Wk2_Comment 1

The link to Mike Skocko's blog can be found here.  I had trouble copying only the parts of the blog and not the sidebars and images!  Mike elaborated on his delight in reading the Zander book, and included exerpts of his own poetry.  His thoughts and those of the Zanders seem to be so harmonious, Mike said that it felt like rediscovering an old friend.  As luck would have it, he was reading this book as he vacationed, his family with another family.  Turns out Dave Ridge knows Ben Zander and together they toured with the symphony in Europe once upon a time.

I replied,

That’s so cool how stories and lives are intertwining! Kismet! Dave, I am wondering if you felt something extra playing with Ben and if you have a similar, shining-eyes life mission…

Mike if you read my blog, I’m am really struggling with letting go of the measurement part of my brain. The judgmental German seems to go through to the bone. Just the other day, my husband found an employee in a small lie (taking credit for someone else’s quick thinking) and I asked him why he didn’t acknowledge it; would this person continue in greater dishonesty or feel glee in putting one over on “the boss”? My husband must have decided “to give him an A” by letting the employee save face. Through the discussion, I still put so much stock in being “right” that I can make myself oblivious to the subtleties of human relationships.

Wk2_Wimba

Too bad I missed it because I really wanted to discuss the idea of creative remix.  It seems like copyright gets in the way; even if the original artists are cool with remix and adaptations, the "copyright holder" is the one we have to get permission from.  Hmm.  Again, Creative Commons can be a great resource and the symbols are easy to understand.  I even learned a way to bring photos/images into iPhoto and keep the artist name in the information section for attribution for every successive remix or redistribition.  But now I have to convince my district to allow access to CC on campus.  It's ironic our district has to pay for web blocking in order to get some federal money but kids can bypass all that on their phones anyway.  I know I do-- I've used my phone as a hotspot to show a video from YouTube for my class.

Wk2_reading- Am I open to this?

I spent quite a lot of time resisting the ideas in the book.  I mean, c'mon!  Everything is invented anyway so just imagine something better?  Isn't that what crazy people do?  Or my mother in law???  [Seriously, I refer to her as Mrs. Sunshine and Roses because she MAKES UP stories and then wholeheartedly believes in them!  You cannot persuade her with facts about ANYTHING.  Ever.  She's lovely and kills everyone with kindness and is basically annoyingly nice.  Well, she does have a racist and sexist side (in general, never to anyone she knows of course, as if that makes any sense), again, not to be dissuaded with facts or other examples.  She believes what she believes.  (She seriously thinks Tylenol makes her woozy and that capers packed in oil can be good to eat indefinitely)  C-R-A-Z-Y!

It also has me remembering the fundamentalist Christian religious fad from my childhood my dad referred to as "Name it and claim it!" as if you just tell God what you have faith He will provide or allow to happen, it will be so.  Or what about the movie, Field of Dreams: "If you build it, they will come..."  Come on!  If you believe in that silliness, I have a bridge to give you...

I am such a doubting Thomas, I have also avoided The Secret and other power-of-positive-thinking type books and videos.  I just don't/ didn't see how the belief in something could open my eyes to a "new" perception.  But the story Roz told about her dad and reframing her perception of him eventually led her to rediscover the letter he sent.  He must have sent it.  There it is physically in her possession and -- I'm a doubter of miracles for the most part-- therefore he must have sent it.  So how can she not remember???  Her perception of him as an uncaring heel of a father led her conscious memory to forget that letter!

So I'm a little more open to this and I'm going to try to live into it starting with my husband.  I already know that when I fight with him, I assume the worst.  Really.  I assume he's being a jerk, when really, he didn't realize what I would have wanted him to.  So, I shared this with him and told him I'm going to look at a card with reminders written on it like, "Rob is not your enemy; he loves you and is trying to contribute.  Give him an A."  So things are still going to happen, not according to my little precious plan or whatnot but my disappointment in him will be gone/ lessened.  I will treat him as my partner (or try to because I am less than perfect!)

I also need to think more about using this in my classroom.  I need to read on, to see how this really works with students.  I don't want asinine or lazy behavior because everyone has an A now.  I need to work on my semantics of delivery of the message.  How can I lead them to see that getting the A means working hard and even taking some risks is what gets an A.  I can see I am starting to sound like the measurement world again.  I stopped myself short of pondering a contract: "behavior for an A."  But I am trying still not not be too fantasy-minded!  Can ninth graders (who I hear are a handful from the teachers in the previous grade) respond to this and live into the A?!?


PS Is anyone else giggling like a lunatic over the irony of these ideas juxtaposed over the very popular and very dangerous world of measurement in teaching right now???  "Of course I'm a failure as a teacher if my students are not all passing the state test!!!  Even one child left behind is unthinkable!  Fire me!!!"  compared to, "What are you measuring anyway?  How can you reliably measure engagement and bright eyes?!?"

Wk1_Comment 2 to Tania

http://taniashavor.blogspot.com/2011/07/copyright-issues.html?showComment=1309668384330#c2028075770597448847

Tania said, “Fortunately I have had to learn and deal with copyright issues in the past. I have a BFA and in doing multiple projects that deal with a wide array of commercial and personal images.  I also understand copyright to be very personal to me as an artist. As a graphic designer however more often than not I have had to deal with a lot of pictures that sometimes accounted for a large portion of my hard drive space. Most of the time in a company setting that requires some pictorial representation these companies will invest in buying the rights to use images from places like Getty, istock and Corbis just to name a few.

The above image is an image created by hand (not digitally) which was inspired by a magazine ad. This drawing is a good example of how we can become creative with the images we see without using the actual copyrighted image.”

I replied, “Great discussion among artists! What is inspiration and what is emulation/ copying? I quit art because I questioned my own ability to say something unique and meaningful, without relying so much on others: I referred to myself as a human photocopy machine, not an "artist." 

I think with adaptation and innovation elements of other images can be used. In high school we tried to recreate the Mona Lisa with a new style and setting. It was a fun project and the resulting projects were interesting and funny. A student of mine adapted The Last Supper to include the faces and personas of fast food icons positioned like the the Da Vinci figures. The Mary/ Thomas figure was hilarious as Wendy with the red pigtails. Irreverent and funny. I consider her project creative because she was clever in her adaptations, even playful with the title of the original. But as Tracye said, it is difficult to know where the line is with adaptation and just plain stealing and image like Shepard Fairey did.”

Wk1_Reading response: Copyright, fair use and remix

In phase one, I found myslf really empathizing with movie creators because of the blatant piracy under Swedish law and Nigerian law.  But gradually, I found myself empathizing with the remixers as creative folks themselves.  The DJ Girl Talk convinced me he couldn't really do what he does without violating copyright law as it stands.  And Mr. Lessig also persuaded me to rethink copyright in terms of print media.

As a lit teacher, I know a thing or two about print.  I know I couldn't teach without print.  I know I sometimes, okay, often redistribute a newspaper or magazine article in class to discuss the ideas or the words themselves without prior permission of the author or publisher.  I might be protected with fair use as a legal defense, but I do what I do with full knowledge that I am somewhat living and working outside the law.  As do many print artists.  For example, my students know I like Twilight and the series.  I like it even knowing it is a remake or adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, just as West Side Story is an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (and Triolus and Cressida too).  And guess what?  Shakespeare didn't create that story either!  He stole it from Brooke who stole it from, well, you get the picture.  Stories, ideas, styles, words get recycled, emulated, copied and it's not necessarily a bad thing.  Some people respond more to one version over another-- just ask my students.  They have reasons for preferring any one of the star crossed lover stories.  And my action-adventure fans actually find it interesting to find out that the basic story premise of most action films is the hero's journey archetype.  Hero has problem, has to solve something or get something, has difficulty along the way and ultimately triumphs with a little help from friends.  Boom.  Archetype.

I saw a cool teacher website from a fancy prep school, I wish I had the link still so you could see it, but the students had to research a poet and complete a variety of tasks related to the poet's life and works, one of which was an emulation poem.  The student studied the master and created a poem following the style of the original and showing the original side by side.  Talk about remix!

I teach my students about allusion (the brief reference within a literary work to some other person, idea or literary work) and show them examples.  Shakespeare alluded to mythology and the Bible.  In his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug28, 1963, Dr. King alluded to historical figures like Lincoln and his speech, current events and people and their speech such as George Wallace and his various segregationist ideas and words, nationalistic songs and African-American spiritual songs.  These men are well-respected, clever, creative wordsmiths.  But I want to point out that the very idea of allusion is one of remix.  If they had alluded to copyrighted material, they may also be criminals under current copyright law.

How is it different if a musician does the same with a song, remixing snips from various artists to create a sound of their own?  Is it okay for Kanye West to mention Gladys and the Pips in his lyrics but not include a snippet?  Is it okay for Flocabulary to mention "say my name" in their song "A Love Like This" but nor use any part of the actual recordings of Destiny's Child?  I agree with Mr. Lessig that we need some common sense in the law!

Wk1 _Wimba

Joe has a great demeanor about him and is an excellent communicator!  I only wish he had been available last Fall to explain CBR v. CBL and the lit review.  I feel it could have saved me a lot of time.  The analogy of a (neutral-stance) reporter, asking the researchers to speak for themselves is a good one.  When talking this over with Jenney this week, I thought about Diane Sawyer-- sorry Oprah, I love you but you are rarely neutral-stance-- having a panel of experts on the show to talk about their findings.  It would be Diane's job to introduce the topic or subtopic and then transition between each guest.  Once upon a time, in month one, Dr. Wyly said we should not report but synthesize and that was confusing to me-- how do I synthesize without inserting too much of my own opinion there [I think that is called yellow journalism?] or coming to definitive conclusions too early.  So, many thanks to Joe for clearing up some confusion!

I have more comments about CBR in my response to Jenney in another post.

Wk1_Comment 1 to Jenney

Jenney Grover said: "(insert record scratch here) WHAT?! We are going to apply to present or be published?! I'm wondering who the collective "we" is in the "we weren't getting as big of a payoff as we could get or should get given the amount of work that you guys have already done." Because the "we" if that includes me would mean that my payoff of a raise, job advancement, etc could be sufficient for me and therfore my choice to then go into retirement would be my choice if I chose not to get published. I'm really caught off guard by this even though a peer mentioned it in a conversation last night after class (I watched archive today). In month 1 (and 2) it was stressed that we could if we wanted to, but we wouldn't be forced to publish even though we'd be fully prepared to publish if we so chose. The analogy that has become forefront for this process is "It's all fluid"(always changing) in this Alice in Wonderland world.

I guess I now know what a fish feels like when I'm fishing. Oh this pretty lady is providing me with food, how nice is that?! "Swim little fishies over to my line." *gulp* Oh no! There's a hook! Swim away! Swim away! Nope, I'm snagged.





I was looking into getting published or presenting at some point in the future, but not necessarily with this project. The lit review is turning into a community written plan and not necessarily something that I would put my name on as a finished product. However, I am reworking it this week to see if I can salvage my voice.

As I'm listening to the archive, this song started running through my head.






The chorus keeps running through my head, "whatya want from me?" However, as I actually listened to the lyrics it fits this process pretty well.

"Just don't give up I'm workin it out 
Please don't give in, I won't let you down 
It messed me up, need a second to breathe 
Just keep coming around 
Hey, whataya want from me 
Whataya want from me 
Whataya want from me"


"Just don't give up on me 
(uuuuuuh) I won't let you down 
No, I won't let you down"

written by: Pink, Max Martin, and Shellback and released on Adam Lambert's November 2009 album "For your Entertainment".