This week I’ve begun a new class called Adapting Innovative Technology to Education, and encountered articles, video and media clips about the maker movement. I had the opportunity to put my learning into practice by creating a maker video remix using Mozilla Popcorn. This task was challenging, since I had to first make meaning out of all I had learned, and then figure out a new technology and find clips to support my thinking.
Relying on what I discovered in my networked learning class, I went to the online community and discovered how to manipulate video clips and other events in Mozilla Popcorn. I had to go back to the forums repeatedly as elements didn’t flow properly, or I forgot how to use layers. I initially played with some YouTube videos that I had uploaded, but then ventured into the creative commons licensed area of YouTube and also explored the rich Prelinger Archive of historical short film. What a treasure!
Having learned how to use a new technology, I was then ready to create a remix. But where to begin? I considered my learning from this week’s content. I was most inspired by Kirby Ferguson’s Everything is a Remix video series, and thought deeply about how remixing connects to my work as an educator. Creation involved copying content, and remixing and transforming it. These same steps are part of the learning process. A student takes in content and concepts and makes it their own. As learners play with content, new meaning and new products result.
So in my remix video, which you can view here, I explored how ideas build on what has existed before. I found a clip from the Seattle Worlds Fair of 1962 in which a Bell Telephone company representative was talking about the possibilities of phone technology. I immediately thought about how I use my smartphone for so many tasks, and even have friends who use their phone to control their home environments. By layering old and new clips, I wanted to illustrate the concept of creating being a remix of existing products and ideas.
Sources used:
Fairbanks (Jerry) Productions. (1964). Century 21 Calling [Video file]. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/Century21964.
Photo by Nemo / CC0 Public Domain
Rothberg (Lee) Productions, Inc. (1967). Zipcode with the Swingin’ 6 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/0574_Zip_Code_with_the_Swingin_6_08_12_36_09.
Илья Сименко. (2013, July 21). WigWag Kickstarter Promo Video [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtJsaBM1pEY.
