Response to Smitty's Week 2 Reading Post

Wk2 Reading: Infinite Possibility

Once I started looking for ideas beyond my expectations and ways for seeing beyond limitations, the second chapter of the text put things into better perspective. As a Marine I am trained to be objective oriented and focus on being as economical as possible in the pursuit of the objective. Fewest necessary resources, shortest possible time. The result has been a very serious and officious teacher and honestly man. I am softening as my experience broadens to allow for civilian frailty, but too often, I work on the assumption that everything I do is being measured and evaluated by the standards of the Corps. Following these revelations I intend to try to live in the moment and realize when I need to be in which world. I know I can't live in both worlds all the time, but being able to open myself up to the possibilities will serve to improve my demeanor with students and parents

Nikki's Response:

nikkiFeb 10, 2012 10:44 PM

This is a great revelation and I applaud you for taking the time for reflection. As you know, I too have had personal military experience, however some of my greatest insights into the military mindset come from my father and grandfather, both of whom made it their career. While their penchant for expeditious execution, resourcefulness, extraordinary self discipline, and unparalleled work ethic are/were to be greatly admired, their ability to see other perspectives and "forgive" those who did not operate in the same manner definitely needed some improving. Situations in the military call for decisive action, you must be well-trained and there often time any room for questioning. If you go "outside of the box" on a mission, without promulgating and training your troops accordingly, you'll likely sacrifice men. Luckily, I think, the civilian world allows for a little more contemplation and creativity. :-)

wk2 reading - Mind Games

I really enjoy reading the book, The Art of Possibilities. There are so many things that resonate with me as I read, but the thing that I connected with most in the first four chapters was the letter that students had to write to themselves explained in chapter 3. I recently attended my 20 year high school reunion. When we sat down to dinner, each of the alumni had an envelope propped up against their water glass. When I looked at mine, I immediately recognized the handwriting on the envelope as my own, just a little more loopy than it's present form. :-) It suddenly dawned on me that we had written letters to ourselves before our graduation, 20 years prior. I opened mine expecting a big laugh, but instead found that where I said would be in 20 years, is actually remarkably close to where I am. When I initially read the letter, I concluded that I must have been far more in touch with who I was than I remember being, however after reading The Art of Possibilities, I wonder if there was more to it than that. What if I achieved my dreams because I stated my intention, believed it was possible, and actually wrote it down? Hmmm.

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Response to Drew's Week 1 Reading Blog EMDT:MAC - Copyrights

Drew's Blog
 

This tiny bird lives in the remote regions of Australia and is very difficult to photograph. I went to a lot of trouble and expense to make this image, so why should someone be able to use it for free?

Working as a professional photographer, copyright is often at the forefront of my mind and often involved with my daily tasks.  My perspective on copyright has almost always come as the copyright holder, trying to figure out ways to prevent others from using my images without compensation.  After all, I do make my living through the creation and publication of my photographs.  This is a huge issue in the photographic world these days and something that people struggle with on a daily basis.  Image theft is rampant and the internet only makes it easier.
The thing about violating copyright that drives me nuts is that people do it without a second thought because most people know that they won’t get caught, or it isn’t worth the time of the copyright holder to prosecute the offender.  After all, there isn’t a police force out there that protects copyright holders (unless you are dealing with major movie/music/product piracy and then it is the FBI).  For the most part, someone like me would have to hire a lawyer, get a cease and desist order written, and then send it to the offender.  This is not a cheap endeavor and likely won’t result in any returns.  The reality is, if that person had just asked, they might have been given permission.  Instead, the culture is “better to ask for forgiveness than permission” and it drives me crazy.
One of the interesting things I found by watching these videos as they were primarily from the perspective of the user rather than the creator.  What makes it even more interesting is that a number of those people (primarily the documentary folks) are using the copyrighted material to create commercial products (documentaries) that they then copyright.  I find that when these discussions come up people want to use the work created by other people but they don’t want other people to use their work.
For a couple decades now, Internet users have had the expectation of getting things for free but this is a false premise.  We can see this transformation coming in the world of journalism where places like the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have finally started charging subscription fees for the content they provide online.  After all, people used to pay for the print version and they weren’t paying to simply have the physical newspaper in their hands, they were paying for the content.  Because the internet isn’t a physical object, people think it doesn’t have costs associated with it, but that is far form the truth.  The content still needs to be produced regardless of whether it is printed on your screen or printed on newsprint.  The value is the content and until we start to accurately assess this value, it is going to be difficult to regulate copyright violation in this new digital world.  I think we are headed that way, but we aren’t there yet.

Nikki's Response:

Drew,
I really appreciate your voice on this topic, as it lends a different perspective than the majority of us as educators. Your frustration with this issue comes through clearly and is valid. I know with many of the photos that are returned from my searches come with a watermark that cannot be removed unless the photo is paid for. Is this something that you are able to do? Please forgive my naiveté as I am not in the industry, but it seems like a viable solution providing it is not too expensive and easily removed by those more tech savvy than myself.
I recently read a blog that helped to shape my perspective on the current SOPA legislation and may be of interest to you: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2012/01/20/welcome-to-pirate-my-books/
Thanks again for your forthright perspective. I’d love to see some of your work.

Response to Sunny Spraue's Week 1 Reading Blog EMDT:MAC - Copyrights

Week 1 Reading Blog EMDT:MAC - Copyrights

Being the producer of the educational access channel, administrator of our digital library and duplication center, I currently am the “Copyright Police Officer” at work. I do hate the task yet; I enjoy educating others on how to use it appropriately. I have heard the myths by almost everyone who doesn’t fully understand how easy it is to simply ask permissions. When we do ask permissions, we are normally granted. After many many classes, I still refer to our attorney prior to saying yes or no.

I despise when the tech staff decides to give their opinion as fact of the subject to our instructors or when they decide to duplicate a DVD that is owned by the library for a classroom. Then they respond, “She just didn’t want to duplicate it for you”. It drives me crazy. I would prefer to simply explain how to go about it properly.

Since the law has so many grey areas that can be interpreted differently, each area of the school or type of media has different Fair Use rules that are spelled out in our use policy. There are no grey areas. It is nicely posted at my front door. This is where I am thankful for our attorneys and our board members.

Unfortunately, the use policy does not yet cover Creative Commons. People cannot understand copyrights or Fair Use of copyrights; why not throw in Creative commons too. Fortunately each creator spells out creative commons and publisher so there is not question of what can and cannot be done.

However, the most interesting in this lesson for me as a broadcast producer of an educational access channel is the bulleted list the video provided for the Film maker’s statement for best practices in Fair Use.

Statute
1. Quoting for critique
2. Quoting pop culture to make a point

3. Capturing incidental material

4. Using historical material to make a point

Centerforsocialmedia.org/fairuse


I am taking this and the website to my public relations coordinator first thing in the morning. With these four practices in mind, we could change our scripts to include materials to reference our point. I am very excited. There are many events we cannot capture because of the copyright materials at the events. I love documentaries even more now.

Nikki's Response:

I can't imagine having to deal with this issue on a constant basis, of course, that would probably be the best remedy for my spinning head. :-) I agree that the bulleted list makes fair use far more comprehensible. It's simple and does not contain the confounding jargon that seems common for many other rules based in law.

Sometimes I wish the only law was the "Golden Rule." As far as I see it, if credit is given and the use is not intended to make a profit, take others' use of your material as flattery and free advertising... :-)

Wk1 Reading Blog EDMT:MAC

Wk1 Reading Blog EDMT:MAC

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to copyright laws as my 11 year-old aspiring writer, director, rapper, actor, musician, and all around digi-nerd son, will not stop talking about the travesty that will befall us all if we allow our congress to pass SOPA. His passion regarding this subject prompted me to do some digging. I did not just read the bill (not in it's entirety. It's a monster), but I went out looking for interpretations and insights on the subject at hand: piracy (directly correlating to the topic of copyright).

When I set out, I really had no strong opinion on the subject, but could generally say that I was of the "well, if you make it and own it you should be able to  profit from it" mindset. I still am, I just now have a different perspective on how best to profit from it. When I mentioned SOPA to a friend of mine, she gave me a link to a blog that she reads regularly: Paulo Coelho Blog, and I began to look at this issue from a different perspective. 

Paul Coelho is an author who became famous largely because his books were pirated during a time of a "severe paper shortage" in Russia. His blog post dedicated to his thoughts on SOPA tell of a story of pirated maifestos that helped to change the Soviet government and culminates in a cry to pirate everything he's ever done. Why? Quite simply, he wants his name and his art known to as many people as possible, because he loves to write AND the more people who know of him the more possible revenue streams.

After reading Paul's blog, I began to reflect on all of the things that I have been exposed to and later purchased because of possible initial copyright infringement: music, poetry, visual art, academic works, and movies, to name a few. I can guarantee that the creators have made more money off of me becoming aware of their works than they lost by my viewing or listening to their product once in an unauthorized fashion.

While Paul's blog got me to see that piracy or copyright infringement really isn't the end of artists livelihood, it was Larry Lessig's TED talk, Laws that Choke Creativity, that spoke to me as a teacher and someone just generally invested in today's youth. We, as educators and those associated with schools in this country, know full well about the demand to have our students' achieve on standardized tests. There is more of an emphasis placed on how well students do on answering multiple choice questions than there is on what they can create. Creation takes time and isn't subjective. It's hard to quantify progress via student made media or art, but it doesn't make it any less important. What is important, is that we don't handicap our students and their imaginations by limiting their exposure to great works because we fear that we will lose our modern day vocal chords due to today's "talking machine." 

See Lessig's more recent talk: Re-Examining the Remix