Praxis 2.0: Escaping the edu-travelogue

When I first watched the Alice video I  wondered, “Wow! How did someone do this?! So I’m excited for the mash-up section of this course. Then when I saw the word ‘praxis’ I thought of the test (there are a series of tests, one of which is called the Praxis, that I’ve had to take to become a licensed teacher in Virginia). This is actually kind of ironic because the Praxis test is part of that whole standardized testing phenomena but in this article the author describes ‘praxis’ as a form of  “real learning in action”. I see her point where public education is limiting, and sometimes it’s hard for a teacher to break out of the mold when there are so many rules and restrictions. I think it’s also a matter of time and assessment. There are strict guidelines in public school about how  you have to have x-topic covered in x-amount of days/weeks…there is little room for flexibility. In Virginia there are also clear cut levels of assessing students, where all students must pass the (super boring and  not challenging) Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. Perhaps if students had more real-life, authentic opportunities for learning, they would actually learn valuable skills and be challenged to perform higher level thinking tasks. I definitely think the work in ds106 is more akin to traveling. Most of what we are learning is through doing. It’s active learning, definitely not the traditional college course.

Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix

Is remix/mash-up an “assault on originality?”

My answer is I don’t know. Perhaps a remix/mash-up could be the smallest “assault on originality” because what are the chances that someone else could mash-up the same elements in the same way as another person.

Is remix and mash-up a “new” art?

I’ve heard the term remix since I can remember but the term mash-up is a relatively new one for me. I first heard the term used on Glee when the Glee crew would sing a compilation of different parts of songs. I think people have always been remixing and mashing up but as to the tools used for which to do so, I think that part makes it a “new” art.

I really enjoy video (anyone know a good wedding videographer!?) a lot, and am looking forward to the mash-up section of this class. To answer the questions presented by Professor Groom, I didn’t realize there is a mash-up culture. I guess I have done some mash-up assignments already (The Big Hip Hop, creating stories with a compilation of other people’s pictures). I don’t think the readings have necessarily challenged my ideas about mash-ups, they’ve just educated me in others’ opinions. Finally, yes I think mash-ups can be authentically taught because it’s a mostly open ended, creative project.