These past two weeks, we have worked with remix and mashup. I have learned a lot about what remix is. I have found that explaining something to someone else is the best way to comprehend and show comprehension. I explained remix to my best friend, Allison. Read my post about remix and you can also listen to my conversation with Allison in that post as well.

Since DS 106 is so stressful for our professor, he wants to take a nice vacation when the class is over {which is in a week – say whaaat?!} I thought he should go some place special. I hope he doesn’t forget his sunscreen!!! In this assignment, we had to work with Mozilla Popcorn Maker which was an experience to say the least. I found it to be slow to load. And also when I inserted media, the video went crazy and started playing at weird times. It took me a while to get a hang of it. To hear my whole experience, go to my blog post {link listed above}.

Something we did a while back was turn in media that we created for an assignment but never used. Now, we had to remix five pieces of recycled media into our own story. This is a prime example of remix – using someone elses work and putting your own twist on it. I am pretty happy with the way my recycled media assignment turned out. I also love looking at other DSers recycled media videos.

We got to do something kind of cool for remix weeks too. We got to take a picture of a famous author and remix it. This was a fun assignment that I was dreading but I don’t know why. I ended up having a really good idea. You can read about it here.

Also this week, we had to use the remix generator to do an assignment with a twist to it. I love reading and seeing what other DSers did for their remix generator assignment because everyone’s is different! I might have done the same assignment as someone but we got different remix cards so it is very interesting to see different twists to the assignment. You can read about what my remixed assignment was in my blog post.

On top of all that, we had to complete six stars of mashup assignments.

• What Color is Your World {**}
• Actor Transformation {****}

I had a lot of fun doing these assignments. It was no problem getting six stars! I used my trusty Windows Movie Maker for both of these assignments. I didn’t know everything Windows Movie Maker was capable of before this class. Now that I know, I am going to have used it all the time. I just love it! Read my blog posts and explore my mashed up journey!

• Yellow – How does the color yellow appear in my world everyday?
• Ordinary Girl – How has a young, innocent actress changed over the years?

We had to submit our final project proposal last Friday, April 19th. I submitted mine and have already gotten feedback on it. I am excited to start working on my final project. It will be neat to do assignments with different topics and tie them together through a story. If you haven’t already done it, read my final project proposal and give me feedback! :)

We also had to submit assignments and tutorials that we created. We needed to create two tutorials and two assignments. I worked on the tutorials throughout the semester. My assignments and tutorials were submitted on Tuesday 4/23. I hope my tutorials help future DSers and I hope my assignments are loved and cherished by many!

These past two weeks, I have learned SO much. I love how I can use somebody’s media and turn it into something that I want. I like giving things my own twist. Even with recipes, I never follow the recipe step by step. I always add my twist. I guess this is a remix of that recipe. If you want to follow a recipe step by step, fine. go do it. You won’t be able to take any credit for it. Which would kind of be copyright. If you make cookies and follow Martha Stewart’s chocolate chip cookie recipe but add some peanut butter cups and a few dashes of flax seed {yes, this is a Miss Runner Bug recipe and of course, you can borrow it :)}, you just remixed her recipe. You made it your own.

I think everything can be remixed. You can always use somebody’s idea/media/recipe and twist it/change it/rearrange it to make it your own. I also think remix is a vital part of digital storytelling. When YouTube flagged my video for copyright, I was mad because it was MY OWN creation. I didn’t just take a video from someone and upload it. I changed it. I added other clips to it and a song. I changed the clip for a school assignment. Remix is different than copyright. Because when you violate copyright, you don’t make any changes to the original piece.

So I guess I can be done rambling on. This is it. We only have one week left. Why can’t DS 106 be a year long class??! Well, I guess I should go get started working on my final project. I can’t even say it. Final…ew. I will never call it that again. I’ll just say ultimate story. Hehe – trickster!!

Song blog post title: Remix of Top 25 Pop Songs – I just couln’t pick one remix song :)

Wow. Is it really just the final week now??? :(