Insights Into Using Video in Adult Education

The Changing Roles of Adult Educators When Using Video in the Classroom

I used to assume a teacher would be a lecturer standing in front of the classroom. In my own experience as a teacher, I taught a skills based class and there was some student self-directed learning, but for the most part it was me telling them what they needed to know and how to do it.

The PIDP Foundations of Adult Education Course has opened my eyes to other forms of teaching and one of these is the new uses of video in the classroom. It seems to fit well with my interest in the humanistic learning theory. I found the concept of the "flipped classroom" was very interesting and it allows some significant changes in the roles of the instructors who implement a "flipped" environment.

In a flipped classroom, as in humanistic learning theory, a teacher is not so much the disseminator of information as he or she is a facilitator of the students self-directed learning. Someone who guides the students. This has been made possible partly because of the introduction into the classroom of teaching videos from Youtube and other social media platforms.

One of the roles that instructors take on as a result of the flipped classroom is that of a video producer or curator. A teacher can produce or curate a video to for example, teach something basic like multiplication. The students then learn from this at home. In the classroom the instructor can then teach to a higher level, and the ones who did not view the video or who did not "get it" can view the video in the back of the classroom. In this way the teacher does not have to go over something time and time again teaching the same basic stuff. The videos will do that and she or he can spend their time teaching higher level stuff. In this way a teacher can be a lot more effective.

Another role of teachers in the flipped classroom environment is to encourage peer to peer learning in a much more significant way. Students who are capable of moving through the material more quickly using the videos can then be paired with others who need some help with concepts.