Common Craft Explains Research Papers to Students

I often use Common Craft videos as an example of creating effective video lessons without having to spend a lot of money on special equipment or software. In fact, I did that in a webinar that I hosted yesterday. The video that I used as an example was Research Papers Explained by Common Craft. 

Research Papers Explained by Common Craft does an excellent job of explaining to students why the research papers they write in school are good practice for life in a working environment. The video does this through the example of trying to convince your boss to give you a raise. 

Common Craft videos can be previewed on their website. To use them in your school you do need a Common Craft membership.

Disclosure: I have a long-standing, in-kind relationship with Common Craft.

A Teacher's Guide to Creating Common Craft Style Videos

Yesterday, I published a post about a live course that I'm teaching in June. If you're looking for something that is self-paced, Common Craft offers an interesting course about making videos. 

For years Common Craft videos have been used by teachers to help students understand topics including digital citizenship, personal finance, and many big technology concepts. One of the things that makes Common Craft videos popular is the clear and concise manner in which information is presented using a whiteboard, simple cutouts, and voice over. That style has become known as the Common Craft style and many teachers including myself have had students make videos using that style. Common Craft offers their own free course for teachers who want to make Common Craft style videos in their classrooms.

A Teacher's Guide to Creating Common Craft Style Videos is a free self-paced course that contains five modules. The modules start with the key concepts of the Common Craft style before moving onto walk you through the tools you need (and don't need), the planning process (a downloadable template included), and the final production steps. Throughout the course there are examples of work done by teachers and students.

And if you have never seen a Common Craft video before, here's a good one to get started.

You might also be interested in my video in which I demonstrate how I use Google Slides to create videos. 

Disclosure: I have a long-standing in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

A Few Good Resources for Learning How Blockchain Works

For the last year or so whenever I watch a sporting event on television there are advertisements for cryptocurrency exchanges. It has even pervaded niche sports like professional cycling (here's one story about a particularly dodgy instance in cycling). Last year one of my students even set out to try to mine Bitcoin. Another of my students dabbled in creating NFTs. The point is, cryptocurrencies and NFTs are now mainstream. And both of those are based on the concept of blockchain. 

Blockchain is what makes cryptocurrencies and NFTs possible. If that seems clear as mud, you should watch Common Craft's video titled Blockchain Explained by Common Craft. The video does a great job of using a concept that we're all familiar with, ownership of physical property, to explain the Blockchain concept.

After watching Common Craft's video about blockchain, watch this video from Financial Post to learn how the blockchain concept is applied to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Interactive Blockchain Demo

Blockchaindemo.io and Coindemo.io are interactive websites on which you can see how cryptocurrency transactions take place. 

An Open Course About Blockchain and Money

Once you understand the basics of blockchain you might want to learn more about cryptocurrencies. Blockchain and Money is an open course from MIT. The course was originally taught in the fall of 2018, but all of the materials and lectures are still available for free. All twenty-three lectures in the course can be viewed in this YouTube playlist. It is a graduate course so I don't expect that high school students would be able to understand all of it, but an interested high school student could still glean some good lessons from it. 

Coming This Sunday Evening

Last Sunday evening the subscribers to my Practical Ed Tech Newsletter got copies of the 2021-22 version of The Practical Ed Tech Handbook before anyone else. This Sunday I have two more resources that will only be available through my newsletter. Those resources are colorful poster-style PDFs of email etiquette reminders for students. 

If you're not subscribed my newsletter, you can do so right here. 

But if you don't want to subscribe to my newsletter, that's okay. I do have the following videos to share with you on the topic of email etiquette. 

The video below was made by a teacher for the purpose of sharing email etiquette tips with students. 

Watch Clear Email Communication by Common Craft to learn how to get a recipient's attention and how to get a response from that recipient.



Disclosure: I have a long-standing, in-kind relationship with Common Craft.

Blockchain - From the Basics to Advanced - A Free Course

Turn on CNBC or any business/ financial news channel today and you're likely to hear about Bitcoin. Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies. If you're not familiar with how blockchain works or you're looking for a simple explanation to share with your students, Common Craft has you covered. Blockchain Explained by Common Craft makes a great analogy between keeping a ledger of tangible assets to keeping a ledger of digital assets. The presentation of that analogy makes it easy to understand how blockchain works. 

Once you understand the basics of blockchain you might want to learn more about cryptocurrencies. Blockchain and Money is an open course from MIT. The course was originally taught in the fall of 2018, but all of the materials and lectures are still available for free. All twenty-three lectures in the course can be viewed in this YouTube playlist. It is a graduate course so I don't expect that high school students would be able to understand all of it, but an interested high school student could still glean some good lessons from it. 

H/T to Open Culture. 

Disclosure: I have a long-standing in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

Some of my Favorites - DIY Common Craft Videos

This week is school vacation week here in Maine. I usually take this week off to go ice fishing on Moosehead Lake. Unfortunately, that's not happening this year. Instead I'll be "staycationing" and working on some projects around home. While on my staycation I'll be sharing some of my personal favorite tools and tips.

Nearly fourteen years ago Common Craft introduced the world to a new style and new way of producing explantory videos. This style uses simple cutouts on a blank white background and a well-scripted voice-over.

Early Common Craft videos like this one about wikis used actual paper cutouts that were moved by a hand that you see in the video. Later ones like this one about podcasting use digital cutouts and you don't see a hand in the video. Both versions are effective in communicating big ideas.

You can make your own Common Craft-style videos by using slides and a screencasting tool. In this video I demonstrate how to use Google Slides and Screencastify to make Common Craft-style videos, but you could accomplish the same thing with PowerPoint and Screencast-o-matic.

Three Silent Videos About COVID-19

One of my students came ranting into class today because of a conversation she'd had with another student about facemasks and social distancing. The person she was talking with didn't think that social distancing did anything. "Mr. Byrne, how else can I explain it to her?" was the question that my student had for me. My recommendation was to share this visual made by Common Craft. 

Why Social Distancing Matters is one of three silent videos that Common Craft published earlier this year to help people understand how they can help to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

The other two videos that Common Craft produced in this series are Why Masks Matter and What is Contact Tracing?

Common Craft Explains Disinformation

Common Craft has released a new, timely video for this fall. The new video is Disinformation Explained by Common Craft. The new video explains what a disinformation campaign is and why organizations create them. Equally importantly, the video explains traits of disinformation campaigns and how to people can try to prevent the spread of disinformation.

Disinformation Explained by Common Craft is available to view here.



Applications for Education
Common Craft's new video about disinformation goes well with their existing videos about bias detection and facts vs. opinions. All three together could make up a core component of a lesson about how to a responsible consumer and user of online information.

On a related note, here's my video about one way to make a Common Craft-style video.


Disclosure: I have long-standing, in-kind relationship with Common Craft.

Historical Scene Investigations - A Great Way to Get Students to Use Primary Sources

Historical Scene Investigation is one of my favorite resources for U.S. History teachers and students. I've used it and referred people to it for years. HSI presents students with historical cases to "crack" through the use of evidence found in the form of primary source documents.

Historical Scene Investigation contains thirteen cases in which students analyze "clues" found in primary sources in order to form a conclusion to each investigation. For example, in the case of The Boston Massacre students have to decide if justice was served. HSI provides students with "case files" on which they record the evidence they find in the primary source documents and images they are provided. HSI provides templates for students to use to record observations from the evidence.

HSI is produced by College of William & Mary School of Education, University of Kentucky School of Education, and the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Program. My video overview of HSI is embedded below.


As I mentioned in the video above, once you have done a couple of these with your students it becomes easy to craft your own HSI activities or have them craft HSI activities for each other to solve.

On a related note, Common Craft has a good video that explains the differences between primary and secondary sources. That video is embedded below.


Disclosure: I have an in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

Four Free Webinars to Check Out This Week

As we head into summer many of us start to reflect on the last school year (it was one we'll never forget) and what we want to incorporate into the next school year. If you're looking for some new ideas to incorporate into your practice, consider attending one of the following free webinars this week.

Intro to Teaching History With Technology
This is a free webinar that I'm hosting tomorrow at 3pm ET. It introduces the big concepts that I use in my online course of the same name. Register here.

Creating Simple Animated Videos
This free webinar is being hosted by my friend Lee LeFever. Lee and his wife, Sachi, create the fantastic Common Craft explainer videos. The webinar is Wednesday at 2pm ET/ 11am PT. Register here.

Activities Across Grade Levels - Engaging Science Lessons
This webinar is hosted by Rushton Hurley and Susan Stewart. This webinar is on Thursday at 5pm ET/ 2pm PT will feature tools and strategies for making online science lessons more effective and engaging. Register here and find all previous installments in the series here.

Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff
This is a weekly webinar that I co-host with Rushton Hurley. Like the title says, we take questions about all things ed tech and share some cool things that we've found. Register here to join us this Friday at 1pm ET/ 10am PT. Find all previous installments in the series here.

Disclosure: I have a long-standing, in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

Facts v. Opinions - A New Common Craft Lesson

Now more than ever our students are getting bombarded with information and opinions in all forms of media. Therefore, it's more important than ever that we help them recognize the differences between facts and opinions. Common Craft recently released a new video that can help students understand the differences between facts and opinions.

Facts and Opinions Explained by Common Craft uses examples of print journalists and television commentators ti help viewers understand why it is important to fact-check when they hear or read something that is presented as fact.


More resources on facts and opinions:

Factitious is a game for testing your skill at identifying fake and misleading news stories. The game was recently updated to include content related to the COVID-19 pandemic. To play Factitious simply go to the site and select quick start. You'll then see an article appear on the screen. Read through the article, click the source listed at the bottom, and then select either the green check mark or red X to indicate whether or not you think the article is a real news story. After you make your selection you'll get instant feedback and an explanation of how you can tell if the article was a real or fake news story.

Checkology is a service that is designed to help students develop those skills. Checkology offers interactive modules for students to complete. Each of the modules is comprised of between twenty and forty-seven instructional video clips and interactive comprehension checks. The four of the modules are titled Info Zones, Democracy's Watchdog, Practicing Quality Journalism, and Misinformation. As you might expect, the contents of the modules gets progressively more difficult as each section is completed.

Disclosure: I have a long-standing, in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

Free Course - A Teacher's Guide to Creating Common Craft Style Videos

For more than a dozen years Common Craft videos have been used by teachers to help students understand topics including digital citizenship, personal finance, and many big technology concepts. One of the things that makes Common Craft videos popular is the clear and concise manner in which information is presented using a whiteboard, simple cutouts, and voice over. That style has become known as the Common Craft style and many teachers including myself have had students make videos using that style. Now Common Craft offers their own free course for teachers who want to make Common Craft style videos in their classrooms.

A Teacher's Guide to Creating Common Craft Style Videos is a free self-paced course that contains five modules. The modules start with the key concepts of the Common Craft style before moving onto walk you through the tools you need (and don't need), the planning process (a downloadable template included), and the final production steps. Throughout the course there are examples of work done by teachers and students.

And if you have never seen a Common Craft video before, here's a good one to get started.


For those looking to do a little more reading about the Common Craft style, take a look at The Art of Explanation written by Lee LeFever.

Disclosure: I have a long-standing in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

Local vs. Online Documents

I've been a Google Docs user longer than most middle schoolers have been alive. I don't need convincing that online documents are great. But not everyone is convinced. In fact, just last week I had a conversation with a teacher in my school who wasn't convinced that there could be any benefit to moving away from using Word on his desktop PC. I even tried telling him that there is an online version of Word. (This was also the same person who didn't want to use two-factor authentication on his G Suite account because "who knows who can see my phone number?")

If you find yourself, like I did last week, trying to explain the benefits of online documents to someone, consider using Common Craft's new video on the topic. In my case, with the colleague I described above, it might not help. Hopefully, in your case it does help explain the benefits of online documents.

Disclosure: I have a long-standing, in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

A Few Good Reminders for Safer Internet Day

Today is Safer Internet Day. As Google is reminding people when who visit Google.com today, it's a good day to perform a little check-up on your account security. That means making sure you're using strong passwords, not re-using passwords on multiple sites, and using two-factor authentication whenever it is offered.

One of the best things that you can do to keep your online accounts safe is to use two-factor authentication. In fact, my school district just made all staff start using two-factor authentication on their G Suite accounts. Here's how you can enable two-factor authentication on your Google account.


The mandate for all staff in my district to use two-factor authentication was a response to a few faculty members falling for phishing scams that compromised their G Suite accounts. Here's a Common Craft video that explains how common phishing scams work.


Of course, the first line of defense in protecting your online accounts against brute-force attacks is using a strong password. Here's Common Craft's explanation of how to create a strong password.



Disclosure: I have an in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

Algorithms Explained by Common Craft

This week in my ninth grade computer science principles class we started talking about big data and algorithms. One of the resources that I used in introducing this topic was Common Craft's explanation of algorithms. The two and a half minute video explains what an algorithm is and the roles that algorithms can play in our lives, particularly in our online lives.


After they watched the video I had my students list some other ways they could think of that algorithms are or could be used in their lives. The most common example in my classroom was in the videos that are suggested to them on YouTube. 

Disclosure: I have a long-standing in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

Book Review Videos Made in the Common Craft Style

Years ago I came across a video in which someone reviewed The Art of Explanation by making a video in the Common Craft style. The Art of Explanation is a book that was written by Lee LeFever who is the voice behind all of the Common Craft videos. The producer of the video, Bruce Herwig, wrote a blog post explaining the lessons he learned in the video production process.

I've written about book trailers video projects many times in the past. Usually those projects are focused on having students produce videos that will get other students interested in a book. The approach that Bruce Herwig uses is slightly different as it focuses more on providing a clear overview of the book rather than just trying to hook viewers into reading the book. That approach could be a good one for high school students to use as a means to providing reviews of non-fiction works that may not have the entertainment value of fiction works.

Bruce Herwig's video is embedded below.


My video on how to make Common Craft-style videos with Google Slides and a screencasting tool is embedded below.

Common Craft Explains Incognito or Private Browser Windows

Common Craft has been producing unique explanatory videos for more than a decade. I've been using them in my classroom and workshops for nearly as long. Common Craft videos provide clear and concise explanations of nuanced topics ranging from the Electoral College to copyright to digital citizenship. Their latest video explains incognito or "private" mode in your web browser.

Private or Incognito Browsing Explained by Common Craft teaches viewers what the incognito or private browser function does, what it doesn't do, and the legitimate reasons for using it.


Applications for Education
This video does a good job of dispelling the mistaken belief that some students have that using incognito or private browser windows hide all of their online activities. The video also does a good job providing examples of legitimate uses for incognito windows. In fact, I often tell teachers to use incognito windows when they want to see the student view of an assignment or website without signing out of their teacher accounts.

Disclosure: I have a long-standing in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

The Cost of Owning a Car - Free Lesson Plan

The cover image on my personal Facebook page is currently a picture of my first car. I'm pretty sure I paid $1500 for it which was a hefty sum for me back in the fall of 1996. That car needed a little bit of brake work to pass the state's safety inspection and then needed about a dozen other little repairs over the next two years. Fortunately, I had someone in my life who taught me a lot about working on cars and saved me lots of money in the process. I made the same mistake that many young people make in believing that saving money to purchase the car was all that I needed. That's why I got excited when I saw an email from EconEdLink that featured their free lesson plan titled Owning a Car.

Owning a Car is a free lesson plan from EconEdLink that is designed as a personal finance lesson for high school students. The lesson is based around a video titled What are the True Costs of Car Ownership? The video was produced as a collaboration between Bank of America and Khan Academy. The lesson plan has students first estimate what they think the costs of car ownership are then watch the video while taking notes (template provided) about the actual costs of car ownership. The follow-up activity has students comparing ownership costs for a variety of vehicle types.

To build upon EconEdLink's Owning a Car lesson plan consider showing your students Common Craft's videos about insurance and borrowing money. You can preview both of those videos as embedded below.



Disclosure: I have a long-standing in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

Common Craft Explains How to Craft Clear Email Communication

Love it or hate it, email is a part of our daily work lives. And for our students of middle school age or older it's a part of their daily lives too. If you're like me, the emails that you reply to the fastest are the shortest emails that get right to the point. Brevity is one of the components of crafting clear email communication. Clear email communication is the topic of Common Craft's latest video.

By watching Clear Email Communication viewers can learn how to get a recipient's attention and how to get a response from recipients.


On the topic of email communication, Emailing Your Teacher, With Captain Communicator is one of my favorite videos about email etiquette. The short video features two students demonstrating how to write an email to a teacher. It's cute and well worth 90 seconds of your time.



The following video was made by a teacher for the purpose of sharing email etiquette tips with students. It's a bit more serious that the Captain Communicator video.



Disclosure: I have a long-standing in-kind relationship with Common Craft. 

Common Craft Explains URLs

We enter URLs into our web browsers every day, but have you ever wondered what all the parts of those URLs mean? The URL can give us information about the type of website we're visiting, the security of the site, when a page was created, and much more. What's in a URL is the topic of the latest Common Craft video.

By watching URLs (Web Addresses) Explained by Common Craft viewers can learn what each element of a URL means, the difference between top-level domains and subdomains, and how URLs are connected to web servers.


You can preview all Common Craft videos on their website. You do need a subscription in order to download them or embed them into other pages. All Common Craft videos come with a lesson plan that you can download.

Disclosure: I have a long-standing in-kind relationship with Common Craft.