Week 1: Free Choice!

With this blog being a free choice activity, I just wanted to reflect more into copyright.  As I was posting responses to other's blogs, I started to think...what if we as educators were not able to show famous copyright works?  How would our teaching style and curriculum be if we were not able to bring the world outside inside to our students?

I remember in my English classes listening to the works of Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Alan Poe, and Langston Hughes.  How would I know about these famous writers if they were never wrote down nor able to be used in the classroom.  Or if in History class, I was not able to see a picture of the White House, and if I never visited Washington, D.C., would I really be able to understand the depiction of my teacher's words better than a photograph?

With teaching, we must be careful what we reproduce, but we must also ask ourselves, "Will the students understand without a visual or an auditory piece?"  Within our lessons, we should embed modifications to our lessons for different learners.  We have all learned about our auditory learners, kinesthetic, visual, etc.  I am happy that during a lesson, I can go on Google and freely show my students a picture of who Emmitt Till is or a video about World War I.  Fair use make teaching much easier than creating original items each day for class!

Picture via creativecommons.org

Week 1 Reading: Copyright Issues: Response to Scot

Week 1 Reading Copyright

Copyright is a difficult thing to wrap your head around and in the moment of creating it is difficult to think that you might be breaking the law. Using media as we do today to enhance our creative projects or personal videos, songs, or even photo albums we need to be conscious of where the work came from and in what manner are we using it.

I often struggle with even giving copyright a thought because it is usually such a hassle and after viewing the "Good copy, Bad copy" video I feel even more like the fight to stay free of infringement is not always worth it. I am not saying that I use illegally downloaded music to enhance my videos or that I am recreating to make money. I am just saying that great things can happen while using bits of others work while giving credit. 

I think that most teachers today would probably be breaking the law at least once a day in their class, but under Fair Use they could probably get away with it. Fair Use is a simple way to use others work to enhance your lessons, and I think that this should continue. Teachers need to rely on the work of others to help them teach and give students different perspectives of the content. They can use creative commons work and that usually will help in some instances, but usually is not the same content as work not labeled creative commons. Fair Use is a great thing and can only be abused when the work of someone else replaces the teacher instead of the teacher using it as supplemental to what they are doing.

I believe that copyright is a good thing and it protects the original creators from losing their work or from not benefiting from their work. With that I think that great things can be done with others work mixed with yours, we push collaboration so much and copyright laws could squash this. Cite the work of others and use away!

Yes, I do agree that as teachers we do get away from copyright infringement due to fair use.  But, how can we talk about famous period pieces of art and how it may reflect the time period if we cannot show the actual piece?  Our whole profession deals with what has happened before, analyzing it, and making it relevant to today.  No, we shouldn't take it for granted and download and burn DVDs for each child, but we should be considerate to the author(s) and to what we are trying to get out of the piece.

Dvd picture via creativecommons.org

Week 1 Reading: Copyright Issues: Response to Sarah

Wk1/Blog4: Free Choice--Copyright & the Classroom

After listening to all of the information regarding copyright laws and fair use, it seems as though it's pretty difficult to easily incorporate copyrighted works into the classroom.  Permission can take a while to receive and would require intense future planning of lessons and projects.  I mentioned in one of the discussion boards this week that I use Prezi to introduce and review vocabulary words in my classroom.  A few weeks ago, one of the words was "awe." My students read the definition and I tried providing examples to paint a clear picture for them, but I could see they didn't really grasp what it meant to be in awe of something. Finally, I remembered the movie "Toy Story." At one point in the movie, the little green men in the toy vending machine are in awe of "the claw," and they "ooh" and "aah" over it.  Once I recalled that scene and shared that with my students, most of them knew exactly what the word "awe" meant. But this could have been so much more powerful if a movie screenshot or movie clip could have been used to portray this.  There were some students who hadn't seen the movie, and the connection didn't mean anything to them. It's instances like this that copyright laws can be disheartening. Even though the nature of the video clip I wanted to use was for educational purposes and not much of the movie would have been used, I didn't use it. After hearing the things in the videos this week, I'm glad I didn't.  The lesson could still be taught without the video clip, so it wasn't an absolute necessity that this clip be incorporated into the lesson.

Sarah-

You have some valid points in your post in regards to copyright and fair use.  Seeing that you would have used "Toy Story" in the classroom, I believe you would have been OK using the clip.  When I taught Language Arts a couple of years ago, we were using the College Board SpringBoard Curriculum.  For the 6th grade curriculum, they had to analyze part of "The Lion King" with plot and climax.  When using movies as a part of your curriculum, it is under fair use.  Now, if you wanted to just show it to a large mass of people and say that you created it, then you would be breaking copyright laws.

"Toy Story" picture from creativecommons.org

Week 1 Reading: Copyright Issues

We had several videos to watch in regards to copyright.  It can be a very "sticky" issue, but in this post, I will try to clarify some common issues.

First off, copyright, as noted from Nathan Bamey of Expert Village, is a form of protection for original works in a tangible medium of expression.  In other words, if you create it, you have the right to protect it as your own.  Items that are protected are musical recordings, works of art, or architectural designs.  Not everything is not subject to copyright.  Improvisational works, titles, slogans, or items of common property are examples.

Copyrights are not forever.  For an author, a copyright can last their lifetime plus an additional 70 years.  For a company, a copyright has a duration of 100 years.  All of this does depend on the type of work, the date of origination, and countless other factors.

What was very interesting to me was the last video.  I have known about sampling for a number of years.  Listening to many R&B and Hip Hop tracks over the years, many I have found to be unoriginal, thinking back to "what song did they take?"  I did not know that filmakers have made a documentary about this process and so many people that I would have never imagined having a hand in hip hop.  I think that it is something that will continue for years to come, seeing that it is easier to me a "beat maker" with all of the programs and technology available.  It is so easy to be a musician today without knowing how to play an instrument or read a music note!

Picture via creativecommons.org

Week 4-Practical Experience with Garage Band (Post #3)

Tried to loop on this one, but just had to record continuously

As mentioned in Post #2, I wanted to learn a bit more about loops in Garage Band.  As I opened it up, I never realized that there is a separate component of Garage Band specifically for loops.  I was a bit upset that as I clicked on loops, most were not available and needed to be downloaded.  I was a bit apprehensive because I did not know that if I would be charged for downloading it.  It is not really what I thought it was, so now I want to go into putting effects into my tracks.  How do others put echos and scary sounds in their music?  Is it like inserting sound in iMovie?  There is a part on the track header that will allow me to add effects.  They have the female voice one, so that will help me sound more natural on my recordings.

Week 4-Practical Experience with Garage Band (Post #2)

Mixing via apple.com

One thing I would like to learn in Garage Band is to mix and loop tracks.  I know it can be done, and if I want to repeat a sound, it would be much easier and more consistent...and professional!  First, about mixing.  From researching online, and playing with Garage Band with tracks I already had, I learned how to look for if a track is clipping, and how to moderate the single and master tracks to prevent clipping.  It is very important to look at the volume monitor, where there are green and red colors.  If it gets to the red color, the track or whole set will clip and the volume and quality will be compromised.  Not everything on the loud setting would suffice for professional work.  As I record now, I will monitor track levels and adjust accordingly.

Week 4-Practical Experience with Garage Band (Post #1)

My first experience with Garage Band

My only experience with Garage Band is with making podcasts.  I was so scared to use this tool initially!  I had to play with it for a second, because unbeknown  to me, the top portion is the part that I needed to work with, especially formatting it in the correct voice.  I didn't know how to cut audio so I would re-record over and over again until I had it perfect in one take.  This was very frustrating, so I started to conduct research.

Week 3-Practical Experience with iMovie

iMovie is one of those programs that has been on my Mac for years and I never really opened it.  I saw it as something that video people and the like would use.  I'm not one of those people, until now.  I have found using iMovie very easy to use as I have gotten better and better as the Full Sail program has progressed.  There are still some things that I would like to learn, especially if I would like to use it for my Action Research project.

First, what I have learned in the last couple of months.  I know how to record video into iMovie.  This was my first experience with it.  I also learned how to cut video and audio, add effects, and do voice over.  As someone who has never used it before June 2010, I'm getting pretty good.

Now, to what I would like to learn further.  I would like how to cut my video and audio with more precision.  I know that iMovie is not Final Cut Pro, but it is still an Apple product.  If you have been around any Apple product for some time, they are at a higher caliber and make it seem like your projects are on the professional level.  That's what I love about them and iMovie is just facilitating that idea even further.  I would also like to use green screen and step it up on my effects.  I would love for my movies to move from amateur to professional grade.  

Week 3-Practical Experience with Flash

Adobe Flash tutorial from howcast.com via YouTube

As I installed the Adobe Suite the first couple of days of having my new Mac, I was so excited to preview all of the programs.  Some of them I have used in my undergraduate studies, such as Illustrator and Photoshop, and others I use almost every day, like Acrobat.  

One program I would like to learn about is Flash.  I've heard about it, but really don't know much about it.  As I opened the program on my computer, I see some templates that remind me of Illustrator.  I open up the Advertising template and chose a size to work with.  It opens up and then I'm stuck...don't know where to go afterwards!  So, I looked on the learn section which led to the Adobe website.  I guess that I am a visual learner because all of that text was overwhelming!

So I finally went on YouTube, my answer and best friend in life.  I saw a video that explained how to create a simple animation with a blue box.  Then I realized what Flash is.  Flash is the component to websites that allows pictures to move, or animate.  Then I watched a video on how to create a Flash website.  It was a step-by-step process that seems pretty easy.  I will just have to sit down one day and play with it and see what happens.  I will also go onto Lynda.com and see what tutorials they have on Flash.  It seems like a very interesting program and I would love to gain more knowledge about it.

 

Week 3-Practical Experience with Google Docs

My Google Doc page...a little Full Sail & high school work!

I tend to find and create documents for school at home sometimes. For me to get it to and from school, my flash drive has been my best friend. But sometimes that best friend is lost, or taken by my 13 month old, and never found again! This is why I started using Google Docs. I love that I will never have a conversion problem because I am using a Mac at home and a PC at school. Also, I don't have to worry about losing my important documents again.

I would love to incorporate Google Docs in my action research.  I think that it will be a great tool for my students.  The only problem is that it is blocked by my school district.  It would be a great way for my classes to collaborate and to share items with one another.

As far as proficiency, I am good at basic creation, uploading, and sharing a doc, but that is about it.  I had no idea that you are able to create surveys, forms and draw on a Google Doc.  That is what I want to learn more about.  In TMD class, we created a survey from there and I thought that it was so cool!  With the templates and help section, it was definitely easy.  I know that I only scratched the surface though and want to learn more.  I know that on Lynda.com, there are tutorials on Google Docs, so I will be looking into that very soon.