{"id":6805,"date":"2022-10-31T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=6805"},"modified":"2022-10-29T15:10:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-29T20:10:03","slug":"no-cameras-allowed-does-taking-pictures-during-lectures-benefit-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/no-cameras-allowed-does-taking-pictures-during-lectures-benefit-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNo Cameras Allowed:\u201d Does Taking Pictures During Lectures Benefit Learning?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should students use cameras to take pictures of boardwork?<\/p>\n

My high school students know my fierce anti-cell-phone policy. Nonetheless, they do occasionally ask if they may take a quick picture. (I typically say yes, and then check to be sure the phone goes back in the bag.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I do PD work at schools, or present at conferences, teachers take pictures of my slides ALL THE TIME.<\/p>\n

Of course, the fact that students and teachers want<\/em> to take those pictures doesn\u2019t automatically mean that it\u2019s a good idea<\/em> to do so.<\/p>\n

In fact, we have several reasons to think it\u2019s a bad idea<\/em>.<\/p>\n

First reason<\/strong>: those photos might serve as subtle hint to our brain\u2019s memory systems: \u201cyou don\u2019t need to remember this, because you\u2019ve got a photo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second reason<\/strong>: the act of taking a photo might distract students (and teachers) from the content we\u2019re discussing.<\/p>\n

For example: If my students are<\/em> thinking about framing the photo correctly (and using a cool filter), they\u2019re NOT thinking about the ways that Fences<\/em> combines both comic and tragic symbols.<\/p>\n

Third reason<\/strong>: we\u2019ve got research!<\/p>\n

Check this out\u2026<\/p>\n

Prior Knowledge<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Researchers have looked at this question for several years now.<\/p>\n

In several studies, for instance, researchers asked participants to tour a museum and take pictures of various works of art.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, later tests revealed that people remember more about the artwork they didn\u2019t <\/em>photograph than the artwork they did<\/em> photograph.<\/p>\n

As predicted above, something about taking a photograph made it harder \u2013 not easier \u2013 to remember the content.<\/p>\n

For all these reasons, it seems, teachers might reasonably discourage<\/em> students from taking photos.<\/p>\n

At the same time, we should probably keep asking questions<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In particular, we should acknowledge that museum<\/em> photography probably isn\u2019t a good stand-in for classroom<\/em> photography.<\/p>\n

That is: my students (and teachers during PD) probably take photographs to help themselves remember important ideas, concepts, and examples<\/em>. In museums, people might take pictures because that statue is so cool and beautiful!<\/em><\/p>\n

The museum research offers a useful and interesting baseline, but we\u2019d love some research into \u2026 say \u2026 actual classrooms.<\/p>\n

Cheesemaking, and Beyond!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Well, I\u2019ve got good news. A research team — led by Dr. Annie Ditta at the University of California, Riverside — has indeed started exploring exactly these questions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In their studies, Team Ditta had students watch 3 short online video lectures about obscure topics. (Like, cheesemaking. No, I\u2019m not joking.)<\/p>\n

Participants took pictures of half of the slides.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the primary question: did students remember more information from the photographed <\/strong>slides, or the unphotographed <\/strong>slides?<\/p>\n

SURPRISE! Taking pictures helped students remember the information on the slide.<\/em><\/p>\n

For the reasons listed above, I did not expect that result. In fact, the researchers didn\u2019t either.<\/p>\n

But, those photos really helped.<\/p>\n

In one study, students got 39% of the questions right for the slides they photographed, and 29% right for the ones they didn\u2019t. (Stats folks: Cohen\u2019s d was 0.41.)<\/p>\n

Given how EASY this strategy is, we should really pay attention to this finding.<\/p>\n

By the way, Dr. Ditta’s study explored some other questions as well.<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>: students remembered info from photographed slides better both when they decided<\/em> which slides to photograph and when they were told<\/em> which ones to photograph.<\/p>\n

So, if we tell students to \u201cphotograph this information,\u201d we (probably) don\u2019t disrupt the benefit.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>: what about spoken <\/em>information?<\/em><\/p>\n

Common sense suggests that taking a picture won\u2019t help<\/strong> remember spoken ideas (if those ideas aren\u2019t written on the slide). In fact, taking that picture might distract<\/strong> students from the spoken words.<\/p>\n

Strangely, in this research, Team Ditta came up with mixed \u2013 and surprising \u2013 results. In one study, taking a picture made no difference<\/em> in memory of spoken material. In the other, it benefitted<\/em> memory of spoken material.<\/p>\n

WOW.<\/p>\n

So, What Should Teachers Do?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Before we rush to apply research in our classrooms, we always want to ask a few questions.<\/p>\n

In this case, I think we should have LOTS of questions.<\/p>\n

First: Dr. Ditta’s research looked at brief, online lectures<\/em> for college students<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Do these conclusions apply to longer classes? To in-person classes? For K-12 students? To students who aren\u2019t neurotypical?<\/p>\n

We just don\u2019t (yet) know.<\/p>\n

Second: participants in these studies didn\u2019t do anything<\/em> with the photos. They simply took<\/em> them.<\/p>\n

Would we find the same pattern for students who reviewed<\/em> their photos, compared to \u2013 say \u2013 reviewing their notes<\/em>?<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t (yet) know.<\/p>\n

Third: participants were tested on their knowledge 5 minutes<\/em> after the videos were done.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got LOTS of research<\/a>\u00a0showing that short-term gains don\u2019t necessarily result in long-term learning.<\/p>\n

So, would these findings hold a week later? A month later?<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t (yet) know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Given all the things we don\u2019t know<\/em>, how can this research benefit us?<\/p>\n

For me, these studies open up new possibilities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the past, as I described above, I permitted students (and teachers) to take photos. But I tried to discourage them.<\/p>\n

I would even \u2013 on occasion \u2013 explain all the reasons above why<\/em> I thought taking photos would reduce<\/em> learning.<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019m no longer going to discourage.<\/p>\n

Instead, I\u2019ll explain the complex possibilities.<\/p>\n

Perhaps taking photos helps memory <\/em>because it signals that THIS INFORMATION DESERVES ATTENTION.<\/p>\n

Or, perhaps taking photos helps only if students DON\u2019T review before tests. But, taking notes<\/em> would help more \u2026 especially the students who DO review before tests.<\/p>\n

And perhaps, just perhaps, this research team got flukey results because even well-done research sometimes produces flukey results<\/em>. Future classroom research about taking photos of slides might ultimately suggest that (despite this thoughtful work), it really is a bad idea.<\/p>\n

I wish the answer were simpler, but it just isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Surprising new research suggests that taking photos of lecture slides helps college students remember slide contents \u2013 even when students don\u2019t review those photos.<\/p>\n

Before we teachers rush to make dramatic changes, we should think carefully how this research fits our classrooms and contexts.<\/p>\n

And, we should weigh this memory strategy against lots of other strategies \u2013 like retrieval practice.<\/p>\n

Finally: let\u2019s all watch this space!<\/p>\n

\n

Ditta, A. S., Soares, J. S., & Storm, B. C. (2022). What happens to memory for lecture content when students take photos of the lecture slides?.\u00a0Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Soderstrom, N. C., & Bjork, R. A. (2015). Learning versus performance: An integrative review.\u00a0Perspectives on Psychological Science<\/i>,\u00a010<\/i>(2), 176-199.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should students use cameras to take pictures of boardwork? My high school students know my fierce anti-cell-phone policy. Nonetheless, they do occasionally ask if they may take a quick picture. (I typically say yes, and then check to be sure the phone goes back in the bag.) When I do PD work at schools, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-6805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-classroom-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6805"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6812,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6805\/revisions\/6812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}