MTR: Meta-remix: Reflecting on four communities built for learning, tinkering, and remixing with code

In this panel, we bring together four people who have actively engaged in making, tinkering, and remixing the designs of learning communities in which young people make, tinker, and remix with code. Drawing on experiences creating and experimenting with Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/), Studio Sketchpad (http://studio.sketchpad.cc),  Kodu (http://www.kodugamelab.com), AppJet, and other informal environments, we seek to identify the socio-technical factors that impact peer learning with social media.  We will talk about lessons learned and have a discussion about questions such as how to support young people's development of a maker mindset.

We will introduce each of the four systems, drawing particular attention to the various mechanisms built-in for remixing, iteratively refining, collaborating, and sharing with others. We then use this as a starting point for identifying commonalities and differences to discuss in more detail. What do we agree are valuable components in creating a remix culture? What have we discovered to be promising, but ultimately unsuccessful? What styles of remixing have emerged and what seems to be their purpose? How generalizable are our observations?

This panel aims at providing insights for meta-designers, practitioners and educators interested in learning how to support and inspire young people to learn to create computational artifacts within a community of peers.