Monday 10 December 2007

Introduction to my research

This Blog is intended to introduce and keep people up to date about the progress of my doctoral research into the effectiveness of video as an educational tool for autistic people.

The current qualifications I hold which are relevant to this task are a CertHE in Autistic Spectrum Disorders and a PGCert Autism Adults from the University of Birmingham School of Education and an HND in Media (moving image).

I have also assisted with and produced two autism videos/DVD's myself.

My other personal involvements with autism include being a trustee and councillor of the National Autistic Society and a participant in various on and off line groups of autistic people

My research is based with the Autism Centre for Education and Research at the University of Birmingham and my supervisor is Dr Mitzi Waltz.

My research will involve an extensive literature review within the fields of education and media/film studies combining the two areas of my interest and expertise in an innovative way.

The methodology will involve two groups of autistic people, and one control group of non autistic people, who will be watching specific videos, answering questions and being involved in specific tasks.

In addition there will be research of a more qualitative nature utilising focus groups and more general interviews, looking also at the perspectives of the industry and markets for education videos in autism and the current use of video in education.

Research subjects will be drawn from as wide a demographic base as possible and the innovation I intend to introduce, for those research subjects who are interested is the ability to comment. critique and inform the work in progress via a separate electronic mailing list which I have set up for this purpose.

I believe this research is of some importance and relevance, when one considers the amount of video material that is being produced, the presumed power of media in our lives and the lack of a research base into how autistic cognitive styles affect the perception of and ability to learn from the moving image.

Laurence Arnold FRSA

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Larry,

I was kind of expecting to see videos about videos.. I'm still not clear about what your research is supposed to be but there you go I need the visual and audio clues... :-)

V.

Larry Arnold PhD FRSA said...

Ever the muddle headed Wombat, perhaps not the best start to an academic blog, but instructive none the less :)

Perhaps I should make a video just for you. Perhaps I already have.

dinah said...

good heavens! this sounds almost like science ;)
and it sounds very useful...
big hooray from me!

Anonymous said...

Hi Larry,

It all sounds interesting and worthy; too much research does not focus on the actual needs of people and ways of developing support or influencing lives; best of luck and I will certainly be interested in progress.

Estee Klar-Wolfond said...

Adam is a huge video learner. As a baby, he of course learned the alphabet, numbers, words -- he watches children "socialize" on videos -- not ones specifically made for this purpose -- he just pays attention. He practices the sentences they say by saying them himself, he learned "how to imitate" by watching children do it -- he reads what I type along with what I say.

Hopefully needless to say, I am VERY interested in your research.

All the best with it!