Ross: Achieving video chat literacy in the age of coronavirus
May 6, 2020, 8:00 AM | Updated: Oct 7, 2024, 11:02 am
Members of the Vermont House of Representatives convene in a Zoom video conference for its first full parliamentary online session. (Wilson Ring/Zoom via AP)
(Wilson Ring/Zoom via AP)
I find myself getting impatient attending these online meetings with people who have never achieved video literacy.
I’m no Martin Scorsese, but I know that the light should be in front of your face not behind it, and that the computer has to recognize your audio device for you to be heard.
It’s important because this is the only contact we have with people now – and all it takes is one person who can’t figure out how to un-mute themselves to kill a meeting.
But it’s even more important than that: I was watching a senate committee on C-SPAN trying to hold a virtual confirmation hearing.
It was going just fine, until they got to the W’s.
“Thank you — Senator Warner…”
There was no answer from Senator Warner.
“Senator Warren? Elizabeth… Elizabeth Warren? (Confusion, shuffling).”
“I saw Senator Warren,” one Senator remarked.
“Senator Warren I believe is trying to get her microphone to work.”
Well, she finally unmuted herself, but I share this as a reminder that if we can’t achieve video literacy while we wait for a vaccine, this nation will come to even more of a grinding halt than it already has.
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