Experimenting with digital content creation
Read about how digital skills played into the I_Improve project, and get some tips and resources as to how you can do the same!
By Avril Meehan, informal educator & Alice Dryden, Intercult
In theory if you have a smartphone and an internet connection, you can create digital media and reach a global audience no matter where you are, or what your situation is, in the world. While the reality of growing an online audience may be different, a more connected society means that engaging online is a vital part of any organisation’s activities.
Upskilling for a digital world is a priority which the I_Improve project has been committed to since its beginning and a central part of I_Improve involves experimenting with digital content creation. The idea behind encouraging a playful, informal attitude and asking ‘what is possible?’ on our online platforms is the hope that this can result in new perspectives towards online media as spaces for varied self-expression and knowledge creation.
In I_Improve we’ve focused on new ways of documenting our workplace learning online. This has included the style of content, the platforms we’ve shared on and the media form that we’ve used to create it. We’ve explored how to convert our individual and organisational learning into content which others can learn from, creating a domino effect from our isolated individual and organisational processes. Educational content is powerful because of its helpful aspect. People are constantly in search of explanations and solutions, and this is where educational content comes into its own.
One new approach that we’ve been working with is being able to summarise and break down complex project outcomes into concise, easily digestible online content. Check out our ‘top tips’ series here which plays on the online audience’s desire to skim and scan for relevant information. This type of content organisation pre-dates the Internet of course; think of to-do lists or shopping lists, they’re everyday examples of how we tend to comprise information in order to make sense of it. It is new, however, on platforms such as Instagram where, before 2020, it would have been unexpected to encounter a 10-part PowerPoint-style presentation. However, amid a new era of social justice campaigns, people have turned to social media to learn about complex topics which are presented in an accessible, bullet-pointed and colourful way. This exercise of DIY education is a combination of the traditional Instagram design aesthetics and filtering dense content through a marketing lens. Check out the I_Improve Instagram to see our attempts to join in the trend here. If you want to try it for yourself, we’ve written up the basic steps here.
If you’re looking to try this out we recommend starting with existing content. Focus on creating more with less, it’s usually not necessary to produce all your content from scratch since we often leave a lot of content just lying around our project folders. Begin by making an inventory of all of your existing content to see what can be repurposed and remixed. There’s probably more there than you think, for example:
— Presentations: repurpose these as videos, blog posts or key takeaway slide
— First-hand research: create infographics or news stories
— Coworkers: can be tapped for video, audio or transcribed interviews
— Reports: Break big content pieces into a series of blog posts or social takeaways
Good luck!
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