Journal #5

This week I decided to explore the Common Craft In Plain English online videos.  I have seen several in different classes, and shown some to students as one model for making their own short films.  However, I'd never gone to the actual Common Craft site before.  I learned plenty.

For those of you who haven't heard of In Plain English videos, they are short films that explain a variety of topics in simple terms.  They use cut-outs that visually represent the ideas, and sometimes they add a spark of humor. 

When I began to investigate the site, I realize that the videos run the gambit of topics, but most are centered around tech: Technology, Social Media, Net Safety, Money, and Society.  So a person can learn the basics of blogs, computer viruses, or even zombies.  Yes--zombies.  Like I said, these people have a sense of humor.

The first thing I learned was that it's not free. Bummer.  There are 3 levels of yearly membership, ranging from $49- $159.  That's a lot for most teachers and schools.  You can still view the films straight from the site without joining, as long as you don't mind ignoring the "For Evaluation Only" plastered across the screen.

These videos would be great for educating faculty and students on so many technology-related topics.  I could see using them at faculty meetings, sending them out via email in response to teacher questions, or adding some to the library website so that students could view some at home.

Because so many of the films are technology-related, I can see using many of them to help the kids develop literacies—especially tool and digital literacies.  For example, I would use some of the films to start discussions on internet safety, privacy, and secure passwords.  There are others that might be helpful in their class assignments, such as how to use wikis and blogs, and how to make websites.

So then I asked myself, how did I view these films before?  Did my teachers really pay for accounts?  Maybe they did.  I'm not accusing anyone of anything here.  But here's what I tried:  I did a Yahoo search for "In Plain English"  and chose the page of video results that appeared.  I'm sure that not all of the videos are here, and they're not organized as neatly as they are on the original site, but HYPOTHETICALLY, if one were to find a film on the Common Craft site, then one could look for it on Yahoo, or similar search engine.  I assume these videos in the search results are posted by people who did pay for the yearly membership and were kind enough to "share."  Again, not that I'm saying I would do anything like that.