Mr. Lessig has hit the nail on the head when he talks about the effects of the read/write web on our kids in his Ted Talk entitled, “How Creativity is Being Strangled by the Law”.
Larry Lessig is a Law Professor, and the founder of Creative Commons, a license that enables creators to legally allow their work to be remixed and shared without breaking copyright laws. He talks about how kids today are not willing to settle into the passive consumer role like we were.
That made me think of something….I have been thinking about the old days when people did not question practices or comment negatively on things that nurses, doctors, and teachers were doing. They believed everything they were told!
Today is so different. We are a more critical society and take an active and role in our family’s health and education. We ask questions, do research, and look for alternatives. This is a good thing.
However, when it comes to media, we are much more passive. We accept the bad shows on TV and allow ourselves to be docile consumers.
This is not the case with our kids! They make and watch their own content! They are not passive consumers- they produce and create and are unwilling to just sit back and be entertained. They do it because they have something to say and an audience that will listen.
I think our kids will look back at us watching tv and wonder why were were so passive, and wonder why we didn’t create…
At a first glance, I was immediately struck by all the great sites and tools listed for teaching and learning. We have already been using some of the resources listed here in our own District: things like Skype,Audacity, Wikispaces, Teachertube and Smartboard Applications, to name a few.
However, the best part of the document, for me, was found on page 3, when Mr. Wilkoff writes about an authentic learning environment:
An authentic learning environment is anywhere that asks students to create products and learning processes with real purpose and real audience. Purposes outside of getting a grade and pleasing the teacher increase ownership of learning. This means that teachers should create activities…based upon the idea that all learning can and should last longer than the course. (I love that last line).
Making learning last beyond the scope of the course! That is what teaching is all about! It’s not about the technology at all. He goes on to explain how he has differentiated between “Tools” and “Resources”. “Tools are not something that challenge thinking. It is something to use within the authentic environment, but it cannot become the reason to do an assignment.”
See, he’s right. We can have all the tools and equipment we want in classroom, but authentic learning is not going to occur merely with these things alone. Good lessons have always been about so much more than that.
Resources [he continues] are places you keep coming back to because there is frequently updated content. They are works that challenge you to think differently and teach differently. They are places that ask you for contribution to the conversation.
…that there was a movie that you were able to mix and re-edit and win a prize if it was good?
Well, Bruce MacDonald, Canadian director of “Tracey Fragments” has done just that. His movie about a 15 year old who loses her brother and tries to find him.
What is neat about all of this is that Bruce MacDonald has allowed his movie to be produced under the Creative Commons license. The movie footage is available so people have the ability to change, adapt and make their own version from the footage. The winner can win an Apple’s “Final Cut Pro” package and have their creation appear in the bonus features when the DVD is released.
McDonald’s decision to embrace CC-licensing for The Tracey Fragments is remarkable in both practice and scope. Fans can choose to do what they will with the massive amount of assets provided ( under the terms of the BY-NC-SA licence), interpreting and re-envisioning the the film and its subject material in what is bound to be a variety of ways. By putting the film’s assets in the hands of would-be-editors and film-makers under CC-licences, Tracey: Re-Fragmented recognizes and embraces the concept of a hybrid economy, allowing people to experiment freely with the content around them while retaining the film’s commercial interests.
Okay, how’s that for collaboration! Kudos Mr. MacDonald! I can’t wait to see who the winner is…or maybe I should give it a try myself.
I can sometimes get overwhelmed over all the new information and possibilities that are present on the Internet. That being said, if we can channel all this new information in a meaningful way, then the result will be education-altering. This blog will be a record of that conversation...
