Students visiting YouTube or Google Video websites to view clips of music videos or humorous farces may soon find themselves logging in to complete midterm projects and class presentations.
Video-sharing tools have expanded as a new medium for sharing ideas and experiences, and Duke professors are increasingly incorporating video media into their curricula.
Professors have an array of tools at their disposal including Google Video, Google's newly purchased subsidy YouTube and DukeCast-the University's new multimedia sharing program.
The University has previously encouraged teachers to explore the uses of technologies such as iPods and podcasts to share information in new ways, and professors and students alike agree that the use of video in classrooms provides an accessible and appealing medium for these ends.
"It is important for students to understand how to deliver a message using these technologies," said Richard Lucic, associate professor of the practice in the computer science department, "If they don't get experience with it in the classroom, how will they ever learn to use it as a form of communication?"
Lucic encourages the use of multimedia in courses about web-based media communications, in which students explore methods of distributing information by posting video clips on sites such as DukeCast.
Professors and students in a wide range of courses have utilized web-based programs to bridge the divide between traditional approaches to academic learning and the popular media format.
Jocelyn Olcott, associate professor in the history department, encourages students in her course "Introduction to Contemporary Latin America" to use Internet video postings for projects and class presentations.
"Students are encountering these sources all the time anyway. I'm encouraging them to train themselves to become critical consumers of this material," Olcott wrote in an e-mail. "Anything is an opportunity to teach (or to learn) a concept, but the videos themselves aren't didactic without the students bringing their own critical capacities to bear upon them."
Students also noted the popularity of videos as education that is entertaining.
"I think a lot of teachers use video content in general because it is entertaining for the class-it allows for a better portrayal of the subject," said Matthew Hoekstra, a senior, adding that he used a clip from Google Video for a presentation on drug wars in Olcott's class.
"I used videos of people spraying the coca fields," he said. "I think it was very effective to have video, as opposed to just hearing someone talk about it or reading something in a textbook."
Google purchased the popular video-sharing website YouTube last week, aiming to legitimize the use of copyrighted works on the site.
In the past, Duke has warned students about judicial actions that can be taken when they violate copyright laws by using popular file-sharing programs.
YouTube's website warns users not to post videos that include such content, but the site is not closely monitored.
The DukeCast website-a restricted medium for the storage and viewing of Duke-created audio and video podcasts-eliminates some of those concerns through close monitoring of posted content.
Upom Malik, a Trinity freshman in the Game2Know Focus, uses DukeCast to produce video podcasts. He noted the unique protection offered through Duke's site.
"The privacy that DukeCast gives allows us to use material that we wouldn't normally be able to use," Malik said. "I was able to use film-trailers as part of one of my projects."
"I couldn't have done that outside of DukeCast," he added.
Despite copyright concerns, Duke students and faculty appear to be receptive to the future of novel technology mediums in the classroom.
"Duke's willingness to use iPods in the classroom shows a commitment to improving and incorporating technology in the classroom," Hoekstra said.
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