As it stands, many professors already use PowerPoint or Google Slides as the basis of lectures. A step up is to embed video & audio clips within the slides to introduce a new topic or make a connection between contemporary issues and past ones, or between familiar ideas and esoteric ones. I want to point out, though, that the connection does not have to be direct. For instance, if you are lecturing about civil rights in the 60s, your clip doesn't have to be footage of protests in the 60s or about a civil rights controversy in the 2020s. It certainly can be, but…when it comes to using pop culture to gain students' attention & interest, a humorous clip from a modern t.v. show or a new song that references civil rights or something related can function as a tie-in. One professor has stated that when discussing limitations of water power for nineteenth-century factories, she plays Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" as a lead-in. These are fun, attention-getting inclusions.
What are some important parameters around video & audio clips in lessons?
- Keep them short. For song clips, it is necessary anyway to only play the music for 10 to 30 seconds to avoid a copyright violation. For video, your clip can be up to 2 or 3 minutes. Having a video or audio clip that's notably long can be too much of a lecture interruption wherein students' minds wander from the topic. You as the instructor may also feel awkward standing still and just listening/watching for too long with your students. Not to mention that some students will not like certain clips for various reasons. Choosing clips that are relatively brief ensures that no one student is uncomfortable or unsettled for too long. It also makes sense to leave students wanting more of a good clip than allowing them to be bored or confused by one that goes on for too long. The point is to break the monotony and make a smart, relevant connection.
- Don't go overboard. As with everything, moderation & balance are key. Too many images in a PowerPoint lecture can be distracting; certainly, an overabundance of video & audio clips can be as well.
- Try to avoid showing a video clip or playing an audio clip without commenting on it either before or after (in some cases, comment before and after) and having students do the same. [Don't assume the clips speak for themselves in terms of relevance to your content in your students' view.] When you talk about the relevance or meaning of a clip, students often bring up other things they've seen or heard that are likewise relevant or even more applicable.
- There are three general categories of audio clips: 1) primary source material. For example, a recording of a Martin Luther King Jr. speech, 2) using the name of an artist or the title of a song as a mnemonic device to relate to the material. For instance, Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" as a lead-in to talking about the cotton gin (Eli Whitney) 3) a pop-cultural artifact that relates to a concept (for instance, the Vanilla Ice "Ice, Ice Baby" example given above).
- There are three general categories of video clips: 1) primary source material, such as protest footage from the civil rights, 2) dramatic video that depicts concepts. For instance, the 1989 movie Glory about the Civil War, and 3) relating a situation in a recent movie or t.v. show to a course concept or a theory/idea.
For more insight on the value of video & audio in teaching, as well as the inclusion of pop-cultural connections, be sure to check out these excellent resources:
