Within the past 10 years,
communication devices have drastically changed the world and the way we all interact.
With the demise of the phone call, students will need to master all
forms of communication for their future careers, most importantly written
communication and video. It’s an
interesting proposition, to suggest video as a prominent form of communication,
but it isn’t just because I do it for a living.
Video has become ubiquitous with social media. Scroll through Facebook or
even Instagram; much of the shared content we see, from both peers and
corporate organizations alike, is video content. Video uses multiple ways of communicating
messages. Whether through direct
information, storytelling, or visual portrayal, creating a video requires
skills beyond just the written word.
Effectively communicating through video is similar to effectively
communicating in real life, but can help to communicate intangibles and
thoughts by bringing in creativity and audio/visual aids. Understanding what goes into the production
of a video will also help students to better organize their thoughts, effectively
plan and outline, and consider how their message will connect with an audience,
something that cannot be understated.
While my
current position isn’t tied to education, I do have the ability to teach within
a digital learning lab where students can learn to use digital tools for their
college courses. I’d say that the
greatest barrier to integrating technology within higher education is
acceptance by the professors. As time
passes, more and more professors are starting to see the benefits of new methods
of communication and have the desire to incorporate technology other than PowerPoint
into their classrooms. But for institutions
and departments that are known for traditional methods of research and have
proven to be strong in their field, the incentive to change is minimal. My personal belief on choosing any new
technology follow the thought process of:
is it proven? What does a
successful example look like? How difficult is it to learn? Will it get in the way of the task at hand or
will it augment it? For me, I think that
video projects and digital storytelling has positively answered all of those
questions.
This post was shared in a discussion forum in my graduate course "Integration and Management of Computers for Learning" at Purdue University.
