Streaming Media in Higher Education

**This one's from Alice...

The continuous and fast-paced development of broadband network infrastructures and the use of multimedia in higher education during the last several years paved the way for the development of streaming media for the use of web-based learning in many higher educational institutions all over the globe. This particularly appeals to the fact that this new technology leverage existing educational practices, particularly the traditional lecture format. Nowadays, streaming technology becomes an increasingly constant feature in the delivery of higher education, driven both by the increasing availability of technologies and persistent budgetary pressures over the last decade to find scalable alternatives to the mass theatre lectures in undergraduate studies (Parfenovics and Fletcher, 2003).

Internet streaming media changed the Web from static text- and graphics-based medium into a multimedia experience populated by sound and moving pictures (Beggs and Thede, 2001). Today, streaming media is the de facto standard for Internet media broadcasting and distribution, incorporating all components of multimedia, even radio, television and film.

According to Beggs and Thede, streaming works by first compressing a digital file (audio, video, or presentation/animation) and then breaking it into small packets, which are sent, one after another, over the Internet. When the packets reach their destination on the requesting user side, they are decompressed and reassembled into a form that can be played by the user's system. To maintain the illusion of seamless play, the packets are "buffered" so a number of them are downloaded to the user's machine before playback. As those buffered or preloaded packets play, more packets are being downloaded and queued up for playback.

There is now a wide-spread push towards more interactive and more on-demand multimedia technologies in higher education. This resulted in the flourishing of the use of streaming media in education during the last several years. Many studies have been done regarding the true value of this technology in the higher education context, and some even evaluated various streaming media applications in higher education.

Some of the most easily-identified values for students added through the use of streaming media in higher education include greater access to instructional materials at a time and place, and on a schedule that meets their needs, and studying at a pace that is comfortable to them, pausing from time to time for research and reflection, and then having a replay of the lecture/discussion as needed. On the other hand, instructors are saying that streaming media gives them options on how and when to make the class materials available. This means that lecturers can use streaming media: (1) before the lecture to prepare the students for the discussion or laboratory work, (2) after the lecture as a review of class presentation, as make-up materials for missed classes, as a reviewer for exams, and to enhance retention by giving students an opportunity to review materials that are visually or audio driven (e.g. demos of machine operation, lab techniques, role-playing scenarios, music or art appreciation).

Lowe,et.al. (1999) suggested that there are two reasons for utilising Internet and Web technologies in learning: to improve learning outcomes and to positively affect the educational logistics (e.g. access or equity). The use of streaming media reinforces positively the two reasons cited, that is, more interactivity and comprehension is expected to happen using animation and simulation, thereby improving the teaching-learning process, and as mentioned above, better flexibility in accessing the course materials through the “anytime, anywhere” approach. As such, it cannot be denied that the continuous use of streaming multimedia in education, as well as its continuous development, speaks for the positive impact it currently provides to the academic community.

Blogging in the Classroom

As more and more educational technologies, primarily those of the computer-mediated communication genre become pervasive and ubiquitous in learning institutions, teachers continue to discover alternative ways of improving the learning experience of students using these tools. One such technology that young people could easily relate to is the “blog”. A blog or a weblog, is a Web publishing tool that allows authors to quickly and easily self-publish text, artwork, links to other blogs or websites, and a whole array of other content (Crie, 2006). As such, this web-enabled technology provides teachers with excellent tool for communicating with students even beyond the four walls of a traditional face-to-face classroom. Blogs can be highly motivating to learners, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in the classroom, primarily because they can easily relate to its interface and functions which are essentially similar to a website. More so, it provides for learners effective forums for collaboration and discussion, while giving powerful tools for mentors to enable scaffolding to occur.

Blogs are an excellent way to fuse educational technology and “storytelling” inside the classroom and beyond school walls. As Huffaker (2004) stated, storytelling can be considered as the first steps to developing literacy. Inasmuch as blogs promote self-expression, authors can develop highly personalised content, developing in parallel the writing and reading literacy of the learner, at the same time allowing him to connect with an online community where he can get feedback, and continuously discover new knowledge from the topic he writes about. Blogs can be multidisciplinary, that is, reading other blogs and writing one’s own blog can be used in a variety of academic contexts. Thus, learners can express their perceptions on any number of subjects such as exchange of lessons learned after an experiment, discussion of the fundamental concepts of a formula being studied, situating themselves in a particular business or humanities context, etc.

There are a variety of ways by which mentors can use blogs in the classroom and thus improve the learning experience of students using this technology (Henry, 2007). These are: (1) creating standard class web(log) pages – essentially pieces of information such as class rules, links to syllabus, announcement of homework that are remarkably easy to put together in a blog and be updated easily; (2) teacher-written blogs which cover the developments related to the course which provides a nice and easy way to write and link information in the course that shows real world implications, such as file-sharing on the Net; (3) organization of in-class discussion wherein mentors can set a discussion issue every week, and have students debate it in comments.

Indeed, our awareness in e-learning technologies should always be maintained; we should always be ready to respond to new opportunities brought about by the constantly changing environment (Foggo, 2007). As permeation of new technologies at different levels of learning beset us, we as mentors need only to find the appropriate method to engage the users of these technologies and react responsively to their needs. Putting blogs in the classroom is easily one of them.