“Hi, I’m Tim Holt and uh I made this little site called uh Vid Snacks and uh Vid Snacks is designed to uh help teachers and students and and uh educators in general or people involved in education learn how to do video ’cause video is gonna be the way we communicate in the new century. So uh I hope you’ll all come along.”

transcript of the first thirty seconds of Tim Holt’s video entitled “Welcome to Vid Snacks“

Video is the language of the 21st century.

banner headline for Vid Snacks

And I disagree. Not only does Holt withhold any justification for his futurism, the form of his introductory message (distraction, rambling; he’s driving, I realize, but why? to what effect?) belies his content (paraphrased: “this is what communication looks like in the 21^st century”).

Consider these three mediums, in increasing order of technical difficulty: blogging, podcasting, and vodcasting.

• Successful blogging requires original thought, sturdy writing, and bloodthirsty editing.
• Successful podcasting requires original thought, sturdy writing, bloodthirsty editing, and a command of the aural experience.
• Successful vodcasting requires original thought, sturdy writing, bloodthirsty editing, a command of the aural experience, and a command of the visual experience.

In order to achieve the same communicative result, not only does the number of necessary skills increase across all three mediums but the editing process for each grows harder and vastly more technical, the difference between hitting the delete key in one and wielding Final Cut Express’ digital blade in the other.

Holt doesn’t edit his introductory video at all, hardly uncommon among vodcasters, which is the blogging equivalent of typing everything you’re thinking and promptly hitting “Publish.” Even if Holt and I agreed that video is the language of the 21^st century, I think we would disagree on how difficult that language is to speak or teach.

[via Downes]

Related Visual Essays:

These visual essays, I think, realize the spirit of Tim Holt’s site. They each use video to create a more compelling and more coherent point than a great writer could with words or a great podcaster with audio.

1. The Kingdom’s Credits
2. The 22^nd Amendment
3. The 2-Mile Challenge
4. Wanna see how to edit and write a vodcast in our post-Ze Frank age? Meet Jay Smooth.