Collaborative writing in the social media classroom.

Dr. Leif Gustavson, Arcadia University

Vanessa Scanfeld, MixedInk

DON’T JUST WRITE…REMIX!

Collaborative Writing Experiment

Remixing is Everywhere

Audre Lorde,Poet

There are no new ideas. There are only new ways

of making them felt.

There are no new ideas. There are only new ways

of making them felt.Art does not emerge whole cloth from individual imaginations. Rather, it emerges through the artist’s engagement with previous cultural materials.

Art does not emerge whole cloth from individual imaginations. Rather, it emerges through the artist’s engagement with previous cultural materials.

MIT/MacArthur New Media

Literacies White Paper

It was interesting to be influenced by your classmates’

thoughts & ideas & find yourself creating new meaning

through the mixing of everyone’s words.

It was interesting to be influenced by your classmates’

thoughts & ideas & find yourself creating new meaning

through the mixing of everyone’s words.

Leif’s student

Exhibit 1: George Harrison

My Sweet Lord (1969) He’s So Fine, The Chiffons (1962)

Exhibit 2: The Two Lolitas

Heinz von Lichberg (1916) Vladimir Nabokov (1955)

Exhibit 3: Shakespeare

Ovid’s Pyramis & Thisbe Romeo & Juliet, West Side Story

Free Culture: Jay Z Black Album"A lot of people just assume I took some Beatles and, you know, threw some Jay-Z on top of it or mixed it up or looped it around, but it's really a deconstruction. It's not an easy thing to do… I stuck to those two because I thought it would be… more of a statement to what you could do with sample alone. It is an art form. It is music.” – Danger Mouse

Zittrain on Grey Tuesday

“As a matter of pure legal doctrine, the Grey Tuesday protest is breaking the law, end of story. But copyright law was written with a particular form of industry in mind. The flourishing of information technology gives amateurs and home recording artists powerful tools to build and share interesting, transformative, and socially valuable art drawn from pieces of popular cultures. There's no place to plug such an important cultural sea change into the current legal regime."

Free Culture: The Promiscuous Materials Project Jonathan Lethem

(Motherless Brooklyn) released stories for others to adapt.

I like that art comes from other art, and I

like seeing my stories adapted into

other forms. My writing has always

been strongly sourced in other

voices, and I’m a fan of adaptations, appropriations,

collage, and sampling.

I like that art comes from other art, and I

like seeing my stories adapted into

other forms. My writing has always

been strongly sourced in other

voices, and I’m a fan of adaptations, appropriations,

collage, and sampling.

What is MixedInk?

A collaborative writing tool that allows students to weave their ideas & language into a single, cohesive essay.

Students Remixing

2005 Pew study:

“One in four teens remix content they find online into their own

artistic creations.”

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/670/teen-content-creators

In my classroom…

Why is it important for students and teachers alike to leave poems unedited as first drafts? How does this move help students develop their writing skills over time?

What are students saying?

MixedInk introduces a new dimension to collaborative writing, and that is the ability to mold other writing into a new piece.

MixedInk introduces a new dimension to collaborative writing, and that is the ability to mold other writing into a new piece.

I was able to have those "ah-ha" moments because someone else's thoughts triggered me to think about something in a different light… MixedInk allowed me to create a whole new response in which I fused together my thoughts and the thoughts of my classmates… In the end, you have this amazing explosion of thoughts and ideas that belong to a group of people.

I was able to have those "ah-ha" moments because someone else's thoughts triggered me to think about something in a different light… MixedInk allowed me to create a whole new response in which I fused together my thoughts and the thoughts of my classmates… In the end, you have this amazing explosion of thoughts and ideas that belong to a group of people.

Today’s English Classroom

Myth of the good writer Myth of writing as competition

Myth of the tortured, lone writer

…it also goes beyond a particular relationship or duet and becomes what William Burroughs called “the third mind.” Something new, or “other,” emerges from the combination that would not have come about with a solo act. -Anne Waldman

…it also goes beyond a particular relationship or duet and becomes what William Burroughs called “the third mind.” Something new, or “other,” emerges from the combination that would not have come about with a solo act. -Anne Waldman

Some differences…

(Over)emphasize autonomy

Individual assessment Rigid rules, absolutes Templates Regurgitation Tames subversion Lacks synergy inside &

outside classroom

Value collaboration, drawing on different expertise

Team assessment Creative problem

solving Risk taking Innovation

Schools “Real World”

What this means…

Schools “sacrifice the opportunity to help youth think more deeply about the ethical and legal implications of repurposing media content, and they often fail to provide the conceptual tools students need to analyze and interpret works produced in this appropriative process.”*

*MIT New Media Literacies White Paper

How could you remix?Have you remixed? How did it go?Other questions?

How can appropriation inform your pedagogy?

Plagiarism: How do you draw the line?• Legal guidelines?• Know it when you see it?• Sufficiently different end product?• Revolutionary end product?What is appropriate attribution in different circumstances?

Tensions & Frictions

Dr. Leif GustavsonProfessor, Arcadia Universitygustavsl@arcadia.edu

Vanessa ScanfeldFounder, MixedInkVanessa@mixedink.com@mixedink @vanessascanfeld

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