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This morning I watched a presentation by Paul Stacey,  the executive Director Open Education Consortium.  In his presentation, he talked about the five R’s (retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute).  His talk got me thinking about a video I saw a couple years ago regarding the concept of the remix.   You can watch the video here.

The video talks a lot about the entertainment industry and technology.  The basic thesis is that there is nothing new under the sun.  I wonder how this may apply to educational materials as well?  Haven’t we all taken little bits and pieces from what we have learned along the way and “remixed” them into our own version; created our own lessons and methods?

Kirby Ferguson (the creator of the video) says that there are three elements to creativity:

  1. Copy– At this point, we emulate something we admire.  Much like a child learning to draw, we copy.  This could look like using someone else’s lesson plan in the educational field.
  2. Transform– This is where we iterate on something that we have copied.  We start adding our own personality to the mix.  We start to make our own variations
  3. Combine–  In my opinion, this is where the really interesting work can begin.  We can take different ideas and iterations and combine them to create something completely different.  I believe this is where open education can make its largest impact.

By using an open model for education we allow ourselves more room for creativity and innovation to occur.  It allows us to marry our creative ideas with others to create something greater than the sum of its parts.  It is in this space that I find myself getting excited about the future of education.

As I continue to watch presenters in the Royal Roads MALAT virtual symposium I am becoming very interested in the whole idea of open education.  I believe that we are in the pioneering stage of something very exciting and I am very excited to be part of it.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the idea of the “remix”