Learning Tool - Video Support for Live Demonstration

This paper summarises a CETL Learn Higher funded project Learning Tool support for live demonstration Boyes, Cousens, Stuart 2009, which set out to develop learning tools in the form of short video clips, suitable for mobile phones, ipods and Mp3 players, which would support live demonstration of technical skills. This built on the overarching research project: Teaching and Learning Through Practice Boyes, Cousens, Stuart 2008 funded by CETLD which explored teaching and learning in practice based courses in art and design through demonstration. The project primarily researched a series of demonstrations undertaken by students and staff working on the MDes 3D Materials Practice course, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Brighton. In this discipline live demonstrations are the main method of teaching technical skills: technical skills being vital to creative expression. This research found value in live demonstration in particular its flexibility, adaptability to students’ learning needs, potential for continual updating, and the importance of communication by the non-verbal language accompanying the technical demonstration. It also raised questions about the effectiveness of written notes to encapsulate non- verbal information. It also looked briefly at the use of existing videos as a means to replace live demonstration. One of the key findings indicated that there is not a total replacement for live demonstration. Video has an important role in supporting live demonstration but it needed to be explored further and to be brought closer to the students’ experience of making in the workshops. From this finding a number of key areas were identified where a short video, suitable for down loading onto mobile phones, ipods and MP3 players and therefore accessible at the point of use in the workshops, would support the live demonstration of technical skills in practice based courses.