Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
tracking for hotspots), select a video from the web either by search or by pasting
the exact URL. After editing basic descriptive information of the video, it opens in
the Asterpix hypervideo browser and hotspots can be added and edited. Hotspots
can contain a text commentary, links to other web-videos or websites, and tags that
help to identify an object referred to by the hotspot. This web application is of
special interest, because, in contrast to YouTube, where only personally uploaded
videos can be annotated, Asterpix enables viewers of digital videos on the Internet
to share their thoughts and knowledge by re-“designing” the source video instead of
being either limited to a written commentary or forced to upload a new video. As an
example of a Web 2.0 application that represents the new paradigm of participation
mentioned above.
On a generic level, the video systems described above can be seen as cogni-
tive/collaborative tools that enable “pointing to video” (DIVER/Web DIVER
TM
)
and “linking video information” (hypervideo, Asterpix), to enhance the probabil-
ity that in collaborative problem-solving processes, external representations help to
focus joint attention and relate associated knowledge items so that negotiations of
meaning between participants in a conversation will build upon a common ground.
This form of communication with video is important for tapping powerful potentials
(and some challenges) of video-enhanced learning in the classroom. The
potentials
can be seen in a more active and situated use of videos in many subject areas. Active
and situative learning (Greeno, 2006), in turn, is the basis for sustainable knowledge
and skills acquisition.
We take the approach of integrating these exemplary
tools
(and their affordances)
as described above with a perspective of
design as problem solving
(e.g., Dillon,
2002). Therefore, a design problem involving constructive video was developed that
allows for predictions of positive effects on learning outcomes (here: new media
literacies and visual skills including an advanced understanding of video sources
in the domain of history). As a heuristic for building the design task and for our
research, we relied on the cognitive framework described in the next section.
Collaborative Visual Design—a Cognitive Framework
From a cognitive perspective, a design task is defined as a specific type of rhetor-
ical problem (Stahl, Finke, & Zahn, 2006).
Visual
design consists of creating and
structuring
visual
content for an anticipated audience according to the aesthetic stan-
dards of
visual
(or audiovisual) media. Our definition of visual design as problem
solving is firmly based on three major lines of research from cognitive psychol-
ogy: First, we note earlier findings by Goel & Pirolli, (1992), who demonstrated
that design is a process of problem solving of an ill-defined and complex prob-
lem to be structured by the designer. Seitamaa-Hakkarainen (2000) provided further
evidence for “dual space search” processes in such design. Second, we note influ-
ential cognitive approaches to text production (e.g., Flower & Hayes, 1980, 1986;
Hayes, 1996), which explain writing for an audience as a complex problem-solving
