bengrey

Beauty in a Second

Posted by Dean Shareski on in assessment, digital stories, Personal, Video 3 Comments

Ben Grey, who despite his poor taste in music and clothes, has a great eye for composition and design. He introduced me to the one second video contest and challenged anyone to create their own version. The way in which we play with media is fascinating. Taking stills and making them move, mashing up content, playing with new formats are emerging storytelling ideas that enable us to share our world in rich and powerful ways. 

This weekend I was on the lookout for moments of beauty inside our house. Having been taking a photo every single day for the past 4 years, I've developed a keener sense of beauty or mindfulness. Trying to capture moments, seeing something special in the way light hits an object or the way two people interact. It's a habit I'm glad I've been developing and will continue to pursue. 

This is what I came up with. 

It's not awesome but it's a story, our story. I can really see taking this format and tweaking it and making it one's own. Ben used his son as the theme of his video. That's a very compelling story and while it's obviously incredibly meaningful to him, he tells … Read the rest

THIS is a 21st Century Skill

Posted by Dean Shareski on in change, digitalstorytelling, rants, Video 19 Comments

This post was last updated on December 12th, 2011 at 03:16 pm

I’ve struggled with the term 21st Century skill since many of these skills have been around for a long time. It’s not a discussion I’m passionate about but sometimes I’m struck but the clarity of a skill that is clearly new to this century.

Video is indeed a 21st century skill. Take the recent contest for the Best Job in the World. Applicants were charged with creating a one minute video as their application. The ones highlighted on Presentation Zen are impressive. But Stephen Downes nails it,

They are, of course, creative and imaginative and effective. Now for the kicker: ten years ago, not one student in a hundred, nay, one in a thousand, could have produced videos like this. It’s a whole new skill, a vital and important skill, and one utterly necessary not simply from the perspective of creating but also of comprehending video communication today. Some people out there argue that such skills (a) are old hat, and (b) not worth teaching. The world is passing such critics by, and they should not be heeded.

Our schools need to re-evaluate how much time … Read the rest