Excellence Gateway
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) London on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Sector relevance: FE colleges, Sixth Form schools/colleges, adult and community learning
Keywords: Improving teaching and learning; improving responsiveness to learners, ICT, teaching, training, coaching and learning, assessment, reviewing learners' progress, quality improvement, management of resources
Southwark has introduced the Busbi - a low-priced, pocket-sized camcorder - to a number of curriculum areas. The Busbi offers one-button video recording and transfers video to a PC easily via a USB connection.
Powered by two AA-size batteries and with an SD memory card that stores up to an hour of video, this device is helping to overcome some of the technical and organisational barriers to using video in the classroom and for recording evidence of learning.
Based in the heart of London, Southwark College attracts students from all over the world and from across central and south London. It is the major provider of education, both academic and vocational, for 16-18 year-olds in Southwark. The College also offers a wide range of courses for adults with subjects ranging from childcare to floristry, art and design to IT, and languages to flexible office skills.
Tim Pickard, ILT Development Coordinator, describes the process that was in place for teachers wanting to use video, before deployment of the Busbi cameras:
“If you wanted to shoot some video, the lecturer would go to media services and request the loan of a camcorder or get media services staff to come and record the activity. The College has conventional camcorders mostly the DV tape variety.”
The problem with this, says Tim, “is the loss of spontaneity, and the time lag in getting the actual video file produced and available.” Getting media staff to come along and shoot the video, transfer the footage often in real time to a PC or Mac, edit the footage and output in a usable format - all takes time, Tim explains. This method still operates well for major college events and specialised training videos, where there is a need for higher quality output, but for those situations where the lecturer and the students say, “something is happening that's interesting, exciting and spontaneous, and that we would like to record,” the Busbis are an appropriate and empowering technology.
Initially, Tim purchased four or five Busbi camcorders, costing around £35 each, and passed them around a few departments. There was positive feedback so he invested in a larger number for a pilot.
Early discussions with Heads of School before the Busbi video recorders were deployed, sought to outline the kind of things that staff might do with them.
In fact, in just six weeks and nearing the end of the Summer Term, Tim was receiving enthusiastic feedback from lecturers, and examples of a range of imaginative and innovative uses:
Tim has been surprised by the success of this low-cost innovation. His own subject areas of maths and science gave him some opportunity to use video in the classroom, but he was astonished by the positive response it received in a wide range of curriculum areas.
“The Busbis ‘exploded' in terms of interest. People thought of lots of different ways of using them.”
As in most colleges, computers at Southwark are ‘locked down' securely, which means that any software or driver installation required for a conventional camcorder to transfer the files to a PC requires a call to the technical helpdesk. Busbi cameras, however, connect to the computer through a USB port and are recognised as an additional drive, allowing them to be used with almost all student or administrative machines. This enables the video to be accessed immediately within the same teaching session, perhaps on an interactive whiteboard. Lowering the barriers to taking and uploading video files also encourages staff to re-use material by placing it on the virtual learning environment (Moodle) for remote access.
In the Inclusive Learning School, students - who need alternative ways of recording evidence - borrowed several cameras. Previously they would have called in media services for a specific time and date requiring students to provide evidence on demand. Now, students benefit from assessment evidence that can be captured quickly and spontaneously. Stephen Patmore, Head of School for Inclusive Learning, reports that he is building this kind of use of the Busbi video cameras into schemes of work for 2008-09, saying they have made “an incredible difference to how they are able to teach and collect evidence. Students can record their own activities.”
Cameras are being deployed to staff on the basis of their proposed use for teaching and learning, and an undertaking of feedback on their usefulness. All staff in the Inclusive Learning School now have their own Busbi cameras and IT support staff are using them to video common hardware problems.
These low-cost video cameras have proved effective in encouraging wider use of video in teaching and learning and empowering both lecturers and learners.
“It's here and now, video is no longer something that has to be organised days or weeks in advance - something happens, let's capture it.”
Proposals for future use include the following:
In a recent update (November 2008), Stephen Patmore writes:
"Busbi has been used by staff and students in recording evidence for our Practical Life and Work Skills qualifications in the form of presentations and testimonies and practice interviews. It has become a valuable and ‘must have' resource as it is an easy to use piece of equipment. Students with moderate to severe learning disabilities are enabled by it. They can download and edit the clips as required, as well as then burning them onto DVDs for submission of their course work for examination. Students who've had previous low confidence of appearing in front of cameras and having their image taken, have enjoyed handling the equipment and then subsequently performing in front of it."
As for Tim Pickard, he has already found himself on the other end of the camera lens, when his maths lesson was recorded by a student as part of their video diary...
Watch a video of Tim Pickard describing what happened when Southwark College introduced Busbi video cameras across the curriculum.
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