Video is awesome, video is great, give me video every day. There is no debate!
I’m on a mission to help people make and use video for learning purposes. This installment focuses on the five reasons why video is such a powerful learning tool. By establishing the five reasons, I am laying a foundation for things to come. This is part one of Video for Learning Fundamentals. So let’s get to it!
Video is all around us. It’s in our homes, stores, airports, public spaces, and even in our pockets. It’s a medium that almost everyone consumes daily, whether passively or actively. According to Cisco, video will account for 82% of global internet traffic by the year 2022. Let that number sink in. As the medium of video thrives, educators, instructors, and trainers have been using more and more of it to provide relevant instruction to their learning audience. It’s a great way to “meet the people where they are,” which is crucial in sparking meaningful learning.
Five Reasons Why Video is so Powerful
Based on current thought leadership and my experience, there are five reasons why video is such a powerful learning tool:
Convenience
With the variety of video-playing devices available these days, the learner can watch and get enlightened whenever and wherever. From their desk, living room couch, the bus, waiting for a flight, laying by the pool…you get the idea. Convenience is also one of the Five Business Advantages of Online Learning.
Autonomy
Learners can stop, start, skip, and replay content depending on their individual needs, which empowers active learning.
Engaging
Most people watch video of some genre. Providing learning content in the form of video is giving them something with which they already feel comfortable consuming. When video is inserted into eLearning it keeps people engaged – and coming back for more. This increased engagement is also one of the Five Business Advantages of Online Learning.
Multi-sensory
When it comes down to it, an educational video is visual learning enhanced with auditory cues from voice, sound effects, and music. A video can even create behavior modeling urges in the viewer, which is important in stimulating kinesthetic (or tactile) learning.
Social
Starting at birth, humans learn by watching, observing, imitating, and modeling the behavior of others. Video turns abstract concepts into concrete knowledge and action by providing learners with context and perspective.
Summary
In conclusion, video for learning purposes is so powerful because it provides convenience to the learner. Learning video is available in a place and timeframe that works for the individual. The autonomy provided by learning video empowers the watcher to control the pace at which they learn. Video is engaging, and maybe even a bit addictive, as it offers us a visual tableau combined with sound and guided by a story. The multi-sensory nature of video reaches various parts of our human existence, from visual, auditory, to even hand-on actions. Finally, video is so powerful because it turns abstract concepts into concrete knowledge by offering us a social view of the world.
Join my feedback loop
What do you think? What are the other reasons video is such a powerful tool for you? If you liked what you read, and would like to join the conversation, please consider subscribing to my newsletter to receive free learning resources delivered to your inbox every two weeks.
I love feedback loops. As Elon Musk said, “I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”
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