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I chose to analyze a unit of study through the YouTube Video "How the Economic Machine Works" by Ray Dalio. But before I discuss this video, its content, merits, and production methodology and effectiveness. I just wanted to give a little context as to how I made this choice. I had fully intended on looking at a teaching tool or app, and scoured the list diligently. Some of the tools I knew and had used, but I wanted something new. What I realized is that most of the apps only worked on a laptop and / or IOS (Apple devices). For two reasons this would not work for me, as I am an android user, and know that about 50% to 60% of students I teach do not have Apple devices. So after finally finding a couple apps that worked on my phone I attempted to learn to use them. Watched YouTube Videos, played with interactive whiteboards, collaboration tools etc. The experience was very frustrating and I now understand why I appreciated the Google platform which works very equally on all devices and operating systems! So that night while reading my book (Money - Master the Game by Tony Robbins - found at Salvation Army just a couple weeks ago while waiting for my wife's tire to be fixed) the author recommended to watch the video "How the Economic Machine Works" by Ray Dalio and presto, I could stop banging my head against the new teacher tool brick wall and review a unit of study instead! So here is the analysis of this online lesson...  The lesson / video is about how the world (and more specifically US) economy works. Why there is ups and downs in the market and what are the reasons for these swings in the market, economy, jobs, money printing, inflation and deflation. Also, in an attempt to better my ability with Jamboard, I made notes on the video as you can see in the diagram above (although it is quite messy, I also learned about the interactive whiteboard ... and making notes too small)! I had to pause the video numerous times, but feel like I learned more in those 30 minutes than I have learned in whole semesters of some undergrad courses. Probably the animated, point form is a media presentation format I like, and the material was of great interest to me, so I was fully engaged and intrigued. I also really liked the graphs and summary wordings, the movement and the representative pictures. It represents how my brain works and learns quite accurately! I would not be surprised if others got very little from the video, or felt overwhelmed, as the information was very fast moving and you would need some pre-requisite knowledge in finance to really engage with much of the material. But try it and see what you think, I had no idea making the economy function was such an intricate task, and that credit / debt are so important to the overall function of this process! So interesting. I would assume that it was quite a difficult process to develop this animated video and took a team of professionals, based on its length and detailed animation. It also has over 20.8 million views, so it is popular. Furthermore, it likely took Ray Dalio, hedge fund manage and respected philanthropist, much of his life to develop this level of understanding so both the video and the content involve a high degree of expertise. Check out his site at https://www.economicprinciples.org/ for more information. This however is also the beauty of the video and modern era, that a lifetime of economic understanding can be amazingly portrayed by a 30 minute cartoon! We have access to more information than ever before and can choose to learn at any pace we embrace. I will definitely watch more of his content, so I guess that is the true test of a learning unit, does the student want to come back to keep learning ... I would say yes (but likely at 0.75 speed in the future)! Thanks for reading.
Jamie Mayoh-Bauche
2/6/2021 02:58:28 pm
This sounds like a very informative video and I plan to check it out. I do not have a strong background in this area though so we will see how I do. I am wondering, given that it is recommended that instructional videos should be short (five minutes or less) do you think this may have been more effective as a series of short videos (would this have given you natural breaks rather than needing to pause it) or did it work well for you in the form its in.
Dylan Johns
2/7/2021 12:40:16 pm
I did pause it a couple times but to be honest, mostly to jot notes down. I enjoy 15 to 45 minute instructional videos, I would say 7 to 20 minute videos for high school students and 5 to 10 for Elementary age learners is ideal based on my non expert opinion!
Dylan, thanks for the very informative video. I loved how the video was set-up and I was hoping that they used a program to make it. However, looking in the credits, I realized that they had people make the video (sad realization for me). Similar to what Jamie said, I felt a bit lost at times through the video (even growing up with an accountant who spent the majority of his career in productivity management for a crown corporation).
Dylan Johns
2/8/2021 05:14:47 am
I always tell students that starting at not understanding and working through that to get to understanding is an important part of making the learning authentic, so sounds like you have started into that process like me! For the students, I would likely go over many of the terms and ideas prior to the video, then watch and have them write down questions they have during watching, then discuss and try to understand as a group. I like the idea of a team or whole class working to understand the content together. To be honest this video is more likely for students at the Uni level, but working together to make sense of the content, I believe a Gr 11 or 12 class could work to be able to extract most of the information and ideas. And if not it would likely plant seeds of curiosity that scaffolding and time would eventually make sense of! Thanks for your questions and comments. Comments are closed.
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