Week 1- Reading- Copyright and Creative Commons

Retrieved from Flickr Creative Commons Franz Patzig-from A. Diez Herrero

As I watched the documentary Good Copy Bad Copy, one particular comment in the film struck my as pertinent, as we are all so bombarded with media we’ve been almost forced to use it as a form of art and that if someone stood on the side of the street handing out paint we would have a lot more paintings out there.  I find it so difficult and ambiguous to clearly define what is considered being inspired by versus what is stealing or plagiarizing.

Retrieved from Fickr Creative Commons Creative Commonsfrom karindalziel

When I consider these issues of copyright, creative commons, and how they effect my instruction in the classroom, it is so scary and complicated.  I want to provide my students with as much knowledge and as many opportunities to truly comprehend the world around them.  On the other hand, I know for a fact that I take many chances and many liberties within the four walls of my classroom to do that.  It is scary to think that much of what I do is not necessarily legal but in the long run those that would be on the other end of any lawsuit are the same that I would be provide a spotlight for or enlightening my students about.  Creative commons is interesting to me in that the artist in fact have the control, not some legislator or some lawyer.  The artist is given the right to pick and choose what uses their work can have by others.  I can’t help but wonder and worry about where the future of copyright will lead this next generation of artist coming up.  I hope for this sake we do find a happy and manageable medium ground in which we continue to foster creativity.

I can’t help but consider that this idea of ownership is a much deeper and much more complicated issues than most have ever considered.  Who truly owns anything?  I suppose this is more philosophical than anything else.  But is there such a need to profit financially off of every person or situation that directly links to us in any way.  I find this idea fascinating and it affects us each more than we realize.  I began in a new district last year and I teach four separate courses at a high school level.  When I asked where in the building or within the district I could find shared materials, such as handouts, lesson plans, assessment materials regarding subjects or units that we must all be teaching as it is part of the state and district approved and agreed upon curriculum, I was shocked to find out that one does not exist.  More over I was laughed at.  

Retrieved from Flickr Creative Commons CC swag Ifrom BotheredByBees 

What a silly thing.  Teachers are unwilling to share their ideas for some strange need to claim it and own it.  Why would we not want to share our ideas, allow others to expand upon and better those ideas, in turn inspiring the original creator but most importantly for the benefit of our learners.  In my opinion we are allowing our greed to strip our learners of the most developed the most creative and the most beneficial learning experiences that we collectively have to offer!

Week 1- Comments to My Classmates #1

http://web.me.com/mdohn/Site/Blog/Entries/2011/2/28_Copyright%2C_Creative_Commons_and_the_Classroom.html#

Image retrieved and adapted from FB profile pics.

Mark's Comments regarding Copyright issues:

I have just viewed the most comprehensive collection of videos concerning copyright I have ever seen. Apart from being amazed by the work that is available on YouTube (I swear, just as soon as I finish my degree I going to spend some serious time surfing videos!) I am struck by how copyright is the best example of how much of a social and cultural transformation we are living through. I find it dynamic, exciting, and fearful all at the same time. For my part, I have played it safe and have had students create their own work. I feel quite justified when I hear independent film makers just as fearful of copyright as I am! But now having a more solid understanding of the entire horizon on the topic, I will be moving my students into creative commons for music, mixes and mashups. “Good Copy, Bad Copy” was amazing! It captures the changing views of culture, society, and creative expression on a global level. As an educator, seeing how certain documentaries are no longer available do to licensing fees I’m horrified. It is a crime to let business dictate the availability of historical documents! One of the most important quotes from the film came at the end when one man openly asked if we should continue to restrict people’s access to information, or give them full access to allow them to learn and gain a much deeper understanding of the context? I’m all for full access.

My Comments to  Mark- 

I have to agree to some extent with the what you share on the historical information piece.  To think that not too long ago, and for thousands of years prior, the only way that information made it from one generation to another was in a manner that we would not label plagiarism.  I do think that if we are not careful we may lose in the long run.  I feel that often as a society we become too protective or fearful of what we consider "bad".  I suppose that some could argue that we have have experienced the negative aspects of society which would lead us to be so over-protective.  But I agree that restricting people's access will deny them a deeper understanding of the context.

I can't help but wonder if there is not a happy medium.  It is sort of like traffic laws, so many laws are just common sense and it simply amazes me that they need to be written into official laws prior to people obeying them.  (Of course you should wear a seatbelt, do you need a law to tell you that!) In this case, of course you should not take what you have not created and make money from it, but should we not be able to showcase someone else's creations in order to educate others.  Does there need to be so many formalities and litigation over the subject?

Week 1- Comment to My Classmates #2

http://luzinfante.blogspot.com/2011/03/macweek1-copyright.html#comments

Image retrieved and adapted from FB profile pics.

Luz's Comments Regarding Copyright Issues:
Talking about copyright I have mixed thoughts and feelings about this topic. First of all I personally think that human beings are born with the innate instinct of private property.  Even babies defend what belongs to them. That is something intrinsic to human being essence. Any living thing (plants, animals, and humans) lives to transcend and the natural way to do it is by reproduction. Human being essence is based on its animal and rational nature. So humans like to transcend not only in a biological way but they also have a natural inclination to transcend through their acts of thought (ideas and creations). This type of transcendence comes also with a natural need of recognition. And that is where interests and many other kinds of conflicts are born.

 With that being said, I would like to play Devil’s advocate and I would like to ask a couple of questions:

- Who owns an idea? Who has the right to do that? Aren’t ideas universal?

- Why only one person or a group of people can have the right to use, modify or change the version of a song, film, photography, etc.?

- How have human beings evolved through the years? Aren’t the cordless phone and the cellular phone a modified version of the original corded phone? Isn’t part of the evolution to improve or change things, ideas, and processes that already exist?  Why are we limiting that, is it about respect to the first person that developed an idea or is it about control? Where is the line between recognition and control? 

With all those questions in the air I would like to say that I personally feel more attracted to the creative common license philosophy that allowed creators to share their work in a frame of conditions that they could personally establish.

My Comments to Luz-

I absolutely agree that the creative commons license seems to be the "best of both world".  It allows the artist the protection they need from having their unique pieces or work to be stolen out from under their feet just to have someone else make a fortune off of it, while allowing that same artist to share their ideas and their creativity with those in many other fields.  As you point out this is how our society has evolved.  If we never have the ability or the creativity to build off of and spring creativity from the experiences we share around us, we would remain stagnant. 

I think it is important to be able to experience what others have to offer, but I also think it is important to acknowledge and give credit when the experience offered to us is directly effected and molded by the work of someone else. 

The overly litigious or slap happy judicial system revolving around these issues is obviously of great concern on both the users and the creators end.  But I do feel that both ends are dangerous.  What if we got to a place where if you photographed or filmed a building you had to be granted permission by the architect in order to use it, or in order to sing "Happy Birthday" to your child you had to first send away and pay the fees to be able to do so.  We would so quickly have our hands metaphorically cuffed behind our backs that we would be stifling the experiences of our society as a whole.

I agree with you Luz, that recognition is a large part of this.  I would like to believe that that is a bigger issue than the financial gains issue, but I think that if we as artist of any kind, get into the habit of paying homage and the due respect to those around us.

Week 1- Comment to My Classmates #3

http://nereydavalleemd.blogspot.com/2011/03/week-1-reading-copyright-issues.html#comments

Image retrieved and adapted from FB profile pics.

Nereyda's Comments regarding Copyright Issues:

"10 big myths about copyrights explained," gave me clearer picture about copyrights.  I'm guilty for believing some of those big myths mentioned.  One thing is crystal clear for me and that is, "ask for permission!" 

After watching 'Good Copy Bad Copy' I was struck by creativeness of the evolving remix culture of copyrighted material.  First of all, I definitely agree with Girl Talk in that we are bombarded with media on the Internet, and this has caused us to create a new art form, the remix culture.  I personally believe that people have the right to protect their art, but I also believe that it's important to share and reinvent new forms of art.  We constantly see this in the fashion industry, fashion designers recycle styles and create new styles.  The human race and technology are evolving and so are new art forms.  It's important for laws and companies to evolve as well to be able to provide fair uses of copyrighted material like music and movies to society.  I can see why Africa, Europe, and other countries are pirating music and films.  Their too expensive, and especially for developing countries.  I would like to share that practically everyone in Spain buys pirated movies and music, which mainly come from Africa.  It was interesting to hear one Spaniard tell me that he likes watching the pirate movie first before watching it in the cinema.  Further, it's difficult to say what really determines remix art to be a 'good copy or bad copy' if it is continually being used to create something new.

The copyright law cartoon video is the perfect example of the remix culture art.  I thought it was a genius way to explain the copyright and fair use law; even though, the laws are still not very fair for the users. Further, who really owns what seems to really be the question.  The person who first copyrights something or the person who first came up with the idea? I think it's difficult to find a balance, especially if one side only cares about the money.  

Finally, I don't think it's fair to take away something historical from society such as "The Eyes on the Prize" video.  It saddens me to know that their are a lot more historical films like this that have been stored away from society due to licensing fees, money.  However, I think 'fair use' creators are doing their best in trying to develop a code of best practices in using copyrighted material.  

My comments to Nereyda-

I have to agree with you, particularly on your comments regarding the 'Good Copy, Bad Cop' video.  It is so difficult when it comes to art.  All forms of art require that the creator to some degree has experienced the work of others and their art then become an expression or reaction of the compilation of those experiences.  Art is often by its very nature the copying of those before you.  I think it is in some ways terrible that there is even a need to copyright something in order to protect it.  I feel that if people just followed their gut on what was right and wrong, what is acceptable and what is not in terms of the use of or building upon of others' work.  You hear of stories where music artists create remixes of their colleagues songs, and all it took was a friendly communication to express the fact that they respected the original artist and their work and they would like to create their own piece based upon the first.  I think that this is what it should be.  As you stated in your first comment, "just ask first". 

Early on in EMDT we were asked to create a short movie clip to promote our ARP and I came across a song that I liked the lyrics to.  With minimal research I found that the band was an up and coming band and they were happy to let me use their song.  They were proud to have me use their music and gave my constructive feedback on my finished video.  It was a wonderful example of how easily these issues can be resolved and in such a relationship building manner rather than the opposite.  

AR Pitch

Supplantive-Generative Scale........ Huh?

S-G Scale

 

When thinking about the Action Research Project I have going, and when and how I am going to instruct my students, it is hard not to become completely overwhelmed with the idealistic vision of creating deeply immerged students who will become fully drawn in to the curriculum based on the excitement of using new tools to explore the material from different angles.  I often get this intense excitement about the prospects of guiding my students and changing their lives, but excitement alone will not bring them to where I would like them to be.  Looking at the two different types of instruction presented by Cronje and taking an investigated look at what outcome I am expecting from my students, I will better come to the end result of successful and meaningful educational decisions.

The desired outcome from my ARP is an increased success rate in completion and organization of independent at-home assignments from 9^th grade students.  So there will be times when I will need to design my instruction with both supplanted instructional content and student-generated content in mind.  For example when it comes to teaching my students the particular steps for using each of the chosen LMS tools and web 2.0 tools that they will use to organize themselves, access and submit work, and to later create presentations with, I will need to supplant instruction looking for a very particular outcome and assessing acquisition of information and understanding of particular factual information or steps.  Cronje cites in his paper “objectivists tend to concentrate on direct instruction while constructivists focus on learning (Brooks, 1990). “ but then further explains that an integration of the two (objectivism and constructivism) may be better understood by considering that ”learning depends on intensive use of elements from both sides of the continuum, and not from the extent to which one has been successful in claiming occupation of some gray and neutral middle ground” (Cronje, 2006).  

This will apply to my instruction and my ARP in that there will be times to use more direct instruction styles and to look for more narrow and specific outcomes, and there will be times when I will look for more  broad, perhaps creative deeper level outcomes and a different more constructive instruction strategy will be employed.  I will need to analyze the particular desired outcomes and implement instruction strategies accordingly.  


And they say "teaching is easy, we only work 9 months a year"! Ha!

Brooks, J. G. (1990, Feb.). Teachers and students: Constructivists forging new

connections. Educational Leadership, 68-71.

Cronje, J.C. (2006,August). Paradigms regained: Toward integrating objectivism

and constructivism in instructional design and the learning sciences. ETR&D,54(4),387-416.  

LMS- Schoology -noun 1.) the study of making school accessible

So I just want to start this post by saying two things; if this decision that I am faced with was based solely on what I want out of an LMS, this application would win hands down, and as far as my administration goes, I think there are a few features that may just help to sell this one over as well, but I will explain in just a minute.

So in terms of sign up and start, Schoology has a quick and direct process.  Much like Edmodo, when you initially sign-up to use Schoology you are then prompted to create a profile and have the access to the basic layout of the appllication.  You are able to add a photograph of yourself and adjust your privacy settings.  In terms of security and privacy I am quite impressed with their commitment to the issues.  When you set up your account you are then asked what district you work for and in order to verify your account, Schoology sends an email to your school email address, which you then have to respond to.  In order for your students to join your courses, similar to Edmodo, you as the teacher need to provide them with an access code.  

Although these features are wonderful for the end result of using this tool in the classroom, it did make it a bit difficult for me to full experiment and review this tool as I do not yet have access to my district email.  Other features however that I do truly like about Schoology is that they provide the ability for the teacher and student to create and keep current separate calendars for the school, course, group and individual.  For me this is important, as my goal is to promote independence and acquisition of self-help and self-assessment in terms of organization and study skills. 

So once I am verified I will be able to create courses, invite students, upload files and links.  Another major benefit of this tool over others is the blog space.  As I intend to encourage my students to use blogging to express their ideas, concerns, confusions, thoughts and such about the subjects we will be exploring, with the other application I was going to have to link in to another application to allow this.  Here I am able to do this right on the spot. 

 

All in all, although I was a bit frustrated with the security issue, I do appreciate it and think that my administration will as well.  I also like that Schoology has already thought of a way to allow parents access to their children’s course work and that they go beyond just the simple grading feature which I discussed in my last post.  After you have graded students’ work, Schoology provides analytic breakdown of the data.  Again this is another feature that I think administration will come to truly appreciate.  

I have found in the past that whenever you can support your work with visual representations, the work becomes that much more meaningful.  So as much as I would like to say 100% that this is the app. I am going with, without full access I can dive in wholeheartedly.  I feel like this will be best for my students, myself, administration and parents.  But I am still up in the air.  So please weigh in, if you have experience, thoughts or feedback, now would be the time to throw in your two cents!