Looking for another reason why students need to learn how to harness social media?
How about in order to promote themselves to get a job.
We have been hearing for some time about controlling your digital footprint so that if recruiters are looking you up on Facebook or on your blog you will be able to make a positive impression. But now we are moving one step further on.
According to the story from the BBC:
“Fede Alvarez’s short film “Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack!) featured giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.
It is 4 mins 48 seconds long and has had more than 1.5 million views so far.
“I uploaded (Panic Attack!) on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of e-mails from Hollywood studios,” he told the BBC’s Latin American service BBC Mundo.
“It was amazing, we were all shocked.”
I have heard similar stories about authors and photographers emerging from the chaff pile that other sites such as fanfiction.net and flickr can be.
Amazing people, rising to the top of globally connected creative industries.
Professions such as this no longer care where you ar emerging from. This producer did not have to travel and live in Hollywood or Bollywood to get his films made. Instead he stayed where he was and perfected his craft. This had nothing to do with geography or chance, it had to do with talent.
There are lessons here for schools and students. Allow students to be creative and put their work out to the world for open public critique. Allow them to make connections with real people. Help them to build networks in areas that they want to become more creative and technically proficient in. Even if it is not an area of expertise for us or for our school, we can help students be connected to others who can critique their work, who can help them to improve their craft – whatever that may be. We do not need to be experts in the topic or the industry, we need to be experts in helping our students to be connected.
Another example of the web allowing us to rise beyond geography.
Here’s the short film that began this story
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Thank you for this – it’s so interesting and I’m delighted to have found your blog. I recently posted a piece on mine about using the internet to get a job as well(http://timesonline.typepad.com/schoolgate/2009/12/looking-for-that-elusive-job-read-how-graduates-can-use-the-internet-to-secure-it.html). It’s great to find people in education who are so enthusiastic about using technology within that sphere. I don’t think it’s taken off to the same extent here – the kids are shunted off to the “ICT Suite” at school and don’t seem to integrate what they learn there into the rest of their school day. There are so many opportunities out there, but I’m not sure they’re really being taken. Maybe people don’t know where to start. Or maybe the UK is just behind!
Reading this makes me think of my own recent history, passing from classroom teacher to Commissioner (or ‘Executive Producer’ as they call it in the land of films and TV) for a large European broadcaster, all within the space of three years (and no in-coincidentally the same time that I had been writing on my blog). People don’t have to guess at a job interview whether or not I’m the right one for a given job – they should know it before even phoning me up to offer the gig.
It’s a win-win, it really is: the ‘client’ or company will always get someone they know they know well and like, and as the employee or contractor you know that you’re always going to do a great job just by being yourself. Even when you’re in an industry (Television and Film) that you weren’t ‘supposed’ to be in (teaching).