The Power of Recorded Video

While reading ‘Becoming Screen Literate’ by Kevin Kelly, I realize that he’s right when he says that video is taking over the internet. He says that he watches videos everywhere, from an airplane ride, to when he’s pumping gas in his car. I can relate to all of his experiences. I watch YouTube clips all of the time, and while I’m waiting for my YouTube video to load, an advertisement will be displayed in the form of a video.

Also, I am a creator of video as well. I wouldn’t say that I’m a director, but video is extremely easy to create with thecurrent technology. All smart phones have a feature where people can record video. I capture videos of my 18 month old daughter every day. When my phone is out of memory, I upload them to my computer. I have thousands of videos of her walking and talking on my computer. I love going back and watching her videos. One of my biggest fears is having my computer crash and losing all of her first moments.

The downfall of video is that it can easily be lost because there is not a hard copy of it, like a VHS. When I was younger, my family recorded video, but we could only record how many actual tapes that we had. When we were out of tapes to record on, we had to be done recording or record over something. I have thousands of unorganized videos on my phone and computer, and many of them are not quality performances. In an earlier day, some of the videos I recorded would have been recorded over, but I save everything now that I am capable.

But yes, recorded video is definitely taking over. In my college courses we actually watch recorded video of the elementary classrooms. By watching the videos of how classrooms work, we are able to learn different teaching styles and how to handle certain situations in the class. We read a textbook for my classes too, but video has become an important classroom tool. Tutorial videos are all over YouTube. Learning from a video is much easier than reading an instruction book or a textbook. I personally take more from a video than a book. Real life experiences make more of an impression than reading about it in a book. Watching real people in real situations also comforts people and makes them feel more confident on what they are doing.

Screen Shot – Nicole Gross

In Kevin Kelly’s New York Times article, “Idea Lab – Becoming Screen Literate” opens up our eyes to a whole new vision of screens in technology. The first thing that I thought was super interesting was how he explains to us how screens are everywhere. When you think of screens, you probably think about a computer screen or a television screen. I never considered the ATM (see picture below) to have a screen or the supermarkets self check out machines (see picture to the right), but in fact, Kelly is right when he says this. “We are becoming people of the screen” (Kelly). This is true because it is fast and reliable. There is a lot less wait time with these screens. We cannot escape from these screens. No matter what, more and more screens are going to appear in our everyday lives. For example, traveling by airplane can have a screen for the passengers to watch a movie on during a long flight.

However, there is another type of screen that Kelly mentions, film screens. For example, Hollywood film screens make a ton of money and are a huge success. On the other hand, films on YouTube are being produced by normal human begins like you. These films can be original movies or homemade videos. Either way, film screens are widely known and can be a big success. As a future educator, I think that making films is a good way of students to express themselves. For instance, the student can record themselves playing the guitar and singing. This can show you a lot about that student. Also, a student can be given a choice of movies to watch and do a creative assignment on that movie. This allows the student to express themselves through art.

We need the liberal arts more than ever in today's digital world, Fareed Zakaria says http://t.co/gcnFWSK8oj

— HuffPostEducation (@HuffPostEdu) April 21, 2015

Lastly, cinematography is key when writing and producing screen films. Cinematograhy is “a film [that] is planned out in scenes; the scenes are filmed (usually more than once); and from a surfeit of these captured scenes, a movie is assembled” (Kelly). With the development of screen technology, movie making is a little bit easier. Kelly says, “it is like a writer’s paragraph, constantly being revised. Scenes are not captured (as in a photo) but built up incrementally”.

There are many types of screens, today. Technology is taking over many screens such as computers, tablets, television, movies, and even everyday errands. Kelly discusses with us his reasoning for how we need to adapt to the screens around us. Screens are everywhere.