Week 1 reading post: Art of Possibility chapters 1 to 4

I’m finding the Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander to be filled with tiny gems. The first, which appears both in the text and in the TED presentation given by Benjamin Stone, is the story of the two shoe marketers sent to Africa; one perceives the inhabitants’ lack of shoes as a sign of hopelessness, while the other sees a completely untapped market! I’ve always been a firm believer in the power of attitude, and I was delighted to find this little parable that illustrates the point.

The next gem was the story about Albert Einstein’s conversation with Werner Heisenberg about the nature of a scientific theory. I’ve long been fascinated by science’s transition from one paradigm to the next. One of the most famous transitions was from Newtonian mechanics to Einstein’s treatment of the speed of light as a universal “speed limit.” Then after that came the shift to quantum mechanics—a paradigm shift that Einstein himself vehemently opposed. His observation that the theory “decides what we can observe” is entirely true—in both a scientific sense and in more pedestrian circumstances. For example, before scientists considered that atoms might be made of charged particles, they could not possibly have observed those particles, because they would not have known how to look. No astronomer who truly considered the Earth to be the center of the universe would have thought to construct a telescope, because everything else in the universe was considered to be of lesser importance. In a more everyday sense, we do not see what our minds are not prepared to find. This goes back to my first gem, the story of the two shoe marketers. A marketer with a fundamentally pessimistic outlook will not see the opportunity staring him in the face…even when it comes in the form of millions of bare feet!

Zander, R. S., & Zander, B. (2000). The art of possibility [Electronic]. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Week 1 Comment on Rath Loeung’s copyright post

Rath,

I totally agree with your opening point…it’s strange that we’re only looking at copyright now, at the end of our program. Better late than never, though!

Like your students, mine tend to glaze over ideas of copyright and intellectual property. When I tell them that they have to cite the sources they use in a paper, they consider it a formality and, in the age of easybib.com, it really feels that way to me, too.

I really love what you say about giving permission to your audience to reuse your work ahead of time. The fact that you feel like you’re challenging the audience to build on what you’ve created is awesome, and I suspect that it’s becoming a more common sentiment among artists. The creators and authors of tomorrow are today’s children, so it stands to reason that they will be more open to the idea of Creative Commons licenses and “remix culture” than their parents’ generation.

-Kim

Rath’s post

EMDT.MAC - Week 1 Readings Blog Post: "Copyrights"

Usage versus Permission for usage. It can be such a fine distinction. The complexities of copyrights cause some people to ignore them altogether and I've read about and seen both creators and users of intellectual property get burned. While I wonder why such an intense and important topic has only been briefly touched on earlier in the EMDT program, I'm glad we're looking at it now.

As a creative-type, I do have to keep in mind how much I'm just "influenced" by the prior work of others versus an outright mimicry. I do try myself and encourage others, in studying the creative work of others, to copy for the sake of learning. But I've always surrounded the encouragement with a severe caveat about the origins of that work. Acknowledgement may provide some fair-use in education cover, but it's not a guaranteed safety-net. Because copyrights and intellectual property ownership are such abstract concepts, I think that my students often just glaze over whenever the topic comes up.

I think the "Remix Culture" that has emerged comes from the relative ease to take snippets of work and creatively assemble them. The tools are abundant and, often, free. It's what schools, on paper, say they want when talking about the skill of "synthesis" but then try to take the tools away that facilitate it. There are opposing pressures persecuting the public school system in its present state. The pressure is there to evolve and innovate but government has made itself such a big stakeholder in education that maintaining compliance becomes pressure the opposite direction.

I'm in the camp that culture is meant to be shared. Creative Commons may not be a panacea for outdated copyright laws, but it feels pretty darn right. I love putting together some recordings or posting some artwork and giving permission ahead of time to anyone who would want to build new work upon it. There's something about that act that almost feels like a challenge to the audience. And it certainly keeps our culture, whether it be music, art, or any other medium, organic, vibrant, and ever more inspiring.

Week 1 Comment on Tricia Slechta’s copyright post

Tricia,

I totally sympathized with the sentiment you shared in the beginning of your post, the sense of living in fear that you might either violate copyright yourself, or pass along incorrect information to your students! I’m afraid of someone in the English department at my school showing up to tell me that I’ve misinformed the students on some fine point of MLA formatting or citations.

Your argument with your fellow teacher-librarian sounds as though it would have been fun to watch! It sounds like you agreed with Larry Lessig’s conclusion, that by completely restricting “remix culture,” the government effectively forces people to live their lives against the law, and that this phenomenon is fundamentally corrosive and corrupting to our youth. It’s an interesting way of looking at the issue.

I agreed also with your assessment of the Jesus clip! Though I wish there had been a disclaimer before that video, as I watched it at my Catholic high school! 

BTW - Atlas Shrugged is a great read for high school students   :)

-Kim

Tricia’s post

Copyright issues are very confusing and very controversial.  As a teacher-librarian, it is an issue that I deal with daily. Perhaps it is a little strong to say that I live in fear of 1) violating copyright or 2) teaching students the wrong way to use information.  Even though this may be an exaggeration,  I do worry about it a lot.  I am constantly reading material, asking questions, and attending conference sessions about copyright, creative commons, and fair use.  I remember one discussion that I had at a school library conference with a fellow teacher-librarian concerning fair use:  I was arguing for students on behalf of fair use, their use of media in productions as long as the students changed it, mashed it up, made it their own, and give credit to the owner -- then all was good. The other teacher-librarian was arguing that unless they had permission from the owner of the material they could not use it.  At one point during our discussion she was looking at me as if I had three heads!  I was probably looking at her with pity for her poor students who are probably creatively frustrated.  After watching Larry Lessig’s Ted Talk I felt like we were the chicken farmers arguing against the supreme court concerning trespassing.  In this case I was the Supreme court that says “common sense should prevail,” instead of totally restricting use of materials we need to let them use materials; but understand the 11 flavors of creative commons.  Students need to respect the rights of the owner. Owners of different media need to let their material be used freely  thus allowing it to be changed and therefore allowing creative growth of our youth.

My take away from watching several hours of copyright movies is this:

1.     I am glad that I could watch movies regarding copyright rather than reading about copyright.  I am hitting that age that when I read legal information it seems I have to read the material about 20 times before I actually grasp the content.  The videos provide visual examples that help with comprehension. For example, what isn’t copyrighted the sock puppets and a song or a dance that has never been recorded in some way. As you stated in the intro video of copyright issues,  Part 1 copyright is a gigantic topic! And I would rather watch videos about the topic then read about the topic.

2.      The Good copy/Bad copy was entertaining, confusing at times (with the language and subtitles), informative in the sense that it was good to view perspectives from different parts of the world.  I feel that the take away of this movie is that the material is there for the taking, and it is going to be taken so are we on the cusp of copyright revolution? Should we be on the cusp of copyright revolution?

3.     Copyright Issues Part 2 were an eye opener for me in regard to the Martin Luther King film.  I thought that documentary producers would always have access and use of historical footage without cost because it was for educational purposes, pretty naïve huh?  I could see why film producers, especially documentary film producers, would jump for joy when Fair Use was defined and put into practice.  Since documentaries are not a high profit industry, purchasing rights would make it difficult for them to produce their documentaries.

4.     Copyright Issues Part 3 was by far my favorite for two reasons:

1.     The eleven flavors of creative commons were totally new to me.  Again I am going to show my ignorance, but in all of my reading and pursuit of copyright knowledge I was never aware of what all those symbols meant!  If artists would make more of their materials available and use the different creative commons symbols and students were taught how to recognize those symbols and to use materials responsibly, wouldn’t this be a perfect world!

2.     Larry Lessig’s samples were awesome!  I laughed over and over at the "Jesus Christ Survivor" clip!  And it is those samples that he provided in his presentation that is my biggest take away! 

Larry Lessig’s samples reinforce my philosophy on copyright law.  As I stated in my opening, I feel that students should be able to take available media and mash it up and create something that is brand new.  That is the strength of this generation of youth is creative regeneration, rather than calling them pirates. I say we embrace and enjoy the end products.  Remember fair use is not a right but a defense.