Enhancing Web Instruction: Using Streaming Audio and Video (1999)

Computer superstores and computer mail order companies are selling multimedia computers at very competitive prices. It is difficult to purchase a new computer that isn't equipped for video and audio. Web sites for radio and television stations are coming on-line daily. Classroom computers are frequently multimedia machines because of the rich software and content on today's educational CD-ROMs. The ability to reproduce multimedia is no longer a rare high-end product. This presentation will focus on the uses of streaming audio and video over the web to deliver educational materials in a distance learning format for K-12 and college students. Graphics and animation are already commonly used on web pages to capture the attention of students. The advantage of using audio and video is that these technologies are well suited to content delivery. Beyond catching student attention, audio and video can provide enrich education material. Today's students have been raised on radio and video and are more accustomed to processing such media than they are to read and digest long text content. Moreover, many people do not like reading extensive textual material on the computer monitor. While distance learning has primarily been based in text materials, multimedia holds the promise of being a more effective content delivery mechanism. This presentation itself will be posted in audio on the web after the conference at http://www.rit.edu/~easi. This presentation has four main objectives: * to demonstrate how to use streaming audio and video. * to demonstrate how this technology enriches instruction. * to demonstrate how audio and video can motivate K-12 and college students * to demonstrate how to make instruction using audio and video fully accessible * to students with physical and cognitive disabilities. Both audio and video can be used in ways to leave out students who are blind, deaf or other sensory processing problems, but they can just as readily be used to fully include students with disabilities into mainstream them into education. Obviously, audio delivery of information can leave the deaf and hard of hearing out in the cold. Similarly, highly graphical and animated displays can leave blind and low vision students in the dark. Both communities fear the explosion of multimedia. Text materials over the internet have increased the social involvement of the deaf. similarly, with the use of speech synthesis, blind students have gained access to text-based materials as never before. They all viewed the adaptive computer and the information age as a boon to their inclusion into the world. Now, they frequently find themselves on the outside again. However, when information is digitized, it has the potential of many different display modes. If multimedia makes use of redundant display modes, then it becomes accessible to all. This includes blind, deaf and other sensory processing disabilities. It also is congenial to people with different preferred learning styles. Even more, all people benefit when they are given information in redundant formats. For example, hearing students watching a captioned video, do better on exams than when they watch the same video without captioning. The presentation will demonstrate the use of audio and video to deliver educational information with a focus on providing access to the fields of science and math. EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) has an NSF grant to collect and disseminate this information. Science and math pose many difficulties such as accessing equipment readouts, and multimedia has proven useful using sounds and text displays. Also, math poses a problem for blind and some learning disabled students. Having outputs available in a variety of display modes is one of the solutions. Audio and video also can carry a powerful and personal message. Sound bites and video clips of professionals with disabilities who are succeeding in science and math serve as motivational material both for students with disabilities and for their parents and teachers. …