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Today’s communications environments, particularly since the rise of digital media, are increasingly multimodal. One of the contemporary and widespread forms of user-generated content creation is the short video, or reel, popularized by platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. As a citizen, this practice fits and involves new media in everyday use. According to Digitalz, B (2025), reels and short videos after a tiring day at work can help you freshen up. Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts have become the front-runners in the digital marketing space, and they are here to stay. Creating and sharing short-form videos on social media platforms, using editing tools, effects, and filters that involve everyday scenarios from viral personal vlogs, tutorials, breaking news, and, most importantly, educational snippets. The audience that watches short-form video content has reshaped engagement in real-time commentary on events. Platforms encourage likes, comments, duets, and shares, turning passive viewers into active participants, and the creator and audience respond to each other, which promotes an interaction and creates communication and collaboration.

In today’s learning styles, such as flipped, blended, and online classes, the educational content, short videos, or reels that can be seen on social media platforms play an important role in delivering the information. Effective use of video as an educational tool is enhanced when instructors consider three elements: how to manage the cognitive load of the video, how to maximize student engagement with the video, and how to promote active learning from the video (Brame, C.J. (2016). In my experience, I personally use the TikTok and YouTube platforms every time we have a departmental exam. I tend to watch videos for our lessons that I can't clearly understand and to absorb more information and knowledge. Also, as a person who learns with visual methods, it's really helpful because I can easily identify the words by familiarizing myself with them. Moreover, I also experienced while I was scrolling through my phone that the videos would intentionally appear themselves, so in that case I have new information that I could learn and apply in real-world scenarios.

According to Ila’s blog. (2017) With young students, using short videos of narratives as part of comprehension can address higher comprehension skills such as inference skills. In addition, introducing a story using video and discussion can be followed by children reading the story and completing writing activities. It can incorporate lessons on evaluating content, fact-checking reels, and understanding algorithmic biases to combat misinformation and promote ethical sharing. Also for collaborative learning, where learners share a reel or short videos from platforms to add some ideas for their group projects, it fosters teamwork and digital citizenship skills for remote or hybrid environments. Lastly, it can encourage learners to make their own or create and critique multimodal content like editing reels for storytelling that can build on visual and digital literacies, which can help them for school activities or their future workplace purposes.

References:

Brame, C. J. (2016). Effective Educational Videos: Principles and Guidelines for Maximizing Student Learning from Video Content. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 15(4), es6. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-03-0125

Digitalz, B. (2025, April 22). The rise of Short-Form Video content: Why reels and shorts are dominating - being digitalz. Being Digitalz Blog. https://www.beingdigitalz.com/blog/rise-of-short-video-content/

ILA’s blog. (2017, February 24). https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2017/02/24/integrating-videos-into-literacy-instruction

Digital Literacy Boost: Short Reels and Videos for Learner Preparedness