Creating and Using Meme Images in the Classroom. Have some fun! Get your ‘Meme' on. It's Probably Easier Than you Think. Well, to be clear, Wikipedia defines a Meme as “an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet.” Creating something that is going to spread like wildfire is not easy, and that's not really what I'm writing about here.
As the concept of the “Meme” has become ubiquitous with the Internet, we've all become familiar with meme images. This can be a fun way to make a point in class. There are plenty of programs that will let you take a picture and overlay text (PowerPoint would be my go-to since it makes it so easy to overlay and manipulate each element, but there are many other options). Easy Memes with Imgur (*note: this is NOT a site for kids!) Now understand, Imgur is NOT a kid-friendly place, so I am not suggestion to send students there. Here are a few silly and amusing teaching related “meme” images I tossed together with Imgur: Future - :-o: The surprising power of emoticons. It all started with an awkward moment online. In the early 1980s, computer scientist Scott Fahlman realised his words were failing him. When communicating with others on a forum, he found that it was difficult to convey that some posts were meant to be taken as a joke.
So one day, he strung together a colon, a dash and a bracket to make what is now an instantly recognisable character: Since then, thousands of emoticons like this have emerged, conveying a diverse and complex array of emotions and concepts. And researchers are now realising that emoticons may hold a power over us that we didn’t realise – when we use them to communicate, they can transform our decisions and behaviour in unexpected ways. To understand the scope of emoticons, you only have to look at the website curated by Vladimir Khotulev: it’s dedicated to compiling Japanese emoticons, also known as kaomoji, a breed of emoticon that is particularly diverse.
Take the way that they transform a simple phrase, says Khotulev. iCreate Project. RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us.