Finding Two: Authentic Peer Videos
Authentic peer video prompts can help learners move more quickly into meaningful dialogue and move beyond surface conversations.
Professional Production
In this project we learned how complex and difficult it is to produce authentic peer videos as it demands
- sufficient time to build trust and deep connections between diverse students (that is often not available in a classroom setting);
- awareness of social and cultural contexts (that needs preparation and facilitation); and
- labor intense institutional support for recording students (that needs technical and legal support ).
Our two BTtoP videos include examples of effective peer videos by our project partner Crossing Borders Education who specializes in peer video production.
Selfie Videos
Having students record on their own can create very powerful content, but it requires support and design in order to unlock the insights of the video interaction. For example, during the virtual exchange projects between Kansai and James Madison universities, the research team learned by trial and error how to instruct students to frame videos so they are natural but also inspiring for peers to watch.
For example, during the second semester of virtual exchange, students were prompted to reflect with one another on experiences around gender in schooling. Students were asked to view this clip (time code: 01:30-02:40) of a peer sharing her own struggles to work through gender discrimination before breaking into small Zoom groups to respond to her prompts. Watch how in this student-recorded, brief ‘JMU/KU student clip‘ of one of those small groups, students who’ve never met one another develop empathy that extends across language and culture boundaries.
Reflection Activity: Student Video Clip
You are welcome to use the video clip below as a resource. The short description below is just one example of how you might use one of these clips in a learning experience you design.
Suggested Sample Activity around brief clip:
- Watch the James Madison/Kansai student clip (40 sec) (JMU/KU student clip)
- Write, without self censoring, your first impressions: What is happening? What is your inner perception of the Japanese and US students?
- Provide the background: e.g. pre-briefing helped the US student to stay present through the language barrier and then give a genuine response, Japanese students were taking a class on gender norms, etc.
- Watch clip a second time (JMU/KU student clip)
- Reflection: What did you learn about your own perception? What prior experiences have you had that would lead you to the interpretation of the situation you had?
Join us for a free staff demo session to see transforative learning in practice.
Reflection Prompts
- When you consider learning experiences that you design, where you could embed activities like these to improve group cohesion?
- In what ways could you use clips like these to inspire curiosity and judgement suspension in your learners?
