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.
My Comment:
I was really excited to read your blog after watching all of these videos because you deal with this for a living. It was very interesting to me that almost everything that we watched was geared more towards people that want to use copyrighted material, especially since whole topics were on fair use and Creative Commons. My husband is always complaining that there is no original music anymore because they all just copy each other. While I get frustrated that copyright is sometimes "too strict" I agree that original work should be the ultimate goal. You also brought up the fact that a lot of people know that they are using copyrighted material and yet they simply don't care or hesitate. I just had this conversation with my students regarding the re-use of music. They blatantly stated that nobody is going to sue them and that there are bigger fish to fry. While I want them to have creativity, I also want them to find some inspiration that is not based on other people's brilliant ideas. I think that this two-sided extremist battle is far from over and that if anything it is going to get worse before it will get better. As a photographer, do you use Creative Commons to post your work? Just curious...
Photo from OpenDemocracy at Flickr Creative Commons
So… copyright…wow!!!! I would like to start by saying that even though we were told about copyright when we started this program, it would have been really beneficial and inspiring to hear this stuff at the beginning of the program.
Intro:
I found it very interesting that copyright was an issue when the printing press came out. This makes sense because things could be copied much easier, but I always assumed that it was going to be started with artwork instead. The most interesting idea through this week’s readings is this notion that today’s culture is so media saturated that the rules are much harder to define. It is crazy to me that copyright length is so long since it will outlive the author or even the length of a company. I can see how this would make it much harder to “re-mix” this material. The ten (eleven) myths of copyright were interesting because they were some of the myths that I too believed in. As I have never had anything copyrighted before this program, I had never looked into my rights as an “author” of creative material.
Fair Use:
As a teacher I know that there are plenty of times that I have thought “fair use” as I am doing something in the classroom. As a student I can also think of many times where my teachers showed movie clips or gave us copies of material. Now when I think back on them, I don’t know if they would really be covered by fair use. I absolutely loved the Fair(y) Use Tale. It was a perfect and ironic explanation of copyright issues and fair use. I think that the graphic design teacher at my school could show it in her class as well. I found the notion of private censorship very interesting and I agree that history should not be lost because it is simply “protected” or hidden from the culture and nation that created it. This is where I love the idea of re-mix culture. In fact, some of the most creative masterpieces that my students have come up with involve remixing or reusing modern culture icons and media. As a teacher, I do find it helpful to think of the common notion that Mr. Professor mentioned: “If you can teach without copyrighted material, then it probably does not fall under fair use.”
Solution:
As a Full Sail student I feel as though I have become very aware of copyright laws to the point of being nervous of accidently breaking a law and going to jail… ok maybe not that bad. But Creative Commons has really been a great solution and has adjusted to our lightening fast society that is full of new media every second. It also makes me feel good to give back some of my work as Creative Commons licensed work. My favorite video of all three sessions was definitely the TED talks video at the end of session three. The best things really are saved for last. The three stories really hit home all of the points that were made and it makes you question how this generation is going to grow and change with copyright laws, remixing and mashups. All I know is that if Glee is allowed to show these mashups, why shouldn’t our students be able to create something just as entertaining on YouTube? As was said in the video, “…they produce for the love and not the money…”
I still have one more question:
What about taking a screen shot or picture of something such as a picture of a dance or a screenshot of Facebook? How does this fall under copyright?
I would love to hear your experiences, testimonials, and critiques about the use of Glogster in your classroom. Please comment at least once on this blog. Feel free to come back as time goes by to see what your peers have to say as well.
There are some great RILS that were created by my peers. I think that I could use some of these in my own classroom with a math twist on them. Click here to see what I posted on Cricket's great use of Sketchfu.com and here to see what I posted on Drew's amazing use of Gigapan and Mindomo.
Brief Overview: Take your students on a ride through an M&M filled statistical journey. In groups they will analyze bags of M&Ms to see if the proportions that the company claims for each color are really true. Then they will present their fun findings using Glogster.
Target Audience- Ninth grade students ages 14-15 at Brush High School (18 total).
Materials–
·Computer with Internet access
·Medium sized bags of Original M&Ms (one bag for every 3 students)
·Small bathroom paper cups (6 for each group)
·Food serving disposable gloves (a pair per student)
·Pencils
·Calculators
·M&Ms Worksheet for Students
·M&Ms Fun Fact sheet for teacher
ObjectivesAt the end of this fun activity, students will be able to…
·Describe the probability of each color of a bag of plain M&Ms.
·Compare and contrast their findings with the M&M factory claims.
·Create a Glog.
·Explain their findings about their bag of M&Ms to the class.
·Critique themselves in reflection about the whole process and the outcome.
Procedure–
a)Opening Activity:
1.Students will enter the room and draw a card from a deck of cards.
2.Then students with the same number card will form groups of three.
3.In each group will be a student with a card that is of the diamond suite. And that student will come collect a worksheet for their team and a bag of M&Ms.
4.The person with a card that is of the club suite will get gloves for everyone and 6 cups for their team.
5.The person with a card that is of the heart suite will be the scribe of the group.
6.Each team will come up with a team name and put everyone’s names on the paper.
b)Body of the Class:
1.I will start by asking each team to put their supplies (except the worksheet) in the center of the group’s table so that nothing is a distraction.
2.I will review Probability with the students as they have seen it before in Algebra class.
1.We will use real data and find the probability that a boy or girl in our class would get called down to the office.
3.Students will practice finding the probability and converting it to a fraction, decimal and percent.
4.Then a student will read the M&M scenario
1.“Today your team will be analyzing a bag of M&Ms. Recently there has been some complaints about the amount of each color that comes in a bag of regular M&Ms. People have been saying that the colors are unfairly proportioned. Your team has been called upon to research this claim in an unbiased manner. To do this your team must wear gloves while handling the evidence, not eat the evidence, and present the findings in a professional manner. Follow the steps below. Good Luck!!!”
5.All students will wear their gloves before opening the M&Ms and they are not to eat anything until the activity is done.
6.Students will follow the order of the steps on the worksheet that will take them through their M&M adventure.
1.Step One: Students will each pick two colors to be in charge of and they will count how many there and then add them all to find out the total so that the scribe may record this.
2.Step Two: Then students will create a pie chart of their data by going to www.chartgizmo.com It is a free account that they already would have made and only one person needs to log in while the other students help by reading aloud the data values. Then they will save and minimize that window.
3.Step Three: Students will use their calculators to find the probability of getting each color. They will each find the probability of the same two colors they counted in the beginning. They can use the calculators to convert this into a percent so that the scribe may record them.
4.Step Four: The students will go to www.glogster.com and open one of their Glogster accounts to create a virtual poster that has their team name, their pie chart, their findings, probabilities, and a final conclusion statement. This will be used to present to the whole class at the end of the activity.
c)Closure
1.As each group is presenting their Glog I will be recording the values into a Google doc so that they can see all of them at once.
2.After each group has presented their Glog I will put up the google doc and read aloud the M&Ms fun fact sheet, which gives the breakdown of the colors in each bag.
3.Students will then add a paragraph to their Glog where they will compare their findings to the actual break down and their findings to the class’s findings. This will give them a chance to reflect on what their experiments gave them. They will have to include a reason for why the experiments were not all of the same and reflect on anything that they could have changed to get better results next time.
Web 2.0 Tool– My students will be using Glogster to make online posters to present their findings. This program is great for having students work together to create an exciting and unique presentation piece that they can all access from anywhere since it is on the Internet. If you would like to see how amazing it is for yourself visit here: www.glogster.com
Social Participation/Social Learning– The students will be working in small groups of three. Each person has a job to do in order to have the group run smoothly. They are all participating in the whole process of the activity. After they collect data, the students will be working together to create their Glog. In their groups they will be creating a visual representation of the breakdown of each color in the M&M bag. As a team they must come up with unique ways to present their findings and combine their ideas into one professional Glog to present to the class.
Making Connections– This activity is made to bring together a variety of knowledge and connections. The point is to use what they know to make real life connections that will go well beyond the classroom.
a) PreviousKnowledge: Students have already worked with percents, fractions and decimals. They were able to use this when they were finding the probability of each color and converting it into a percent.
b) Relevance: This is relevant because a lot of companies, including M&Ms, give their data in percents. If the students did not know what it meant or how to compare the data that was given, they would not be able to interpret it or use it in any meaningful way.
c) Local/Global: Students will know be able to interpret what a certain statistic means when they read it on a label. They will be able to make the mental connection with the experiment that they did today and realize how the probability was found. They will also get a real feel for theoretical versus experimental probability. This will be of great value when they outside of the classroom analyzing a situation on their own.
Create/Produce – Each group will have a Glog that will document their whole experimenting process. It will also include multiple representations of data such as a pie chart, tables, and calculations. The final part of it will be their reflection so that anybody looking at their Glog can get a full picture of what they learned.
Used time well during class. Got all of the M&Ms counted and divided in a timely manner. Never distracted others.
Used time well during class. Got most of the M&Ms counted and divided in a timely manner. Never distracted others.
Used some of the time well during class. Only some of the M&Ms were counted and divided in a timely manner. Occasionally distracted others.
Did not use class time to focus OR often distracted others.
ChartGizmo Pie Chart
Pie Chart included all of the M&M colors and labels. Chart was made in ChartGizmo.
Pie Chart included most of the M&M colors and labels. Chart was made in ChartGizmo.
Pie Chart included some of the M&M colors and labels. Chart was made in ChartGizmo.
Pie Chart did not include M&M colors and labels OR Pie Chart was not made.
Probability of the Colors
The probability of all 6 colors has been found and converted to percent form.
The probability of at least 4 colors has been found and converted to percent form.
The probability of at least 2 colors has been found and converted to percent form.
None of the probabilities were found OR none of them were converted to percent form.
Create a Glog
Create a Glog that presents what you found about the M&M claims. Include your pie chart and any comparisons.
Create a Glog that presents what you found about the M&M claims. Includes your pie chart but no comparisons.
Create a Glog that presents what you found about the M&M claims. Does not include your pie chart or comparisons.
Did not create a Glog.
Creativity on the Glog
Several of the graphics used on the poster reflect a exceptional degree of group creativity in their creation and/or display.
One or two of the graphics used on the poster reflect group creativity in their creation and/or display.
The graphics are made by the group, but are based on the designs or ideas of others.
No graphics made by the group are included.
Presenting to the Class
Group can accurately answer all questions related to facts in the Glog and present their findings to the class.
Group can accurately answer most questions related to facts in the Glog and present their findings to the class.
Group can accurately answer about 75% of questions related to facts in the Glog and present their findings to the class.
Group appears to have insufficient knowledge about the facts or findings used in the Glog.
Grammar
There are no grammatical mistakes on the Glog.
There is 1 grammatical mistake on the Glog.
There are 2 grammatical mistakes on the Glog.
There are more than 2 grammatical mistakes on the Glog.
Reflection
Group was fully able to reflect on the process and compare and contrast with the whole class' findings. This was written in a paragraph at the end of the glog.
Group was mostly able to reflect on the process and compare and contrast with the whole class' findings. This was written in a few sentences at the end of the glog.
Group was barely able to reflect on the process and compare and contrast with the whole class' findings. This was written in a sentence at the end of the glog.
Group was not able to reflect on the process and compare and contrast with the whole class' findings OR did not write at the end of their Glog.
Reflection:
a. Learner Reflection: The students will reflect in their groups. They will discuss what their overall results were and compare them to the company’s claims. Then they will add a blurb on their Glog explaining what they found through the overall process. They will also write about what they felt while using the Web 2.0 tool Glogster.
b. Educator Reflection: The teacher will look over the Glogs from each group. After grading and assessing them the teacher will consider if Glogster really enriched the lesson or if it was just used for technology sake? The teacher will compare how well the students got the concepts by reading their reflections as well. Finally the teacher will journal about what could be changed and what went well.
I THINK THAT THE RILS SCENARIO WENT AMAZING. MY STUDENTS LOVED IT EVEN THOUGH WE WERE WORKING IN A CLASSROOM DURING THE SUMMER WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING.
In Cleveland today we hit the highest temperature that we have had in the past 15 years-98 degrees but with the heat index it feels like 113 degrees. Needless to say, I was not hanging out in my backyard today. This gave me a chance to play around with Glogster more today.
After getting a chance to step back from the program, I enjoyed what it offered much more and I felt less frustrated with the advertising. I was able to create a rough sketch of what the students could do when they create their Glog for my RILS.
I was easily able to insert images and text which is all that they will need to be able to complete for this scenario. I was able to explore all of the backgrounds and different text options. There are so many that it was hard to choose just a couple of them. My students are going to love the chance to have so much freedom in their creativity. Saving and publishing it was very simple as well. I now know the process in which I will have them save them so that I can grade them in an efficient manner.
Once things are uploaded to the Glogster website, it saves them for the account holder. This makes it easy to reuse an item. Because of this, I think that I am going to give the students extra time to complete this RILS so that they can explore Glogster, upload materials, and have time to do what they really want to for their finished project. This will turn my scenario into a two day project, which is going to be just right.
I think that this is a Web 2.0 resource that will prove to be very helpful in my classroom. The only snag that I have run into so far is that I had to ask for permission to unblock the website. Can't wait for the students to complete this RILS.
Forgive me world for it has been six days since my last post. I know that you missed me and so I have returned. I started playing around with Glogster today since this is what my students are going to use for my RILS Plan.
I really do love what Glogster has to offer, but I felt frustrated that there was so much advertising and pushing to get me to buy the next level of membership.
I was able to create a glog of my own. But again I was not able to upload data files or draw on the glog because I did not have the higher membership. This means that I am going to have to recreate how I have the students enter their chart into Glogster. I will probably have them take a screen capture of their screen and upload it as an image.
Here is what I have made so far, don't laugh. I am going to play around with the program some more tomorrow. It really is great that they offer so many graphics and fun add-ons to the original poster.
