Keep reading...there are rad radiohead links at the end!

Getting students to have genuine, intelligent discussions with each other concerning literature is going to be one of our biggest challenges as English teachers. And while blogs are another tool to get students to do this, I still wonder how to frame this so that a "genuine" conversation can take place. I know we've talked about this in class (I forget which one), but how do we make this more than just "another way to turn in homework?" (e.g. most of the Edina blogs). One important thing to consider is that students might just need some time to develop these skills; perhaps we will just need to be patient and give them many blogging opportunities (as well as quality feedback). Giving them time in class to blog might be another way to make sure that they aren't just rushing through it in order to get it done.

I thought that the Jenkins article brought up a number of interesting points about how "remixing" has been around for centuries, it was just called different things and utilized different technologies than what is available today. In remixing something, one simultaneously critiques the original work and creates something new...(hello Bloom's Taxonomy).

When one considers the use of wiki's, and other forms of collaborative technology and its increasing relevance to our lives, it seems clear that students will benefit from having a foundation in this kind of thinking and working. Jenkins describes "knowledge communities" as having the ability to, "confront problems of greater scale and complexity than any given student might be able to handle" (42). Many programmers work from home, for free to help solve problems (e.g. Firefox)...the future potential of this kind of work force (whether it's formed of volunteers or paid workers) could be exponentially powerful.

As a bit of a side note, the Jenkins article reminded me of how Radiohead used this new kind of thinking when they released singles from their last record. They released two songs in their component parts where you could purchase the drum track, the vocal track, the bass track, and the guitar tracks separately. They then invited fans to remix the songs and post them on a website where people could vote for their favorites. This not only allowed fans to be collaborators with the band, but it made Radiohead a lot of money. The first single made 5 times as much as a traditional single (since you had to buy the parts separately) and they had their highest ranking on the Billboard charts in years as a result. As companies (such as the record industry) struggle to effectively integrate changing technologies into their plans, they will need creative thinkers (i.e. our students).

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It's interesting how many of these remixes are vastly different from the original songs.
http://www.radioheadremix.com/nude/
http://www.radioheadremix.com