As always, our goal at Common Craft is understanding. When the world's most popular sport (soccer) has the world most watched event (World Cup), it's easy to assume everyone understands the sport and the event. We created a free Soccer Guide to help people who are looking for an easy way to get up to speed.
If you're new to soccer or wondering about the sport and rules, we can help. The Soccer Guide uses short animations to quickly explain things like:
We're big soccer fans at Common Craft and know that soccer can be perplexing for anyone. By understanding the basics, we hope you can start to see a little more beauty in the beautiful game.
We recently organized a giveaway for educators and received over 1,000 entries to win one of 3 free Common Craft Pro accounts for life. We held a random drawing to pick the winners and the lucky educators below have now received their accounts. They are:
Mimi H. - Teacher of Technology and Spanish at a K-8 Catholic school
Karena C. - Teacher on Special Assignment for Instructional Technology, Clovis, CA
Tina C. - Curriculum Technology Integration Specialist, Minneapolis MN
Thanks to everyone who participated! If you'd like to learn about discounts, giveaways, and events in the future, sign up for our monthly email updates.
This is the 99th video to appear in our library and was suggested by Common Craft members. Watch it here.
What it Teaches:
Like footprints left on a trail in the woods, our digital footprints leave evidence of what we do on apps and websites. This video explains the concept of digital footprints, why they matter and how to reduce the risk of digital footprints in the future. It teaches:
What it means to have digital footprints
Why digital footprints are tracked and saved by organizations
What actions leave digital footprints
How your digital footprints could be used in the future
We are giving away three Common Craft Pro accounts to educators and this is your invitation to enter the giveaway.
A Few Details
Common Craft Pro accounts provide always-on access to our complete libraries of videos and Cut-outs.
Winners will receive individual Pro accounts for life - they will never expire!
We are only accepting entries using valid school or library staff email addresses.
Winners will be chosen by a random drawing on May 31, 2018
Referring colleagues is a powerful way to increase your chances of winning.
Multiple Ways to Enter
We'd Love Your Help
We're excited to give away these Pro accounts to teachers and librarians who may not have the budget to use them otherwise. If you know an educator who may be interested, please forward this email or send them to commoncraft.com/giveaway.
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.
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