Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Live Blogging Jakes & Shareski The Power of Powerpoint
It was great to finally get to see David Jakes and Dean Shareski present live. I have had the opportunity to network with them but their message in how to tell a story is great.
They gave 10 tips of what to teach kids.
6- Teach them to sell
7- Color and font choice matters
8- Teach them to incorporate multimedia
9 - Teach students some PowerPoint secrets
10 -teach them to share
They gave 10 tips of what to teach kids.
1- Teach them biology
2- Teach them to make it visual
3- Teach kids how to search for images
4- teach kids about creative commons
6- Teach them to sell
7- Color and font choice matters
8- Teach them to incorporate multimedia
9 - Teach students some PowerPoint secrets
10 -teach them to share
***one of my top NECC takeaways I learned about in this session Flickr storm...I am sure this is going to be something that I spend some time reflecting on
Wes Fryer and Ewan McIntosh both have better notes that I do...I especially like Ewan's title...why would you use words when they do just fine in your mouth? but here is my "live blog" in coveritlive from the session.list of resources for Jakes & Shareski's worshop
NECC Unplugged session on Copyright
This morning I led a session on Copyright and Fair Use at NECC Unplugged. There were about 40 people in the room, and 11 folks watching on ustream. Unfortunately the conditions were not so great, but the conversation was amazing and I think folks left thinking
Here is the ustream recording...
Free .TV show from Ustream
and the information that I posted for the session can be found here
http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/necc_copyrightconfusion
Thanks to all my "twitter pals" who helped set up and made for great conversation and all the new folks I met.
Here is the ustream recording...
Free .TV show from Ustream
and the information that I posted for the session can be found here
http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/necc_copyrightconfusion
Thanks to all my "twitter pals" who helped set up and made for great conversation and all the new folks I met.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Convene, Connect, Transform...
So this post started this morning and I never got a chance to finish, and it started out titled...the calm before the storm, but the day began and the storm blew through...which you may have noticed in my posts :) but I wanted to post some reflections about NECC so far...Last year was my first NECC...it was the place where I made many connections that have helped me to build an amazing personal learning network. At the end of the conference Steve Dembo posted a twitter wondering if these types of large conferences were really necessary...with the ability to stream, twitter, and liveblog do you REALLY need to attend? I thought about that as I was running along the riverwalk. It was really quiet, the calm before the storm. Very few folks were out...very unlike the night before. As I was running along the river, I was thinking about the evening before seeing all the folks that I "work with" all year long, but only get to see and connect with face to face but 1-2 times a year. I was preparing for the week ahead when across the river I saw Pat Sine....a "colleague" that I met only recently but have connected with a number of times. We called out to one another like old friends and it struck me, THIS is what it means to attend a conference face to face. Is NECC needed, YES... it really is and at breakfast this morning Michael Baker summed it up perfectly...
When it [the conference] is streamed to you, you get the information yes, but today information is EXPECTED to be free…When you attend the conference…you get the connections…and you can’t put a price on that
I hope to connect with many of you as we convene here for together we can transform what is happening in today's classrooms
Edublogger Con Session 4 Web2.0 Smackdown
Unfortunately I had TERRIBLE internet connectivity issues during this session
All tools shared are listed
HERE
All tools shared are listed
HERE
Edublogger Con Session 2 Social Networking for Schools
Am sitting in session on Social Networking in schools. Will have to go back later for the recording
.TV online : provided by Ustream
.TV online : provided by Ustream
Friday, June 27, 2008
One Word...
It has been a long time since I posted...owe cliff mims a PD meme (it's coming cliff) but as I was going through my Diigo drafts I came across this goody...thought it about summed it up
FROM THE ABOUT PAGE...
the real purpose of this exercise is to alleviate
our natural tendency to edit everything—and learn
to flow.
an analogy would be a film camera:
when a film is shot, the camera just rolls and captures
everything—good and bad. when all the shooting is
complete, the raw film is edited into a cohesive piece.
the camera operator doesn't keep stopping the camera and
rewinding and editing on-the-fly—the camera just rolls.
if it were to stop, some of the best performances
and spontaneous moments might be missed.
so:
be the camera. well, that's a stupid saying, but
you get the idea. in writing—just flow. go back later
and edit.
Go write.
Leaving for NECC in a few hours....Guess it is time for me to get back at it!
Monday, June 02, 2008
Catch the Fever: Viral Professional Development - Add your voice!
Viral Professional Development is emerging in education as a viable method of increasing teacher engagement and learning. Using tools such as Twitter, rss readers, blogs, educational networks, and wikis, educators are collaborating on a grassroots level. This year at NECC, a panel discussion of educators on July 2nd at 1:30 pm CDT will be discussing and live Ustreaming a session to discuss viral professional development.
How did this panel discussion originate?
On Monday, September 17, 2007, Google launched the Google Presentation web application to their suite of services. News of this new service spread quickly through the blogosphere and Twitter and soon more than fifty different people made over 500 edits in a twenty-four hour period to one Google presentation. Since introduced, this presentation has been used by hundreds of people to begin conversations centered on free online tools used to weave a web of connections between people around the world.
As a result of this transformational experience, educators begin discussing the importance of sharing the changing nature of professional development and documentation of best practices in VIRAL professional development. The proposal was written in Google docs and since acceptance, an expanded group of educators around the world has used a wiki, elluminate, and a variety of tools to bring a collaborative, immersive viral PD experience to NECC and to people around the world.
Presenters
Vicki Davis, moderator
Darren Draper
Kelly Dumont
Kristin Hokanson
Robin Ellis
Ryan Bretag
Beth Ritter-Guth
Carolyn Foote
Backchannel Presenters/ Moderators
John Maklary
Stephanie Sandifer
We will be streaming the presentation live on the Open PD Ustream channel at 1:30 pm CDT on July 2nd. You may watch here and participate in the conversation (and even ask the panelists questions).
One way that you can participate now is by adding your voice to the VoiceThread below. Please take a few minutes and add your thoughts about the different tools depicted through images in the thread. We would truly like as many voices possible, offering a wide range of thought on the usefulness of the common tools we all use in our collaborations.
How do you use these tools? How are they important to your professional development? Please add your voice.
Insert embed code for the voice thread from this page - http://thewallscamedown.wikispaces.com/Join_In
We've created a discussion thread to converse on this panel discussion at the NECC educational networking site.
How did this panel discussion originate?
On Monday, September 17, 2007, Google launched the Google Presentation web application to their suite of services. News of this new service spread quickly through the blogosphere and Twitter and soon more than fifty different people made over 500 edits in a twenty-four hour period to one Google presentation. Since introduced, this presentation has been used by hundreds of people to begin conversations centered on free online tools used to weave a web of connections between people around the world.
As a result of this transformational experience, educators begin discussing the importance of sharing the changing nature of professional development and documentation of best practices in VIRAL professional development. The proposal was written in Google docs and since acceptance, an expanded group of educators around the world has used a wiki, elluminate, and a variety of tools to bring a collaborative, immersive viral PD experience to NECC and to people around the world.
Presenters
Vicki Davis, moderator
Darren Draper
Kelly Dumont
Kristin Hokanson
Robin Ellis
Ryan Bretag
Beth Ritter-Guth
Carolyn Foote
Backchannel Presenters/ Moderators
John Maklary
Stephanie Sandifer
How can you participate?
At 1:30pm CDT on July 2, we will be participating in a NECC panel discussion that centers on the power of the network. During our presentation we hope to demonstrate to all those attending our session in person (and virtually), just how powerful global collaboration can be. Hence, we are asking for your participation in our presentation as well.1) Join our Ustream
We will be streaming the presentation live on the Open PD Ustream channel at 1:30 pm CDT on July 2nd. You may watch here and participate in the conversation (and even ask the panelists questions).
2) Leave a comment on our voicethread
One way that you can participate now is by adding your voice to the VoiceThread below. Please take a few minutes and add your thoughts about the different tools depicted through images in the thread. We would truly like as many voices possible, offering a wide range of thought on the usefulness of the common tools we all use in our collaborations.
How do you use these tools? How are they important to your professional development? Please add your voice.
Insert embed code for the voice thread from this page - http://thewallscamedown.wikispaces.com/Join_In
3) Join the conversation on the NECC Educational networking site
We've created a discussion thread to converse on this panel discussion at the NECC educational networking site.
Follow our most recent announcements.
All announcements and events pertaining to this session will be announced at the Walls Came Down wiki.Technorati Tags: necc08,
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Everything you need to know about NECC
Carol Teitleman presented a webinar to the PA Educators about how to make the most of the NECC experience. Kurt Paccio and I were asked to discuss the back channel. As a model of best practice we used Cover It Live for Notes
Friday, May 02, 2008
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
A Lesson on Reflection: MORE Copyright Confusion...
One of the things I love most about my job is the opportunity to learn and reflect on new ways of doing things with a really AMAZING group of educators. One of the projects I have been working on is a research project on the animal kingdom with several of the biology classes in our school. The objective was to teach the kids to use research skills to become experts on a particular phylum or class and then to build a web page based on how this phylum or class fit into the animal kingdom. In addition they were to create a "guide" some questions that were of importance if someone were to learn about their particular class. In essence we were creating a virtual zoo that users could visit to see what they learned.
Within the project... students use library data bases and google docs to research, wikispaces to discuss and plan, noodletools to cite our information, flickr as a way to find images that we could use under Fair Use Guidelines. Wee discussed the ideas of transformativeness...and yet the morning after we posted the drafts to our podcast server for the students to check their work for accuracy, we received a few somewhat threatening emails from Flickr users regarding our "theft" of their content.
Now as you can tell by my last post, I am really questioning the ideas of copyright and fair use, so I crafted this response and sent it off to the users...
I also sent it to my friends at Temple Media Lab and a summary of their response is below...
She also shared a situation in which her boyfriend, a professional photographer took a photo of a local restaurant and put it on his website, where everything is marked with a Creative Commons “no commercial use”/ “attribution is necessary” license. The restaurant then took that photo for its commercial promotional materials without compensating him in any way. That is clearly unfair but it did give the kids an understanding about why photographers might feel that permissions are important.
So after the final drafts were turned in, the teacher posted a powerpoint slide with 3 questions....
Within the project... students use library data bases and google docs to research, wikispaces to discuss and plan, noodletools to cite our information, flickr as a way to find images that we could use under Fair Use Guidelines. Wee discussed the ideas of transformativeness...and yet the morning after we posted the drafts to our podcast server for the students to check their work for accuracy, we received a few somewhat threatening emails from Flickr users regarding our "theft" of their content.
-----Email 1-----
It is not legal or moral to use what belongs to others.
At least when it is without permission. I realize that in making my photos public on the photo sharing site Flickr.com I've left myself open to pirates taking my photos and using them with out permission to do so but it is especially disheartening to find people within the realm of education so flagrantly disregarding copyright law and decency. Had you asked to use my photo for your project i would have gladly dug out the original and sent you a higher quality image for your site.
I cannot help but wonder if in addition to biology your school is also teaching children that theft morally justified. I will be searching your site for the use of other stolen images and notifying the Flickr users involved.
----Email 2-----
What does it teach your students to ignore copyright symbols and simply take what they want from the web?
I am referring to one of my images used without permission on: (note site page removed to protect identity of writer)
I have been asked to use my images by many others, I've always given permission to students and non-profit organizations. To use a copyrighted image without permission (credited or not) is stealing.
It is not legal or moral to use what belongs to others.
At least when it is without permission. I realize that in making my photos public on the photo sharing site Flickr.com I've left myself open to pirates taking my photos and using them with out permission to do so but it is especially disheartening to find people within the realm of education so flagrantly disregarding copyright law and decency. Had you asked to use my photo for your project i would have gladly dug out the original and sent you a higher quality image for your site.
I cannot help but wonder if in addition to biology your school is also teaching children that theft morally justified. I will be searching your site for the use of other stolen images and notifying the Flickr users involved.
----Email 2-----
What does it teach your students to ignore copyright symbols and simply take what they want from the web?
I am referring to one of my images used without permission on: (note site page removed to protect identity of writer)
I have been asked to use my images by many others, I've always given permission to students and non-profit organizations. To use a copyrighted image without permission (credited or not) is stealing.
Now as you can tell by my last post, I am really questioning the ideas of copyright and fair use, so I crafted this response and sent it off to the users...
Thank you for contacting us. Copyright is designed not only to protect the rights of owners, but also to preserve the ability of users to promote creativity and innovation. As a school moving to a 1:1 laptop environment we are working hard to teach our students ethical use as content creators. One of the things that we stress STRONGLY with our students is the ideas of Fair Use and transformativeness... I have been involved with a study through Temple Media Lab http://www.mediaeducationlab.com/index.php?page=265 and have spent a lot of time discussing with teachers and students their role when creating transformative content using materials that belong to others as we design our project. You can read about how I have been struggling with these issues as well
http://khokanson.blogspot.com/2008/04/copyright-confusion.html
Traditionally Educational use of media had to pass four tests to be appropriate and fair according to U.S. Code Title 17 107:
1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is commercial or nonprofit
2. the nature of the use
3. the amount of the use
4. the effect of the use on the potential market for the copyrighted work.
However, what is fair, because it is transformative, is fair regardless of place of use or even purpose. Even in commercial use there have been instances where permission has been denied and works have been used in a transformative way. Peter Jaszi a copyright attorney and professor of Law at The American University, who is a partner in the Fair Use for Educators study, points to Bill Graham Archives vs.Dorling Kindersley (2006) http://fairuse.stanford.edu/primary_materials/cases/GrahamKindersley.pdf as an example of how courts liberally interpret fair use even with a commercial publisher. In summary, Dorling Kindersley wanted to include images of posters owned by the Bill Graham Archives in a book they were writing, Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip, a cultural history of the band. They sought permission to use the posters and although permission was refused, DK choose to use the images anyway. A suit was filed against DK for copyright infringement and the the case was thrown out, based on DK's claim of fair use. You see, the posters were originally created to promote concerts the new use of the art was designed to document events in historical and cultural context. The publisher added value in its use of the posters and such use was transformative.
We have worked through the project to have the students use images from Flickr and for the student to use advanced search to find images whose license under creative commons states that they are free to modify, adapt rework. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ If you are concerned about permissions, there is a way in flickr for you to set the protection on your images so that they are copyrighted and may no be downloaded with out permission. Images posted in this way do not provide a download link and if a user attempts to download them they receive a file that is called a spaceball.gif...the image will not copy and can not be downloaded. In addition one of the requirements of the project was for them to site these images by linking to the page in which the image was taken. In this way under fair use we were not only transforming the original work (changing the intended purpose) but crediting the user and linking to their other work (adding value).
If there was an image that a student really wanted to use, and it was copyrighted (not freely available under creative commons), we did ask the students contact the users. If you can refer us to the specific web page(s) that contained your images, I will be happy to check to make sure that they have correctly linked back to your work or have the student replace your photos with others, especially if you did not intend for your images to be available under creative commons.
Right now, we are in the revision phase (students are peer evaluating and making content changes etc) but I am out of the district and cannot make any changes to the site until I get back. Please let us know what pages / images are yours and how you would like us to proceed whether the students may use the images as linked or you would like us to find replacement images. I might suggest however, that you check how your work is licensed on the flickr site so you do not have a situation like this occur in the future.
I look forward to your reply.
Regards,
http://khokanson.blogspot.com/2008/04/copyright-confusion.html
Traditionally Educational use of media had to pass four tests to be appropriate and fair according to U.S. Code Title 17 107:
1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is commercial or nonprofit
2. the nature of the use
3. the amount of the use
4. the effect of the use on the potential market for the copyrighted work.
However, what is fair, because it is transformative, is fair regardless of place of use or even purpose. Even in commercial use there have been instances where permission has been denied and works have been used in a transformative way. Peter Jaszi a copyright attorney and professor of Law at The American University, who is a partner in the Fair Use for Educators study, points to Bill Graham Archives vs.Dorling Kindersley (2006) http://fairuse.stanford.edu/primary_materials/cases/GrahamKindersley.pdf as an example of how courts liberally interpret fair use even with a commercial publisher. In summary, Dorling Kindersley wanted to include images of posters owned by the Bill Graham Archives in a book they were writing, Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip, a cultural history of the band. They sought permission to use the posters and although permission was refused, DK choose to use the images anyway. A suit was filed against DK for copyright infringement and the the case was thrown out, based on DK's claim of fair use. You see, the posters were originally created to promote concerts the new use of the art was designed to document events in historical and cultural context. The publisher added value in its use of the posters and such use was transformative.
We have worked through the project to have the students use images from Flickr and for the student to use advanced search to find images whose license under creative commons states that they are free to modify, adapt rework. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ If you are concerned about permissions, there is a way in flickr for you to set the protection on your images so that they are copyrighted and may no be downloaded with out permission. Images posted in this way do not provide a download link and if a user attempts to download them they receive a file that is called a spaceball.gif...the image will not copy and can not be downloaded. In addition one of the requirements of the project was for them to site these images by linking to the page in which the image was taken. In this way under fair use we were not only transforming the original work (changing the intended purpose) but crediting the user and linking to their other work (adding value).
If there was an image that a student really wanted to use, and it was copyrighted (not freely available under creative commons), we did ask the students contact the users. If you can refer us to the specific web page(s) that contained your images, I will be happy to check to make sure that they have correctly linked back to your work or have the student replace your photos with others, especially if you did not intend for your images to be available under creative commons.
Right now, we are in the revision phase (students are peer evaluating and making content changes etc) but I am out of the district and cannot make any changes to the site until I get back. Please let us know what pages / images are yours and how you would like us to proceed whether the students may use the images as linked or you would like us to find replacement images. I might suggest however, that you check how your work is licensed on the flickr site so you do not have a situation like this occur in the future.
I look forward to your reply.
Regards,
I also sent it to my friends at Temple Media Lab and a summary of their response is below...
Wow! I am so impressed by your thoughtful and eloquent response to that Flickr user. I can certainly see why teachers would not want to use copyrighted materials after receiving angry emails like that. In my opinion, you are absolutely correct. While the extent to which the use of these pictures is transformative is debatable, I think you have a strong fair use argument and the links to the original sources on the pictures were a courtesy (although apparently not enough for this particular Flickr user).
She also shared a situation in which her boyfriend, a professional photographer took a photo of a local restaurant and put it on his website, where everything is marked with a Creative Commons “no commercial use”/ “attribution is necessary” license. The restaurant then took that photo for its commercial promotional materials without compensating him in any way. That is clearly unfair but it did give the kids an understanding about why photographers might feel that permissions are important.
So after the final drafts were turned in, the teacher posted a powerpoint slide with 3 questions....
- During the virtual zoo project: How did we ensure that all necessary measures were taken to avoid using copyrighted information/ information?
- How did ensure that the value of the pictures on our webpages was increased through our use?
- Does anyone care?
It is SO important when we look at anything we do, to consider the process and not just the product. Seeing the virtual zoo alone without the project requirements is not a reflection of what the students were given as a task NOR a reflection of the evaluation of the students' work.
Reflection is important. I think that had the students not had the opportunity to have to think about the idea of copyright and fair use from BOTH SIDES...content owner and content creator, they may
I am confident that as this group of students goes on to do other projects, they are going to think twice about the source and how they are going to transform the works they are using....and isn't that our goal, to produce students who have the ability to think about things at a higher level....
but don't just take my word for it...look at what the kids had to say
Even more refections & thoughts are here http://kushnerkorner.wikispaces.com/Zoo_Reflection
Would love to hear YOUR thoughts?
Reflection is important. I think that had the students not had the opportunity to have to think about the idea of copyright and fair use from BOTH SIDES...content owner and content creator, they may
I am confident that as this group of students goes on to do other projects, they are going to think twice about the source and how they are going to transform the works they are using....and isn't that our goal, to produce students who have the ability to think about things at a higher level....
but don't just take my word for it...look at what the kids had to say
Even more refections & thoughts are here http://kushnerkorner.wikispaces.com/Zoo_Reflection
Would love to hear YOUR thoughts?
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Math & Science Bookmarks from Diigo 04/15/2008
Law of Cosines and Law of Sines for Triangles
interactive model for learning sines & cosines
Levering's "Puzzling and Perplexing Problems"
Resources for science learning. Puzzling & perplexing problems from Levering Science Magnet School & Franklin Institute. ready-made problems for each month of the school year. These problems include holidays, seasons, and sports. Many of them are open-ended so that children can get extra practice for the standardized tests. If you do use any of our problems, we would appreciate your feedback.
ClassTools.net: Games for Education
Templates for creating online games...great samples in all areas
Basler's podcasts for physics students
Great group of lessons, tools & discussions for Math & Science
That Quiz - Math Test Activities
Similar to quia...but free with less options. Can sign up and create an account to keep student scores
Series of math webquests each one has definitions and examples
The OnLine Test Page 100% Free(SAT, ACT,SOA EXAM P, EXAM FM, EXAM MLC)
Onine test prep
Preparation Tests From Morrison Media LLCThe OnLine Math Tests Home Page - Department of Mathematics - University of Missouri-Columbia
Welcome To The Online Math Tests Home Page
Department of Mathematics
University of Missouri-Columbia
Author: Professor Elias Saab
Tested by Professor Paulette Saab and Daniel E. Saabuse a s a "real world application" of trigonometry. This site shows the day/night contrast for the world. Could be used
for exploring trig functions. You can set the time and date to see
how the daylight changesNASA - Digital Learning Network : CATALOG OF EVENTS
Digital Learning network catalogue of events
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Bookmarks from Diigo Week of 04/07/2008
tags: adminblog
Gray Seal Facts - National Zoo| FONZ
tags: zoo, virtual_field_trip, science, biology
Sample page from National Zoo.
tags: zoo, virtual_field_trip, science, biology
The big zoo virtual home...organized by Kingdom Animalia...browsable...similar to the setup for our project (with ads)
WAZA - World Association of Zoos and Aquariums - Virtual Zoo
tags: zoo, virtual_field_trip, science, biology
WAZA virual zoo by species
WAZA - World Association of Zoos and Aquariums - Virtual Zoo map
tags: zoo, virtual_field_trip, science, biology
clickable zoo map goes to images which then show page about each animal
Toronto Zoo > Animals > Fact Sheet
tags: virtual_field_trip, zoo, biology, science
Toronto Zoo Fact sheet provides good examples of animals classified by habitat
tags: socialstudies, collaboration
Empower Peace is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to building a worldwide network of high school students and teachers committed to breaking down cultural barriers and misperceptions through open dialogue using videoconferencing, the Internet and other new technologies. Out goal is to bring about a climate of mutual respect and understanding by exposing youth to their contemporaries from abroad.
CSI: The Experience - Web Adventures
Based on CSI
Number2.com :: Free Online Test Prep
Create an account for feedback
SAT prep blog....has both tips and tricks as well as sample questions.
SOUNDKEEPERS.com: Vocabulary Builder
jm: Study for GRE, GMAT and SAT using our vocabulary builder. These FREE services also provide you with muliple choice questions to these commonly used words. You may also create your own set of cards that you can review as you learn these words.
The Official SAT Question of the Day™
create an account to save your question of the day statistics
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Bookmarks from Diigo Week of 04/01/2008
tags: roaring20s, socialstudies
A collection of "rated" sites from besthistorysites.net and taching with technology
tags: templates, powerpoint
Series of downloadable powerpoint games for educators would be good to use with Interactive Whiteboards
tags: brainstorming, graphicorganizer, mindmap, resources
Mashables list of mindmapping tools
The Connected Classroom: Copyright Confusion
tags: copyright, fairuse, medialiteracy
My take on the copyright / fairuse conversation at Temple Media Lab. See Joyce Valenza's blog as well (below)
Interesting conversations to start to have about Fair Use and what we can do as educators. Keep an eye on the media lab at Temple as this project develops http://www.mediaeducationlab.com/index.php?page=265
NeverEndingSearch - Blog on School Library Journal
tags: fairuse, joycevalenza, medialiteracy
This is joyce's blog RE Temple Media lab discussion
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Copyright Confusion
Copyright and fair use issues are definitely things that I think about often and have written about in the past. I work with teachers both within my building and through state run programs and I have always taught people that in order for use of media to be considered appropriate and fair one must consider the following
During the webinar, Peter told us that one of the ways that the courts have begin to think about whether or not a given use is fair or not is through the concept of transformativeness. The idea is that when the user of copyright material has added value to existing material and has re purposed the material for an audience that is different from the one it was originally intended then the creator can go forward. Most educational uses are inherently transformative. As Peter said it is good news for educators, but it is good news that needs to be translated into more specific guidelines in order to be effective. NOT the circulating guidelines which are often given more weight or the the wrong kind of weight in practice. They were well meaning, but misunderstood as the law rather than someone's attempt to interpret the law and outerlimits vs safe harbors...floors rather than ceilings they are certain to be fair use but by no means are the limits. We also need to understand that not everything educational falls within the domain of fair use. Trying to develop guidance not from OUTSIDE the community but within a best practices in fair use for education. That the rules we learned are not really rules at all, but negotiated agreements to provide guidance but that actually limit our ability to take advantage of the full legal power of fair use.
I had some SERIOUS QUESTIONS during the webinar about what I have been asking kids to do and also how we have been limited the quality...the transformativeness of their work by holding them to these strict "guidelines" so afterwards and I contacted one of the research assistants in the project, with my questions. I shared a project in which the kids as a part of a video comparing the genocide in Darfur to the Holocaust, used an entire licensed song. Although the video was AMAZINGLY powerful, we did not publish the video. Katie & Renee seemed to feel based on their work that it would constitute fair use of the material...WOW, this changes EVERYTHING
I was really excited to be invited to join them in a discussion this past Friday night, one of several to be held around the country designed to develop a common understanding of how copyright and fair use applies to what is happening in schools. Among the folks in the room were Joyce Valenza who wrote in her Neverending Search Blog for School Library Journal... Fair use and transformativeness: It may shake your world:
Renee Hobbs director of the project shared with this group: copyright is designed not only to protect the rights of owners, but also to preserve the ability of users to promote creativity and innovation. Teachers are often afraid to share their innovative practices, to post materials online or distribute samples of their students’ work because of misinformation and fear. Another POWERFUL concept for me to mull around.....After introducing the project and much of the information shared at the webinar, we were asked to examine and discuss a variety of scenarios to determine what did and did not constitute fair use under the definition. I am not going to review each one and my notes were quite random, but here were some of the big talking points or questions that arose.
Ok so why do places like the Library of Congress then offer clearly animated directions that follow these guidelines....
Peter brought up that the Library of Congress is a wholly owned subsidiary of the copyright industry…When you stop to critically analyze…WHO PAID FOR IT…isn’t that a model of higher level thinking skills? The copyright industry is a fee dependent organization that is funded by movie making, music industries..they know who is paying their bills...they are going to protect the rights of these copyright holders-and who is protecting OUR rights as educators?
One of the reasons that I was so excited about this project is that in order to maintain our own creative rights, we need to articulate our OWN positions and reclaim our legal rights under the fair use doctrine and it CAN'T be just the media educators who are involve in this process.
The pedagogy of practice modeled during this experience is worth analyzing as well. Renee used an instructional method that is reasoning of principals it made us think “Fair use is an application of reason and I have to do that as an educator…” This whole process is moving us TOWARD the critical thinking goals, it is a new paradigm they are bringing to the table.
One of the stated final goals is to produce something that will make it possible for media educators to be effective, successful and model the full range for students…so when they feel challenged they have something to fall back on. I think it is essential that this information gets out to ALL teachers who are integrating technology. After all, isn't our purpose in assigning projects where kids are creating content to get them to think deeply about the material?
As Joyce wrote... Transformativeness gives us new freedoms in a mix-up, mash-up world of broadly shared media and ended her post with some pretty powerful questions I highly encourage everyone reading to check out the resources at the Media Education Lab. Watch the video Download the PDF: The Cost of Copyright Confusion
Think about the definition of transformativeness and encourage your students to do the same. And follow the work coming out of Temple Media Education Lab . It is sure to transform our practice.
THOUGHTS? What have you been teaching about fair use? Does this change the way you think?
Link to the full webinar recording
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- What is the purpose for which you are using (commercial or nonprofit)
- What is the nature of the use
- What amount of the work being used
- What is the effect of your use on copyright holder
During the webinar, Peter told us that one of the ways that the courts have begin to think about whether or not a given use is fair or not is through the concept of transformativeness. The idea is that when the user of copyright material has added value to existing material and has re purposed the material for an audience that is different from the one it was originally intended then the creator can go forward. Most educational uses are inherently transformative. As Peter said it is good news for educators, but it is good news that needs to be translated into more specific guidelines in order to be effective. NOT the circulating guidelines which are often given more weight or the the wrong kind of weight in practice. They were well meaning, but misunderstood as the law rather than someone's attempt to interpret the law and outerlimits vs safe harbors...floors rather than ceilings they are certain to be fair use but by no means are the limits. We also need to understand that not everything educational falls within the domain of fair use. Trying to develop guidance not from OUTSIDE the community but within a best practices in fair use for education. That the rules we learned are not really rules at all, but negotiated agreements to provide guidance but that actually limit our ability to take advantage of the full legal power of fair use.
I had some SERIOUS QUESTIONS during the webinar about what I have been asking kids to do and also how we have been limited the quality...the transformativeness of their work by holding them to these strict "guidelines" so afterwards and I contacted one of the research assistants in the project, with my questions. I shared a project in which the kids as a part of a video comparing the genocide in Darfur to the Holocaust, used an entire licensed song. Although the video was AMAZINGLY powerful, we did not publish the video. Katie & Renee seemed to feel based on their work that it would constitute fair use of the material...WOW, this changes EVERYTHING
I was really excited to be invited to join them in a discussion this past Friday night, one of several to be held around the country designed to develop a common understanding of how copyright and fair use applies to what is happening in schools. Among the folks in the room were Joyce Valenza who wrote in her Neverending Search Blog for School Library Journal... Fair use and transformativeness: It may shake your world:
"I am no longer sure that anything I learned, or anything I regularly share relating to fair use, is either helpful or relevant....Ok, good, I wasn't the ONLY ONE who was feeling like my world was rocked...
Renee Hobbs director of the project shared with this group: copyright is designed not only to protect the rights of owners, but also to preserve the ability of users to promote creativity and innovation. Teachers are often afraid to share their innovative practices, to post materials online or distribute samples of their students’ work because of misinformation and fear. Another POWERFUL concept for me to mull around.....After introducing the project and much of the information shared at the webinar, we were asked to examine and discuss a variety of scenarios to determine what did and did not constitute fair use under the definition. I am not going to review each one and my notes were quite random, but here were some of the big talking points or questions that arose.
Is there a difference between a paper copy and a digital copy? Is it different if you make 20 copies of an article or offer 1 copy online? What about sharing 60 min video…does time make a difference. There was lots of conversation about repurposing and how once you commit to putting something online, it is out there
- Sharing in classroom
- Sharing in conference
- Sharing in an email
- Sharing on the web
- All have different risks / ethical and moral
Can you "publish" someone's lesson plan in a book of model examples if you share it with the same purpose? What about sharing as a critical example? We shared several student examples. And what about student use of copyrighted material? If we continue to steer to creative commons and say you can ONLY have this, this or this type of content (creative commons) aren’t you doing both the kids and the creative process a disserviceI brought up an example where a teacher asked her kids to take a section of Beowolf and retell in comic form. The fun part of the project was that they were asked to think of modern day people to represent the characters in the story...The kids immediately went to google, and I cringed... The folks in the room seemed to think that this was clearly a transformative use of any images the kids found. In addition, the fact that kids needed to think through and reason WHO in the modern world make a good Beowolf is clearly a higher level skill. The conversation turned to the idea that if we send them to copyright friendly sites: then copyright becomes a wall we can’t go past and those guidelines become less of guidelines and more of rules.
Ok so why do places like the Library of Congress then offer clearly animated directions that follow these guidelines....
Peter brought up that the Library of Congress is a wholly owned subsidiary of the copyright industry…When you stop to critically analyze…WHO PAID FOR IT…isn’t that a model of higher level thinking skills? The copyright industry is a fee dependent organization that is funded by movie making, music industries..they know who is paying their bills...they are going to protect the rights of these copyright holders-and who is protecting OUR rights as educators?
One of the reasons that I was so excited about this project is that in order to maintain our own creative rights, we need to articulate our OWN positions and reclaim our legal rights under the fair use doctrine and it CAN'T be just the media educators who are involve in this process.
The pedagogy of practice modeled during this experience is worth analyzing as well. Renee used an instructional method that is reasoning of principals it made us think “Fair use is an application of reason and I have to do that as an educator…” This whole process is moving us TOWARD the critical thinking goals, it is a new paradigm they are bringing to the table.
One of the stated final goals is to produce something that will make it possible for media educators to be effective, successful and model the full range for students…so when they feel challenged they have something to fall back on. I think it is essential that this information gets out to ALL teachers who are integrating technology. After all, isn't our purpose in assigning projects where kids are creating content to get them to think deeply about the material?
As Joyce wrote... Transformativeness gives us new freedoms in a mix-up, mash-up world of broadly shared media and ended her post with some pretty powerful questions I highly encourage everyone reading to check out the resources at the Media Education Lab. Watch the video Download the PDF: The Cost of Copyright Confusion
Think about the definition of transformativeness and encourage your students to do the same. And follow the work coming out of Temple Media Education Lab . It is sure to transform our practice.
THOUGHTS? What have you been teaching about fair use? Does this change the way you think?
Link to the full webinar recording
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