Photo by Shlomo Shalev on Unsplash

Somehow I’ve found myself in the role of tech expert in my nonprofit workplace. I am far from an expert, but have more experience and confidence using WordPress, Adobe, Zoom and other digital tools than my coworkers, and so I create screencasting tutorials to talk them through. One of the benefits of these video tutorials is that my colleagues can access them at any time and watch them multiple times over. Because they can do this without reaching out to me, it supports their sense of resourcefulness and independence, which in turn supports their tech confidence. While I’ve also written out step-by-step tutorials, the videos have been more effective because they can follow along, watching and listening, as they try it on their own. Reading and trying to interpret the steps in a written tutorial seems to bog down the process.

Using screencasting for tutorials in an educational setting, particularly in language revitalization and plant identification, is exciting because, while in-person teaching/learning is preferable, video tutorials have the potential to incorporate connection and context. The website and social media platforms of Jared Qwustenuxun Williams that I explore below are a good example. Qwustenuxun is an Indigenous food and language educator in the Cowichan Valley who layers Hul’q’umi’num pronunciation, written words, mouth-shape tips, and place-related video content in his tutorials. He generously shares his language, food knowledge and culture with his viewers, and brings himself into his videos so that they are relationship-based and connective. We see him as he patiently teaches the pronunciation of a word, repeats it several times slowly, and relates it to the video’s setting. In this way, his videos are gifts we can open again and again.

Not all videos are designed with such mindfulness and generosity, despite them being free to watch. As I create and explore more free content online, I wonder is it really free? What is the cost of having all these files out in the digital world, taking us space and energy? When we store things on the cloud, or on the internet, they are often tucked away, out of our vision. We can feel unburdened by their weight, and happy that we’re no longer surrounded by stacks of paper. Think of all the trees we’re saving! But let’s also consider all the energy we are consuming by creating, storing and consuming online files – the electricity it takes to run the servers, the water it takes to cool them. And what happens when the server becomes bloated with everything we’ve stuffed in there? I am learning to become more mindful of my digital excess, and am remembering that there is impact to what I do, even if at first glance it is invisible. I wonder, how can I create content that can be a gift?