I have always been a fan of video games, ever since I was a young girl. I love the idea of being able to enter a virtual world and explore, especially role playing games. By reading Kurt Squire’s ‘Critical Education in an Interactive Age’, it has brought me back to those days when I still played video games. Kurt’s analysis of gaming are points that I agree with and find that it helps youths grow and make decisions. For example, allowing players to make choices in the virtual world that will lead to certain consequences, it does teach them the moral of “with every action, there is a consequence”. I find that video games are an aid to teach logical sense. To speak from personal experience, fortunately, my parents weren’t ones that forbid video games at home, as long as we didn’t spend too much time on it and that it wasn’t too violent. My go-to games have always been games such as The Sims, Rollercoaster and Zoo Tycoon. Which has been beneficial because it did teach me that if I wanted my tycoon business to run smoothly, I had to complete certain tasks, or not have my customers in the game pay to go use the washroom (which I must admit, I did charge for washroom use because I found it amusing). I found that these games were able to subtlety teach logical sense. Perhaps the subtlety of the positive effects of video games is the reason why some people are against video games.
I am all for using Hip Hop for good to teach and bring awareness for social justice. However, after hearing and reading about Kayne West wanting to run for President in 2020...This isn’t what I expected. However, perhaps Kayne West is trying to bring justice to society. All of his visions and dreams aren’t that bad. He is a hard working man. Take a look at this video of Kayne on Jimmy Kimmel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrMRF68kSRc He does raise a few points. However, can Kayne West run a country? What would that country look like? I shiver just thinking about it. I’m afraid to discuss this topic of Kayne West running for President furthermore...or perhaps I should, will this discussion bring more people to my blog?.
Remixing is everywhere. It can be seen on something like a remix or mashup of songs, such as DJ Earworm’s “United State of Pop 2014 (Do What You Wanna Do) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYWwZYLYEs Remix is basically what you think of when a DJ or producer mixes a song. Like DJ Earworm, he created a mashup (combination of two or more songs to create something new and distinct from the original) of 2014 greatest pop songs and take elements from each of them and combine them to make a new product.
I believe that we’ve actually have been “remixing” for a very long time, especially us educators. For example, something as simple as a teacher sharing their resources with you and you modifying it to meet the standards of your students or your teaching style. There are many different ways of remixing now within our digital age. With technology, it is now easier for teachers and students to remix, find resources to help them remix, and be digitally literate. It is now very convenient to access information in many different ways, you can google or go on youtube. Producing something as simple as memes are easily done now. Sharing information is as easy as pressing the retweet button and things go viral in minutes. With all this access and technology, remixing and reusing things, like the DJ Earworm’s mashup, it allows us to create something new. We should take advantage of remixing and the technological tools we have .We have a wide range of digital tools that allow us to remix resources that involve, pictures, videos, audio and so much more. Here are some tools that I have either used or learned about from other educators that involve remixing. Take a look through them and enjoy! Hope you’ll be able to use them in your classroom!
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