6 Ways to Teach and Learn Methods with Videos
Janet Salmons, PhD Research Community Manager for Sage Methodspace
“The world told is a different world to the world shown.”
Günter Kress, 2003
Learning is multimodal in our digital age.
Günter Kress was a trail-blazing thinker about multimodal literacy. In the early days of the web Kress understood that the nature of communication changes when our multilingual, multicultural, world is connected online. He suggested that a shift from words to pictures is interrelated with a shift from print to digital:
There is, on one hand, the broad move from the centuries-long dominance of writing to the new dominance of the image and, on the other hand, the move from the dominance of the medium of the book to the dominance of the medium of the screen. (Kress, 2003, p. 1)
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Kress pointed out that even when the screen contains text it is inherently visual; he called this type of communication multimodality. With the use of digital media, the choices of modes available to use in meaning-making multiply: most – we would say all – representations are multimodal…. Modes have differing ‘affordances’, different potentials for making meaning. (Kress & Selander, 2012, p. 267).
More than a decade later we can see Kress’s predictions have come to pass. Whether sending pictures in text messages to family members or witnessing distant events on a video someone posted on social media. It has become natural to meld words and pictures. Luckily for those who want to teach and learn methods, excellent resources do just that. Videos allow researchers to show and discuss steps and offer examples, to share personal insights and provide encouragement to those trying new approaches. Methodspace produced 32 videos in 2023 and they are all freely available to use and share. You can engage students with four types of Methodspace videos:
Author Interviews: Conversations with one or more authors about the ideas and methods they’ve written about in books or articles.
Methods Presentations: Explanations and demonstrations of particular aspects of a research or academic writing project.
Roundtable Discussions: A group of scholars discuss a topic, answering the facilitator’s questions and commenting on each other’s responses.
Webinar Recordings: Two or more scholars share ideas, strategies, or practical tips, followed by questions from attendees.
Each type has potential for engaging individuals or teams of students in active, experiential learning. These six ideas can be used in online or face-to-face classrooms.
Six Ways to use Videos in Your methods classroom
Read> Watch > Reflect>Write> Discuss
Read the article or book, then watch the author interview. Identify important points or recommendations. Reflect on whether the methods or approaches fit, or not, in their own research projects and rite an essay or journal entry. Discuss what was learned, and note any unanswered questions.
Compare and Contrast
Choose two or more videos on a topic. Study the videos and related books or articles. Compare and contrast the research approaches and discuss how and why they could be used in a research project.
Over to you: How would you answer the questions?
Read the article or book, then watch the author interview or roundtable, making note of the questions. Answer the questions in an essay or small group discussion. What questions would you have raised if you were giving the interview?
Over to you: What would you ask?
Read the article or book, then watch the author interview or roundtable, making note of the questions. Articulate 3 -5 questions you would pose to the researcher(s). Explain what you would like to know from the researcher and why.
See and Do
Read the article or book, then watch the methods presentation. Choose an approach shown in the video and try implementing it.
View and Analyze
What do you see? View a selection of videos and practice data analysis skills to code your observations and summarize key themes. Learn more in these Methodspace posts:
How do you use videos to teach research methods and/or academic writing?
Please contact me to share other approaches for using videos for methods instruction and I’ll post them to benefit the whole Methodspace community.
References
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. Routledge.
Kress, G., & Selander, S. (2012). Multimodal design, learning and cultures of recognition. The Internet and Higher Education, 15(4), 265-268. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.12.003
Image by Kerstin Riemer from Pixabay.
More Methodspace Posts about Teaching and Learning Methods
This blog post is the eighth, and final, post in a follow-on to our 2021 “The future of computational social science is Black” series, about a Summer Institute in Computational Social Science organized by Howard University and Mathematica. It continues to bring the power of computational social science to the issues of systemic racism and inequality in America. This marks the third iteration of the successful SICSS model being hosted by a Historically Black College or University.