At last weekend’s Hive Toronto Popcorn Maker Party for youth, attendees and mentors learned that — with a little creativity and remixing — they were able to use Mozilla Webmaker tools like Popcorn Maker to talk back to the news.
Who says making and learning with others can’t be fun?
Learners getting ready to dive into Popcorn
Brains-a-storming
Youth were there to learn the basics of the browser-based video tool Popcorn Maker and remix their own video. But once they’d mastered the basics, they quickly started going beyond what they had learned to push the boundaries for Popcorn — specifically as a way to remix and engage with current events.
It started with a make by 14-year-old Dunja. Dunja took a video of the Quebec oil train disaster that had happened only hours before the workshop, and then remixed it with Popcorn Maker. The result was a young learner who had just engaged with breaking news and created something that allowed her to share the news with her peers in a personalized and visual way.
“You don’t have to be a tech-genius to make great things with Popcorn.” — Dunja
Learners shared what they loved or learned
This wouldn’t have been possible without the enthusiastic Webmaker Mentors, who also did their share of learning at the party. Mentor @cassiemc told us that she was impressed with the youths’ ability to take timely content and fully conceptualize, develop and create an idea in a matter of an hour or two — faster than most creative adults.
Mentor @jbuck, teaching the web
Proof that the Webmaker mentors are awesome
Get Involved:
- Make your own Popcorn current events video. You can remix Dunja’s project or start a Popcorn project from scratch by pasting in any news or current video.
- Get involved with Maker Party. More great events are running around the world until September 15. Share your own Popcorn Maker videos on Twitter using the #MakerParty hashtag.
- Join the Hive Toronto mailing list and learn about upcoming events.
- See more pictures from the event.