OK, let's be clear and simple: At WatchMECreate, we want to see more of the videos being created by kids across Maine. 

In order to see more of the great video that is being produced, we are making the second WatchMECreate Challenge of this 2011-2012 school year wide open, and the rewards are available to all participants. Simply put, we are asking students and teachers from across the state to provide us links to videos that have been created by Maine kids.  Some of these videos will be the results of assignments, but many will have been created by kids who have become movie-makers on their own. 

And the reward? The chance to have your work showcased here at WatchMECreate where it will be seen by visitors from across the state and around the world who are consistently asking, "What's going on in Maine? How has the MLTI  and Maine's commitment to providing access to current technology impacted what students know and are able to do?" 

Its time to show them what Maine students can do...

In 2002, at the beginning of the MLTI, Steve Jobs visited Maine. In a talk at Portland High School he said, "When we grew up, the medium of our generation was what? What was the medium of our generation? (Pause) It was the book - that's exactly right. And we all knew how to read, thank God. But we knew something just as important. Not only could we consume the medium of our generation, but we could author it. We could write. We could put back into the culture at many different levels, whether it was a letter to a friend or a novel. We could put back in the medium of our generation. We were consumers and we were authors.

What is the medium of our kids' generation today? It's video. Like it or not, it's video. Television, movies... and they are fantastic consumers. But how many kids know how to author in this medium of their generation? Almost none. And that's a scary thought, isn't it? I find it pretty scary. And the most incredible thing that has happened over the last five years is these tools are now letting these kids author in the medium of video, and it's pretty doggone simple to do."

So here is the challenge - "Are you making video? Come on... share it - let us see your work."

Please use this form to submit a link to video work by Maine students.

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The arrival of the MLTI in 2002 sparked a technology revolution in Maine middle schools and this moved on to Maine high schools. Technology is making a difference in every middle and high school. But what are these tech-empowered Maine kids doing on their own?  Making movies?  Creating podcasts? Blogging? You bet. It’s happening, but up to now there hasn’t been a place for these creative Maine kids to apply their abilities to help make Maine as great as it can be.

This is going to be the place for Maine kids to show what they can do when no one is telling them exactly what to do.  Sure, there will be challenges, but they will be like the real world - big, vague, and without a set number of pages that need to be written!