Students love projects. They love creating a product and making it their own. I am going to split this reflection into two important parts of this topic. 1. The concept of remixing old products to create new products and 2.Resources for teachers on technology and web tools that can be used to create projects
REMIX - When we think of remix we think of music that has been remixed or funny youtube videos that have been edited and remixed? But what does remixing look like in the classroom? Let’s take a look at some ideas of remixing first. Here are a couple of videos that help understand the art of remixing. Remixing can help students create new products. It also helps them problem solve. Inventing something is not really about coming up with something out of thin air. It is about acknowledging and problem or a need and then analyzing the situation and coming up with a solution that may use products or ideas that may already exist. It is the way you put them to work together were the new invention comes in. That is a very neat process that most of us, at least I did not think about before. Bringing the problem solving into our classroom only helps our students out in the real world because that is what they are going to have to do their whole life. |
Creativity is a Remix - Kirby Ferguson - Understanding where creativity comes from and the process really helps when assigning students tasks.
Learning STEM Skills by Designing Video Games (Is School Enough? Series) - This video continues to talk about content creation in the classroom. One thing big thing I got from this video is the reinforcement that if students are interested in what they are doing and they want to do it well, they will welcome feedback to strengthen their product.
RESOURCES So what types of things can we have students create and remix? The great thing about teaching foreign language is that the possibilities are endless. There is so much realia to pull inspiration from: books, movies, youtube videos, songs, poems, ads, menus and theses are just the tip of the iceberg. Below I am listing some website that can help bring inspirations and find tools to bring the inspirations to life. |
- Digital Remix: The Art and Craft of Endless Hybridization Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel - God Comprehensive article with a lot of great ideas on how and what to remix.
- Construction and/or Creation of Online Content - Good explanation of what it means to really construct online content. A must read for teachers!
- 37 Tech Tools for every World Language Classroom - These are great tools to use in the classroom
- THE BIG LIST OF TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES FOR SPANISH CLASS - This is a great list of resources, especially if you are looking for tools to use so students can create and remix!