With audio and video, I’m not in control. I hit play, and I can rewind or fast forward or sometimes randomly access points throughout the media. But it’s simply not possible for me to skim past the parts I don’t need / already know and then focus on the things I do need. When attempts are made to allow for skim&focus, they can’t provide it at all levels with the same usability that text and still images provide.

This is why podcasts for learning are universally a horrible idea for long-term. They work well sometimes for two reasons:
1) learning that requires audio, such as language and music
2) they’re fun and new, so they sometimes hold students’ (or teachers’) attention for a brief time initially

As one who cut his artistic teeth on 35mm B&W Ilford FP3 film, SLRs with non-return mirrors and dark-room enlargements in low and high key, I identify with your feelings here. Something went out of my life for about 30 years and now I see it’s coming back into vogue.

Thanks for this post!

Ka kite
from Middle-earth

Ken Allans last blog post..Procrastinating can tire the brain

Certainly that’s true. I suppose I should retitle this, “In praise of still images”. It’s more about my growing passion and understanding of the photograph as a much more sophisticated and versatile medium than its often given credit for.

I agree with much that is said here. But as far as effectiveness is concerned, I think each type of image (whether a still photo, and animation or a video) must be carefully considered on its merits in terms of what it brings to the observer.

From a journalistic point of view one has to ask if it’s the dramatic moment that’s important or the movement in action. From the educational point of view one asks, is it relevant to the objective. Used in training, a photograph of a golf swing, even selected at the optimum moment, may still not convey what can be shown in a series of stills or an animation (or both).

I believe we have to think of these devices (for that’s what they are) as tools of communication. A craftsman does not use any old tool any old way to achieve the best craftsmanship. So we must select these things according to their best and most effective application if they are to be used well.

Ka kite
from Middle-earth

Ken Allans last blog post..Procrastinating can tire the brain

Good point. No doubt the title of this post is more of a hyperbole for effect as anything else. I agree that the complexity of video when done well is potentially the more impacting media. I guess I was impressed to revisit the power of images and the way our eyes naturally pan and zoom and pause and reflect.

Not quite.

Coming from Ken Burns, nonetheless, adds some credence – but he has forgotten about the audio that accompanies the video. Video, combined with audio and its associated timings, can do far more to move a viewer than video alone – with or without motion.

Don’t believe me? Watch any of Ken’s movies with the sound off. Tells an entirely different story.

Darren Drapers last blog post..Google Docs in Elementary Schools

Agreed. But the idea of slow motion in video is more of an attempt to dissect video they way we can naturally dissect and examine a still. For me the learning here is about the power of a still to “think at your own speed” as diane says.

dianes last blog post..Kaleidoscope