Change to YouTube ad policy

Posted on June 7, 2017 by admin

I have ad-enabled videos on YouTube. These videos are mostly tutorials I have created to accompany my “tech for teachers” books. Instructional videos do not generate the millions of views sometimes associated with the popular entertainment videos, but I have already felt that those offering instructional content should have the potential for a return on the time they invest. Ad revenue from online resources in comparison to the return from books is miniscule so my interest is mostly in the process rather than the few dollars I receive.

So, I make a couple of dollars a month from my YouTube views. A month or so ago, I noticed that the frequency of views had increased but pennies were being accumulated. I thought perhaps I had been placed on super secret probation or something. I then came across an explanation that Google had changed its policy on YouTube video income and a producer must accumulate 10,000 views before the ads would return income.

For educators, hoping to generate revenue by offering instructional videos this information may explain what might be a source of confusion.

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Applying CRAAP to online sources

Posted on June 5, 2017 by admin

This from the American Psychological Association web site (Susan Nolan) – a comment on identifying fake news in the classroom. I do like the “think like a scientist approach” and I have always tried to encourage the students I work with to carefully consider the methodology responsible for findings (you tend not to assume there are outright fabrications in the content we ask students to review) and identify what unstated influences may have been present.

BTW – CRAAP is an acronym the author encourages to encourage attention to possible sources of bias.

  • Currency (When was it published? Has it been updated?)
  • Relevance (Does it relate to your needs? Who is the audience?)
  • Authority (Who are the author and publisher? What are their credentials?)
  • Accuracy (Is it reliable and truthful? Is it supported by evidence?)
  • Purpose (Why does this information exist? Is there a bias?)

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PEW data on book readers

Posted on June 1, 2017 by admin

PEW just released new data on adult book readers. The data are focused specifically on books and relates reading frequency to several demographic variables (income, education, age). Twenty-six percent of adults admit to reading no part of a book in the past year. Younger, better educated, and more affluent adults are more likely readers. The % of adults who have read an ebook is surprisingly small (28%) with better educated adults more likely to use this format.

The study ignores many related issues and makes little attempt to explain reasons for reading or not reading. It is unclear whether nonreaders consume information in other ways to make up for less reading.

I found it interesting that reading content related to work drops off quickly, but reading to understand current events does not.

 

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NPR podcast for 5-7 year-olds

Posted on May 27, 2017 by admin

WOW in the World is a new NPR podcast for young learners. The series will focus on STEM topics. This is the first NPR program for elementary and middle school learners.

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OER – an overview

Posted on May 18, 2017 by admin

“Free is good” (Bethany Ray) – a recent Edutopia article – provides a nice explanation of OER (open educational resources) for the novice. The explanation argues the benefits of OER in contrast to commercial materials and suggests OER provides educators a way to find resources for individual student needs. Of course, the challenge with OER is finding the resources and the article does a nice job of identifying repositories that can be searched.

A brief plug for my own work – I argue that online content and learning resources are not the same thing (see series beginning with this post). Layering services (examples are explained in the series) enable educators to function as instructional designers and add components to information rich content to guide and support student learning.

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Authentic tech activities challenge stereotypes

Posted on May 10, 2017 by admin

I have long argued that a great way to address stereotypes regarding the potential of technology is to show educators striking counter-examples. To many, sitting in a classroom or a lab staring at a computer is the stereotypes I have long seen as artificial.

I was reminded of this issue in a kind of strange way. My personal training in biology sensitizes me to certain issues. The willingness of politicians to deny the reality of climate change is one such issue. In following this issue, I came across this article about taking students into the field to help them understand issues of ecology and climate. The article stressed the importance of getting learners involved in the science of ecology.

Take a look at the article I reference. For me, the image used in the article immediately triggered memories of a field-based experience my wife helped develop and sponsor. The project allowed middle school students to visit a state park in North Dakota and use technology to address issues of environmental importance. This was early on in the push for ways to integrate technology and the project has remained for me nearly a perfect example of using technology to provide students authentic experiences that allow them to function as scientific practitioners.

I wrote about this example in our textbook many years ago (a related description exists online) and the characteristics of the example still serve as a reminder of the potential of educational technology. I had the opportunity to video some of the events and I have now converted the video to YouTube video to offer this example.

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