Common Craft Videos are a great way to teach or explain a topic in a simple visual way. The people at CommonCraft.com have done a great job of creating a multitude of videos that explain all sorts of topics from blogs to wikis and more. I love this quote talking about the common craft videos from the Common Craft Blog post A Call to Action – Become a Explanation Specialist by Lee LeFever: “This is not about making videos. It’s about making ideas easier to understand in any medium.” This is totally true! Making the videos are fun, and I’ve always thought it would be a great activity to do with my students. However, in the long run, what is being conveyed in the video is the most important because hopefully, the viewer will get more out of it than the traditional way of explaining a topic.
One of my colleagues, Whitney deBordenave, and I are working on a section of an Internet Safety Blog page our county is making. We needed to come up with an engaging and easy to understand video for students explaining how to evaluate whether a website is acceptable and credible. Whitney has previously made an awesome common craft style video explaining story elements, so I knew, with her experience, we could pull it off. It took a lot more work than I thought it would, but making a 4 minute video in common craft style needs a lot of “props.” I had a great time making this video. That being said, in the end, I hope it’s the message that stands out for the students, so they can easily apply the information that is being taught. I can’t wait to take what I have learned and have students make their own based on the content they are learning in the classroom!
