Brian Lamb? and Melanie McBride bring up interesting points about the remix/mash-up in their respective articles, Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix and Praxis 2.0: Escaping the edu-travelogue. It’s interesting to note that DS106 more or less consists entirely of remixes and mash-ups and the hidden variables that McBride brings up don’t really affect our course (although we are encouraged to take them into consideration).

Melanie McBride talks about how educators are applying the remix and mash-up to the classroom, and the ways in which they can be approved.  I’m glad that the difficulties she speaks of are not entirely relevant to our class, but I can see how they would be a great detriment to this course if it was not in a college environment.  DS106 is a mash-up itself.

Brian Lamb discusses mash-ups on the web, and brought forth a lot of examples.  His examples weren’t very new to me, but I definitely liked the message he was trying to get across. Mash-ups/remixes often result in a sum that is greater than its parts.  School, and more specifically universities, are supposed to encourage free thought and imagination (and if not, I think that should be an ideal that they strive towards), and the mash-up is just that.

These articles reminded me of a very relevant TED talk by Lawrence Lessig entitled Re-examining the remix. In it, he brings up the importance of the remix, copyright issues, and the value of creativity. Another relevant talk by Lessig is Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity, which has more of a focus on the laws that stifle creativity, and the importance of reviving creativity.