Cameras in the classroom – media competence through student teachers’ theoretical reflections on the use of classroom videos?

Abstract Classroom videos are effective in teacher education, allowing students to repeatedly observe authentic lessons without being physically present. This study investigates the extent to which this authenticity exists, given the influence of media technology (e.g. recording devices) inside the classroom and the online reception of such methods outside the classroom. From the perspective of media studies, this influence is evident; nevertheless, it is rarely examined in teacher training. This deficiency was addressed using a compact online survey. The results showed that student teachers’ media competence is not very well-developed under this media studies focus. Approximately half the respondents did not realize that recorded classroom situations differed from non-recorded ones; additionally, none stated that their own perception of these situations online via video is very different from that on site in the classroom. However, the survey represents a compact method for triggering students’ media studies reflection using the example of videography and training them in the critical use of media.


Introduction
Media education should begin in the classroom, which might result in new evaluation standards for videography in the classroom and its use during teacher education at universities.Although this paper focuses on multi-perspective video recording of school lessons and its use in the context of teacher education, it provides insights from videography research, especially media studies positions.Media theories, which have been partially neglected within empirical teacher education, emphasize that the technical media used in any given case affect the assessment of specific teaching situations, irrespective of their concrete uses or the content to be conveyed.Subsequently, evidence for this thesis is determined based on a survey of students who have perceived multi-perspective videos under various content-related didactic focuses in university courses.Specifically, one question is whether students could identify any influence of the cameras and sound recording devices installed for recording video on the respective lessons and how they evaluate that influence.Raising awareness of the possible influence of used technologies or the critical examination of the recording situation and the reception of the recorded lessons outside the classroom supports students' development of media competencies.In this sense, the survey, conducted within the framework of various seminars, both serves to collect relevant research data and represents an adequate method to direct the students' focus on the effects of digital media.Moreover, the survey results can be used to determine the current state of students' media competencies during their participation in the survey.

Multi-perspective videography
Videography is a frequently used didactic method in teacher education to closely interlink university training phases with realistic situations from school and classroom.It is often used as a medium and instrument for teacher professionalization (Kleinknecht & Gröschner, 2016;Krammer & Reusser, 2005).Instructional videos can be used in the context of lectures and seminars to support the acquisition of action-oriented, professional competencies (Gaudin & Chaliès, 2015;Jacobs et al., 2009;Seidel & Thiel, 2017).These videos have the particular advantage of being able to view relevant teaching and learning situations in a repeatable manner and analyze them with a specific focus (Hauenschild et al., 2020;Riegel & Macha, 2013;Sherin, 2003).
Video sequences show practical situations in the teaching profession and make complex teaching processes visible in their holistic nature and variability.They provide good approximations of genuine teacher action and allow reflection on standards, critical problem situations, or good practice examples (Gaudin & Chaliès, 2015;Krammer & Reusser, 2005).More than lesson descriptions, progress plans, and similar materials, lesson videos also make it possible to discuss what happens in the classroom close to school practice (Egger et al., 2019;Jürgens & Nils, 2020;Krammer & Reusser, 2005;Weber et al., 2020), and prospective teachers can reflect on their own actions as teachers after their own lessons have been recorded (Kleinknecht & Gröschner, 2016;Weber et al., 2020).Additionally, multi-perspective recordings can also include the worksheets and other learning materials used in the lesson.In this context, combining screen recordings from digital end devices used in class is also possible in perspective.For example, recordings were made at the University of Hildesheim during the learning of musical instruments while simultaneously using learning software, thus allowing a parallel view of the learning instrumentalists and the respective screen content (Claussen, 2020).
In previous research practice, classroom videos were usually recorded from two camera angles: A dynamic camera perspective following the teacher's behavior in the classroom and an overview camera perspective capturing what is happening in the entire classroom statically (Seidel & Thiel, 2017).In addition to the above-mentioned possibilities for teaching didactics arising from such classroom recordings, such an approach also has limitations.Conventional role conceptions and power relations between teachers and learners are repeated via the visual axes from the teacher to the pupil and from the class to the teacher through the camera positions (Fankhauser, 2013).Teaching processes that go beyond interaction with the teacher in class discussions or student work phases are hardly ever recorded or are often not visible in the videos.However, interactions occur not only with the teacher but also among the pupils, who communicate with each other and mutually stimulate their learning process.This limitation is countered in the Multiview project because of a recording procedure that includes student cameras that record events at the (group) table in detail, in addition to the teacher and overview cameras (see Section 4).In addition to insights into the interactions that affect learning, this also makes it possible to perceive the students' task processing and other individual behaviors within the groups.
Essential aspects of teacher education that are often assessed as deficient or at least problematic, such as students' preparation for actual teaching practice in schools and dealing with heterogeneity there, can be addressed using multi-perspective videography.Simultaneously, the extensive media recording setting in the school context offers an interesting starting point for the application and reflection of digital media both in schools and in teacher-training programs.

Reflecting on the use of digital media through media theory
The use of a digital video platform in teacher education not only offers options for examining student and teacher behavior regarding didactic concepts but also regarding digital media.At this point, the current focus is less on tablet or smartboard use in the classroom, for example, but rather on the influence of recording devices (Fankhauser, 2016;Gröschner, 2019).Videography provides the opportunity to deal with the media-technical, -pedagogical, and -ethical aspects of recorded school lessons in the context of seminars (Claussen et al., 2020).This approach has the particular potential to strengthen the media skills of aspiring teachers, who are in a poorer position compared to students in other disciplines (Monitor Digitale Bildung).Education in a society under the ever-increasing influence of digital media must be understood both with reference to applying digital tools and dealing with how they operate and their socio-cultural meanings (Blömeke, 2017;Brinda et al., 2019;Koehler et al., 2013;Weich et al., 2020).Only then will future teachers be able to deal flexibly and professionally with relevant phenomena of digital media culture and enable their students to deal critically with data-intensive communication platforms, commercial learning apps, widespread video games, or current YouTube stars.Every tool used in teacher education should be considered under these premises.
Media studies perspectives provide a good methodological basis for such reflection by going beyond the media competency models established in empirical classroom research and broadening the perspectives of videography in teacher education.McLuhan (1964) pointed out as early as the 1960s that media change our society independent of their content; "The medium is the message," and they have a numbing effect that prevents people from seeing through this mode of action.The current information age has surpassed the imagination of the media philosopher.Digital technologies are omnipresent and, in the sense of "ubiquitous computing" (Weiser, 1994), are everywhere and nowhere simultaneously because they are becoming increasingly compact, opaque, and invisible.They are part of our environment (Hörl, 2018).Therefore, educational experts and institutions must advocate making "the blind spots in media use" visible (Krämer, 1998).For example, scholars indicate there has been insufficient discussion on how using a technical medium in the school context affects social behavior in and out of school and plead for a stronger focus on the effects of media technologies (Blömeke, 2017;Selwyn et al., 2020;Weich et al., 2020).Models for assessing media competencies such as DigCompEdu (Joint Research Centre (European Commission), Redecker et al. (2017) or TPACK (Koehler et al., 2013) do address the fact that using digital tools influences both the material created with them and the mediation and use scenarios.However, Weich et al (Weich et al., 2020).point out that the didactic perspective of TPACK always focuses on the best possible or competent use of the tools for knowledge transfer.
In contrast to this perspective, which is widespread in empirical teacher education research, approaches in media culture studies tend to ask to what extent self-and world relations are constituted and transformed by media (Jörissen & Marotzki, 2009;Weich et al., 2020).In other words, there should be an examination of the historical, social, and economic conditions of education by means of the digital media used in each case, as well as an individual reflection based on, for example, a videographed lesson in relation to the actors involved, the digital media devices, and its expected handling.The focus is no longer on an individual's control over the adequate use of a selected tool, as is the case in German educational strategies such as the KMK's Strategy for Education in a Digital World (KMK, 2017), while neglecting situational, collaborative, and critically reflective application, evaluation, and design (Macgilchrist et al., 2020).
Future teachers should not only learn how to use programs, tools, and platforms individually but also be trained to recognize and reflect on media's influence/power in different contexts of use.With regard to digital media in everyday school life, it has caused the fundamental change that the teacher can be an omniscient mediator of clearly constrained content, as was still assumed in the media competence models established in Germany, especially after Baacke (1997).Two phenomena are responsible for this changed relationship between pupil and teacher in relation to digitalization.First, there is no longer a separation between consumption and production.For example, anyone who watches a video on YouTube is already producing data.Moreover, when they rate, share, or comment on a video clip, they are no longer clearly in the role of a pure consumer.
Especially when remixing, arranging, and sharing audiovisual objects, the boundaries between independent production and active reception can no longer be clearly drawn (Claussen, 2014;Lessig, 2008).Second, students have more expertise in digital media use than the teacher due to their active participation in digital cultures, such as using popular platforms such as TikTok or Snapchat or hip video games.The students' expertise, however, has little to do with recognizing the modes of action of the aforementioned media.Media-literate teachers could bring this expertise into critically reflexive engagement with the content even if they are not part of the respective digital culture, in contrast to their pupils (Buckingham, 2013(Buckingham, , 2015)).
Using videography, prospective teachers can gain such expertise when reflecting on how they perceive recordings of school lessons during their university studies and what effects videography might have on schools and society.Multi-perspective videos are particularly suitable for critical reflection on media use because they are more intrusive than conventional videography approaches due to the variety of recording devices used, as well as the subsequent ability to observe school lessons from several perspectives.Even though this is not usually a digital culture in which students already participate more than lecturers, the insights gained can be applied to other media uses.

Case study: multiview
A survey was conducted on the use and perception of the video platform Multiview in three courses.In addition to questions related to concrete and comparable learning scenarios of the teacher-training program, such as lesson introductions, dealing with disruptions, or teachers' adaptivity, the survey also addressed questions about authenticity and the influence of the media.The answers to the latter questions were analyzed regarding media competencies as conceptualized by media studies perspectives.Accordingly, the research question is, "To what extent can those media competencies be identified based on the students' statements?Before examining those statements from the survey and its evaluation, the authors briefly introduce the Multiview project and its multi-perspective approach.

Multiview
At Leuphana University of Lüneburg, the systematic development of the teaching video platform Multiview was funded within the framework of the so-called quality offensive for teacher training from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).In the process, researchers established a workflow for multi-perspective recording of school lessons and a video platform to document lessons as completely and realistically as possible and analyzing them in the context of research and teaching.Besides audiovisual recordings of school lessons in various subjects, the platform provides additional materials and information, such as course plans, assignments, presentations, learning modules, etc.Currently, Multiview contains several videos of school lessons from different perspectives.Thirty lessons in English, German, music, biology, chemistry, mathematics, sport, and social pedagogy from grades 3 to 10 and from vocational schools can be found on Multiview.Different access restrictions apply to respect the agreements made with the cooperating schools, teachers, and students, and to make the videos accessible only to a selected group of users with a legitimate interest.Based on the multi-perspective recording procedure, students have the opportunity to observe interactions between students and teachers at close range, even without being present in the classroom (Claussen et al., 2022).Following the previous explanations of media science positions, actual immediacy is always limited by the media used, which influences both the teaching during recording and its perception afterwards.
Lesson recordings are created using up to seventeen different camera perspectives and close-up camera angles.For this purpose, two opposite wide-angle, compact cameras are usually used at existing group tables or within comparable learning arrangements.They are supplemented by a mobile audio recorder in the middle of the table so that students' group behavior can be observed, including any learning materials on the table.The teacher is also followed directly by another camera, and the entire room is shown in a long shot via one or two additional overview cameras (Figure 1).Depending on the subject and the requirements of the lesson being recorded, this setting is extended.For example, in the context of a sports lesson, a camera was attached directly to the teacher using a belly belt to perceive the movements from the teacher's perspective.
Multi-perspectivity offers many advantages over recording with only one camera, as pupils' activities and interactions with each other can be analyzed in greater detail and independently of the teacher (Paulicke et al., 2015).On the platform, camera perspectives can be chosen by clicking on triangular camera icons (Figure 1) to observe up to four angles at the same time and change them if necessary (Figure 2).This makes it possible to observe teaching and learning processes that take place in parallel over time, including students' interactions and other aspects of working and learning behavior, cooperative learning phases, or problem-solving processes.Simultaneously, the technical expansion of the recording setting goes hand in hand with stronger interventions in the lessons when working with an expanded number of cameras and sound recording devices (Fankhauser, 2016).This creates a strong tension between the detailed and supposedly more-authentic recordings and the associated less-authentic teaching situations, which are influenced by the recording setting.
The question of authenticity, in particular, marks a boundary.Various studies of videography include frequent discussions about authentic teaching.However, how authentic can something be when framed for a scientific context and under the influence of a technical medium precisely  because an excerpt of an action is chosen?Empiricists use the term "authentic instructional videos" to emphasize that the recordings are not posed instructional situations but real instruction that occurs in the same form when no cameras are running.Documentary research perspectives use a similar approach; the perspective on the subject matter should not diminish it.As Christian Huck describes, authenticity in documentary film is established on the one hand by the filmed object or people and on the other hand by the unadulterated process of filming, making the film a "non-media medium" in which events would happen exactly as if no medium stood between people and reality (Huck, 2012).
Accordingly, a camera in the picture suggests that the shots are less staged because the mass media or Hollywood productions hide the medium.However, research designs always make a choice, follow a discipline or logic, have a specific question, and cannot operate independently of these premises.One is always confronted with the dilemma that a certain selection must be made, on which a very comprehensive view then falls, influencing the perception of the subject matter.Thus, viewing a selected school lesson through different camera lenses initially represents a minimal section of a school, subject, topic, class, place, time, etc.The produced film material offers a maximum of possibilities to devote oneself to the details of the actions, to fast-forward and rewind, pause, fade camera perspectives in and out, listen, listen away, mute, perceive, observe, analyze, document, continue, etc., but with the considerable restriction of not being directly on site, which is addressed in the following online survey.

Method (survey)
The "Learning and Working Behavior of Pupils" and "Inclusive Teaching: Analysis of the Interaction Processes of Teachers and Pupils" courses occurred in the summer and winter semesters of 2020 and 2021, in which the viewing and analysis of teaching videos was central.Media effects, media science perspectives or media education were not explicit topics of the courses.While all participants were students in the master's or bachelor's teacher education program, the combination of subjects varied.In the final sessions of the seminars, participants were asked about the authenticity of the videos, teachers' possible distraction by the available media technology, and a possible difference in the perception on site or on the website.The three questions selected were part of a wider online survey conducted to identify diverse use cases of the video platform; specifically, these were chosen because they captured the information relevant to this study.After the respondents consented, the anonymized data were used for scientific purposes and further processed in careful compliance with data protection regulations.A total of 26 participants completed the survey.The survey questions are as follows.
(1) To what extent can the videotaped lessons be described as authentic or close to reality?
(2) Did you notice any distractions for the students due to the cameras and recording devices?How do you assess the possible reticence, unusually high participation, or other behavioral changes based on available recording devices?
(3) How could the same teaching situation be assessed differently during the observation as video on Multiview than during on-site observation in face-to-face classroom teaching?
These three questions are closely related because a school lesson that reveals distractions caused by existing technology or technical staff cannot be perceived as completely authentic.Although the third question asks about a difference in subjective assessment during one's presence on-site or online reception of the recordings, many of the answers address aspects of authenticity, camera influence, and the technical possibilities of video reception.Therefore, the questions are not be dealt with separately but refer to each other.At the center of the analysis is the question, "To what extent can media competencies be identified based on the students' statements?"To this end, the authors spontaneously and independently evaluated whether the statements tended to speak for or against the presence of interviewees' media competencies from the media studies perspective or whether the tendency could not be determined based on the respective statements.Obviously, this method is limited in using a small sample and defining only three categories.Although some results are quantified, the approach is more qualitative than quantitative.The aim is to provide relevant insights into media-studies-related media competencies of teacher students while finding tendencies of its development through a basic rating.

Authenticity vs. media technology
The authors mostly agreed (72%) in their analysis of the answers to the first two questions.Three categories emerged considering the already mentioned research question, "To what extent can media competencies be identified based on the students' statements?": (1) No media competencies apparent; (2) Media competencies apparent; and (3) Development from no apparent media competencies based on the response to the first question about authenticity to the second about the cameras' influence (see Table 1).
Overall, it became apparent that media competencies oriented toward media science could be identified much less frequently in the first question, "To what extent can the videotaped lessons be described as authentic or close to reality?" than in the second, "Did you notice any distractions for the students due to the cameras and recording devices?"However, this may be because the second question directly asks about "distractions by the camera" and thus already alludes to the fact that such distractions could occur.
There could have been misunderstandings about the first question regarding the term "authenticity," which allows different uses depending on the context.Here, however, it is less an assumed theoretical understanding than a colloquial question about individuals' perceptions of a realistic teaching situation, not least because of the conceptual extension.Accordingly, the answers did not reveal any misunderstandings.Overall, the answers were ambivalent, for example, in that responses stated rather superficially that the lesson was "real" (Table 1: Rani, Sina) and thus authentic or that no distractions from cameras were detected at all (Table 1: Rani, Han).Regarding the theories outlined above on the effects of the media, this is understandable; the devices themselves operate "covertly" in the background so that users only perceive the content of the lesson as far as possible, although the medium itself also sends "messages" (McLuhan, 1964).Thus, they do not perceive any possible effects of the video recording but only the students' and teachers' actions during the lesson.Such answers to the first question tend to suggest poor media competency.Interestingly, the second question about distractions for the students due to the cameras and recording devices seems to set their reflection in motion only when Tom remarks, "I think most students forget about the cameras and microphones.Nevertheless, there are always some who do pay attention to what they say and thus don't express themselves quite as freely as they otherwise would."Tom, Sina, and Kai note not only the possible distractions caused by cameras but also inhibitions in speaking freely due to possible "eavesdroppers."The interviewees also mention a possible self-promotion mechanism that could increase student performance precisely because of increased outside attention.This attention is also noted as the presence of technical and scientific personnel in the room (Table 1: Tom).Conversely, the format appeared authentic for many students, particularly because of the multiperspectivity, which they refer to as "proximity," "being able to see more," or "all-round view."However, the answers do not reflect the "image aisles" (Mohn, 2019) that arise with decisions about the choice of camera frames, which obscure and fade other things out despite the supposed immediacy and closeness.
The selection and use of different perspectives and settings are essential features of film composition.It would be wrong to assume that they do not play a role in more documentary formats or pragmatic decisions.The fact that the camera is following the teacher but not the students affects how the situation is perceived and evaluated.This difference becomes particularly clear if the teacher is recorded statically while an individual pupil is permanently tracked.There is also the question of whether the students' freedom of movement is restricted by the camera setting or even deliberately restricted for the planned recording.Using many cameras to record interactions compensates for this but comes with other limitations and suggests complete visibility and proximity (see above), although it is hardly possible to capture the complex interactions straightaway.Users of the multi-perspective videos consistently reported that they could not simultaneously perceive essential actions in up to four camera perspectives simultaneously.In the sequences I saw, I didn't have the impression that anyone felt disturbed by the recordings.
(2) "Media competencies" Lara Cannot be described as realistic; the students are strongly influenced by the cameras and additional people in the room.This does not result in a natural situation for the teacher.
(3) From "no media competencies" to "media competencies" Sina It's the reality because it's a video of a real lesson.
I think most students forget about the cameras and microphones.Nevertheless, there are always those who pay attention to what they say and thus do not express themselves quite as freely as they would otherwise.Also, the microphones on the tables take up a lot of space and are always in front of their faces.

Tom
You can follow the course of the lesson as if you were present yourself.
Yes, I could.For example, in the science video, perspective 11, the three children look at the camera at one point through the window of the next room.I can also imagine that some students are a bit intimidated by the cameras and do not dare to say certain things.On the other hand, it could be that some students want to prove that they know a lot.Therefore, the cameras could already cause behavioral changes.

Kai
They are "normal" lessons from everyday school life.
The children are definitely influenced by the unusual situation, but this does not necessarily have to be bad.There are significantly more adults in the room, and there is technical equipment around.The children are partly distracted by this but sometimes also particularly quiet because there are "strange" listeners.
*The names have been anonymized and do not correspond to students' actual names.The answers have been translated by the authors.

Presence vs. online
The survey's third question aimed at the different evaluations of a teaching/learning situation when it is experienced on site in the school or observed online.For example, Cronquist suggests that physical presence and perception outside the video significantly impact one's perception of situations (Cronqvist, 2021).Dinkelaker and Herrle (2009) highlight that the perceptions of smell, temperature, touch, and body sensation are absent during audiovisual elicitation.Similar lessons have already been learned from the increased use of videoconferencing systems during the COVID-19 pandemic (Claussen et al., 2022).In contrast, participatory observation as a data collection method allows access through all the senses but only from the researcher's specific perspective.Therefore, there is a considerable difference between observing on site in the classroom or online on a video platform from different close camera perspectives.Significantly, however, not all interviewees understood the question aimed at this difference and often only answered it with reference to the advantages and disadvantages of video technology.This response may have been encouraged by the question's wording, but the fact that none of the students realized that analyzing lessons via video prevents all non-audiovisual sensory perceptions is striking.Jehle describes an interesting case in this context when she uses historical video recordings of school lessons from East Germany to investigate observations of a certain lethargy in the classroom, for which didactic reasons would be sought (Jehle, 2022).However, the observer could not know that it was a very hot day at that time and that other pupils had already been sent home (Jehle, 2022).Such contexts of origin are not visible in videos but can have a crucial influence on perception.
In addition, when answering the question regarding reception, it would be expected that pure online viewing shapes the perception of teaching precisely because of the practicable repetition function, which is often highlighted as an answer to the question.In professional discussions with experienced researchers and student teachers, it has sometimes been indicated that individual actions, especially videotaped teacher misbehavior, carry more weight because they are repeatedly viewed from different perspectives.In Lemke's (2007, 45) view, recipients of lesson recordings tend to overestimate the teacher's misconduct based on short, repeatedly watched sequences.
Widespread experience with aesthetics, from surveillance videos to school series to current YouTube recordings, also influences perception.Viewing habits lead to certain expectations of instructional videos and evoke patterns of evaluation.Shaky or "rough" image details, for example, are a widespread cinematic element and are deliberately used to create authenticity.The lessthan-perfect instructional video of a math lesson with numerous camera tripods in the frame suggests that something with a high degree of truthfulness is being shown, in which students would paradoxically behave as if the cameras had never been there.

Concluding discussion
Videography is a reasonable method for observing and analyzing classroom interactions, but the media conditions and effects of video production and reception should not be underestimated.From a theoretical media perspective, technical media always exert an influence beyond the mere perception of content and shapes media situations and contexts (McLuhan, 1964;Weich et al., 2020).The widespread use of videography in teacher training has already led to the emergence of self-reflective and discursive models and the view from the outside into the classroom (Martin & Siry, 2012).For example, in so-called "video clubs" (Sherin, 2003, 15), teachers discuss their teaching practices together.Similar to producing podcasts (Fernandez et al., 2009), cutting and editing classroom videos can also sharpen the professional perception of teaching situations (Yerrick et al., 2005).Technical innovation and its integration into learning and teaching contexts impact how we learn and provide the opportunity to understand not only specific topics that are submitted by those technologies but also the effects of specific media tools.Thus, the technical setting of multi-perspective videography affects school lessons.Students' responses to the online questionnaire support that they initiated an initial reflection on this.However, the survey results are very ambivalent; in approximately equal proportions, the students perceived the school teaching videos as authentic but were also aware that on-site perceptions differ.Even though many students seem to perceive that the situations are different and that cameras can influence the filmed lessons, they did not specify that their own reception of the school teaching situation in the Multiview online portal significantly differed from participating on site, nor that it affected their evaluations.As discussed in the previous chapter, this could have many explanations; regardless, supporting students to recognize these differences in reception is crucial.A stronger embedding of media theoretical reflections in university curricula could be one solution to provide this necessary support.
However, the results of this study are limited.No particular selection of videos was made, and whether statements varied depending on the videos viewed was not checked.It also remains unclear whether a certain degree of media literacy could be achieved by receiving selected video sequences.In addition, many more categories could be clarified, and aspects of media literacy could be illuminated based on these categories.This study's strength lies in its compact and focused analysis and the resulting finding of a tendency to neglect media reflection in the sense of a media-theoretical examination of digital tools like videography used in the classroom and studies of teacher education.There is an opportunity for further research on diverse digital tools used in education, focusing on their impact not only on education but also on the society that is shaped by it.What does it mean for the school as an institution and for its students and teachers when it becomes an educational standard to be analyzed via classroom recordings?What does that mean for universities?Will these tools shift the focus from perception as a whole-body experience with all senses to a generalized audiovisual reception?What about situations that cannot be captured by a camera and situations that would not occur without cameras?Thus, the study's findings and limitations provide directions for future research.
Students must understand the impact of educational technology beyond the mere use of tools as defined by researchers, educators and, of course, global commercial education technology companies (Macgilchrist, 2017).Universities building their own distributing mechanisms and media production workflows to act independently are a good starting point.Still, this approach always has limitations and does not seriously consider building cameras, microphones, and streaming servers from scratch to ensure independent videography.Making people aware of the hidden structures of the power dynamics between people and the media is essential.The open survey outlined in the context of a course using a digital tool such as teaching videos provides a method for promoting the development of such media competencies in teacher training, with special consideration of media studies perspectives.Adaptations, revisions, and extensions to other tools and settings for the outlined method are desirable.Media criticism starts in the classroom, and teachers must be prepared.Therefore, the tools used must be observed and analyzed, not obscured or marginalized, opening expanded possibilities for interacting with and exploring digital media.

Figure
Figure 1.Digital seating plan of a school class with selectable camera positions − 13x group table cameras (violet), 1x teacher camera (green), 2 x long shots (blue).

Figure
Figure 2. Screenshot: four selected camera perspectives show the course of the lesson simultaneously and in parallel.