Write, Remix, Evaluate:

Collaborative Writing in
the Social Media Classroom

Nate Kogan, History Teacher David Stern, MixedInk Co-Founder

nkogan@gmail.com david@mixedink.com
Overview

• Why remix?
• MixedInk introduction
• Let's try it!
• Best practices
• New for educators
• Questions & discussion
Plagiarism is Good!*
* or at least, we all do it all the time

Audre Lorde, There are no new

Poet ideas. There are only
new ways of making
them felt.

Art does not emerge whole MIT/MacArthur New

cloth from individual Media Literacies
imaginations. Rather, it White Paper
emerges through the
artist’s engagement with
previous cultural materials.
Why Remix?

“learn by taking culture apart & putting it back together.”

- NML White Paper

• Evaluation and analysis skills

• Exposure to work of role models, peers
• Take risks on top of existing scaffold
• Ability to synthesize key concepts
What is MixedInk?

A collaborative writing tool

that allows students to
write individually and then
weave their ideas and
language together.

MixedInk combines the idea of

a wiki with a social rating
system like Digg
Wikis vs. MixedInk
Wikis
• Only one student can edit
at a time.
• Shows the most recent
editor’s work.
• Existing text limits freedom
to experiment.
• Difficult to identify
individual students’ work.
MixedInk
• Many students can
participate at once.
• Recognizes every student’s
work.
• Submit individual or
collaborative texts anytime
in the process.
• Authorship is tracked
automatically and color-
coded.
The MixedInk Process
Let’s Try It!

Prompt: Laptops in the Classroom:

Detrimental or Beneficial?

http://mixedink.com/MrKogan/ISTE
Project Ideas

What type of assignments would work

well with MixedInk?

Let’s discuss. Also, feel free to tweet

us your ideas to @mixedink.
Tips (1)

• Choose the right topic – inquiry-based,

debatable, specific, relevant to class.
• Spend time establishing ethics of remixing.
• Provide some examples to start with.
• Have students follow a structured process:
o Submit 1 original essay
o Rate 7 essays, comment on 3 essays
o Remix language from 2 or more essays to form a new
version
o Rate 10 essays, comment on 3 essays
Tips (2)

• Leave dedicated time at the end for ratings.

o Discuss and collectively establish clear criteria for
rating.
• Discuss and critique the top-rated essay at
the end, hard copies in hand.
• The bigger the group, the better.
o Avoid splitting classes into small groups.
o Consider allowing students from different class
periods to work together.
Basic Package

Features:
• Create and customize a project just like this.
• No limit on the number of participants.

Price: FREE!
Educator Package

Password Protection. Limit projects to the students

you invite.

Pre-register students. Avoid wasting class time with

registration. No student email addresses needed.

Student reports. View the texts, comments, and votes

contributed by each student to help with assessment.

Ad-free projects. Create advertising-free workspaces.

1 class – $11/month
1 class – $88/year
Guru Package

Includes educator package features, PLUS:

Custom rating rubric. Customize the criteria

students use to evaluate essays.
Advanced moderation. Remove offensive
submissions and restore texts if students
incorrectly mark them as inappropriate.
Export content. Export student content into an
Excel or text file.

Up to 4 classes – $28/month
Up to 4 classes – $224/year
Discussion

• Distinguishing ethical appropriation from

plagiarism
• Practical questions about using MixedInk
- Assessment
- Pacing
• Anything else you want to discuss?
 Contact us!
Nate Kogan David Stern
History Teacher, Founder
Fort Worth Country Day MixedInk
nkogan@gmail.com david@mixedink.com
@nkogan @mixedink @davestern

New Media Literacies White Paper:

http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf

Evaluation survey:
http://www.surveymk.com/s/byol-opensource_eval