Week 2: Reading - Smile. Respect. An A.

Smile. Respect. A.

As I read The Art of Possibility I kept thinking that this is how I try to live my life (and I say “try!”); I was raised to see the glass as half full.  Now with that in mind, I’m not always “Giving an A,” but of late I have been trying to.  This chapter truly resonated with me the most.   As I read it so many thoughts and stories flashed through my mind.

As Zander stated, it needs to come from a place of respect. When I first started teaching, classroom management I felt (and still do) is key.  Someone told me about the green, yellow, red card discipline chart for the younger children.  So I adopted it.  Well, it lasted two weeks.  Tommy, a five-year-old boy was always on red!  He came in the class, and virtually moved is card to red from the get go.  He was the Red Card Kid!  And this was not good! I threw the poster out.  There was no way this child or for that matter any of the children would feel successful or get an “A.”  There wasn’t any respect! 

I try to bring this respect into my everyday life.  Now, when I have to talk to a customer service representative, if they are nice and helpful, I always ask to talk to a supervisor and tell them how helpful the representative was. I say hello and smile to people I don’t know. Once while I was watching a dumb movie, Eat, Love, Pray with Julia Roberts there is this yogi who has this dumb goofy grin on his face all the time; and he is happy all the time.  Then I started to think about monks and their grins, and other yogis I have seen, and their grins.  And then I started to grin during yoga, and I could hold a pose longer.  I realized that I smile most of the time.  And there you have it.  Smile. Respect Give yourself and others an A.

Week 2: Comment 2

Bliss

Original Post

Kevin

In The Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander take readers through a series of steps to re-imagine the world around them.  While the book started off as a form of pop-semantics lesson that seemed like diluted writings from Swiss linguist Ferdinand De Saussure, I really liked what it said about everything being invented but I felt like I had heard it all before.  The chapter I was most struck by was the part about giving the "A."  The several vignettes in this chapter provided illumination on a positive way to see the world for a critical person like myself.  If anyone has seen the recent film, "Our Idiot Brother," the idea of giving an "A" is illustrated by the central character, played by Paul Rudd.  He is explaining to another character the story of how he was arrested for selling marijuana to a uniformed police officer.  If you have not seen it, the scene in which he makes the transaction seems logical to the audience but just like if someone told the story in real life, you would assume they were an idiot.  Rather than embody that moniker, he simply shares the way he lives his life.  He says that he gives people the benefit of the doubt, that everyone has the best intentions, and when he approaches the world like that, more often than not, "people rise to the occasion."  That is the crux of giving everyone the "A."  It means, not selling people short, perhaps giving them more credit than they deserve and allowing them to rise to meet the challenge.  I think too often we are quick to fall into the measurement world of grading everyone rather than looking at the whole block of marble and seeing how we can chip away to make a more meaningful relationship.  It is certainly far easier than dismissing people outright.

My Comment:

I agree with you that we tend sell people short, loading them up with our junk, and not looking at them for who they are.  I think life moves so fast that we don’t take the time to get to know people for who they are and what they truly have to offer.  It is like our students; they are the blocks that we get to watch chip away.  Like you said it is too bad we don’t take the time with adults to see the pieces chip away.  By dismissing them we may be missing the right people.

Week 2: Comment 1

A Way to Communicate

Original Post:  @Barry Roth  

Bottom of Form

While my Action Research Project was far from what I had initially imagined it would be, I think that much of what I learned would be valuable to educators. The experience provided a new path for professional development. 

My project was an attempt to increase membership and involvement in a professional organization, the Sacramento Region of Computer Using Educators (CapCUE), but the learning that I accomplished had reach far beyond that of my ARP. While little growth occurred within CapCUE, I began to involve myself in the Twitter world, and gained a great appreciation of the professional benefits. The constant flow of professional development was dumfounding. With little effort my list of followers grew–and this is with very few tweets. Several retweets and mentioning people in my posts resulted in people contacting me via email and personal messages, relationships that fostered professional growth and support. I believe that presenting on my learning around professional applications of Twitter rather than solely focusing on my ARP would be of interest to educators.

I’m not sure the best path to take–conference presentation or a journal article. I feel that a presentation could be best–truly dialoguing with teachers about needs, and demonstrating how creating a professional Twitter presence would open up opportunities for them.

My comment:

What I find interesting about your project Barry is how it has evolved beyond the project itself.  This is what I feel Full Sail’s true mission is, to lead us in one direction, but the path is not really straight, and we may not truly know where it may lead us.  I need to check out your Twitter world!  I am not a big fan of Facebook, maybe it is a good business/networking tool, and so I have stayed away from the social networking arenas.  Reading your blog tonight has made me realize how short sighted I have been, and I realize that I need to look at Twitter with a different reference point, and probably look at Facebook differently as well.  Thanks for some interesting things to ponder!

Week 1: Comment 2

Original Post: 
As a visual artist I understand what it’s like to have your work taken without permission. Taking an image even one that has been watermarked and using it without paying the artist is wrong. If found the artist has the right to request you take down the image. Just because you change the image or remix music doesn’t mean the original artist should not get some sort of compensation for their work. I think in the case of modifying an image it depends on the how the modification is use. Was it paid for or was it used without permission? Is the artist who made the change profiting from the modified image?
I believe if the artist purchased the image for the intent of reuse and it was sold as such then the original artist has no say. If the image was taken without permission, even from news media then the original artist should have the right to collect compensation. Music, video, imagery and print media should not be used (even snips) without permission from the original artist. The entire remix controversy is simple in the fact that creating art for profit off of someone else’s work without permission is copyright infringement. It really is that simple. There is no doubt that it is creative but it is taking their hard work and profit and claiming it as your own.
Now there are alternatives that people should consider. Most agencies that sell images, video clips and audio clips offer “free media”. You still need to read and understand how you can use this media but it is out there. Then we have other sites that are built on user content and many of these offer shared content, again with restrictions. When these site find copyrighted materials the take them down. YouTube for instance will send notification to users and explain why they removed a video and how to contact the copyright holder. The “Fair Use” of media has some merit only if the guidelines are followed and enforced. If you think about it we have done this for years in the form of critic reviews, the releases of movies, videos and music.
The other source people should consider is creative commons. The sharing of many forms of media and art. Depending on the license you can use, distribute or even remix these items. It has opened a world of possibility for the remix community. Think about a gathering of artists from around the world with the purpose of sharing and blending their ideas to create new unique artistic expressions. I have personally used music from this site. I have also added to free images at several stock photography agencies. The free content is out there we just have to find it the legal way. Respect artist by respecting their copyrights. If you do use someone’s work remember to give credit where credit is due!
Thanks for reading!

http://mediadesigntech.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/week-1-mac-blog-1-reading-copyrights-and-you/#comments

My comment:

I whole-heartedly agree with you Allen that there is no such thing as taking something creative - music, art, dance, film, photos, whatever, and change it  and say it is yours.  The hard work and creativity came from the original artist.  The next step or remix is just an adaptation of someone's perspective, and the original artist should be compensated in whatever manner they deem equitable.  It makes me sad though that this is such an easy way to be creative, and that people may not try so hard to be originally creative.  I hope not.  Thanks for the sites you have shared  before with free music and images.

 

Week 1: Comment 1

office.microsoft.com/images

Original post:

http://rlocklear613.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-1-free-post-technology-for-my.html#comments

One thing that I would like to incorporate into my Kindergarten classroom is the use of digital cameras for the kids. This would be a great tool to have in centers as an accountability resource. I could have a task set up in a center, and after students have completed that task, then they could take a picture of it, and move to the next center. Students would be responsible for uploading the images to the computer and saving them at the end of center time. When I need to assess what they completed, I would simply find the photo on the computer.

My comment: 

Rosalyn, What an interesting idea! I teach first graders, and as I was reading this I was thinking, could they do this? Are they capable?  And then my 3 1/2 year old came up to me with my iPhone and asked to play "her games!"  Oh yea, the kids could do it, and boy would they be engaged!  Great idea - for accountability, teaching technology, and engagement.  I may borrow your idea.

Week 1: Wimba

One facet of the class, and of our program, that I am excited about is the Publishing/Presentation Project that we are going to be doing.  I remember this being discussed or really just briefly mentioned in one of the first Wimba sessions way back when in Month 1.  Back then the project I had in mind was going to change education, (at least in my mind) where I teach, or so I had hoped, and I was thrilled to think that Full Sail would not only offer me the education I needed to complete my project, but also assist me in publishing or presenting it in a professional environment.  This was tremendous!  Unfortunately, my administrator last year is a dinosaur; my project changed, and has since been watered down.  I am not disheartened.  It was a learning tool for me, and my students also benefitted with the learning they had with the limited technology we had access to.  I had forgotten about this aspect of our education, so I look forward to see how and if I may be able to take this project to the next level.  And if not this project, at least I will learn how to do it with the project I still have in the back of my mind!

Week 1- Readings – Copyright Issues

I'm trapped!

Wow!  This is the first thing that comes to mind.  Secondly, thank you Joe for breaking this into three parts.  I couldn’t figure out why in the beginning and now I get it.  I was overwhelmed with the amount of different aspects, viewpoints, and now thoughts I have, to copyright issues there truly are, and whether they are legal, personal, artistic, or just selfish. 

Larry Lessig from Creative Commons struck a chord with me in his TED presentation when he said,  “That we need to connect with our kids, we watched TV and they make TV.”  We can’t make them passive; we’re making them “pirates.”  Are we in a “digital prohibition?”  What an insightful and thought provoking question?   I agree that they know what they are doing – digitially – (and as seen throughout the videos) is against the law, and they don’t care.  The question is should we?

While watching about the copyright laws in particular to music I kept thinking about a conversation that my husband and I have had many times about how there is no new music trends.  Yes, I know I am old…er, but even when I listen to what my daughters listen to it is rap, pop, there is nothing really new though.  Then watching these “producers” talk about remixing music; that they are not musicians, they just produce. I was saddened about the loss of creativity of the actual musician, setting the world on fire with a new trend, style, or genre of music.  These are the artists who deserve the advantages of the copyright laws.  They are creating for the most part something from nothing (at least the riff is not copied and pasted from one track to another, they had to remember it in their head if they stole it!) 

I appreciate the cultural aspects of taking for instance US songs and adding the Brazil flair to them, but to say that the artist in Brazil is a musician, this I do not agree with.  It was not their original song.  I, who cannot hold a tune, but I can go into GarageBand and create music thanks to technology.  I may be expressing myself, but I don’t think I should be able to take the credit for the remix of Pink Floyd and Justin Bieber! 

I appreciate the laws of Fair Use, especially as an educator.  I hope they are a further extended for not only in education, but also for social and historical aspects, to serve the public.  And that copyright laws are not used as a form of censorship. 

But as all the videos and the article discuss, back to Lessig, let’s be “open for business?!”  The extremism isn’t working.  Let the artists decide on how they want to get compensated, and have the business embrace the free/freer content.  Will this work?  Will the lawyers allow this?  Will big businesses allow this?  Will the whole media playing field change?  As said in “Good Copy Bad Copy” we need to rethink how we do business and things will need to change drastically.  I found it humorous when Dr. Ferrara from NYU said that “creativity is on the line,” but I was wondering if he meant that creativity is “online!”