I took a lot of time going through the weekly exercises including the Background Readings. Topics of this week - Remix and Creative Commons. I found though that I really got tied up in the Creative Commons this week and missed much of the fun of Remix. I really wish I had spent more time on the creative tools!
Having said this, the week started with the great video - Kirk Ferguson: Embrace the Remix. One of my favourite quotes in the video truly defined the term 'remix' for me.
(Ferguson, 2012) quotes Henry Ford:
"I invented nothing new, I simply assembled the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work. Progress happens when all the factors that make for it are ready and then it is inevitable."This lead me to thinking of my own understanding of how we take ideas and continued to build on them. We take a thought or idea from one area, mix it with an experience of another world and tweak it with a recent conversation and VOILA! and idea is created. (Ferguson, 2012) continued by stating what resonated more than any other statements this week when he said:
" Our creativity comes from without, not from within. We are not self-made. We are dependent on one another, and admitting this to ourselves isn't an embrace of mediocrity and derivativeness. It's a liberation from our misconceptions, and it's an incentive to not expect so much from ourselves and to simply begin."But why should we not expect so much from ourselves? I think we should push ourselves to reach to the stars to create and invent! Search out the ideas, search out for inspiration, search out for motivation and then make it yours!
I do however understand now the connection in this week between Remix and Creative Commons. Having never been "educated on Copyrights (even though it's posted everywhere at school), I could not be bothered to read the why's what for's and what if's about the concept that I can't copy notes or pictures or use images in my presentations for my students. After reading Fair Dealing For Media Education article this week, it started to actually make sense to me why restrictions (guidelines) are in place. There is a lot of legal jargon involved and I struggled to understand it...until it lead me to Creative Commons Licenses and how these would be a great alternative to explore for in class work.
I printed for my own reference use (and potentially sharing it with my fellow teachers), the
Resources and Tools from 2Learn.ca to support Digital Life Skills - the explanation of the Canadian Copyright 9 Key Questions and the 19 Copyright Resources will prove most useful.
Although juvenile and YouTube directed, the Teaching Students About Copyright -The YouTube Way video was quite on the money. Simple but to the point - I will share this with my students and encourage a class discussion (they are presenting their term projects shortly).
This lead me to the Creative Commons: What Every Educator Needs to Know video. Although quite long, it really made me understand the benefit of using Creative Commons both as a creator and a user of material that may be used by others. I exercised my own Creative Commons rights by loading some of my personal pictures to Flickr and setting Creative Commons restrictions on them. This did give me a sense of empowerment - both to share but most importantly to get credit for my sharing. (I have been struggling with this on my PLE). I found the types of licenses were so very well explained in the video that applying these to my images worked well - I understood it!
I am attaching my link to My Prezi Creative Commons presentation blog. If was a great (but VERY time consuming exercise). I can visualize myself using this for presentations in class but also asking students to use this tool to create presentations. Need to try something new (PowerPoint burn out happening!).
My final task this week was to try out Animoto. I have seen it so often and heard about it, and yet no knowledge at all about this tool. I wanted to do something a little special dedicated to my youngest brother who I lost tragically 3 years ago. I miss him terribly and this is a little something just for him - Dedicated to Oliver Bodemann!
The Story of Three
Well - on that note...I love these new creative tools - now personally as well as professionally. I have a few more to explore including Screencast which Kristy-Anne included in her blog. It was great - How to create your first Animoto.
Thanks for the help on that one Kristy-Anne.
J
References:
Ferguson, K. (Performer) (2012). Embrace the remix [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/kirby_ferguson_embrace_the_remix.html
No comments:
Post a Comment