My team and I have been talking lately about the notion of teaching videos. “Distance education” processes have been around for a long time, and have manifested in different ways. The challenge for the asynchronous delivery of content is that it be engaging. What does that mean? For a video, engagement might mean:

• interactive with the viewer (making the viewer complete a task to be an active, instead of passive, learner)
• interactive internally (when two or more people can talk and interact, it makes the video more engaging)
• short (too long, tuned out)
• specific (content should be very targeted)
• robust (include appropriate visual stimuli)
• seeing the speaker(s) (there’s something powerful about seeing a person talk and watching the specific content)

This video visually enhances some of this vision:

Tomorrow, presenting at the 2nd biennial International Instructional Leadership Conference, I am going to make a supposition that 21st century skills are inquiry process skills. Below, my prezi presentation: