Hack the news

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Activity 4.4 Remix the News. Allow at least 30 minutes for this activity.


In this activity, adapted from Mozilla's Hack the News, we're going to explore "remix" as an open practice.


1. Open a modern web browser i.e. Chrome.

2. Go to goggles.webmaker.org. Click and drag the big pink “X-Ray Goggles” button to your browser’s bookmarks toolbar as explained on screen.

3. Navigate to a news web site. Think about local newspapers, or a national news site like The New York Times or The Guardian. Try to find websites that use a good amount of HTML, and not a lot of Javascript as it will be easier for your learners to remix.

Don’t worry — you’re not actually hacking the site for others. You’re changing a local version of the site that only you can see.

4. Click the Goggles in your bookmark toolbar to turn them on. Now when you mouse over elements of the news page, you’ll see the code underneath.

5. Hit “R” on the keyboard to remix any element.

Change the text and swap in new images. Try changing the headlines or rewriting some of the stories. Edit some of the links and play with font size and color. Mouse over an image on the page and hit “R” / “Remix.” Then paste in the address/URL for your new image. To grab an image from Facebook or Instagram, you'll need to click into the post, then right-click and "Copy the Image Location".

TIP: How to find and swap in openly licensed image. The Creative Commons search page or the advanced settings in Google help you easily find an image you like with permission to use it. Right-click or control-click on the image you want and select: “Copy image location.” (Or “Copy image URL” or “Copy image address”, depending on your web browser.) Then paste your new image URL over top of the old one. Be careful not to lose the quotation marks!

6. Once you’re done, click the Publish button, or press P on your keyboard. This makes your changes visible on the web for others to see.

Now, take a few minutes to reflect on these last two activities. In your opinion, did you develop new skills? Maybe you used skills that you hadn’t used in a while? Have you thought more about online communication? Share your reflection in the forum.




Last modified: Wednesday, 14 March 2018, 10:15 AM