Why Am I Doing This?

The Why(s) of Taking a Course for Content Creators

 

  When you're sitting in front of the camera, or starting to draft a presentation for your next video, you often wonder, what can I do to make this one as beautiful, as useful, as instructional as possible? What can I do to make my viewers -so far, mostly students of mine- enjoy learning something from my video, make them want to come back? Most importantly, how do I break down and illustrate my points in such a way that the weakest ones can get it while the strongest yet find a challenge and entertainment while learning those things they didn't know. Plus, you wonder how you can optimise your work flow: spending less time and effort to achieve more.

  When you've  got a few videos published, are reasonably comfortable with editing, cutting and mixing, you start asking yourself, how can I use, not only my videos, but my new skills in class? Can't I, like, make a project out of this? Use what I know to teach my kids public speaking, audiovisual design, summarising and, of course, English through making videos?

  That's essentially what I expect to learn in this course: to make better videos with less effort (and, consequently, get more people to watch them), and to find ways to get my students moving making their own videos, learning through creating. 

 

  As for the first point, I know for a fact that the tools I'm using, especially KDEnlive, have a number of functions I haven't even started to gauge. Colour correction, for instance, is something I'm utterly ignorant of. And, not to put too fine a point on it, I do tend to take way too much time to create the presentations I base my videos on. 

  The second point has a number of legal implications -data protection is essential for anyone, but if you're dealing with underage students ... let's just say 'compound interest' is a weak word. But teaching them how to make and edit their own videos without ending up doing them yourself while motivating them through having them have a good time, now that's a challenge I can appreciate -and I know that if I get it right, so will they. 

  I already mentioned legal matters above, in the context of videos made by, perhaps featuring, minors. But that's not all there is to it: licensing and copyright are major issues. Now I don't actually want to make money out of my videos, which I mainly make for use in interactive packages licensed under CC-BY-SA. The videos themselves, so far, have been released under the Standard YouTube License, simply because (mea culpa) I never bothered to actually read that one. But using images and music made by others in my own creations may have unintended side effects, and I guess I'll need some legal advice there.

  So, that's basically it for now: I'd like to learn how to make better videos, how to use audiovisual creation in class projects, and whatever I need to know about the ensuing legal matters. Plus, I want to have fun with this course.