Making Creator Headlines · Page 8
Children Watch the Moving Background, Leaving the Lesson to Compete for Billing
· New York time
A study of children's educational videos found that moving backgrounds can draw attention while also directing it away from the lesson, according to Tubefilter. Researchers at the Indian School of Business and Santa Clara University tracked the eye movements of children ages six to ten and examined viewing rates for clips. The study spanned more than 32,000 videos tagged as made for kids. The finding gives creators and educators a reason to consider what movement is doing in a video. Capturing a viewer's eye and helping that viewer focus on the intended material are not necessarily the same task. A busy background can make itself hard to ignore even when the subject is elsewhere on the screen. The study does not mean that every animated element is harmful or that a motionless video is automatically a better lesson. It does suggest that visual attention deserves more thought than a simple contest to see what moves most. Educational producers have two jobs: attract interest and give that interest somewhere useful to go. The industry's usual reward for a lively screen is more attention. A classroom has a more demanding question: attention to what? The background may be delighted to win the competition, but it was not supposed to be the star. Sometimes the most ambitious thing a designer can do is let the scenery sit quietly while the lesson speaks.
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