I’ve been thinking about the viral videos that stuck with me over the year. They’ve become less of surprised hamsters and klutzy candid camera mishaps and adorable kittens doing crazy things. Instead, the videos I typically find myself drawn into are the videos of pastiche, remix, and co-authorship.*

Underground MC, Nyle, for instance took an already catchy Kanye produced hook and built it into something arguably better than the original.

Likewise, as much as “I’ve Gotta Feeling” was the inescapable single for much of the year, a bunch of Canadian students somehow made it more personal and exuberant than its overuse in sporting events and capitalist merchandising ever could have.

Why do these things matter? First of all, both are the kinds of videos that – with a bit of creative ingenuity – would be easy for students to create in the classroom. They’re the way students should be interacting with their media at this point. Researchers keep pointing to the way authorship is changing and the fact that students are producers of media. This isn’t something new. However, at least in the context of an urban secondary school, such work of young producers isn’t exactly being encouraged. Think of the empowering potential of having student work go “viral.”

Earlier this year, it felt like a thrill to facilitate a couple of professional development seminars at my school in which I go to talk about the academic validity of Soulja Boy’s dance for “Tell ‘Em.” It was silly but illuminating. 2010 seems like the year for our students to remix the cultural artifacts around them and start making them their own.

* Thinking more broadly about teaching the way to share these kinds of materials, I realize a bit of theory is going to need to inform our class work. I’m working my way through the latest collection of Gladwell’s New Yorker articles and felt that this article on copyright and plagiarism is especially useful; it’s also a great gateway into discussions of Creative Commons and Lessig’s work.