I always learn some much from your work. I relate to the school setting and how students are pushed to use technology so much that when they produce quality work we choose to look away from the copyright issues. Your connection to this weeks reading when you talk about you as a young kid look and drawing comics was great. True, today's students are masters at remixing! Here is a video response also: http://www.viddler.com/explore/Remillard/videos/15/
You had a great commentary on copyright--it was very interesting to hear the live video and that beautiful background paired with your imagery. You did fabulously--great pacing, topic choices, and personal narrative incorporation. I liked how you told the story about drawing out of comic books and how fun that was for you, and even how it inspired and influenced a job of yours. Many of my Art students show similar characteristics as this example…they get so passionate about copying comic books, manga, or symbols from modern culture such as tattoos or film/character logos. I have to be very careful to balance my continual fight against this, to encourage their own ideas, and my leniency in order to combat apathy and foster student choice and personality. Copyright of course is something I mention as part of my explanation when I ask them to be more original.
I know what you are saying about them not being ready to handle the full responsibility of copyright. Its one thing for us, who have been exposed to more and also know the ways to get free images. We are also in school by choice. The high school students we are dealing with these days seem to be barely getting by in school. Even my advanced students are not as self-sufficient and driven compared to several years ago. I hope we are not enabling this, but I feel that my standards have to be lowered in some respects. Like you said, if I can even get them to research and find multimedia aspects at all its a plus. I think that if we made them go through the same things we do, we wouldn't get much of anything they would just be frustrated and give up! That sounds terrible but its true. For English, I think as long as you are strict on plagiarism, its ok for them to use images. I mean, I know its probably technically a violation, but shouldn't students be under fair use for their projects? How else can they be introduced to the concepts. When their school career continues in college and beyond, or they enter the professional/commercial environment, it will be important for them to hone their skills in using free imagery and citing. I know I didn't know how to properly site an image before this program.
Thanks for the reminder about Microsoft Office clip art. Was that image the web site search tool? It looked great. I guess I have just used what is housed within Word itself. Is that a different database?
I also appreciated your comments on piracy and how accessibility adds to and detracts from it. I have considered how the ease of burning and downloading encourages piracy, but never thought about how Netflix and instant streaming could actually discourage piracy because its so easy to stream (versus a long, big download). I have Netflix through disks and also on my Xbox dashboard, and it is nice to have access to films at any time. There is always a limited selection though and plus people who steal movies like the idea of having it forever and sharing it. Its such a complicated issue but I really liked your reflections, great job!
I can relate with creating media in a time where there was no Internet. In the 8th grade I had to create a board game about outer space and I had to create my own graphics and spend many hours at the library to research the facts. Of course now that we have the Internet today there is so much to take in. Even though there is an abundance of media out there that is licensed under Creative Commons or even free, I have always tried to make my own so I could somehow contribute to the media rich society we are a part of.
Another interesting thing is software. There is so much software being pirated right now and commercial content is being created with that software. This can lead to copyright infringement with large fines and even jail time. This kind of thing goes with what you mentioned that students don’t really care about copyright today. Software is so expensive especially stuff for special effects and 3D development. I actually ran into a dilemma the other day at work. I was told that I wasn’t going to get Autodesk Maya, the 3D software I have been using for 12 years. The software costs close to $4,000 and I was trying to figure what I was going to do to create 3D animations for training. I took a completely different approach and chose to use an open source application called Blender. Blender has everything most commercial applications have and the best part is that anything you create can be licensed by you and be used for anything you want. There is a small learning curve, but I feel a certain type of freedom that I normally feel when using Creative Commons or free media. There is no expensive upgrades or expiring licenses, just free software that helps to enhance creativity. Sure, the software that costs more than organs on the black market can help in creativity too, but its just like having to dish out every dollar you have to use copyrighted media. I only hope Fair Use, Creative Commons, Free media, and even open source software will continue to spread.
Michael First of all, I loved the copyright glasses on your blog site. Very creative!
I enjoyed your reflection on the comic strips you drew as a young person and how that led to a job for you later in life. (You comically inspired the image I created Anyway, our students in contrast could use creative remixing to land jobs in communications or advertising in much the same way in the future. I know My 3 sons spend a lot of time drawing and creating on paper but spend just as much time altering and adapting works on the computer. Do they have a clue about copyright issues or infringement? Absolutely not!
Interesting to hear about your experience with high school students using and remixing images in your classroom. The fact that high students do not know copyright laws and are not held to strict standards in image use, does show our need as 21st century teachers to change with the times and begin to spread the word about freeware and sites like Creative Commons. . In the elementary and upper elementary classrooms, students are just excited to find images they like, much less worry about their copyright. I feel it is important for students to be taught to use sites like Creative Commons, perhaps by making it easily accessible for students. Students must be taught early to credit sources in their works if our Culture is ever to change.
Costly images are not the way of the future, perhaps what we need to do is have students begin to create more images to place on Creative Commons for use in new media. No time, of course no time, but perhaps A high school photography class could be a great place to begin to show students how to copyright their own images and share those images through sites like Creative Commons. Imagine how many creative high school students would be interested in taking interesting images. No question that times are changing, I remember spending a whole semester in high school learning to develop our own pictures! Not so today!! Not so today!
I can totally relate to your experience of drawing pictures from comic books when you were younger. I have always loved to draw and that is partially what got me into web design. I spent many a day drawing images from magazines, books, television, or whatever else interested me at that moment in time. My daughter has now followed in my footsteps, but has so much more media available to her to create even more than I ever could.
I agree that many teachers do not emphasize to students that they shouldn't use copyrighted images or for that matter what is even considered copyrighted. My daughter is taking a graphic design course this year and they have had discussions over copyright, which I feel is appropriate given the type of course that it is.
I also agree that Creative Commons is a blessing even though as you stated it can be rather difficult to find exactly the type of images you are looking for, but it is getting better. There are so many graphic sites available on the internet, but they are very costly as you mentioned. Even as a web designer the only way I am able to use those graphics on my clients websites is to charge them for the additional costs. I do think that having a resource available for teachers and students to use that is similar to those other sites, at perhaps a more feasible price range would be more beneficial to a lot of people. It is a thought and considering all the photography and art students there are in the schools around the world, one that I think could work.
Michael, That’s an awesome story about getting into an artist job at Knott’s Berry Farms! I think you’re right on when it comes to student’s using Google images, but more profoundly was your comment on how teachers really don’t care if students copy and past other people’s work. I was (and maybe still am although I’m TRYING to change) one of those teachers but with more education on creative commons, I think I might be able to change.
I agree with your comments on Netflix as a solution for piracy. I think that we’re on the verge of a music version of this through Apple called iCloud and I’m really curious to see where this goes. They’ve invested huge amounts of money in a facility dedicated to music storage along with petabytes of hard drive storage space. Hopefully, we’ll be ushered into a place where we don’t have to be as concerned about copyright because we’ll have other viable options.
Michael, I love the fact that you decided to do a video for your blog post! The story that you told about using the images from the comics to better your own artistic creativity is very similar to how most people get started mastering their own art. I remember watching every magic show that I could when I was young. I studied everyone’s movement and gestures and tried to mimic what they were doing. Trying to first learn how they were doing magic led me to create my own style of magic but I would not be where I am today with out those models. I also see that same use of modeling or copying when it comes to learning how to sing. Singing can be hard to teach because you have to learn what it feels like to produce a good tone. Most great singers learn by copying their instructors. They will often say “sing it like this…” and they will sing an example for them to try to replicate. In order to learn how to do something well, we must first learn how to copy or imitate it. I think that you made some great points in your blog. Well done!
I always learn some much from your work. I relate to the school setting and how students are pushed to use technology so much that when they produce quality work we choose to look away from the copyright issues. Your connection to this weeks reading when you talk about you as a young kid look and drawing comics was great. True, today's students are masters at remixing!
ReplyDeleteHere is a video response also:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/Remillard/videos/15/
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteYou had a great commentary on copyright--it was very interesting to hear the live video and that beautiful background paired with your imagery. You did fabulously--great pacing, topic choices, and personal narrative incorporation. I liked how you told the story about drawing out of comic books and how fun that was for you, and even how it inspired and influenced a job of yours. Many of my Art students show similar characteristics as this example…they get so passionate about copying comic books, manga, or symbols from modern culture such as tattoos or film/character logos. I have to be very careful to balance my continual fight against this, to encourage their own ideas, and my leniency in order to combat apathy and foster student choice and personality. Copyright of course is something I mention as part of my explanation when I ask them to be more original.
I know what you are saying about them not being ready to handle the full responsibility of copyright. Its one thing for us, who have been exposed to more and also know the ways to get free images. We are also in school by choice. The high school students we are dealing with these days seem to be barely getting by in school. Even my advanced students are not as self-sufficient and driven compared to several years ago. I hope we are not enabling this, but I feel that my standards have to be lowered in some respects. Like you said, if I can even get them to research and find multimedia aspects at all its a plus. I think that if we made them go through the same things we do, we wouldn't get much of anything they would just be frustrated and give up! That sounds terrible but its true. For English, I think as long as you are strict on plagiarism, its ok for them to use images. I mean, I know its probably technically a violation, but shouldn't students be under fair use for their projects? How else can they be introduced to the concepts. When their school career continues in college and beyond, or they enter the professional/commercial environment, it will be important for them to hone their skills in using free imagery and citing. I know I didn't know how to properly site an image before this program.
Thanks for the reminder about Microsoft Office clip art. Was that image the web site search tool? It looked great. I guess I have just used what is housed within Word itself. Is that a different database?
I also appreciated your comments on piracy and how accessibility adds to and detracts from it. I have considered how the ease of burning and downloading encourages piracy, but never thought about how Netflix and instant streaming could actually discourage piracy because its so easy to stream (versus a long, big download). I have Netflix through disks and also on my Xbox dashboard, and it is nice to have access to films at any time. There is always a limited selection though and plus people who steal movies like the idea of having it forever and sharing it. Its such a complicated issue but I really liked your reflections, great job!
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI can relate with creating media in a time where there was no Internet. In the 8th grade I had to create a board game about outer space and I had to create my own graphics and spend many hours at the library to research the facts. Of course now that we have the Internet today there is so much to take in. Even though there is an abundance of media out there that is licensed under Creative Commons or even free, I have always tried to make my own so I could somehow contribute to the media rich society we are a part of.
Another interesting thing is software. There is so much software being pirated right now and commercial content is being created with that software. This can lead to copyright infringement with large fines and even jail time. This kind of thing goes with what you mentioned that students don’t really care about copyright today. Software is so expensive especially stuff for special effects and 3D development. I actually ran into a dilemma the other day at work. I was told that I wasn’t going to get Autodesk Maya, the 3D software I have been using for 12 years. The software costs close to $4,000 and I was trying to figure what I was going to do to create 3D animations for training. I took a completely different approach and chose to use an open source application called Blender. Blender has everything most commercial applications have and the best part is that anything you create can be licensed by you and be used for anything you want. There is a small learning curve, but I feel a certain type of freedom that I normally feel when using Creative Commons or free media. There is no expensive upgrades or expiring licenses, just free software that helps to enhance creativity. Sure, the software that costs more than organs on the black market can help in creativity too, but its just like having to dish out every dollar you have to use copyrighted media. I only hope Fair Use, Creative Commons, Free media, and even open source software will continue to spread.
Michael
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I loved the copyright glasses on your blog site. Very creative!
I enjoyed your reflection on the comic strips you drew as a young person and how that led to a job for you later in life. (You comically inspired the image I created Anyway, our students in contrast could use creative remixing to land jobs in communications or advertising in much the same way in the future. I know My 3 sons spend a lot of time drawing and creating on paper but spend just as much time altering and adapting works on the computer. Do they have a clue about copyright issues or infringement? Absolutely not!
Interesting to hear about your experience with high school students using and remixing images in your classroom. The fact that high students do not know copyright laws and are not held to strict standards in image use, does show our need as 21st century teachers to change with the times and begin to spread the word about freeware and sites like Creative Commons. . In the elementary and upper elementary classrooms, students are just excited to find images they like, much less worry about their copyright. I feel it is important for students to be taught to use sites like Creative Commons, perhaps by making it easily accessible for students. Students must be taught early to credit sources in their works if our
Culture is ever to change.
Costly images are not the way of the future, perhaps what we need to do is have students begin to create more images to place on Creative Commons for use in new media. No time, of course no time, but perhaps A high school photography class could be a great place to begin to show students how to copyright their own images and share those images through sites like Creative Commons. Imagine how many creative high school students would be interested in taking interesting images. No question that times are changing, I remember spending a whole semester in high school learning to develop our own pictures! Not so today!! Not so today!
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to your experience of drawing pictures from comic books when you were younger. I have always loved to draw and that is partially what got me into web design. I spent many a day drawing images from magazines, books, television, or whatever else interested me at that moment in time. My daughter has now followed in my footsteps, but has so much more media available to her to create even more than I ever could.
I agree that many teachers do not emphasize to students that they shouldn't use copyrighted images or for that matter what is even considered copyrighted. My daughter is taking a graphic design course this year and they have had discussions over copyright, which I feel is appropriate given the type of course that it is.
I also agree that Creative Commons is a blessing even though as you stated it can be rather difficult to find exactly the type of images you are looking for, but it is getting better. There are so many graphic sites available on the internet, but they are very costly as you mentioned. Even as a web designer the only way I am able to use those graphics on my clients websites is to charge them for the additional costs. I do think that having a resource available for teachers and students to use that is similar to those other sites, at perhaps a more feasible price range would be more beneficial to a lot of people. It is a thought and considering all the photography and art students there are in the schools around the world, one that I think could work.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteThat’s an awesome story about getting into an artist job at Knott’s Berry Farms! I think you’re right on when it comes to student’s using Google images, but more profoundly was your comment on how teachers really don’t care if students copy and past other people’s work. I was (and maybe still am although I’m TRYING to change) one of those teachers but with more education on creative commons, I think I might be able to change.
I agree with your comments on Netflix as a solution for piracy. I think that we’re on the verge of a music version of this through Apple called iCloud and I’m really curious to see where this goes. They’ve invested huge amounts of money in a facility dedicated to music storage along with petabytes of hard drive storage space. Hopefully, we’ll be ushered into a place where we don’t have to be as concerned about copyright because we’ll have other viable options.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that you decided to do a video for your blog post! The story that you told about using the images from the comics to better your own artistic creativity is very similar to how most people get started mastering their own art. I remember watching every magic show that I could when I was young. I studied everyone’s movement and gestures and tried to mimic what they were doing. Trying to first learn how they were doing magic led me to create my own style of magic but I would not be where I am today with out those models.
I also see that same use of modeling or copying when it comes to learning how to sing. Singing can be hard to teach because you have to learn what it feels like to produce a good tone. Most great singers learn by copying their instructors. They will often say “sing it like this…” and they will sing an example for them to try to replicate. In order to learn how to do something well, we must first learn how to copy or imitate it. I think that you made some great points in your blog. Well done!