Social Media is ever evolving and the latest potential big thing is IGTV (Instagram Television) where you can now upload videos up to 10 minutes long on your own Instagram TV channel. It’s only been out a day or two so there’s probably going to be a few changes as time goes on but the general idea is that the Instagram account holder records a video and uses this service to upload it, and it can be watched by his/her followers.
It all sounds very much like YouTube. For me, the biggest difference is that the videos are made using a vertical screen (portrait mode?) whereas YouTube probably suits more traditional screen settings. For those using Instagram Stories, it has similarities there but videos are pre-recorded and edited.
As teachers, it’s likely that your pupils will have their own TV channels very soon, so it’s just another thing to monitor and make sure you don’t end up the subject of a 10 minute rant (rather than Instagram Stories’ limit of 30 seconds at a time) but it’s likely, from what I’ve seen thus far, going to be used by “influencers”
You might even have a go of it yourself and start a Teacher IGTV channel. Some teachers already have. I gave it a go but I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be using it for. Given that I mainly blog when everyone in my house is in bed, and given that I have the slowest Internet connection in Ireland, I’m not sure how active I’m going to be able to be.
So there you have it, IGTV seems to be YouTube – but vertical. I’m sure that makes me sound very uncool.
Last Update: June 23, 2018