Video as an educational tool in autism.

Emergence

2010-11-24T13:41:00.000-08:00

I may be somewhat disappointed with the quantity of data I have to deal with, but not with the quality of it, nor the variety of ways it can be analysed. I do of course hope that time remains to gather more, and for those who have already participated, you can be sure I will be contacting you again, and will hope to interview some of you in more depth.

What is interesting is what is beginning to emerge from the first sights of the data. I cannot be sure of course, since I need to apply statistical analyses of variance, but I think there may be some interesting effects there.

What is also interesting in the 'Chinese' sense of that, is that when I submitted two sample chapters of my eventual write up, one of the criticisms, or some might say back handed complements depending upon your perspective, is that I was called upon for being too positivist, too empirical.

Well that is the consequence of standing midway between science and the humanities in my "epistemology"

The qualitative data that I can cull from this, as someone embedded in the phenomenon, with my own "verstehen" will be second to none, thanks to you, my participants. You might not realise it from the task that you given me such invaluable information regarding not only the cognitive realities of autism, but the social construction of the situation we all find ourselves in and the way society attempts to remedy this educationally.

Half way

2010-06-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

I am approximately half way through my research. That is to say I am in the latter half of my third year. (unlike undergrad and taught degrees, research degrees run from September to September)

I believe that I am on track and where I ought to be at this stage, the data will soon be ready for analysis, which will be the next step, after I have got through a summer of presenting on ethics. The ethical dimension of research and the problems within the science, are what could be called a subsidiary finding of this research, which is always cognisant of the sociological dimension and reflective with regard to the position of the researcher being a part of the group he researches, and therefore having a position within that with regard to the wider ethical implications of such research. It will be a major achievement to present a humanities biased poster at an important scientific conference at Cambridge in September

The next stage

2010-05-27T03:25:00.000-07:00

The next stage of my research is taking place this month with a live video showing and questionnaire to compare with the online results.

This is taking place over the following days
Tuesday 8th June 10.00 - 12.00
Friday 18th June 2.00 - 4.00

In room 410 (4th floor) School of Education,
University of Birmingham,
Edgebaston, Birmingham

Problems with email

2009-11-18T03:43:00.000-08:00

It would appear that at least in some cases the mail from the discussion and communication list set up for this project is being identified as spam. It is not something I can control, though it is surprising that an academic list is being treated this way by various ISP's spam heuristics. It seems that the spammers have a lot to be responsible for in destroying the potential of the internet.

Therefore I am having to communicate individually again and have set up a new distribution list to remind participants who are yet to complete the video viewing task and questionnaire.

If you are recieving multiple reminders and have completed it already, my apologies.

I would also wish to remind participants not to discuss the project on any mailing lists they share as this could compromise the results from an academic viewpoint.

If anyone has any public comment they wish to share about the research they can use the comments feature on this blog, or otherwise please use the mailing list

autvideo(at)jiscmail(dot)ac (dot uk.

People who are new to this study and want to volunteer please fill in the Questionnaire on http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/bham/autvideo

Ready to go:

2009-11-01T13:08:00.000-08:00

By the end of the 2nd of November (GMT) the online video experiment will be live. Those who are signed up to the mailing list will recieve a message concerning the URL and mirror URL.

I will also be launching an appeal for new participants as well, who will need to fill in the initial questionaire which details I will also publish again tommorrow.

Following this there will be an appeal for NT online participants (as a control group)

There will also be a version of the AQ/EQ test online which participants will be encouraged (though not compelled) to complete. Completion of the test will not be taken to be an endorsement of approval of the ethics or methodology of the test.

Project temporarily stalled

2008-10-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

Following on my successful presentation at the NAS international conference "Research into action"

(details available by clicking here)

I had hoped to be getting on with editing the final segment of video for the experiment itself. Unfortunately I am still mired in copyright problems somewhat complicated by the circumstances of the ownership of the video.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/aug/26/bbc.business

In the meantime enjoy this little example from the not so distant past which illustrates how not to make an educational video :)

Revised methodology

2008-06-02T04:19:00.000-07:00

I have considered some revisions to my methodology in order to ensure that distant participants (including non UK residents) can be included.

There have been problems selecting suitable material, both from a pragmatic base of what might be appropriate and what may be legally possible without infringing copyrights. It seems some organisations are very strict about modifying the material, which is necessary due to length.

It would also not be pragmatic to present material online, because of the copyright issues and because I not everyone has equal access to good broadband services and computer equipment that would allow multiple windowing. It has been in all too impractical for me to either obtain or design a programme that would allow the collection of data this way

Therefore the material will be available to two of the experimental groups in the form of a DVD. The questions themselves will be available via web access.

This will have the advantage of being able to compare the responses of the groups who have continual access to the material, in order to review and revise it, and those who are presented with the material in a classroom setting.

I am still in the progress of writing up a full explanation of the methodology and am pleased to report it has been accepted for a poster presentation at the Disability Studies Association conference at Lancaster University later this year.

I will also be presenting another paper at this conference which examines my role as a researcher and the way in which medical science in general has been constrained by it's own definitions in terms of what it researches so far as autism is concerned. It is hoped that I will be able to find an open access publisher for this paper which forms part of the background to my research.

Second Report

2008-02-14T13:46:00.000-08:00

This is the second feed back report of my doctoral research looking at the effectiveness of video as an educational tool for people on the autistic spectrum.

The study involves adults on the autistic spectrum and a control group who are not on the autistic spectrum. Participants will respond to a questionnaire about their video-watching and buying habits, view one or more educational videos (or parts of videos) about autism or related subjects and answer questions about them. For a more complete introduction to the study please refer to my earlier blog:

http://autvideo.blogspot.com/2007/12/introduction-to-my-research.html

So far I have had 95 replies to the questionnaire - good going but I need more so if you have not replied to this yet please do so: http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/bham/autvideo

For those of you who have, and who have volunteered, thank you. I will be in touch. One of the problems is finding a way to involve those who cannot travel to Birmingham or Coventry to take part. This has exercised my mind as well as my conscience and I am currently working on a way to facilitate participation online by watching my prepared video material and then answering the questions on it. Hopefully that will be possible, in the meantime please be patient.

I have not yet finished preparing the video material I intend to use in the experimental part of my research, however it is in progress, and I am delaying anything further until the publication of the NAS communication magazine which will give others who do not yet know about this project, the opportunity to participate.

First Report

2008-01-21T07:31:00.000-08:00

This is the first feed back report of my doctoral research looking at the effectiveness of video as an educational tool for people on the autistic spectrum.

The study involves adults on the autistic spectrum and a control group who are not on the autistic spectrum. Participants will respond to a questionnaire about their video-watching and buying habits, view one or more educational videos (or parts of videos) about autism or related subjects and answer questions about them. For a more complete introduction to the study please refer to my earlier blog:

http://autvideo.blogspot.com/2007/12/introduction-to-my-research.html

The URL for the Questionnaire is here .

http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/bham/autvideo

The on line questionnaire was launched on 20^th January and in the first day has had over fifty respondents. This has revealed a couple of snags with the questionnaire which future respondents may wish to take note of.

Question 13: about occupation does not allow more than one answer, so that if someone is both working and a parent with caring responsibilities they cannot tick both boxes. The purpose of the question was to get a rough guide to respondents economic status and the inability to give multiple answers so this is an oversight I apologise for.

If you are both working and a parent there is opportunity to signify that you are a parent in the final open question 20: if you wish to.

I have also had responses that the reference in question 3: “in the last year” is ambiguous. This refers to the time period of 1 year’s duration, not the calendar year that has just begun. This is consistent with the same usage in the previous question that refers to specific time periods of question 2.

It is inevitable that problems of respondent’s interpretations occur in any questionnaires which I have issues of the same kind myself with the Cambridge AQ and EQ questionnaires which were developed and tested to give a standardised measure, yet there is still subjectivity in the responses that can be made.

However that does not invalidate their use in this study or others for the purposes of comparison.

Introduction to my research

2007-12-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

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