Video is hard. Way harder than text because you have to know how to communicate with text (first) and then with audio (second) and then with images (third). It’s a house of cards that falls more often than it stands. Dishwasher effect aside, I wouldn’t recommend any teacher take up video unless I knew first she had a firm grip on the mechanics of writing.

All that said, anyone who can manipulate those three pipes – text, audio, image – can access more complicated thought and illustration, higher information throughput, than text.

But you’re looking for a guarantee and all I have are caveats. If the subject matter demands greater throughput (ie. sentence diagrams don’t have the same use for visuals as, say, a study of North Africa) and if the instructor is a skilled writer, videographer, and editor, and if the audience is literate in motion pictures (ie. text won’t do an illiterate four-year-old any good, just like video has its own literacy demands), then, yes, video has text over a barrel. You can convey more with less.

Why would a teacher create a vodcast for her kids? Um… so we can go get coffee during class? (Aide whispers: “No no no, Dina. Bad answer…”)

Let’s try again. For one example, because vodcasts make reinforced (not repeated) content available via the Internet at home, on student demand? (Gosh, even sounds like a possible solution to your block scheduling gaps, doesn’t it.)

And if I am considering vodcasts via webpages or posts in this scenario, then you bet your cute little fade-to-black button that the Dishwasher Effect question still stands: I want a guarantee that the vodcast is going to drive the point home faster and better to the most kids.

Which brings me to your last point, which is a radical assertion of this guarantee, with absolutely no empirical backup.

I’m not saying you’re wrong (yet). But speaking for English teachers whose careers rest on precisely the educational power of text, I would like to see you spend a post marshaling your argument, and especially defining your terms. (For example, you’ve already stated that “video” makes better use of *text*, which apparently means you’re not talking about The Wire. Have I got that right?)

In the meantime, however, I’ve got to get ready for school opening on Wednesday, in another year long stretch of providing kids the opportunity to successfully navigate a medium second rate to Youtube. Sigh… I feel so…irrelevant…

The bandwidth argument still doesn’t fit me. I don’t exactly visualize content in my head unless there’s a picture–it never mattered to me when characters in books were supposed to be animals–but I’ve found that text with well-chosen illustrations often spurs my imagination more than video itself does. (Though I will confess that while I feel like we had part of this conversation 6 months ago, I can’t find it in the archives. Something along the lines of most of us know what we should be doing, and watching a video of your methods isn’t going to help us anymore?)

My guess is that you’re arguing here with the people who read for entertainment as much/more than watching video. The hardest part of summer camp was going that long without a library. I could skip seeing movies on weekends off, but I needed to refresh my book supply so I always had something to work on.

Kate, that video does sound like one we’d all avoid. Yuck!

Jackie, I never did like the typing exercises where you couldn’t see the keys/the computer screen. :-)

All said, I’m off to read and enjoy the rest of the three-day weekend.

But what I’m also saying is, take the best text and the best video – meaning, you’re never tempted to skim through either one; meaning, the video makes effective use of text, sound, and image – and video wins for education, communication, and entertainment. You can’t beat the bandwidth.

Glad to hear I’m not the only one who prefers text.

I recognize that not everyone enjoys the printed word as much as I do. That some people won’t find it as useful.

Dan, the series eventually convinced me that there are some occasions when video is more powerful than text. But I’m not ready for a blanket statement yet.

Hmm. Perhaps I need to learn to interact with video – not just passively watch it.