Wk 2 PPP Think Aloud

So this project has me a bit nervous.  I think my biggest challenge is seeing myself as worthy to present or submit a paper to a scholarly journal. 

When thinking of my strengths, I would think that doing a presentation to submit to a conference would be my best bet.  I love to speak in front of others and am very passionate about what I do.  Not that I'm not a strong writer, but I find myself to be more dynamic when speaking.  As far as what conference to submit to...who knows???  My friend and teammate since month 1, Jen Selix, suggested that we maybe do a combined presentation since our topics are so parallel.  This way we could show the impact not only to the education environment, but to the corporate and parent environments as well.  I think this is a wonderful idea and one I would like to further develop.

Wk 2 Reading: "The Art of Possiblity"

In the first chapter I can totally relate to people seeing two sides of situations.  My fiancée is a complete pessimist (he says realist) and I am a hopeless optimist.  He will see the negative in every situation…everyone is out to get everyone else.  I, however, have this complete naïve trust of people and think people are genuinely good people who occasionally have poor judgment.  I think this is one of the reasons we compliment each other so well. 

I was intrigued by the idea that we produce reasons for our actions that are plausible in our own minds.  When working with children (or even adults for that matter), I frequently ask “why did you do that?” and the answers don’t always make sense to me.  I have been told on more than one occasion that I am a person that “has an answer for everything”.  My dad tells me it makes me argumentative, but in my mind, I am just trying to express why it seems like a good idea to me.  Now I can tell him that it is my own interpretation of what is going on around me.

The universe of measurement is not where I dwell.  I have never been competitive, nor do I define success by “getting ahead” or “overcoming the odds”.  I do know several people who live in this universe and what always strikes me is that they are NEVER happy.  No matter how much they achieve or how much they have, they always want more…always have to be better than the guy next door/down the street/etc.

I was so inspired by the story of the teacher who gave everyone an A and then asked them to write about it.  The one thing I hate most about my job is giving grades.  In my mind I would rather meet with the parents and tell then the strengths and areas of improvement with their child.  Unfortunately we are in a place in our society right now where we need to rank students and therefore rank teachers in order to gauge success.  In essence we are saying that performance on an isolated task equates mastery.  Even as it’s written you can sense the idiocracy in it…yet it persists.

This book really has me critically thinking about my life both personally and professionally (as the title suggests).  I really want to be a contribution in my family and with my students and co-workers.  I think that sometimes it is easy to get lost in the negativity and the competitiveness that is out there.  It is only by taking this critical look at myself and my every day practices that I will be able to make that conscious effort to be a contributor, give that A, and see the good in the world.

I am totally recommending this book to everyone!

Wk 1 Response to Les Brown

©2005-2006, David John Goodger

 

Les's Original post

Ok it’s official. I’m scared. I live in Florida and love to fish but the regulations can be quite tricky about which fish you are allowed to harvest from the ocean. If you are in the Gulf there is a specific regulation for a species and a totally different regulation for the same species if are in the Atlantic. The problem is there are areas where if you don’t check your coordinates you wouldn’t know if you are in the Atlantic or the Gulf.
I have learned so much from are “readings” and feel a little more settled. Copyright last forever, a lifetime plus 70 years for individuals and 100 years for a company. This in my estimation does not fit the modern culture of remix.
Fair use only applies for content used to: Teach, News reporting, Parody, and Critical Comments. Fair use is not a right but a defensible position. So help us God. In the consideration of fair use a court will judge on the nature of use, the amount of use, and commercial affect. This explanation helped me understand fair use. If these 3 criteria are the litmus test then I feel much better. I love Creative Commons.
I wish everyone producing anything would consider Creative Commons. Creative Commons allows the producer(s) to determine how the material may be reused. The creator may allow for derivatives, attribution, commercial use or not, and share alke. Since books, plays, film/movie are all covered by copyright it is important for educators to understand and respect the law. Copyright isn’t really scary now that I know the fundamentals. The law is in place to protect the rights of the producers but in today’s culture we need to revisit the spirit of the law. I agree with Larry Lessigs TED Talk that our evolving remix culture is calling for a remix of copyright. Modern and advancing technology demands a revisit and a redefining of the spirit of copyright.

My Comment:

Les,

I'm glad you feel a little more settled, because I surely don't. 

I do agree with you that the laws are in place to protect the producers, however; what about the situation where the artist doesn't mind someone using their work, but the artist doesn't "own" that material any longer.  I had to laugh when watching "Good Copy, Bad Copy" because the woman was asked what George Clinton thought of someone using part of his song, and she said, "I don't know.  You'll have to ask him."  Plus I couldn't figure out what the group "stole" from him?? 

I think the bottom line is that the laws are antiquated right now and need to be changed.  We need to embrace the creativity of new generations and new technology.  I thought the Beatles and Jay-Z mash-up was super hot and think that this is a perfect example of new combined with old.

P.S.
Love the photo...is that taken somewhere here in Florida?? 

Wk1 Response to Jen Selix

Photo taken from Flickr with permission of creator.  Creator of photo is Mike Seyfang (Mike Blogs).

Jen's Original Post:

This week I discovered that there is much more to copyright law than I’ve ever truly known or understood. This is a bit frightening and shocking to me, being as that I have been working as a technical writer and media asset creator in the public sector for over ten years.

The biggest shock was discovering how little protection and legal support we have through Fair Use. I admit that I had a false sense of security in the past, from what I believed to be legally binding Fair Use principles. However, after watching, Eyes on the Fair Use of the prize, I discovered how little power we have. Not only are copyrights and rights of fair use convoluted and challenging to defend, we can lose the right to use media assets altogether if outlandish royalty fees are not met.

As a writer and consumer of media, it saddens me and makes me nervous for our cultural and societal history to know that money and bureaucracy have the power to constrain our right to knowledge.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

- Jen 

My response:

I couldn't agree with you more.  Just when you think it will become clearer, you read or watch something else that makes it even more confusing.
I have heard so many different things over the years.  In fact, just last year I was trained by the technical "experts" in our school that we could use anything we wanted as long as it was 30 seconds or less.  Well after this week's readings, that is not accurate.
The real problem is that while everyone struggles to figure out what to do about this and how people can still make money, time is running out for some great material. It's a shame that it all comes down to money in the end... 


Jen's Blog
Above is the link to Jen's blog.  I highly encourage you to check it out, as she has some great insights and a super sense of humor!

Wk1 Wimba Thoughts

So watching Wimba was certainly an eye-opener that my time at Full Sail is coming to an end.  I meet this end with both joy and sadness.  I am happy to have received such a quality education, but I don't want to leave.  When watching the Wimba the PPP hit me dead on.  You mean you want me to submit something to a professional organization or be prepared to present at a national conference??  Me??  Really??  I have attend several national conferences and have been awed by it's presenters and I guess I still have difficulty thinking that that could be me. I see myself as that small town school teacher (parallel me to country mouse) and the presenters as much more entitled than I to be presenting (parallel them to city mouse).  I will tackle this project as I have all of my Full Sail projects, with an open mind, nervous heart and lots of determination.

I also have to say that I am not shedding any tears for the end of the Literature Review. Of all the projects we have had to do over the past 10 months, that one has, BY FAR, been the most difficult for me for some unknown reason.  I use to thrive when writing and presenting papers, but somehow, over the past umpteen years, I have lost my touch.  Good-bye, Lit Review, I am not sure you will be missed!

 

Since we are almost done, I wanted to go back to the introductory video from month 1

Wk1 Reading: Copyright Laws

Photo Credit:  Microsoft Clip Art Gallery

So this week we had three parts to read to begin to understand copyright laws.  Let me just say, that it is still as clear as mud.  When Professor Bustillos said that is was "an ocean of grey," that was certainly not an understatement.  It seemed to me that many of the videos seemed to contradict each other a little bit.  Several said that "Fair Use" was a great movement to help protect from censorship, however; there is no clear way to use it.  Yes there are codes of practice, but these codes of practice aren't sanctioned or recognized by law (to my understanding).  To me it seems like a way to say, "If all of us are doing the same thing, there are too many of us to try to sue."  I've seen the same premise used with employees.  "If we all do it, they can't fire us all."  That doesn't mean that it is right...just that it is less likely to be enforced.  Also with Fair Use you have so much that is subjective.  The idea of a proportional amount, the work not infringing on the owner's ability to profit, and the idea of whether it is necessary.  All of these are subjective.  I may have taught a unit on the Civil War without the use of the movie "The Patriot" before the movie was created, but now that the movie is out I cannot imagine trying to teach the idea of families and communities torn apart by the choosing of sides.  Technically, it is not Fair Use, as I have had the unit previously...but if you ask me, I will tell you it is.

I applaud the artists that contribute to Creative Commons.  I think that the industries are looking at downloading and using material in the wrong light.  I had to laugh when the lawyer for the film industries claimed to lose $6 billion a year on pirating.  Look at how much they make already!  Can you imagine how much they would make otherwise??  It is unbelievable to me as someone who makes way less than $40,000/year. 

In the end (in my humble opinion), you have to take a look at what the consequences of the actions are.  Industries are worried more about money than preserving history and that was never more clearly illustrated than in the "Eyes on the Prize" video.  You have irreplaceable pieces of history that are lost forever because of money.  In a few years when are younger generations are unable to appreciate the struggles of their ancestors will that be worth further lining the pockets of the already overly wealthy??

Long Time Since February

So, it has been a long time since I have updated the site...both schools took their toll on my free time!

Since February I have taken many wonderful classes at Full Sail, got engaged, purchased a home, and changed grade levels for the coming up school year.  WHEW!!!

I am entering into month 10 of my Full Sail journey and can't believe that I graduate soon! It seems like I just started and I am almost finished.  Full Sail has provided so many great opportunities to learn new things and meet new people.

This month we worked on gaming in the classroom...I have to tell you, if you are not using games in your classroom...do so now!  This course was such an eye opener.  I advise every teacher to look into Quest Atlantis, Farmville (yes, Farmville), Kingdom's Nobility...and many more.  I will try to post a link to our course's delicious site for more fabulous games!

I will now be teaching 3rd grade...I have never taught 3rd grade, so I am a little bit nervous (ok maybe a lot bit nervous).  The hardest part about 3rd grade is that this is the first year they really take a hardcore standardized test.  I abhor state testing so it is sometime difficult for me to remain positive when telling the students about it.  Also in 3rd grade if you don't pass the test you don't go to 4th grade...that is a lot of pressure for little ones!