Notes on Do’s and Don’ts of Interactive Television Teaching

Lights…Camera…Action

Here are some terms that are frequently used by the control room technicians when producing your television class.

Close-up shot: A camera shot that includes the top of the shoulders and head. This shot lets students see your eyes and facial expressions, and helps create a relationship with students. Holds the attention of the students and or viewers---also for student reply to questions

Medium shot: This is the camera shot used the most often. It includes most of the body from the waist up.

Long shot: In this shot, students see the entire body and some of the background. This shot gives students an overview of your classroom environment.

Transition: A transition is the gradual movement of one camera shot to another. The most frequently used transitions are the fade, dissolve, and wipe.

Fade: In a fade, the picture changes gradually to black or from black to the regular picture.

Dissolve: A dissolve is a transition that makes it appear that one picture fades into another picture from side to side or top to bottom.

Wipe: A wipe is a transition that takes place in the shape of a pattern such as a circle, triangle, square or diamond. The wipe may include a colored border or not, have a hard or soft edge, and can be positioned in various areas of the screen. Keeps students in visual contact with the instructor when they are trying to visualize the material being presented. Keeps instructors in constant contact with their students.

Cut: A sudden switch from one video frame to another. An example is changing from a shot of the instructor to a shot of the students in the classroom.

Split: In a split screen, the monitor is divided into two sections either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. There is a different video frame showing in each section. Distance and space disappears. Allows local students and distant students to bond. Basically brings sites closer together.

Chroma: The chroma key is a process of cutting out an area or section of a background scene and replacing it with another video source. This special effect makes the classroom come alive and provides a way for the instructors and student5s from remote sites to seemingly physically interact. An example is the T.V. weatherman showing a weather system of the continental U.S.

Overhead camera (Elmo): Allows the instructor to visualize everything they say. Can zoom in or out to emphasize visual aides. Instructors can bring anything to class and use it under the overhead. An example is lesson plans, products, etc.

Computer Graphics: Technicians can and will work with the instructor to design any type of graphic the instructor needs or wants. Example: special events, birthdays, holidays, special subjects, power points, etc. Use graphics to emphasize key information, illustrate ideas, or provide examples much as you would use a blackboard

Music: Used at appropriate times is a learning enhancement in the classroom. Greet and say goodbye to music, use during quizzes and tests and during some class segments. This sets the mood, announces the class, and non-verbally greets the students.

Tips

• Good organization and preparation will make your interactive class a success.

• Eye contact with the camera will establish eye contact with the viewer.

• Instructor must be passionate about the subject they teach. The students must see that you are truly excited about the material you teach.

• Each lesson should come across as a special presentation worthy of the students time.

• Follow a certain format for each lesson on interactive television so students can get a sense of structure for each class.

• Always have a little more, rather than a little less. The camera eats up material.

• Give remote site students a way and time to bond with local students through the special effects and split screens.

• Keep up a high level of energy throughout the lecture. The energy must be felt by the students, and it will be if the instructor is genuine and sincere.

• Always be on the lookout for ways to visualize the concepts you are teaching. Video clips, pictures, photo’s, newspaper articles are perfect for reinforcement. Bring in the real thing if you can. Cleverly chosen pictures or diagrams may give your students a "hook". Remembering the visual key will trigger recall of the surrounding concepts.

• Make subject matter relevant to the real world any way you can.

• Do not be afraid of the technology available, but embrace it, learn about it, learn from it, play with it, BUT also understand it's capabilities and limitations.

• Do not feel you need a certain look or have to have an extensive wardrobe to be on television, just be well groomed. The most important thing is to be excited about what you are teaching for the day. Your looks are secondary to your love of teaching.

AVOID

Horizontal stripes: Makes you look wider.

Black and white herringbone weaves or checks: Gives a vibrating rainbow effect.

Saturated blue: Some effects render everything blue invisible or transparent.

Saturated red: Colors vibrate and bleed over into other areas.

Makeup: The camera likes warmer (more reddish) makeup colors better than cooler (more blue) colors. Use a foundation that matches your natural skin

Mostly we use spoken and written language in our classes to convey knowledge. Information can also be conveyed through pictures, diagrams, symbols, maps, and, of course, printed words. Cleverly chosen pictures or diagrams may give your students a "hook". Remembering the visual key will trigger recall of the surrounding concepts.

*** Avoid being just a ! ***

Use graphics to emphasize key information, illustrate ideas, or provide examples much as you would use a blackboard.

Use visuals for presenting new terminology, vocabulary, definitions, or when listing rules, or process steps.

A television image is said to have an "aspect ratio" of 4 to 3 meaning that it is 4 units wide by 3 units high. For example, a television image 20 (5 x 4) inches wide will be 15 (5 x 3) inches high. Your screen displays will look best if designed to accommodate this format.

The screen diagrams in the sample worksheets in Appendix III are formatted in this ratio. It might help you to make copies to use for your sketches.

Basic Rules

Keep each screen simple and uncluttered. Use the design itself to convey the basic ideas.

Leave a "safe area", a blank border of about 1/2 inch, around the graphic. (Images are often "cropped" by the transmission process.)

Lettering

Use lettering large enough to be read by someone watching the TV from across the room. Standard document text (about 80 characters per line) is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too small!

If you're developing graphics with a computer program, use at least 18 point type, preferably larger. Be conservative with the type styles you choose. Use simple, easy to read, sans serif fonts. Text styles using very thin lines may flicker on television.

Color

Your goal in using color should be to enhance meaning, not just to improve aesthetics. If done carefully, color can be a valuable additional channel of information. When you do use color to indicate meaning, try to use it consistently.

Limit the number of colors and avoid sharply contrasting colors such as vivid red lettering on a vivid blue background. When a television tries to reproduce this it looks blurred. Half-tone images or lettering might cause flickering and likewise should be avoided. Use bright colors (including pure white) sparingly and only in limited areas. Use light or subtle colors for large areas. For example, dark blue lettering on a light blue background looks good (as does the reverse).

Good combinations are:

Cool Palette: Light blue, steel blue, turquoise, blue-green, light green, dark green, light purple, purple.

Warm Palette: Light red, sand, brown, dark brown, gold, dark gold, dark orange, tan brown.

Your Video Classroom The best description of how to get the most out of your videoconferencing classroom is summarized by these 12 commandments of videoconferencing. Thou shalt relax. Let the electronic machinery work, and allow the Classroom Directors to do their jobs. Both function well without your supervision. YOU are there to assist learners with your subject. Thou shalt not wear all black, all white, or the combination. Colors which are too stark, vibrant or contrasting are hard to look at. Tight patterns and small pinstripes "swim and quiver," distracting viewers. Button-down collars ALWAYS look wrinkled (thus saith my wife)! Thou shalt be prepared to tell, ask, show and recap. Thou shalt also have thy visuals in order so as not to fumble. Thou mightest consider permanent and colorful display of major course principles behind thee. Thou shalt consider providing hard copy. Distributing printed class materials to learners in advance allows them to grasp ideas and data without copying information from the TV monitor. Use Elmo (pad camera) spontaneity as well as pre-prepared outlines to awaken and nourish discussion. Thou shalt neither pound the rostrum nor thump thy breast, nor wear noisy jewelry! Caution learners not to dump backpacks on the desk, drum fingers, rattle papers, tap pencils, fondle microphones or chat aloud. Sounds are magnified at the other locations, creating annoyances and disrupting communication. Thou shalt not move about too much without giving some warning to the Classroom Director. (S)he cannot establish a tight camera shot on you if you may leap away, leaving the monitor empty. The looser the shot, the smaller the image --- diminishing the message, the influence and the believability of the speaker. Thou shalt remember that remote site learners are there too --- and can only be involved through THEIR TV. They cannot know what is happening where YOU are unless they are told or shown. Thou shalt interact with remote site learners. When you look into the eye of the camera you are looking at THEM; if you talk while looking at their images on YOUR monitor, it becomes impersonal. Show them your eyeballs, not your hair or bald spot! Thou shalt speak with your normal tone when talking to the remote site. The microphone levels have already been set and balanced, thus compensating for distance, wind and elevation! Thou shalt always keep in mind the direction, purpose and plan of the lesson. If you digress, remember to return, reiterate and reinforce. Whatever sights or sounds divert the attention of the participants also makes them lose focus. Thou shalt be a team player. Keep your Director advised. (S)he functions best when the game-plan is known in advance. You may always improvise --- just tell the Director what you want to do. Thou shalt keep the interaction going. This expensive teaching innovation allows opportunity for students to express, explore, evaluate and exchange ideas and their many classification, perspectives, antecedents or underlying premises. Provocative interchange stimulates ongoing reflection and reconsideration. Participation fosters ownership and builds motivation. And do not forget: Learning occurreth at the pace of the learner, not the teacher! Thou shalt also grin and move along when thou goofeth up!