In the digital age it has become very easy to sample others work. This is creating all types of problems with current copyright law. This Atlantic article titled, "How to make a documentary about sampling -- legally" brings some of these issues to ground - explaining for example,
"We asked what would it would cost at today's rates to clear the audio fragments that make up Public Enemy's classic 1990 album Fear of a Black Planet. We crunched the numbers, and in our conservative estimate the group would lose roughly five dollars per album. That's a loss of five million dollars on a platinum record!"
Here is an interesting way to get people to stop and think about an issue and to interact. I like this idea and can think of many ways that it could be used to generate awareness and action.
I found this video through Jason at PlanetYou- here is a link to his original post. Thank you Jason for sharing.
I was invited to attend David Warlick's presentation at the Thompson School District yesterday. To say the least David inspired me with several concepts related to learning and 21st century literacy. Here is a list of several items I took from his presentation.
Stop integrating technology and start integrating literacy
Literacy today is not simply about reading, writing, and mathematics but about investigating those subjects in an digital environment
This investigation can include URL backtracking, large dataset investigation, multimedia communication, and a growing list of others
We are all competing for attention - students must learn to attract attention with their innovative and creative ideas
The statement that truly resonated with me as an educator and as a father was that, "their is no excuse for students not having access to digital content and media." His statement was in response to several complaints about limited access within the Loveland schools.
I have been following David Warlick ever since his keynote speech at the 2006 K-12 online conference. He was absolutely correct then... and he continues to make a compelling case that we are behind - my question is when is our country and our schools going to "get with it" and make the changes that are necessary? It is unfair to our students and to their future to educate them for our fathers future.
We need to redefine literacy - thank you David Warlick.
Dr. Gregory Jones gives an interesting talk about networks and creativity. He states that, "networks of people are creative and innovative and knowing how to structure those networks properly has a direct impact on productivity." He talks about how sharing, reciprocity, and even happiness (he provides reference to several research studies that warrant future investigation) are all products of the structure of the networks that we live in.
The concept of Edgility that I have been developing resonates with Dr. Jones' ideas. We all need to be thinking about how we structure or in most cases restructure our networks to become more productive.
From what I see this restructuring needs to go well beyond what most of us think of when we think about "networking." We live in a competitive world that requires creativity and innovation. I believe that these innovations will be driven from the edges of the system. They will be born by individuals working on the edge of networks who have ideas about how to do something better. These ideas will then be brought to reality through networks of people working together. It is how we structure these networks that is vital to this type of productivity. These networks are fundamentally different than the ones we have typically worked within, diverging from hierarchy and structure and even being thwarted by traditional incentives. In 2010 I will continue to restructure my networks, and discuss this process here (edgilityblog.com), in an attempt to increase my Edgility
Connie Yowell (Director of Education - MacArthur Foundation) introduces a panel of digital media entrepreneurs in this video. Her introduction, in which she explains what the Foundation has learned in their grant making, is excellent. It is worth watching the first 18 minutes of this video. Here are some excerpts...
Data Point: "Kids today are learning differently, socializing differently, and engaing civically differently as a result of their participation with digital media."
Learning Point: We are in the process of making several conceptual shifts, these include...
Shift from education to one of learning (learning happens anywhere and anytime). If we are going to make the shift to a 21st century learning system we need to start operating in the best interests of the learners.
Shift from consumption to participation. This is a core ambition of a learning system for the 21st century
In this short unscripted interview Howard Reingold talks about the teaching methods he uses at Stanford and Berkeley. Howard and I have been corresponding about teaching methods for some time now - mainly about how difficult it is to get students to engage and produce their learning. It is always interesting and valuable to me to get insights from one of the all time great thinkers of social media. This is worth watching. Thanks again Howard for sharing and for being so generous with your time.
This video was posted on YouTube on November 13th, 2009 and since that time has been viewed over 4 million times. What a great way to raise awareness! What a great way to increase consumer-to-consumer marketing - 4 millions times over.
Getting people involved in contributing to something larger, while having fun is a formula for success.
