In earlier posts (here and here), I’ve written about the continuinng medical education (CME) programs we’ve been conducting in the virtual world of Second Life. The most recent of these - Smoking Cessation with Motivational Interviewing – was a three-event series (sponsored by CS2day) that ran in June, 2011. Working with the enormously talented machinima artist, Ariella Furman, from Framed in 3D, we put together a summary video of the program:
I love the way this video captures the feeling of the workshop – the presence you feel from the avatars listening, the tentativeness of their attempts at role-play (and how hard that is), the sense of the physical space where the events took place, and the dynamism in the facilitator’s explanations of motivational interviewing technique. Considering the fact that this program ran for six hours in real time, you get a pretty darned good take on it in three minutes.
Video is a powerful medium. No doubt about it. Not only does it have an emotional quality to it (that amplifies its impact) but it packs information efficiently. The only catch is that when we show a video to students, we like to sort of narrate it, explain it, or at least provide context. We like to point out important things, ask questions, or make sure that the students get all the connections. Those requirements usually mean that valuable in-class time is required to show video.