Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities - Division on ...

eady. An additional challenge <strong>in</strong> us<strong>in</strong>g videotapes
was the difficulty the teacher had dur<strong>in</strong>g
<strong>in</strong>struction <strong>in</strong> fast forward<strong>in</strong>g to the next
prompt when a tape was set up for a special
delay <strong>in</strong>terval. She found that she often fast
forwarded through the step <strong>and</strong> had to
rew<strong>in</strong>d. These problems, however, were
m<strong>in</strong>or.
A problem <strong>in</strong>herent to the task itself was
that students experienced down time while
wait<strong>in</strong>g for water to boil or items to cook.
Others who teach cook<strong>in</strong>g skills us<strong>in</strong>g video
prompt<strong>in</strong>g may want to use this downtime <strong>in</strong> a
productive manner by <strong>in</strong>sert<strong>in</strong>g nontarget <strong>in</strong>formation.
For example, Jones <strong>and</strong> Coll<strong>in</strong>s
(1997) stated safety <strong>and</strong> nutrition facts while
potatoes were cook<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the microwave, <strong>and</strong>
Fiscus et al. (2002) followed <strong>in</strong>structional trials
by present<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> nam<strong>in</strong>g cook<strong>in</strong>g utensils.
If words or sentences are presented on the
videotape, the <strong>in</strong>structor could use downtime
to call attention to <strong>and</strong> review these based on
the results of the Fiscus et al. study <strong>in</strong> which
the students learned to read words <strong>and</strong> sentences
that accompanied pictures <strong>in</strong> their recipe
books.
A limitation to the <strong>in</strong>vestigation is that the
students only learned two skills each due to
the end of the school year. There were, however,
six replications of the effectiveness of the
procedure by the time the <strong>in</strong>vestigation
ended, which is sufficient to build believability
<strong>in</strong> the procedure.
In spite of this limitation <strong>and</strong> other problems
mentioned above, video prompt<strong>in</strong>g appears
to be an efficient way to teach cook<strong>in</strong>g
skills. Once the teacher purchased the blank
videotapes, there were no other costs of produc<strong>in</strong>g
the videotape s<strong>in</strong>ce a bus<strong>in</strong>ess teacher
from the high school <strong>and</strong> a few students from
his Video Production class recorded <strong>and</strong> produced
the videotape at no cost us<strong>in</strong>g iMovie
software <strong>and</strong> an iMac computer. They downloaded
the task from a video recorder to a
VHS tape us<strong>in</strong>g a TV/VCR available <strong>in</strong> the
school’s library. While produc<strong>in</strong>g videotape
was a good class project (<strong>and</strong> would make a
good service learn<strong>in</strong>g project), the procedure
was easy enough that the teacher, if needed,
could have done this <strong>in</strong>dependently follow<strong>in</strong>g
m<strong>in</strong>imal <strong>in</strong>struction. In the Branham et al.
(1999) <strong>in</strong>vestigation, the teacher <strong>in</strong>dependently
made the videotape us<strong>in</strong>g school equip-
44 / <strong>Education</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Developmental</strong> <strong>Disabilities</strong>-March 2005
ment, <strong>and</strong>, <strong>in</strong> the Norman et al. (2001) <strong>in</strong>vestigation,
the teacher made the videotape at no
cost with the assistance of a university staff
person.
The authors of this <strong>in</strong>vestigation have several
recommendations for other teachers who
might want to use video prompt<strong>in</strong>g (Coll<strong>in</strong>s,
2003). First, select functional skills for <strong>in</strong>struction;
community cha<strong>in</strong>ed tasks can be taught
with videotapes <strong>in</strong> simulations (Branham et
al., 1999; Mechl<strong>in</strong>g et al., 2002) while domestic
or self-care tasks (Norman et al., 2001) can
be taught directly from videotapes <strong>in</strong> the classroom
sett<strong>in</strong>g. Second, construct task analyses
prior to shoot<strong>in</strong>g the videotape; the task analyses
can be a guide for edit<strong>in</strong>g the videotape
(e.g., <strong>in</strong>sert<strong>in</strong>g delay <strong>in</strong>tervals). Third, determ<strong>in</strong>e
the viewpo<strong>in</strong>t prior to shoot<strong>in</strong>g the videotape;
a subjective viewpo<strong>in</strong>t may be more
appropriate for tasks that use f<strong>in</strong>e motor skills
(e.g., cook<strong>in</strong>g) while a view of the target student
or another person (e.g., peer) at a distance
may be more appropriate for community
tasks with gross motor skills (e.g., cross<strong>in</strong>g
a street). Fourth, consider <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g students,
peers, <strong>and</strong> other personnel <strong>in</strong> the shoot<strong>in</strong>g of
the videotape; also, consider us<strong>in</strong>g a tripod for
videotap<strong>in</strong>g stationary tasks <strong>and</strong> a h<strong>and</strong>held
camera with a zoom lens for shoot<strong>in</strong>g tasks
that require difficult angles. Fifth, after shoot<strong>in</strong>g
the videotape, determ<strong>in</strong>e if it should be
edited; students can either watch a videotape
(with or without audio <strong>and</strong> graphics) <strong>in</strong> its
entirety before perform<strong>in</strong>g a task or can watch
<strong>in</strong>dividual steps with <strong>in</strong>serted response <strong>in</strong>tervals
for perform<strong>in</strong>g one step at a time. Sixth,
use video prompt<strong>in</strong>g with<strong>in</strong> the context of a
systematic response prompt<strong>in</strong>g procedure;
while this study used CTD, other procedures
(e.g., simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g, system of least
prompts) also may be effective. Seventh, decide
who will operate the videotape; while the
teacher used the remote control as the students
attended to cook<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> this <strong>in</strong>vestigation,
teach<strong>in</strong>g students to use the remote control
<strong>in</strong>dependently may free up teacher time.
Eighth, determ<strong>in</strong>e a schedule for collect<strong>in</strong>g
data on student performance; the teacher <strong>in</strong>
this <strong>in</strong>vestigation collected data on a daily basis,
but the use of a simultaneous prompt<strong>in</strong>g
procedure would require the teacher to collect
data only dur<strong>in</strong>g probe trials (which could
be less frequent) <strong>and</strong> not dur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>structional