Lauren McLean's Education Blog

Remixers were taking old music and combining them in new ways. They created a new frontier of music with the use of technology that was never seen before. It was a new experience that left the original artist and the new creators in a morally gray area about who was the true owner and if it was okay for the new creators to make money and market the “old work” as their own. The original artist  “saw a supermarket and they wanted to get paid”. They thought that because the original song was used, even if it was heavily changed and reformatted, it was a copyright infringement. If it was to be used then they needed to at least be paid for the use.

Even the use of happy birthday was not free. If it was ever played in a public place then the royalties would be given to Warner Chapel, the owner of the song.

Originally all things were in the public domain. The printing press was made using the public domain as the idea were free in the world and it was perfected by the creator, thus the machine. Ironic as it was used to spread and copy ideas from page to page, arguably a copyright issue.

Napster was one of the first instances of a copyright issue on the internet. It made music accessible  to anyone and everyone for free. It was a way to share music and create huge libraries of music and made everyone “distributers”. This took the power that would be in the record labels hands and put in the hands of the 52 million who had subscribed to Napster. The money that would have been the record labels forced them to sue people who had unknowingly made a copyright infringement. People who had jumped on the band wagon that was the new trendy music service were now being sued.

Even thinking about Disney. Every story was based off an old fairytale, remade for modern day. Steamboat Willy was based off the already made Steamboat Billy. Everyone turned a blind eye to this. But when another cartoonist tried to prove the point of Disney holding too much ownership over Mickey by drawing a series of his own cartoons containing Mickey, then he was taken to the supreme court. Even a daycare was sued by Disney because there were Disney charters on the wall.

In today’s world you can use anything before 1920. Disney copyrighted many stories, songs and more; then using their power changed the copyright laws so no one can could do it again.

Many people who are pro-mixing and see the art in it, make the argument that other artist are not regulated. Mixing music is just another form of this so why then is it so regulated and controlled. It is putting a choke hold on creativity and holding back the future of music. The new frontier is being held back.

This idea of intellectual property is one that is still widely debated today as the internet and its many forms of sharing ideas and content continue to grow. It is an unresolved issue that has no end is sight.

Here is the video that is being referenced in the post: https://www.nfb.ca/film/rip_a_remix_manifesto/

Open Education Resources:

• copyright applies to all work created
• copyright is assumed automatically
• Fair dealing gives a protected 10% for educational purposes
• One end is copyright and one is Public Domain- everything before 1940
  • In-between the two: Creative Commons Licenses
  • there is a ranging scale in this area as well
• Resources:
  • Open society
  • Open Source Software
  • Open Data
  • Open Educational Resources
  • Open Science
  • Open Access Research
• Attributes to make it an open education resource:
  • Educational curriculum, materials, or mixed media 
  • Discoverable online as they are shared freely and openly 
  • Openly licensed (usually Creative Commons)
  • Can be legally used by anyone to repurpose/ improve and redistribute
• OER Commons
  • a good place to get open domain education resources
  • Can export to google docs/classroom
  • have to create an account to export
• Curriki
  • Finds lesson plans in open domain

Upon using OER for the first time it seems like a really useful sight. It is a great way to make the stress of teaching a collective effort and to have a sense of community online through lesson plans.

Trello is something that as an individual can be really beneficial. The ability to create many lists and create checklists and tasks within each list, could have the potential to be a beneficial tool in organizing tasks. As a student and/ or as someone working, Trello serves as a digital replacement for the traditional planner. While this is the preference for some people it is not mine. Call me traditional, but there is something about the weekly planner that just works. I like to be able to see my week or even month and plan out when I will accomplish certain tasks. Due to this, I feel that Trello would be useful to me as a place to curate all of my tasks but not a place to budget my time. However, this is just personal preference. The site could work for someone who likes to see their list of tasks and each day decide what they will tackle.

Another aspect that can be helpful is the ability to share boards with other users. This can help to aid group projects in dividing tasks in a clear and concise way and to give an avenue to communicate.  I also can see this application used in the classroom as teacher as a way to divide tasks in group projects, to organize unit plans and to keep organized in the grand scheme of things.

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The creation of this blog was simple when there were instructions provided. That being said, if these had not been present then the creation would have been difficult. This sight is not a very intuitive, but I think after a few times on the sight it will become easier. However, when I think about potentially giving this sight as a resource to students I am not keen. This particular platform would be better for an older student body but I think students in the elementary age range would not be able to navigate the process without a lot of help. In one of my student teaching opportunities, for a grade four five split class, one of the things that I helped with was technology time. This was lead by the librarian focussing on online safety. It was surprising by how long seemingly simple tasks like changing a password took. In a day and age where technology is integrated into our lives from a young age I forgot that all of it is learning process. It is not overnight that we learn tools to navigate the online world. As teachers we need to be patient in this process and technology is a very important part of modern society and is a tool that should be taught in order to make successful future students and adults.

I do think that blogging is a beneficial tool for learning. I think a simpler sight would be required for a younger audience, but allows technology to be integrated into the classroom in a way that fosters interconnectedness inside and outside of the classroom. Having a place where students can interact outside of the classroom in a safe regulated place introduces students to what it is to be online and how it can be used in their future.