Video mediated teaching of young students in peripheral regions of the Nordic countries - a discussion of problems and potentials

Modern labour market is characterized by high educational demands. However, the opportunities for young people living in peripheral regions of countries of meeting such demands are reduced. Modern technology and improvements of video technology widened the possibilities of providing young people in these areas with education and has given rise to an increase in the interest of using video mediated teaching. Recent years several experiments have been implemented in Denmark and in the Nordic countries in general. In a Danish region a comprehensive innovation project including video mediated simultaneous teaching at two locations was implemented in years 2008 - 2010 (Andreasen, 2012). Drawing on theory of Etienne Wenger (2004) about learning and communities of practice this article discusses results from the dialogue research related to the project. The article will discuss problems and potentials of learning in such environments. Results from the research indicate that the video mediated teaching has serious impact on student participation. Among other things students have to be able to work very independently and discussions and dialogues in class are influenced by the technology. The video mediated teaching seems to be demanding for some students especially students with different kinds of social or academic problems.Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge University Press.Andreasen, K. E. (2012). VIU: Projekt VIrtuel Undervisning : Rapport fra følgeforskningen oktober 2012. Aalborg Universitet.