What do we teach our children?

Although you might not think it, movie making is an aspect of communication. A film is made in order to communicate - it may be to entertain, to persuade or to advertise but it's purpose is to get a message across.

During most of history communication was all about text. The invention of the printing press revolutionised communication and changed the world forever. Since then, text has been king . . until recently, that is.
In the 20th century film and television arrived but it was only when digital video arrived on our computers that we could all join in and use this most powerful of communication media.

So why is it that we still spend more time teaching children how to use text than anything else (with the possible exception of mathematics) despite the fact that computers have opened up the possibility of communicating using moving images and sounds?

Children spend an hour a day, every day, learning how to communicate using text (see the Primary Strategy) but the literacy of the moving image is largely ignored despite the fact that we now live in a world of moving images.

I believe that children will need to be masters of this medium too and that we should be teaching them video making skills, not as a fun exercise but as a crucial component of communication in the modern world. Watch this video to see what I mean.

Then go on to look at what people are doing with video.