The world is changing for video teachers. The most significant change is with your students.
When you ask students, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” the top of the list is no longer a doctor or lawyer. Many will answer with a video-related topic – YouTuber, Tik Toker, creator, or influencer. In fact, three out of four kids will answer this way. In the past, a large majority of parents, teachers, and guidance counselors all believed their wasn’t much career opportunity in these fields, but that is no longer true.
Videos are everywhere, from social media to streaming services to interactive billboards. And someone gets paid to make those videos. Every business needs to communicate via video nowadays. Stop thinking of media production as solely an art form, and start thinking of it as a vocation, like a plumber or an electrician. Media educators teach skills that translate into a valid and financially stable career path, not starving artists.
Video is big business!
Most people think of video as only the film industry, which spends $18B in the US on new movies. But video production as an industry spends $135B in a year. That is ten times more.
And these productions take place everywhere, not just in California and New York any longer. Many creators and even governments are investing funds to keep creative visual storytellers in their states to provide their craft to the local economy. Take MrBeast for example – with over 225+ million YouTube followers, he needs an army of talented creative video storytellers to help bring his content to life. Google “MrBeast Jobs”, and you’ll see he is constantly hiring new talent. And where is this all taking place? You might think LA or NYC, but he actually built his studio in his hometown of Greenville, NC, with a population of 88,728.
Even though video storytelling is an art form, it is also used as a valid form of communication nowadays. However, it is not being treated that way in our education system. As Star Wars Director George Lucas says, “The issue we’re discussing here in terms of multimedia literacy is that we stress so hard learning English and learning English grammar and then we shove music and art and most schools don’t even get into cinema. We move those over into some sort of artistic which means sort of therapeutic or fun thing. It’s not approached as a very valid form of communication.”
Video isn’t just art. It’s a valid form of communication.
Whether a student uses video as a career path or takes it as an elective, they are improving their future in many ways. They bring a skillset to a job that many employers are looking for nowadays. But they also learn how to collaborate and communicate well with their peers.
Students who participate in video production typically find this as the main driver to go to school each day. Michelle Obama described it best, “Arts education is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. It’s really the air many of these kids breathe. This is how we get kids excited about getting up and going to school in the morning. It’s how we get them to take ownership of their future. And, most importantly, it’s how we get kids… go to college.”
However, when a school does provide some form of a video class, the teachers come from various backgrounds. Some have professional experience in media, while others are English teachers or librarians without experience tasked with creating a new class or club. Then when these teachers look for a standardized curriculum, it’s often focused on equipment and software, not the power of storytelling or visual literacy.
We need more video classes and standardization in school to better prepare our students for success, and we believe video education needs to evolve with EditMentor.
What is EditMentor’s role?
While EditMentor is a pioneer in teaching video literacy, the interactive science of learning methods we use has a history of huge success with other subjects like coding and language literacy.
Our self-paced, interactive, and gamified curriculum has courses on Filmmaking, Broadcast Journalism, Youtube storytelling, and more. With EditMentor, all learners — regardless of age, socio-economic status, or geography — can discover how to impact and communicate with an audience, and hone skills to create art, start a business, and perhaps even change the world.
Get started today by signing up for a free one month trial at EditMentor.com/Education.
