User-Generated Tagging and Segmentation of Video Records of Practice: A Tool for Meaning-Marking.

Abstract

The field of teacher education is consciously shifting its focus to be more “practice-oriented” and increasingly using video as a way of examining teaching practice. However, questions remain about how educators make sense of video and what types of tools and supports are needed. This exploratory study examines the potential of user-generated segmenting and tagging of videos of teaching practice as a tool for marking what educators find salient about teaching and the language they use to describe those phenomena.

Data was collected in a teacher education program where video was used extensively for the purposes of learning about and improving teaching practice. There were two participant groups: pre-service teachers (n=6) and teacher educators/educational researchers (n=8). Each participant watched the same 8-minute video of practice and applied segments and tags to the video. The data included segments and tags created by each participant, interviews, and questionnaires; themes in the data were uncovered using content analysis. Interview data was used to interpret participants’ meaning in order to accurately categorize the tags. Using tag gardening strategies, hierarchal and networked tagging language was visualized.

Findings indicate that user-generated segment and tag data of video records of practice can provide insight into what participants pay attention to and the language they use to describe that meaning making. This study uncovered three tensions that influenced participants’ segmenting and tagging behavior: findability versus nuance, concerns with being critical, and the need for a social context and community of practice. Educators’ specific and unique needs, purposes, and culture directly affected what participants marked as salient and what tagging language they used, resulting in some misleading segment and tag data.

This work provides insights into the design of segmenting and tagging video tools and online communities of practice that support educators’ use of video. This research is particularly relevant to teacher education professionals and designers of tools that support educators’ use of video records of practice, laying the groundwork for further research on using and designing video annotation tools that support the work of teaching and aggregate data about how educators are making sense of videos of teaching.