23 Things – Teach2Connect

23 Things (3.1)

The second half of Week 3 is to research Creative Commons and write about copyright. The first thing I will admit is that I have never truly perused the CCL. I think that they are a very good solution to a very complex field of intellectual property.

Where something like this hits me the most is as a former curriculum writer for several opera companies. When I wrote various curricula for these companies I understood that the product became the possession of the company. This premise did not bother me so much, but being young and unaware, I did not stipulate the need for attribution of authorship. So upon my departure, whether it was a full time job, summer job, or internship, there was no guarantee that the hard work I did would be attributed to me in some small way. I have come to find (now many years later) that many of the companies removed any sense of recognition of the countless hours of toil to create a high quality, standards integrated curriculum for a variety of opera programs.

I use this as an example because there is a fine line between copyright attribution and professional courtesy. In the age of web 2.0 cut and paste addiction, it is so easy to forget to properly attribute or cite copyright. It is even harder to attribute authorship when the material is not copyrighted by ccl.

I read the brief blog post regarding the ad campaign against Creative Commons by ASCAP. Now here is where I tread lightly as I have many lovely and wonderful friends (some fellow Bearcat alumni) who are published authors of choral music. The reality of the trickle down to them in print music is a bit sad; fractions of pennies per copy. To put your life’s work on the line, have it copyrighted, only to have it pirated, reduces residual even more than its current pittance. However, this is not about print copyright, it is about online content. So I will stop there (but if this were a lesson in my class about copyright, this would be my focus.)

The entire premise of web 2.0 is connection; connecting people through networks, blogs, wiki’s, PLN’s, and so forth. The intent of these programs is to flatten our world, to build connectivity, to reach out and become inclusive through lines of broadband cable. I completely agree for the need to provide avenues for copyrighting of online intellectual property AND to allow for flexibility in order to promote collaboration.

This year our school is embarking on self-paced technology professional development!! This is very exciting for me because I would love for all of my colleagues to share in the amazing things that technology can do to transform instruction, student engagement, and student achievement. (I will not spend this post waxing poetic.)

Our fabulous technology coordinator, has brought the 23 Things program to our building. A lot of the “things” are familiar to me, but a few are not, so I’m excited to find new adventures. I’m also thrilled to be available to my peers for 1:1 mentorship as needed. So much of my instruction does not use technology (at the K-4 level we focus more on traditional creation of music/dance) that to see it burst out in core content classrooms would be fantastic.

To my peers, YOU CAN DO THIS! I BELIEVE IN YOU! I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON YOU! (yes, I’m shouting this at you!)

(consider this week 1 and 2 for me!)