Coping With The Economy is a new project by Remix America, a site that lets you watch, and the remix, videos about U.S. History and current events. Students can create their own videos responding the questions:
How are you coping? How are your parents and grandparents coping? Tell us your story!
I could see this as a potential project for my students, now that we’re getting Flip Video Camcorders.
In my previous post about the site, I said that I thought it was a great site to find excellent video clips to help students learn U.S. History, but that I thought their remixing system was too complicated for my students (and for me!).
I still have that opinion. However, they do offer the ability for students to comment on the videos, and that is why I’m adding the site to The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience”.
They also have a “Talk Back” feature that lets you use a webcam, grab images off the Web, or upload audio to respond orally to videos. Unfortunately, though, you can only upload audio instead of being able to record with a computer mike right then and there. If and when they add that ability (and I’ve sent them an email with that suggestion) it would make the site a candidate to be added to The Best Places Where Students Can Create Online Learning/Teaching Objects For An “Authentic Audience” list. That feature appears very easy to use — if they can add the audio recording piece.
Larry,
ReMix America does, at first, seem like it could be confusing for some students. I actually used ReMix America just a few hours ago with one of my 11th grade classes. My students were able to remix videos, but they were a little disappointed that they couldn’t add commentary without creating a video of their own to insert into the mix (we don’t have video cameras readily accessible to students). If ReMix America adds an easy-to-use voice over capability then they’ll really have a winning product.
Richard
Larry – Thank you so much for covering our site on your blog. Since our site is a video sharing site, we haven’t yet considered a strictly audio component. However, that is a very interesting suggestion that we’ll definitely take into consideration.
If any of your readers have questions about the software, feel free to email me at erika@remixamerica.org
You can also check out this tutorial on the software: http://www.remixamerica.org/videos/how-to-remix
Also, check out some of the great student remixes that have been made in the past: http://www.remixamerica.org/playlists/student-remixes
I look forward to seeing your “Coping with the Economy” stories on the site!