Digital Literacies

Digital literacies, the concept of teaching about and using technology, is at the forefront of education today. At least, it should be. Never before have we had the access to worldwide collaboration that we do now and it is important that we utilize that. It is important because it does our students a disservice on two fronts if we don’t: 

1. We are denying them resources, activities, and lessons that could drastically improve their ability to learn (and improve their chances of being life-long learners) and

2. We are not properly educating them on how to leave safe, effective digital footprints.

The need to address these two factors is, I would argue, more crucial than any of the subject curriculum combined. One specific of aspect of digital literacies is that of the 'remix'.

The concept of the remix, focused on in Doug Belshaw’s Ted Talk, is one that lies at the heart of the Internet and at our constantly growing, communal world. As Belshaw points out in his talk, we no longer live in an age where if we want to create a meme we must first capture it ourselves, print it out, alter it, and then mail it to a dozen other people who may appreciate it. We now have the power to use a picture that someone else has taken, add words through a program that someone else has created, and distribute it to millions through a website or social media source. Remixing is now at the heart of the creative and educational world—the ability to take what others have already done, contribute our own thoughts and ideas, and release it back into the world. This ability to collaborate is essential for teachers and students to understand and utilize. Teachers must learn to incorporate others’ ideas and activities to further enhance their teaching. Students must learn the importance of plagiarism rules while still appreciating the beauty of collaboration. The concept of ‘not having to reinvent the wheel’ has never been more relevant and it is important that students and teachers really grasp the implications of this movement. 

One shining example of this concept is found on www.hitrecord.org. Hit Record is my first time encountering such an excellent example of creative collaboration on the web. Members get to work together with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (are you sold yet?) to collaborate on any form of creative outlet-- music, film, art, novels, etc. They are all encouraged to steal from each other, contribute their own ideas, and put it back out to the community to continue growing and evolving. Once a project feels 'complete' Gordon-Levitt uses his Hollywood power to publish a collective work, giving no-name artists the opportunity to have their work published. The best part is that if you have helped contribute to the published work you actually receive a part of the income. This is an awesome example of the power that the Internet has given us to borrow, add, remix, and contribute to our ever-evolving culture.

For your own viewing pleasure you can check out my own personal favourite HitRecord collaboration below. The link for this video can be found here.