Make & SharesMake & Shares

Enhance digital communication in the classroom with Make & Shares on KQED Learn.

What's a Make & Share?

Make & Shares are informal multi-modal media responses created in a classroom setting that are tied to discussions or curricular content.  These short and quick media responses are designed for easy sharing on social media, are often assigned as extensions to written assessments or may serve as a summative assessment itself.  Make & Shares may take any format and often come in the forms of audio, video,  graphic, interactive map/timeline, meme or gif.  Make & Shares are a 21st century learning enhancement that help students build formative media literacy skills and engage classroom learning within a participatory culture.

Here is an example of a student's video Make & Share on Racial Prejudice

Why Create Make & Shares?

Creating media is a fun and engaging way for students to participate in an online discussion.  Young people are accustomed to consuming media at home and at school through the forms of video games, social media, entertainment and learning systems.  But for students to develop complete literacy by today's standards, students need to develop fluency in media creation as well.  Make & Shares help students transfer classroom learning into real-world applications and learn new tools and techniques for media creation.

Why Assign Make & Shares Now?

Any school with a computer lab and Internet access has almost universal and unfettered access to dozens if not hundreds of free web-based media creation tools.  Students, themselves, carry around almost complete media creation studios in their pockets.  It's easier now more than ever for students to elevate their classroom discussions to include multi-modal responses above and beyond plain-text.