You Tube Videos as Knowledge Product Models?

Every January we hear, view, and get solicitations for the "best of 2014" this-and-that, and I find all these intriguing.  The popularity contests in media are a barometer of cultural values. They speak volumes about what issues are beleaguering Americans; what speaks to people; where values lie; and what people are worried about.     

As I reviewed this blog posting about You Tube's Most Popular Educational Videos, I couldn't help ask...why?   In watching these great videos my mind went into overdrive thinking how these could be used to compel secondary research projects that are CCSS aligned.

When the new SS standards were released, it was interesting to note the pervasive message that kids should "research to build and present knowledge."  Students expect to do research in our schools, but what teachers lack with CCSS alignment is allowing students to creatively present their findings.    

Many teachers still are operating in the mode that students must deliver research in a written report--that will be fed into the anti-plagiarism tools  for which the districts have paid plenty of money. Dare I say that if our student's knowledge product was in the form of a video, song, infographic,  compelling speech, drama, script or some other
 Howard-Gardner-Approved format that we wouldn't have to worry about plagiarism?  

Why couldn't we ask our students to present their knowledge in this format?  



Here are a half - dozen  questions that could inspire open-ended Inquiry-Based research units eventually begging for a YouTube Instructional video - Students could create an evidence-based-claim for anyone of these: 

EQ:  Why is your chemical element important to the world?   (This could follow a close reading of the book,  The Disappearing Spoon for CCSS alignment.) 
EQ:  Why is your life better because of the scientific research which has been done for [your chosen scientific topic]? 
EQ:  Why is your life significantly better because of the Enforcement Acts of the 1870's?  
EQ:  Why does Ulysses S. Grant deserve to be on the $50.00  dollar bill?    (Reconstruction) 
EQ:  Why should we care about what we eat?  (This could follow a book such as, The Omnivore's Dilemma) 
EQ:  Why is the old phrase "The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil"  so apropos today - and how was this manifested in our American History? 

Unbelievable statistics below from YouTube.   If our kids are living online, you are likely to get instant engagement if you require an Evidence-Based Claim in the form of a movie.  
Insure that your students give citations  (i.e. "credits") which will add value and rigor to their movie evidence based claim. 

Statistics
Viewership

• More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
• Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—that's almost an hour for every person on Earth, and 50% more than last year
• 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• 80% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
• YouTube is localized in 61 countries and across 61 languages
• According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network
• Millions of subscriptions happen each day. The number of people subscribing daily is up more than 3x since last year, and the number of daily subscriptions is up more than 4x since last year

Piktochart Infographics!

Infographics is a great way to represent data ...visually.  Summarizing data visually reaches the top of Bloom's taxonomy and there are so many creative ways to use this with your students.  This can be an alternative to "tired" PPT presentation.  Typically, an Infographic is a good idea to represent knowledge that includes a great deal of "data."  However,  with a little creativity, you can offer this as a tool for "knowledge products."  Remember, the CCSS wants students to Research to build and present knowledge.  Let them do it a little  creatively.

Here is a sample of a free web-based tool called Piktochart.com  that allows users to creatively build a "chart" to send a message.  Here's one I created for our NY Library Association School Library Leadership Conference @ Cornell University TechSmackdown --tonight!   This took me about 30 minutes and it won't win any awards (that's my disclaimer), but it does represent the discussion of the day!  Visit Piktochart.com  and sign up for your free account!

Information Architecture--express yourself!

A new term has arisen for Infographics-- Information Architecture--data visualized.   To capture and summarize the meaning of a bundle of information in visual form is truly an artform requiring higher level thought.  This helps our heavily visual generation understand and remember details of data more readily.   

Infographics have been around since sliced bread, but was brought into the spotlight during the summer of  2010  when the New York Times journalists ran a summer blog for their education following.   Infographics actually is  a higher order thinking activity that translates deep meaning of information into a picture representation.  Be sure to check out those NY Times resources above.  They are wonderful.

Data Visualization, information digestion, information architecture... either way, I like it. Students like it.  Why not turn your assignment knowledge product into an Infographic challenge?  

• Create an infographic depicting the impact of a man-made disaster.
• Create an infographic on the Civil War.
• Create an infographic on the benefits of solar power. 
• Extrapolate data from the NFL website and depict five ratios you found. 
• Convince me, via an Infographic, to watch what I eat .
• Defend your position on ___________ via an Infographic. 

 If you look at the Common Core verbs below, you can spot many instructional verbs from the CCSS which would be embraced by research project ending in an infographic:
Integrate

Evaluate

Comprehend

Critique

Analyze - think analytically

Address a Question

Solve a problem

Conduct a short research projects

Conduct sustained research projects

Students generate questions

Explore a topic

Draw evidence from texts

Support analysis
Research and reflection
Gather information from print and digital sources
Assess the credibility and accuracy of sources
Integrate information avoiding plagiarism
Produce and publish writing

Interact and collaborate

Debate

Write arguments to support claims

Formulate an argument

Comprehend

Prepare and participate effectively in conversations.

Build and express persuasively

Express information and enhance

understanding

For the ipad, there's a free APP in the app store called 'Infographics' by Column Five and is keyword searchable.  A company that makes infographics professionally, places them out there for use.  Wonderful.  We like free. 
Or,  use their Visualized Data at their website; columnfivemedia.com 
Displayed on smartboard, students can picture what their knowledge products should look like.

http://columnfivemedia.com/work-items/good-infographicwhat-americans-really-think-about-climate-change-3/

Infographics & Literacy

We have hit a new tipping point in society where journalists have realized that images are as prominent as text for conveying information.  The term is:  Infographics.   This is a perfect match for reading, higher level thought, data analysis, and summarizing keypoints.  We all grew up hearing "a picture's worth a thousand words,"  but now in our age of media dominance, that is becoming the mode of operation.

Universities now have departments devoted to Infographics and communication.  Journalists now have to work with graphic artists to convey messages of greater importance than advertising. 

If you haven't caught the New York Times blog on this topic, visit: Click here for New York Times Infographics page.

What a great opportunity for research projects to collaborate with math teachers to strengthen a student's ability to comprehend data represented in visual format.   Connect with the math silo, and talk literacy! Information literacy takes another step of development.

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