Introduction

I was recently invited to an event at Nottingham University. Known as "the sandpit", it was an opportunity to look at developments in Web 2.0 technology being undertaken by the Learning Sciences Research Institute.

I was quite taken with one application in particular, Video Pathways. Here is a description and explanation of what it does, and how it might be used in schools.

What is Video Pathways?

Video Pathways, which is currently in an alpha version, is quite a nice fresh take on making use of YouTube in the curriculum. The basic idea is very simple: you find videos on YouTube, and then arrange them in the order of your choice (a pathway), after which they will be played in sequence with no further input from you. In a sense, it's a way of mashing up video clips.

So what you do, in effect, is this:

1. Think of a project idea. It could be, say, to show the changes in dress over the last 50 years.
   
   
2. Find videos on YouTube that you could use in such a project.
   
   
3. Arrange the videos in different ways in order to being out different points.

Here are some screenshots I took to illustrate the process.

In the first one, I had already found the video I wanted to use, and copied and pasted the URL into Video Pathways.

In the second one, I searched for the clip I wanted from within Video Pathways itself.

The final screenshot shows my completed project. It consists of 4 movie clips, which I have arranged into 3 different pathways.

Uses for Video Pathways

I can think of a number of uses for Video Pathways, such as the following:

Sequencing activities

Create a movie project complete with video clips, and ask the students to create a pathway with the clips in the correct order. This type of activity would work for technical processes, history, and even subjects like Citizenship. Digital storytelling is another obvious example of how this might be used.

Create your own viewpoint

Alternatively, give students the project title, and ask them to find the movie clips that would illustrate the theme. You could ask them to create different pathways to show different interpretations of the same "facts".

There was a marvellous tv advertisement on British television some years ago, for The Guardian newspaper. The punchline was:

"It's only when you see the whole picture that you really see what's going on."

Have a look at it:

Advantages of Video Pathways

I can see the following advantages in using Video Pathways:

• It's a good way of making use of video content that already exists. If the aim of a piece of work is not covered by creating a movie, this would make it easy to use "off-the-shelf" content. If you think about it, students should not need to create their own videos, just as they don't need to create their own clip art.
  
  
• It makes it very easy to illustrate and practice sequencing skills in a variety of ways aside from programming or music.
  
  
• Schools could create their own bank of video clips and upload them to YouTube for use in their own Video Pathways projects.
  
  
• It would, perhaps, encourage students to look for video content on YouTube in a purposeful way.
  
  
• One spin-off might be that students would be less inclined to take at face value video clips shown on programmes like the news or documentaries.

Disadvantages of using Video Pathways

At the moment I can see the following disadvantages with this application:

• It works only with YouTube. As a proof of concept it's great, but ideally it should work with any video-sharing service. In particular, using Youtube is not a good idea as it is banned in so many schools.
  
  
• The intellectual property rights issue would need to be sorted out, but I can't see that happening any time soon.
  
  
• The editing facilities are very limited. It would be useful to add titles and transition effects between video clips.

Conclusion

There are lots of video-sharing websites of varying educational relevance. I think that Video Pathways gives us a glimpse of how such sites could progress from being just a publishing and sharing space, to something that enables the viewer to be more creative with the content available.

Acknowledgements

I'd like to thank Ralph Barthel of the LSRI for kindly giving me login access to Video Pathways.

Over to you

I'd be interested in your thoughts about Video Pathways. I'll draw Ralph's attention to any comments you may have.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.