October 2002 — News/In Brief
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DVDs Poised to Become Future Teaching Tool
DVD's Potential
Despite its benefits, some educators surmise that publishers may not be as quick to adopt DVDs. In an article titled "DVD and WebDVD Technologies for Education" (online at: www.chem.purdue.edu/gweaver/manuscripts/Weaver_DVD.htm) in the spring 2002 issue of Newsletter:Using Computers in Chemical Education, Gabriela C. Weaver, an associate professor of chemical education at Purdue University, wrote: "Most of the DVD-Video features are only of moderate interest to educators and because of the large inventory of available laserdisc titles, publishers will be slow to adopt the new medium simply for video display, or even enhanced video display." She g'es on to note that "DVD's future in the classroom will be on computers rather than on stand-alone DVD-Video players, like the stand-alone laserdisc players populating so many schools."
But educational software companies, such as Little Rock, Ark.-based
BestQuest Teaching Systems, are beginning to see the potential of
DVDs as a teaching tool. The company worked with Comchoice to develop
a com-plete line of DVD courseware, including "Algebra'scool," which
teaches a full year of beginning algebra.
"We wanted to create a mathematics tool so easy to use that even noncredentialed teachers could teach a subject like algebra," says J'e Irby, president of BestQuest. Irby says he chose DVD technology as the basis for his company's product not only because its audio and video capabilities are unmatched, but also because of the medium's dynamic interactive navigation features, which allow for nonlinear access to course content. In other words, teachers can use as much of a lesson as they want and move through it at their own pace.
-Anne H. Kim
DVD Links
- BestQuest Teaching Systems
www.bestquest.com
- Comchoice
www.comchoice.com
- McREL
www.mcrel.org
- ScratchCat
www.scratchcat.com
