IT learning resources are moving more and more towards video screencasting and less and less towards the continuation of written material I’ve been noticing something recently and I’m seeing it more and more. IT learning resources are moving more and more towards video screencasting and less and less towards the continuation of written material. Now, I’m not predicting the demise of books just yet, but I’ve noticed that people are asking for video resources more often.I make video training so you may consider me biased, but it’s really the opposite. I started doing my videos becuase I was hearing so many people ask for them. That, and the fact that it’s so much easier to just show someone how to do something than it is to try to write down specific instructions. Video is much more fluid in that you can have a video of a specific topic and add to it as you come up with different ideas, or as technologies change… or even as you discover errors you made. And video hits more senses too. Where as books hit the visual (and only on one dimension), videos actually engage your senses by showing you the images, and hearing the sounds, etc. The instructor can fully explain things and incidentals like locating a button or navigating a menu structure don’t take 2 pages of listed instructions. You can go down rabbit holes as you see fit w/o losing your audience, etc.Let’s face it. With podcasts becoming more ubiquitous in IT, and with screencasts (like with Camtasia) becoming more and more engaging and popular, do we really need books anymore? Wouldn’t you rather learn by watching someone actually DO it? This goes right along with my stance on mentoring too. Because while you may not have access to the mentor directly, hearing him explain something in detail, getting his exact meaning across, and actually imparting his experience is the next best thing. It’s a kind of mentoring, and you just can’t get that from books.Look at a site like InfoWorld. We’re doing much more with video, and we’ve even gotten rid of our print edition. Other magazines in IT have online versions as well, and are offering discounts to move your subscriptions online. Could it be that they’re preparing to kill their print editions as well? I would say that’s more than a possibility. They’re just waiting for the right time I’m sure. However, that would prove once again that InfoWorld is leading the way. And what’s next? I would say that the next logical step would be for these magazines to start video articles/screencasts instead of written pieces. I’ve got nothing against written pieces for the most part, but I do prefer to just sit back and watch someone do something. Take an excellent example of the T-SQL column in SQL Server Magazine. Wouldn’t it be great if you could see the author explain the code to you and talk about the important aspects instead of having to wade through it yourself?Anyway, I’m on the cusp of beating a dead horse here, but you get the idea. Books are useful, but the only reason they’re here is because they were all we had. Now we’ve got something better. So let’s stop killing trees and if we have to stick to the written word, let’s at least do it all online. Databases