I have an exercise for you: do a search on the word mashup and note the number of results returned. I got 660,000! 660,000!

I’ve been focusing a lot on learning, teaching and how the two can intersect with smart use of technology and am curious about how the idea of remixing content can drive student learning. My experience has shown me that students view information as raw data that can be sculpted into something brand new and something unique where ownership is not questioned; it’s theirs. This isn’t a new phenomena - one could hold a discussion on idea that Shakespeare borrowed stories from playwrights or that Handel ripped off music from other artists. In fact much has been written about creativity and how most truly creative work comes from extending existing ideas.

So what happens when education and web 2.0 technology intersect?

#1 - you get talk of plagiarism and copyright violation
Henry Jenkins of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program talks about the missed opportunity when schools focus to strongly on the idea of original work:

“<schools> often remain hostile to overt signs of repurposed content, emphasizing the ideal of the autonomous artist. Yet, in emphasizing totally “original work”, schools sacrifice the opportunity to help kids think more deeply about the ethical and legal implications of repurposing existing media content; they often do not provide them with the conceptual tools students need to analyze and interpret works produced in this appropriative process; and they don’t teach them the relationship between analysis and production.

This hostility that Jenkins sees is due to the fact that digital content makes repurposing simple thus making the authenticity of material difficult to see. But could it also be that we, (who graduated from college almost 2 decades ago or more) understand that remixing content without proper citation is plagiarism. Or copyright violation! Is our understanding part of the problem?

#2 the flip side of remixing content is that you get focused student engagement

“Remixing also helps illustrate the plasticity of meaning and how it can so easily be altered. This works because remixing allows us to see and appreciate the functions and structure as they are expressed in the content.” <Renee Hobbs interview>

Students are no longer the passive consumers of content but instead they are content producers who can easily create their own understanding. A fundamental shift has occurred but if we really want to see the learning potential we’ll need to ask some basic questions: how can we incorporate the practice of remixing/mashing of content into our pedagogical practices AND how do we value and assess the newly remixed content?