Using video to connect with the world

One of the outcomes of being restricted with travel for the past few months has been an exploration of using technology to communicate with people. In the past I’ve always preferred meeting people face to face, but with a leg in plaster it hasn’t been feasible.

As previously blogged I used Skype when in hospital to chat to family and friends and since then my peer Kathy and I have used it to chat with each other about the ITQ course, as well as regular sessions with our tutor Di.

A few weeks ago I was due to attend a meeting with The Reading Agency via a conference call. At the last minute a hospital appointment was rescheduled, so I jokingly said to them that I’d send them a video with my thoughts – they took me up on the offer! To start with I regretted my brash offering as I had not previously used the video and record facility on my Mac, or even uploaded a video. It was a frantic morning of testing the video and sound and familiarising myself with iMovie before uploading the final product to YouTube. It’s my first video and as it’s on project management it’s not particularly exciting, but I think it’s a useful demonstration of how technology can reduce barriers for people. Without the video I wouldn’t have been able to contribute to the meeting and it meant, even though I couldn’t travel, I could still be there ‘in person’.



My colleagues fed back that my video was very well received! However, on reflection, next time I would improve how I’d framed myself in shot and also make a shorter video – less for the audience to sit through! I will also spend time familiarising myself with iMovie, how to edit and compression options for uploading videos to YouTube, as mine took ages to upload.