C21: Learning to Communicate via Video

One of the most radical societal changes of the last ten years has been the explosion of video as a means of communication.  The ability to create videos and edit them has become a basic skill for anyone who wants to reach a significant audience and impact their thinking one way or the other.

Here are some quick facts from YouTube's statistics page that make the point rather emphatically:

• 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second.
• Over 4 billion videos are viewed a day
• Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
• Over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
• More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years
• In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or almost 140 views for every person on Earth

In response to this new reality, we have introduced a new high school course called Communications taught by Mrs. Ashley Brown, in which, among other skills, our students learn - and learn to hone - their ability to produce effective video.

Here's a piece they produced today demonstrating a variety of camera angles one can use to shoot video as well as a variety of - shall we say unique? - dance moves one can use to get people to watch your video about camera angles...