Technology Videos “in Plain English”

Above: One of the images from “RSS in Plain English”

There is a series of videos by Common Craft, whose tagline is “Our Product is Explanation”. The videos are in the following areas: Technology, Society, Money, and Green.

Before you think this is just another set of YouTube videos which link to screenshots of computer screens and you end up watching a mouse cursor whiz past at the speed of light — think again. There are no computer screens, only easy-to-grasp props such as cut-out paper images which help drive across the point to all ages. The videos tend to run 3 to 3 1/2 minutes or less.

Here is a partial list of technology videos that you can view for free, though they are also available for purchase:

RSS Feeds, Twitter (also Twitter Search), Wikis, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, Blogs, and Podcasting.

If you or someone you know are new to computers, try the following videos: World Wide Web, Web Search Strategies, Phishing Scams, Computer Hardware, Computer Software, and, for fun, Online Photo Sharing.

There are other videos. Simply click a video above, and choose “Browse Videos” in orange on the left. Note the categories on the pop-up screen: Technology, Society, Money, and Green.