Mash-Ups

One of the highlights of the sessions attended was a presentation by John Krutsch that he titled Mash-ups and Their Potential to Change the Face of Academia. He started the session by defining mash-ups as a combination of content from multiple sources. He then demonstrated several examples. One was a very recognizable melody but with different lyrics added. Another was a video of a George Bush speech where his words were rearranged to create a different outcome. Check them out by going to his "Movie Madness" resource page.

Of particular note were the examples given on course content. John first asked whether a music enthusiast would want one CD of a single artist or an iPod containing multiple artists. He then broadened his example by asking whether a student would want to learn a subject from a single textbook or whether they would want the benefit of multiple sources of information.

John also mentioned a new mash-up he called Stoodle, a combination of the CMS Moodle and the virtual world Second Life. A concept with fascinating potential but a quick Google found nothing as yet.

Thanks for another great session, John.

Resources mentioned:

TweetClouds
Movie Madness
OhDontForget