If I could wave a magic wand and change one thing for internet users, it might be this: learn how to be safe and responsible online. Awareness of the threats and a clear understanding of how to avoid them is essential to protecting yourself when using the web.
That's why we make videos that teach internet safety. Videos have real power in teaching these subjects because they can create a clear understanding of the real world consequences that can arise from being careless online. Videos do the heavy lifting so you don't have to.
Video Packs: A New Resource for Teaching
Recently, we created a new resource that makes teaching easier. It's called Video Packs. The packs save time by giving you sharing tools, lesson plans, and related videos, all in one place. We currently have five packs, with more on the way.
Our Internet Safety Pack contains ten videos, which are all displayed on a single page. There is no better way to access these videos, along with features for embedding the videos, downloading the video files and more.
Video Packs are included with Common Craft Pro and Editor Plans.
The video below serves as an introduction to our Internet Safety videos. If you're curious about using videos to help your audience stay safe online, watch and consider sharing it. It's available on YouTube and Facebook.
One of our earliest videos (from 2007!) explained online photo sharing. While much of that video is still relevant, photo sharing has changed significantly over the years and now plays a much bigger role in our online lives.
So, we've created a completely new version of the video which focuses not only on why photo sharing matters, but how to do it safely and responsibly. This new video will replace the older version in our library.
Online Photo Sharing - Explained
What it Teaches:
Today, we’re taking and sharing more photos than ever before. In the moment, it’s easy to forget that sharing photos can represent both fun and risk. By understanding the basics of online photo sharing and how to share responsibly, we can reduce the risk and focus on the fun. This video teaches:
Why photo sharing is more popular than ever
How people often interact with online photos
What kinds of data and information are included when sharing online photos
How online photos create a digital footprint that can become a risk in the future
Over the past ten years, I've written hundreds of scripts for explainer videos and if there is one thing I've learned, it's this: the act of writing the script and trying to explain an idea for others teaches me more about the subject than anything else I can do. My understanding doesn't become clear until the ideas in my head make the jump to the script, where I'm forced to present them logically.
This process of writing explanations in order to understand them better is also known as the Feynman Technique. Richard Feynman was known as The Great Explainer thanks to his talent for transforming complex scientific information into easy to understand models and ideas. The 1.5-minute video below summarizes the technique.
A recent study, summarized by Christian Jarrett at the BPS Research Digest, provides more evidence of what this why this practice works, based on a study of 124 students:
For a new study in Applied Cognitive Psychology researchers led by Aloysius Wei Lun Koh set out to test their theory that teaching improves the teacher’s learning because it compels the teacher to retrieve what they’ve previously studied. In other words, they believe the learning benefit of teaching is simply another manifestation of the well-known “testing effect” – the way that bringing to mind what we’ve previously studied leads to deeper and longer-lasting acquisition of that information than more time spent passively re-studying.
They found the students who performed best at understanding and remembering a new subject were the ones who learned the subject and then taught it to others.
Why does this matter? Because anyone can use this practice to increase their understanding of a subject. Studying is great. Taking notes is helpful. But if you really want to understand and remember a subject, explain it to someone else. Or, simply pretend that you're writing a letter or video script with the goal of explaining it clearly.
Last week, we published Fair Use Explained by Common Craft, the 98th video in our library. For the first time, we're offering this video with a Forever License for a limited time.
The Forever License means the video is available for purchase and download without Common Craft membership or recurring fees. The file is yours forever...and the clock is ticking.
The Forever License will only be available until midnight (PDT) this Friday, April 20th.
This offer has now expired.
The purchase includes:
A standard version of the video (.MP4)
Video version with open captions in English (.MP4)
A Lesson Plan for teaching with the video (PDF)
This video, like all Common Craft videos, is designed to help educators introduce Fair Use efficiently and create a foundation for a deeper lesson. You can easily insert the video into presentations, training materials and learning management systems. The Forever License is also available for schools, school districts and organizations.
Sachi and I often find ourselves discussing what is in "the zeitgeist", meaning subjects that are becoming more popular and representing a particular period of history. Early in our video careers, we created videos about Twitter and Wikis because they were in the zeitgeist at the time.
Today, there are few subjects in the technology world more in the zeitgeist than the idea of blockchain and how it enables Bitcoin, among many other ideas, to work. The problem, as with most subjects in the zeitgeist, is that new, transformational ideas are often difficult to understand. This is certainly the case with blockchain.
We produced a video called Blockchain Explained by Common Craft that's available in our video library and designed for use in classrooms, training, etc. Now that blockchain is becoming a more popular idea, we've decided to publish the blockchain video so it may reach many more people. You can now find and share the video on YouTube and Facebook. I've embedded the YouTube video below:
