The storytelling is created together by two groups of students. The advantage of EdVisto is that the process can be carried out in distant learning settings. The experience with EdVisto program is also beneficial for the future career of the students.