Youtube: Learning by watching (Part 4 of 5)

posted by Dean Sterns on Sun, 2012-02-05 06:30

As Youtube continues to play an important part of our society popular culture, we begin to see a shift in how we learn back to our ancestral root of watching and learning.

Originally the way we had learn was through rote which is a process of learning by memorization and although there have been advocates who argue that this type of learning is not necessary good because they say it is parroting without full comprehension of the subject matter. And in some cases this may true, there is an argument that rote learning through visualization is a step up and allows for not only critical thinking, but mastery of the subject matter.

This is the power of Youtube where billions of people have tuned into the popular video sharing website for many different reasons, but one of those reasons is to learn. This is evident by the many how-to-guides and tutorials videos currently available on Youtube and why these channels are getting a lot views. Leaf Magazine wrote an article where we explored Khan's Academy on how they use videos to help students learn (check link here: Improve your child's grade for free with Khan Academy ) in a way that students who were failing or not comprehending with traditional learning methods are now getting better results and grades through watching videos and learning. As Salman Khan, the creator of Khan Academy, pointed out in this TEDTalk video that students who never "got" a particular concept despite their parents trying everything to help their children succeed eventually found success through learning by watching. Because of the great achievements of Khan Academy, Bill Gates and other innovative school boards have taken quite an interest in experimenting with this method of learning.

There have been studies and tests done that shows we can remember with 90% accuracy more than 2000 pictures over a course of several days during short presentation times. Here is an excerpt from a study done by Cheryl L. Grady, Anthony R. McIntosh, M. Natasha Rajah, and Fergus I. M. Craik titled "Neural correlates of the episodic encoding of pictures and words" on March 3, 1998.

Humans have a remarkable ability to remember pictures. It was shown several decades ago that people can remember more than 2,000 pictures with at least 90% accuracy in recognition tests over a period of several days, even with short presentation times during learning (1). This excellent memory for pictures consistently exceeds our ability to remember words (2, 3). In addition, various manipulations that affect memory performance do so differentially for pictures and words. One such manipulation is the levels of processing effect, which is the advantage for later retrieval of more elaborate or semantic processing of stimuli during encoding (4, 5). This levels effect is greater for words than for pictures because of superior picture memory even after shallow or nonsemantic encoding (6). One theory of the mechanism underlying superior picture memory is that pictures automatically engage multiple representations and associations with other knowledge about the world, thus encouraging a more elaborate encoding than occurs with words (2, 5, 7).

In addition, there are other studies out there too that point out when we look at a picture our brain might not recall every single detail, but our ability to see the whole picture remains and subconsciously there is a possibility that those regions or areas that our brain did not pick up right away for processing can be recalled through triggering. The trigger can range from anything from a sensation or feeling form happiness, sadness or even shock. This might account for why when we watch videos on Youtube the ability to learn increases through repetitions and full mastery of the subject can be achieved at the pace that is comfortable for the user. As full mastery of the subject is realized, the ability to integrate other concepts create the perfect situation for enhanced learning that goes beyond what can be gained through traditional methods of learning.

We will see more and more Youtube videos on "how-to-guides" and other tutorials as Youtube becomes more ubiquitous around the world and learning by watching takes center stage for educating our future generation. Children from low income families with no means of affording good education will have the chance to learn at their own pace and will be able to compete on par with privileged children from upper society. Nothing can hold them back except passion thier own passion for learning.

Links:

Check back next Sunday, February 5, 2012 for part 4 of our multi-part series posted every Sunday, as we explore the different ways that Youtube has affected society around the world today and in the future.