In the article Remix: The Art and Craft of Endless Hybridization many interesting links are presented that are remixes. A remix, as we have seen, is a video, image or audio that has been changed in a creative way. One that interested me was postsecret.blogspot.com where there are postcard images that have been written on to create a funny or even intense message regarding war, romantic relationships, violence, etc.
Did anyone get to view the video “An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube” by Michael Wesch, a professor at Kansas State University? Some remixes are discussed and one is a European music video (Numa Numa) that traveled from Japan where it was remixed with animation and it was found by a New Jersey man who remixed it by singing along. (If you don’t think you know it, look it up and I’m sure you have heard it!) Then it was remixed by many others who would sing and dance along. It is amazing how many have joined in and created a community all of their own to have fun and not be satirical.
Michael Wesch discusses some critics of YouTube. I thought it was funny (and true) how Lev Grossman, a journalist, stated, “Some of the comments on YouTube, make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.” One can see that some of the comments are judgmental. This can also be seen in the way some people text and type. Examples include lolcats and the “specific language” used (Iz mah house!), texting lingo (lol, omg! bff, etc. – I am sure many of us have seen AT&T’s messaging commercial where a grandmother texts her BFF Rose). However, these are more than what they seem and go beyond grammatical errors – people are coming together, creating a community and relationships to express and share ideas.
Youtube is fun, however, in my school, the youtube site is blocked. Does it happen in other high schools too.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter likes to post our family trip video on youtube to share with our family overseas. It won't take up your local memory. ( I know there is privacy issue--I remind my daughter that she should be well aware of that). Youtube really shorten the distance between friends and family and it is very user friendly.
YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. are all blocked where I teach. Luckily, if we prove to have a strong case to use one of those websites, however, they can be unblocked on a need-to-need basis. I think these forums are great, and should be utilized in the schools.
ReplyDeleteBut at least blogspot is not blocked. Those are all good educational tools, especially for elearning. They can be used in regular classrooms too; however, this is a new challenge for traditional classroom management. Teachers need to develop their control skills and new technology need to be develped to support such teaching approach. For example, teacher's computer should be able to monitor all the computers in the classroom, and lock/freeze those computers that are used inappropriately.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, both classroom management skills and new technology need to be developed well before those tools(Youtube, Blog, ...) can be applied securelly to our classrooms. I guess such new technology will be invented soon.
In my library, I can monitor the students' computers by my computer, I can see what students are working on and freeze that computer if students misuse it. Isn't that cool?