Multimedia Videos and Podcasting

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Science educators have a long history of incorporating diverse media into classroom experiences. From the advent of educational television (ETV) in the 1950s to microcomputers in the 1980s to the current applications of smartphones and tablets for learning, multimedia videos have been one of the principle means of augmenting the quality of learning in science classrooms. The role that videos play in science instruction has changed dramatically, however, both as a result of changing views of teaching and learning and as a result of the hardware available to teachers.

Initially, educational television was thought of as a means of efficient of delivery of content and equity in school curriculum by ensuring that all children were able to watch high-quality content created by expert teachers (Cuban 1986). These early educational videos were thought of primarily in terms of the ability to transmit factually correct information. While some technology enthusiasts argued that ETV...