April 2007 - June 2010
German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
In contrast to conventional educational AV media (e.g., VHS video cassettes),
new digitized media offer various interactive features which allow the processing
of their contents in an active and self-regulated fashion - comparable to working
with schoolbooks. An example for this are digitized videos offering a substantial
enlargement of possible control activities to the user which encloses, for example,
the controllability of pace and sequence of the video as well as the direct
access to film scenes by means of an index. From April 2007 to June 2010 the DFG-supported
project LIAM (Learning with interactive Media) addressed several questions of
knowledge acquisition by interactive films: Does the interactive video usage
benefit knowledge acquisition in the context of history education? What are
the patterns and mechanisms of learner-controlled use of digitized videos? Which
role do the personal characteristics of the pupils (e.g., reading strategies)
play?
The project has shown that interactivity can indeed level out differences between videos and print when it comes to knowledge acquisition. However, the availability of respective strategies as well as a fit between task characteristics and interactive features seems to be pivotal for an efficient use of features such as table of contents and index.The project was part of the research group for Empirical Research in Education located in Tübingen. Find more information regarding the DFG-research group "Orchestrating Computer-supported Processes of Learning and Instruction" on: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/fg738/.
