The Wire

On January 15, 16 and 17, Mouse Squad students from Manhattan School for Scientific Inquiry (MS 328) and Lower East Side Preparatory High School (LESP) gathered at LESP’s state-of-the-art computer lab to learn about digital storytelling and remixing.

The workshop was a collaboration with our friends The LAMP, and looked at how we can break down stereotypes using the digital storytelling and remixing tool, Mozilla Popcorn Maker!

First we talked about what stereotypes are, how they get started and how we can fight against them using technology and media. Then we broke into groups and chose stereotypes and issues we wanted to address. We wrote out our thoughts and then recorded our scripts!

Finally, we plugged our recordings into Popcorn Maker and added pictures, interactive Google Maps, Wikipedia articles, and text over the audio to help illustrate the main ideas of our stories.

We came up with some awesome interactive stories and the great thing about our projects is that they’re stored online so we can go back and work on them any time!

Check out our projects-in-progress:

• Harlem & Washington Heights Gangs
• Digital Divide
• People and Places
• Dominicanos Venir a Estados Unidos
• Breaking Chinese Stereotypes at LES Prep

Thanks to the LAMP for helping to develop the workshop and Lower East Side Prep for hosting us!

And a HUGE thanks to everyone who turned out for this great Unplugged! We hope you had as much fun as we did!