Backpacking to Heart Lake - Spring - 2013
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Professional Blog - Mr. Buran
This week, we were asked to “remix the web.” We moved beyond synthesis, augmenting the work of another with our own edits, appends, comments, and hacks. My project this week happily fell in to my lap when Kevin Hodgson took the initiative to remix my piece from week one.
Kevin’s work inspired and invited me, even challenged me to continue a conversation that was started between artists and learners:
This collaboration and communication gave me purpose to revise my original piece. It enabled me to see shortcomings that I would have otherwise overlooked. I realized that I left out information that could help readers connect to me through my work:
- Information about my role in he Writing Project would have better informed my reader.
- My location is more than just a list item. It is a place.
- We have common social connections with other artists.
Collaborating on the work with Teach the Web this week helped me conceptualize an idea that moves me into thinking about this week's topic: "Open Web." Kevin “requested” permission to re-mix my work (albeit after the fact). I am realizing the importance of clarity regarding establishing permissions for others to remix published work. Through remixing, Kevin added tremendous value to my work. It was kind of him to give his attention. I can encourage this value additive behavior by establishing clear permissions using tools like Creative Common’s “ShareAlike” license.
Tags:"Make" day for Mrs. Ramay's "This I Believe" project with the seniors was a blast again this year. I love being a part of this project. I was describing the feeling of excitement and exhaustion after collaborating with so many students on so many projects to colleagues. It is the reason I became a teacher.
Students this year were even less limited by the technology. I attribute that to the facts that the students know what they are doing, the technology is better, and Mrs. Ramay preps them for this big day so well.
Students know what they want to communicate and they don't let anything stand in the way of their vision. They applied tools in ways I would never have thought of.
I was particularly surprised when one student sent me a file with "emoji" icons in the title. It can be shocking how bold young people are while exploring.
This image is a great expression of the creative frenzy of the project.
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Week one was an exciting success. I purposefully made something this week and received tremendous feedback from the #teachtheweb community.
We were asked to “make” as our homework for week one. Making can be intimidating, especially if you are intending to publish what you are making. Thankfully, the Teach the Web group built in specific constraints, a clear purpose, and powerful tools for the work.
We were tasked with building an introduction of ourselves that could be published or shared. We were then directed to the possible tools to use and some outstanding models.
I used Ankit Gadgil’s profile, built on the Mozilla Thimble platform, as my model. It thankfully became clear to me what my project could become and how to accomplish my goal. I started with the profile template and plugged away manipulating the “html” and “css.” I made some design choices to best present the information that I wanted to display. I “hacked” the code dropping in <br />, margins, padding, even attempting (and failing) <float>. I added classes and attributes through the page. Just as I felt I was getting my mind around <div>, I pinged the Div Master badge.
Spending those couple of hours coding was not my preferred activity for a Friday night, but I had to finish my homework before a weekend of play. Finishing the work was productive and rewarding.
The incredible bonus to the delight of making were the responses received from “mentors” on Teach the Web. Chad Sansing, Paul Oh and Doug Belshaw, mentors of mine, linked to and commented on my work. The inspiration of this is akin to the feeling I received from James Michie through his comments on my work during the Crit101 course.
I am awed by the care that these educators share in open courses. I am stunned by the value in content aggregation, assignment building, and feedback openly available in open courses like Teach the Web.
Week one was a success. I am excited for what is in store for the rest of this course.
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