I must confess, I expected this week\u2019s readings about intellectual property to be boring. I thought we would be examining and talking about a bunch of laws. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how thought-provoking and informative this week was! I found myself excitedly discussing the TED talks video about \u201cLaws that Choke Creativity\u201d with my husband last night, and I forced him to watch George Bush and Tony Blair singing \u201cEndless Love\u201d to each other. The video really got me thinking about how the present college-age generation views and builds art and information, and I appreciate the humor in the TED talks video (with the exception of Jesus singing \u201cI Will Survive\u201d as I found that rather offensive) as well as in the 59 \u00bd minutes segment.<\/p>\n
What really sparked my thinking was Lessig\u2019s explanation of the two extreme viewpoints regarding intellectual property: auto take down vs. no respect at all for copyright laws. As online instructors we navigate a rocky road \u2013 what information is freely available for use, and what information will steal from the \u201cartists\u2019\u201d market? This question reminded me of a recent example from my online class. Students have previously been able to access practice quizzes and resources online from the publisher of the textbook I use. In the last two years, however, this information is made available to students only if they purchase registration to the website. Ridiculous! I still refer students who have purchased used textbooks or who don\u2019t want to pay the website access fee to the website for the previous edition of the textbook.<\/p>\n
The do\u2019s and don\u2019ts outlined in the TEACH Act were very helpful. I used to show some full-length videos in my face-to-face classes. I also used to show full-length videos from PBS that I obtained on YouTube. I probably should have known that it wasn\u2019t legal to show these obviously pirated videos. Though I haven\u2019t made full-length videos available to students in my online classes, I\u2019m glad that I now know it is not legal to do so.<\/p>\n
The necessity of providing web accessibility is a topic of great discussion these days, and colleges emphasize the importance of making audio closed-captioned for the hearing impaired and including text that describes graphics in order to remain ADA compliant. I adhere to these standards as best I know how, but in all honesty I have never looked at my whole class to assess its overall accessibility. I have relied on Blackboard for most of this.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s to the great benefit of education that instructors are contributing open content. It saves so much time when I can conduct a search on a topic and find what a colleague has written and to offer information to my students in a style other than my own. When I was developing my class content and activities, I relied heavily on what other instructors provided and then adapted them for my class. When I referenced students to another instructor\u2019s website to take a virtual field trip that instructor had assembled, my department chair gently reminded me that it would be appropriate to contact the instructor and ask if what I was doing was ok with him. The instructor not only said yes, but he was flattered that someone would reference his material!<\/p>\n
My only real disappointment this week was with the free online textbook sites. What instructor wouldn\u2019t like to save his\/her students some cash on the outrageously expensive textbooks we assign? But the free etextbooks I located in my discipline were either ancient (one was even dated in the 1700\u2019s!) or were on topics that are not relevant to the issues we presently face.<\/p>\n
Finally, I tried to use PersonalBrain but the program took so long to download that I just gave up and went to Lucid Chart. I really like the fact that an electronic program can help store and organize not only ideas but also website addresses, images, etc. Right now I am working on a book, and I\u2019ve got a bunch of random pieces of note paper with ideas on them in a book bag. It always takes me a while to remember where I was going with these thoughts before I can start writing. I think a mind-mapping program could be very useful in this regard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I must confess, I expected this week\u2019s readings about intellectual property to be boring. I thought we would be examining and talking about a bunch of laws. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how thought-provoking and informative this week … Continue reading