Some Effects of Video Streaming on Educational Achievement1 This project was supported by a contract from United Learning Corporation, now Discovery Education.

Abstract

Although much contemporary thinking leads to the expectation that communication technology, such as video streaming, enhances educational performance on the average, a dearth of strong evidence consistent or inconsistent with this claim precludes a thoughtful evaluation of it. A series of experiments designed to examine this proposition contributes to filling this lacuna. Third- and eighth-grade students either received or did not receive exposure to one such application, unitedstreaming™, in either their science or social studies classes (or both). Results indicated that this video-streaming application resulted in higher mean examination performance in third-grade science, third-grade social studies, and eighth-grade social studies. No differences between those exposed to this communication technology and those not exposed to it emerged in the eighth-grade science experiment.