Both the Sheffield and BNU teams had expertise in the development and production of video material as part of e-learning content. Not only does the visualisation of content help considerably with overcoming language and understanding barriers, but in China it is a widely used method of transmitting content to learners in local study centres.

We reached agreement that the use of video would be particularly appropriate for presenting case study examples of the use of ICT in classroom contexts. Sheffield was able to go into a Sheffield school and film three different case studies of the use of ICT in the classroom with accompanying teacher and pupil narratives. The videos were produced by the Learning Development and Media Unit at the University of Sheffield.

We introduced the concept of video triggers – that is, the use of video clips with associated questions to stimulate reflective thinking about issues related to the use of ICT in the classroom.

Because of technical problems associated with video streaming, we were not able to embed the video triggers in the e-learning materials. This meant that we had to try to provide each learner with a DVD copy of the video triggers by arranging with BNU to copy our prototype DVD. In practice, this meant that many of the learners participating in the trial did not have access to the video triggers, either because they did not get a copy of the DVD or that there were technical problems about playing the DVD.

However, despite these problems, the evaluation and feedback we have received from BNU and learners have made us realise that the video triggers were very successful. We want to build on the capacity of visualisation of material in Phase 2.