Technology Colleagues,

The ability to video record yourself may now be an essential tool to  
make your voice heard -- and seen -- in our democratic process.  You  
may be aware that YouTube has been providing opportunities for  
ordinary people to make short videos, post them, and perhaps to have  
them selected for presidential candidate debates.

http://youtube.com/debates

Now, former Vice President, Al Gore, has created Viewpoints

http://current.com/viewpoints

which he describes as follows:

"Viewpoints is a virtual town hall where you can share your opinions,  
in video, about the issues that matter in the 2008 election: from  
global warming to government eavesdropping, and many more.
This digital town hall is already bustling, and you can find  
viewpoints from me and from a lot of people, including the candidates  
running for President. Come and listen to their positions and, more  
importantly, tell them and the rest of the world what you think!"

http://current.com/viewpoints

Is making short digital videos a new technology competency for  
participating in the democratic process?  Should we be teaching  
students how to make digital videos and how to upload them to Web  
sites? Should we also be teaching students how to use telephones and  
email to contact candidates' campaigns to make their concerns known?  
In a democracy is this a new basic communication skill?


David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net







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