Doug Johnson writings - Comments

Stacey Atwood comments on Rubric for Administrative Technology Use

Stacey Atwood — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:50:58 +0000

This is an excellent resource for school administrators, or those studying to become administrators. Thank you for sharing the rubrics. I will be asking students in my course to use these rubrics as self assessment.

malik comments on Favorite Quotes

malik — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:33:45 +0000

On statistics: Then there was the man who drowned crossing a stream with an average depth of only six inches. W.I.E. Gates

I didn't understand it. Please explain it in terms of statistics. Please explain/comment/interpret its meaning.

m rg comments on CreativeCommons

m rg — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:30:07 +0000

It is most important for students to learn to think critically through the factors of fair use for remixing and quoting other works in their own media creations, which is obviated by opting for a "safe harbor" of Creative Commons licensing. No matter what uses another creator wants to allow for their work, I can use it if I use it fairly under the law--that's what we need to teach. All media material is re-usable in new works or new situations as a new creator's work if the new use is transformative*, regardless of licensing--it's part of our culture. We need to encourage debates about interpreting fair use of material (which are still unfolding in court) as transformative (or not) with respect to context, purpose, amount of material, and effect on potential market (the four factors in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976). To look for "simpler" concepts is to shortchange our students' abilities to develop critical thinking and to participate in the living law. In the classroom, under the purpose of learning, most uses of others' media (other than educational materials) can be justified as transformative, and thus fair. So, our students' work has a safe harbor for them to practice remix and quotation, which, as educators, we must diligently encourage them to justify with fair use rationale--reminding them all the time that the safe harbor of learning will not hold in other contexts.

For a nice, entertaining intro to fair use concepts and copyright basics for students, check out these new music videos:
For fair use--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tWhKeb-fUQ
For copyright:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QiO_H0-ok8&feature=related

Also, check out curriculum materials for developing media literacy with copyright and fair use issues from the Media Education lab @ Temple University (co-producers of the "Best Practices in fair use for media literacy education" with the Center for Social Media):
http://mediaeducationlab.com/teaching-about-copyright-and-fair-use

Doug Johnson comments on Importance of Bricks

Doug Johnson — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:22:52 +0000

Thanks, Martha. You make some excellent points. I worry about the digital archiving of records will result in a loss of records in the long run. Got anything that reads a 5 1/4 floppy anymore?

Doug

Martha comments on Importance of Bricks

Martha — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:09:48 +0000

I am a heavy user of the Internet -- at work and at home. And yet I am often frustrated by the limitations of the information available there on the topics I'm interested in. Since I am no longer a registered university student, I do not have free access to scholarly journals, theses and dissertations. Much of the information readily available on the Internet is written at the level of popular newspapers and magazines and repetitive -- the same content simplified, plagiarized and reposted time and again. Quality information must be paid for, just as books must be paid for.
I have also been around long enough to discover that, as storage media is updated, much archived information is increasingly difficult to access, if it's possible to access it at all. Babylonian cuneiform tablets may be easier to read than old sets of keypunch cards. Are you willing to let the IT guys decide what information is valuable enough to keep?

Doug Johnson comments on Evaluating Collectively-Created Information

Doug Johnson — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:03:03 +0000

Hi Shirley,

Good advice, of course. I do think teachers themselves need some strategies about discriminating reliable from unreliable information that they can use themselves and pass along to their students. That way each would not need to reinvent their own wheel.

All the best,

Doug

Doug Johnson comments on 13 Point Checklist

Doug Johnson — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:56:46 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Maria. Always nice to know that something one has written has been useful.

Doug

Maria Jose Vitorino comments on 13 Point Checklist

Maria Jose Vitorino — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:51:43 +0000

Rather useful! Thanks for sharing knowledge and wisdom. A good question enables information, more than a thousand answers to an irrelevant point :)

jmr comments on Albert's term paper

jmr — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:44:02 +0000

What a cheater!

Shirley Sullivan comments on Evaluating Collectively-Created Information

Shirley Sullivan — Sun, 17 May 2009 01:00:16 +0000

As a middle school librarian, I believe there is no systematic approach to insure students can evaluate new information online. I believe teachers need to provide practice opportunities within their classroom activities to match their curriculum. The activities need to be frequent, have value and worth to the students, and become authentic learning experiences for the students.