Blog Posts About: education

It’s taken years and lots of discussions with our fans to understand the answer to the simple question: what is Common Craft for?  We’re just a small company, we don’t have a research department or salespeople pounding the pavement.  We have to learn from what people say online, in email, discussion and phone calls. The summary of this input has helped us define the future of Common Craft and the new direction we’re taking this summer.

For example, just yesterday we received messages that help us see how the videos are being used:

Twitter user Susannah Hall (@hellolibrary) wrote on Twitter:  

@leelefever just want to say THANK YOU for all your work on CommonCraft videos. I have learned a ton & will use in my new high school library.

Lisa Shofnos, President, Computer Training Associates, wrote in email: 

CommonCraft's clever explanations - and cute graphics - make it easier for me to provide effective computer training for older adults who are using computers for the first time. Thank you for this fantastic tool! 

We see these messages almost every day and from them, one big idea has emerged:  Common Craft is for people who educate others. Whether they’re librarians, corporate trainers, teachers, bloggers or consultants, our videos helps these professionals do their job more efficiently and effectively.

It’s this insight that has prompted us to rethink what tools and services we provide to people who use Common Craft videos.  The new Common Craft, out this summer, will be focused directly on serving the needs of teachers, trainers, bloggers and businesses who need better ways to educate others online and off - it’s what Common Craft is for. 

If you would like to be notified when the new Common Craft launches, sign up here. 

Now, maybe we need to a video to teach ourselves why it’s wrong to end a sentence with a preposition.  

John Papola and Russ Roberts at http://EconStories.tv have made a second video that uses rap and a very well-produced music video to contrast the economic thoeries that are a big part of the political debate about what to do with a failing economy.  I'm really impressed with the format and content - and the song is actually kind of catchy too. 

Fight of the Century: Keynes Vs. Hayek - Round Two:

It's true. Sachi and I are attending the Texas Library Association Conference in Austin, April 12-15th.  I will be presenting on Thursday the 14th at 2pm and my talk is called "The Art of Explanation - in Plain English". I hope you'll come.

This will be our first library conference and we're really excited to meet people like you and take it all in.  Librarians are among our most dedicated fans and this conference is one of the biggest events in the library world.  If you're going to the conference, leave a comment or contact us - it would be great to meet face-to-face. 

The world of education and training has seen its share of innovation recently.  After hundreds of years of in-person stand-up training, educators have new options. Products like GoToTraining now allow teachers to host classes online. While a number of teachers have made the jump to online training, there are many who have valid concerns about the impact on the training experience.  

This custom video is designed to introduce GoToTraining and outline some of the features that make online training a useful option - even for the skeptical educators out there. 

Big thanks to Kristen and Bob at Citrix for their hard work on this project!

When people ask about the inspiration for our style of videos, I often say that our videos reflect the way that I wish I had learned in school. My learning style wasn't a good match for the way I was taught. 

Recently we completed a custom video project with the Buck Institute for Education (BIE) that focuses on a Project Based Learning or "PBL", and boy did it open my eyes. I can now see that I needed teachers who put PBL to work. I needed to get up from my desk and engage. I needed to work on a real-world issue and use creativity and problem solving - what are known as 21st century skills these days. 

The video below is an introduction to PBL and how it impacted a science teacher's students and helped their community.

It was a pleasure working with Alfred and the team at BIE and I hope this video will help them get more people interested in PBL. You can learn more at BIE.org.

Richard Byrne over at Free Tech for Teachers has been one of our biggest supporters in the edu-blogging world and was kind enough to highlight a few of our videos in a recent post called "Three Common Craft Videos That Should Be In Your Training Library."  In this post, Richard states:

I like Common Craft videos for the clear simplicity of their presentations. For that reason I actually purchase copies of the videos to save on my hard drive. I encourage you to do the same if you use their videos for trainings.

Apparently, this post caused some of his readers to ask an important question: Why would I buy something I can use for free? It's a question we hear from time-to-time and I think that Richard's response was one that we really appreciate.  In a follow-up post called Why Pay For a Free Video? He re-posts his answer from a previous post:

A couple of days ago I Tweeted that I was buying a copy of Common Craft's video Wikis in Plain English. The fact that I bought anything may come as a shock to some readers. After all, this is Free Technology for Teachers and you can watch all of the Common Craft videos for free at various places on the Internet. So why did I purchase Wikis in Plain English? I purchased a copy of it because I will be conducting some workshops over the next few months in which Wikis in Plain English will be useful. Since I will be getting paid for those workshops, using the free version of the Common Craft videos would not be right. Put another way, Lee and Sachi put a lot of their time and effort into the production of their videos, for me to profit from their work without paying for that work would be like stealing. Therefore, I bought a copy of Wikis in Plain English and will purchase other videos from Common Craft as needed. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that haven't come to the same conclusion that I have and have abused the work of Lee and Sachi Lefever. Because of those abuses, the newest Common Craft video is not embeddable although you can still view it for free on Common Craft.

At the end of the day, we've made the choice to share less than half of our library on You Tube. In making that choice, we've left the decision up to the individual educator about how to proceed. Are happy for educators to use the YouTube versions, but we also want people to know that the videos we license do offer benefits that you won't find with YouTube.  Just to name a couple, they are high resolution and look great on projector screens. Further, they don't have any ads or watermarks.  They are designed for workshops and presentations and we work with schools on licensing all the time. Here's a case study.  

We always appreciate educators who do choose to license videos from us, for whatever reason.  It helps us keep making videos. We also understand that educators cannot always afford licensing and hope that the YouTube versions can be an option. In which case, we only ask that you help spread the word about our work and value it provides.