Learning with the Fang

This week I hosted a ‘Work Shadow’ student for a day and was inspired by an idea that might just help make things like work experience more interesting, engaging and useful for all concerned. I think the idea has particular merit for Universities seeking to reach out to potential students.

The basic idea: arrange activities that are conducive to production of digital artefacts that can be published online and remixed.

This was inspired by Dr Scott from the Environment Institute who arranged for our year 10 student to collect some water from the river torrens, examine the contents under a microscope and publish a little youtube movie from the attached USB camera. While all this was happening, I took a few photographs, made some (very bad) audio recordings and thought about what we might be able to add value to the whole experience. While previewing some of my more arty shots in my camera’s viewfinder, Dr Scott decided we should attempt to make a sharply focused image from our blurry subject using some fancy software he recently purchased. The three of us had several conversations about things that could be interesting to year 10 (or older) students and useful to the University. I decided to try a few of these things for myself and to share them with you here.

First, the youtube video from the microscope:

Next, the sharp composite image of our lunching ‘Rotifer’:

Finally, my photos on flickr and the dodgey audio recordings made on the day along with some images from our student:

Notice how each of these digital artifacts are published online and tagged with ‘uofaremix and envrionmentinstitute’ and have been licensed openly (in such a way that allows for remix).

What we found after deciding to publish the microscope video on youtube was that each of us became more engaged (and somewhat competitive) in the activity and thought of ways to extend the experience. Our year 10 student took some photos of their own and is thinking about sharing them online. Dr Scott got busy making more microscope video footage that would lend itself to being re-mixed in software like windows movie maker or imovie. I imagined getting a group of students to make a range of short video stories combining the video, pictures and audio we decided to publish openly online. In talking this through we found that our year 10 student did not know how to make digital videos but knew people who did and would be learning this in a future ‘multi-media’ subject at school.

At this point I had what some might call a ‘brain-wave’ – Imagine if you will a small group of students involved in this activity, some interested in science, others in journalism or creative-writing, some in digital video production each armed with camera-phones, recording their view of the activity. Selected digital artifacts could be published in a way similar to ours, and a range of project based activities could occur over the following weeks or months. The science students could publish a short movie talking about the specimen studied or the experimental process. The digital story tellers could craft tales about ‘a Rotifer’s Luncheon’ or other exotic tangents. The video production buffs could create music videos to accompany the audio tracks created by the music tech students from years gone by. If each of these videos were then subsequently published, licensed and tagged we would kick-start a sustainable ecosystem of content creation, sharing and re-use.

The Environment Institute could benefit by collecting and linking to videos, stories and pictures that are relevant to its mission.

The University could benefit by making connections with potential future students that deepen with every subsequent re-use of these digital artifacts.

The Schools involved could benefit from more engaged learners and interesting lesson materials. Over time, some of the more technically accurate materials could be incorporated into routine lesson materials.

The Students benefit from an experience more meaningful than simply taking notes while watching (or helping) somebody in their routine day – job. Occasionally, a lucky student may even be inspired to pursue studies and or career in one of the areas related to the activity. If the sharing (publish, license, remix) is done well, they will learn some very important digital literacy skills and begin to model some positive behavior in the crazy, turbulent world of online sharing.

By way of example, I have created some very rough ‘mash-ups’ by re-mixing the digital artifacts shared at the top of this blog post.

Remix #1: an animation of the many blurry images combined to produce the sharp composite image:

The crazy background music was created by my son and I and has been shared online for years.

Remix #2: a movie exported from iPhoto’s ’slideshow’ feature:

I’m hoping the background music supplied by Apple has been openly licensed ;-)

Remix #3: a movie combining all the pieces:

Use your imagination:- this hastily produced narrative of the day’s activity could replace a boring written report. With a bit of creative effort it could be the tragic tale of a Rotifer’s last supper and execution (or fixing as Dr Scott so tersly asserts in my version).

I hope you get the picture and have some ideas of your own.
Would love to hear them, or better still, see links to derivative works created from these and other materials, just use the uofaremix and environmentinstitute tags.

Fang – Mike Seyfang