"CAMCORDERS"- A HI TECH AID TO CONSTRUCTION EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION

Teaching specialized construction methods and techniques to construction and engineering students often leads to difficulty for both the teacher, in presentation of a technique in an easily recognizable format, and for the student, in visualizing and understanding the presentation [6]. Over the years educators have strived to incorporate into their presentations the innovative teaching and learning aids available to them, such as the slateboards and abacuses.

Natural progression allowed the transition from such innovations as sliderules, electronic calculators and programmable electronic calculators to the current "favored child" teaching and learning aid -- the micro computer. While acknowledging the vast potential of the micro computer, it must be recognized that the lack of a comprehensive plan and the lag in developing construction coursework software has to some extent restricted the smooth incorporation of microcomputers into construction education curricula.

Interactive video technology, akin to microcomputers, has also been billed as an instructional technology of extraordinary versatility and potential [2] but has presented similar implementa­tion difficulties.

Camcorders, the generic classification of portable video cassette recorders (VCR), a largely neglected "hi tech" development lacking the academic appeal of the microcomputer, presents many attributes worthy of investigation and trial to expand its use as a teaching and learning tool. On the basis of simple adaptability to construction education curricula and in cost benefit terms, the camcorder is a technology of unlimited potential benefit to both teachers and students.

CAMCORDER TECHNOLOGY

In 1982 two piece VCR's were the pride and joy of all home movie makers. The shoulder resting unit, big, awkward, and weighing approximately seven pounds, soon was outdated by a one piece miniaturized unit weighing approximately two pounds. The current style of camcorder using VHS full size cassettes accounts for over 60% of all VCR sales in North America [5] and with zoom lens, stop/start button, time lapse sequencing, freeze-frame, editing and dubbing, high quality production capability is readily achieved. Simplicity is the key to this plan, shoot and view technology.

Cote and Snell [3] and Nutt [6] offer sound practical advice on program production, and observation of the following general rules should provide a technically sound, high quality video with exceptional benefit to construction students:-

The key is thorough preplanning and, although this phase is faculty time consuming, the end product should justify the means.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The following subsections detail practical camcorder use in several aspects of construction education.

Field Trips

A welcome diversion anticipated by engineering and construction students was the field trip, organized and sponsored by the University, to various construction projects and construction related plant operations. A field trip provided two distinct but equally appropriate benefits to the students -- enhancement of construction knowledge and an enjoyable sojourn from the pressures of academic life. This educational element, the construction field trip, has largely disappeared from the academic environment due in part to OSHA regulations, University policies, and very high liability insurance costs [4]. These health and safety aspects, restrictive policies, and high costs need not prevent the benefit of academic field trips nor deny the construction student the opportunity and experience of viewing the subject of the field trip. The focus of implementation is the only aspect that needs to change.

Use of the camcorder provides an acceptable alternative to personal site attendance by providing the sight and sound experience -- the next best thing to being there. Construction Product Plants which lend themselves to field trips are numerous, but typical examples would be:

Structures such as reservoirs, dams, sewage and water treatment plants are examples of construction styles which are unusual enough to be valid video applications.

Whereas videos of Plant operations are generally completed in a single visit, a structures field trip provides the facility to proceed with planned time staggered visits which allow the student to view the sequential progress and development of the complete structure. It is surely a very valuable experience for construction students to be able to repeatedly view the development of the total process to reinforce their knowledge and understanding of it.

Construction Management

Construction management includes management of four major resources of the industry, namely, labor, material, equipment and money.

In most University construction programs the education courses relating to the material, equipment, and money resources provide adequate theoretical and practical training. Although some labor management studies are generally included, this resource is probably the most difficult to manage due to the unpredictability of human nature.

In line with the philosophy that "managers are born and net made", the development of latent instinct and intuitive skills in future construction managers must be encouraged and nurtured. Whenever people interact the possibility of disagreement exists. Therefore, interpersonal conflict resolution is an important aspect of people management.

This is accomplished by staging mock site meetings in the classroom with students playing the roles of typical participants (e.g. architect/engineer, site engineer, superintendent, subcontractor, and supplier representatives) and an agenda of contentious issues to be resolved. The staged meeting is video-taped to record the words, looks, gestures, and postures adopted by, the individual players as the situation develops.

With an impasse, or at the instructor's discretion, the exercise is terminated. After peer and instructor comments and evaluation, the video tape is played back to allow the participants to retrospectively review and criticize their performance. A remarkable fact constantly emerges­- that being that the participants do not react to the situations as they imagined or predicted they would. The experience gained from the role playing exercise provides personal insight which, through repeated viewing, improves their ability to handle interpersonal conflicts.

The use of the camcorder, with its immediate play­back feature, in this classroom situation is of tremendous import in recognizing personality traits and their effects on human inter-relationships.

Heavy Construction Equipment

There is a plethora of good textbooks on the subject of heavy construction equipment which describe in some detail the physical characteristics and operation of the major pieces, particularly earth­moving equipment. Two-dimensional still photographs augment the words in conveying the essence of the equipment. For construction students with practical site experience and the ability to visualize the operation and function of the equipment the words and pictures textbook presentation is probably adequate. The less fortunate student in terms of practical site experience derives at best a vague appreciation of the equipment. Teaching a course on such a dynamic subject utilizing the textbook approach tests the acumen of even the most proficient, experienced instructor. Videos supplied by heavy equipment manufacturers and distributors introduce the aspect of motion. However, those sales-oriented videos show limited construction site application.

A carefully planned faculty-produced video showing the equipment doing the work it is designed to do in the environment in which it will normally do it provides critical and intimate knowledge to both the instructor and the student.

For instance, in describing how a standard scraper picks up and dumps a load, words such as drawbar, bowl, gate, ejector, cab and blade provide little connected meaning and explanation of the equipment operation. Even a detailed explanation by the instructor may not clarify the mechanical inter­connections. A well-conceived video of a standard scraper trundling over the screen with zoom lens detailing of the connected parts moving, supported by a precise commentary on the functioning parts by the instructor, provides an exceptional forum for a depth of knowledge difficult to achieve by traditional teaching methods. For clarity, the video can be projected directly from the camcorder to a large screen rather than the restricted view seen on a monitor. This video presentation provides the sight and sound experience but negates the fumes, dirt, and dust of real life construction equipment operating.

This heavy construction equipment teaching aid may be expanded to include any piece of equipment. The benefits are self-evident:

Construction Analysis

Professional constructors must be educated and trained to make intelligent choices between

alternative acceptable methods of construction which take into account the impact of structural integrity_ and economic factors, e.g. cost benefit analysis and life cycle costs.

Classroom study of alternative construction methods and building techniques is essential for such choices, and the camcorder technology provides a system which presents on video the option of choices available. Analysis of constantly recurring construction elements would improve, but the most dramatic change in analysis would occur when reviewing construction methods and techniques of an unusual or unique character, e.g. slurry wall construction, well point systems, soldier pile and lagging systems and lock/dam construction, to list a few. The camcorder excels as a teaching and learning aid of these particular elements.

Not only is method analysis possible from a well-produced video tape, but using time lapse sequencing analysis may also be undertaken of the elusive character called productivity. In the classroom setting the video set on a frame-by-frame movement presents enough information to detect aspects such as poor labor movement, material positioning, and other factors which affect productivity.

The benefits of camcorder use in construction analysis relate to:

Health and Safety

An important part of construction management at all levels is the education of employees so they may recognize dangerous site conditions or situations. A sign of the times in the industry is the appointment by construction companies of safety officers whose sole responsibility is identifying and correcting unsafe conditions. On-site deaths and serious accidents due to non-compliance with health and safety codes have resulted in more frequent charges against superintendents on criminal negligence charges. Reid [7] suggests the best time to start health and safety training is in the university or college classroom.

OSHA notes that three main factors are the cause of construction accidents [7] namely:

Armed with this information, a training video may be produced which presents both real and staged potential site hazards and unsafe conditions. Whereas other video productions may be of a passive nature, the best health and safety training videos demand active student involvement in recognizing site dangers and offering corrective action. Stressing with construction students the necessity of a healthy respect for human life and teaching them to develop an awareness of potential danger hopefully results in them retaining these concerns as a priority once they achieve management positions. Camcorder videos are an excellent teaching and learning tool in this aspect of construction.

CONCLUSION

Bizan [1] suggests that memory and retention of information is greatly improved when review of the information is conducted in an orderly manner. Camcorder technology facilitates this feature of information retention in a simple, convenient package -- the video tape. The benefits or otherwise of a new technology are generally based on subjective opinion and this evaluation is not exempt from that criticism. On reflection and consideration, the camcorder technology offers more pros than cons.

Prior to listing the advantages of the camcorder technology, it is useful to suggest some precursors to video preparation, namely:

Perceived advantages are as follows:

The only disadvantage noted in the review of the camcorder technology relates to the faculty time consumed in the preplanning and production of the videotape. Even this aspect may be made positive by acknowledging the faculty learning process of thinking through the most advantageous teaching approach to the production.

The camcorder technology offers diverse application to construction education curricula where the only limiting factor is the imagination and ingenuity of the producer and presenter. The technology allows a teacher to question and confirm his construction knowledge and, in the process, provides better preparation for his prime purpose- excellence in construction education.

Future Development

Several areas where the camcorder may be used in the future are:

Other uses currently being expanded are distance learning courses, and construction site use [8].

REFERENCES