M. Wesch and the Future of Education

I found Michael Wesch's video on the state of education to be very interesting. I am attending one of the top public universities in the country, and despite that I think the current educational system is flawed, for many reasons similar to Wesch's. It's not that U of M doesn't do a good job of teaching me things, because it does. But I feel like there is a more effective way that hasn't been widely implemented yet.

I recognize that things are slow to change (this video was made like five years ago!) but I do feel that change is taking place. Every semester, professors seem more willing to incorporate images and videos and audio clips pulled from the Internet in their lectures. Students are being encouraged more and more to bring a laptop or tablet to class. Some classes even rely on the Internet as part of the lecture: one of my Sociology classes incorporated Lecture Tools, where students take notes online and can interact with the presentation material given by the professor.

There are still some holdouts; yes, some professors do not allow any technology in their classrooms, usually out of concern that students will lose focus and be multi-tasking during lecture, which is a legitimate concern. I'm curious to know just how much focus is lost, though. As a generation, and as is mentioned in the video, we are rapidly getting better and multi-tasking. Is it possible that a student could be absorbing the material while also being on Facebook? Maybe not, but it's an interesting question.

"What? I'm live-tweeting the lecture to my friend 'cause she's sick!"
Photo by Raffi Asdourian.

Either way, it cannot be denied that technology and the Internet have provided new interesting ways of learning and it's a type of learning that my generation is familiar with. When there is something that we don't know or something we'd like to learn more about, gaining access to that knowledge is as simple as going to Google or Wikipedia. We are online all the time, and we are constantly absorbing, and yes a lot of times it may be trivial things like pictures of cats with a Hitler moustache, but the potential is there to be taken advantage of. It's just a question of how to implement it effectively.

I like the idea of this Digital Storytelling class, and I think it could be applied to other classes as well. Couldn't an English class follow each other on Twitter for up-to-the-moment thoughts and analysis about readings or suggestions about what to read? Anthropology students could share ethnographic studies on YouTube for other students to view. I believe that learning is best accomplished when collaboration is encouraged, and one student's ideas inspire another student, who then might share his thoughts on his blog that inspires countless others.

The old way of learning may be just fine, but there is so much untapped potential that isn't being explored.

Daily Create: A Groan Inducing Pun

About Me video

Daily Create: Capture True Love

My roommates and NHL '13. They get it all night every night.

Daily Create: One of My First Childhood Memories

One of the first memories I have growing up: standing in front of my family's boat looking out towards the horizon.

Daily Create: Favorite Thing To Do

Van Morrison's "Moondance" album is incredible.

Listen to music, whether it be from a record, my iPod, a computer, etc.

Copyright law vs. Creativity: The Legality of Remix

After watching RiP!: A Remix Manifesto last night, I wasn't sure how to respond. The problem was that the film got me thinking a lot, too much in fact, and it was hard for me to form some coherent thought about it. After sleeping on it, I now think can respond.

First of all, I loved the film. I thought his points about Disney borrowing (stealing) characters and plot from other stories really hit home for me. I remember when someone told me that The Lion King heavily borrowed from Shakespeare's Hamlet. And when I read the play in high school, it was hard not to notice the parallels. But that didn't take anything away from The Lion King as a film; it took the message of the play and retooled it for a younger audience, and they did it incredibly well. For the Disney corporation to then make it impossible for anyone to borrow (steal) anything from them for a similar purpose of creating something new and different with it, well, it's slightly hypocritical.

Since I can't use any stills from the film, here's a real lion.
Rebecca Wood, "Lion King" January 20, 2007 via Flickr, Creative Commons attribution

I'm also a big fan of Girl Talk, and I liked how he was represented in the film. One of my favorite parts of the entire film was when the director showed the woman in the copyright office footage of Girl Talk explaining his process. I just loved the look on her face as she realized that sampling music in order to create a new song was not only very creative but also incredibly difficult to do well. And, of course, the final song was something very different from the original.

And yet she still was hesitant about the law, saying that the severity of the punishment that could be dropped on Girl Talk would depend on which songs he used, how much of them he used, and (most importantly, I think), who owns the copyright to those songs.

I think this is important to note because in cases like this it seems that the law is only enforced when the company a) notices that their music has been re-appropriated and b) cares enough to sue the person for all he/she is worth.

In my mind, creative commons is where things are going. Corporations may care a lot about who uses the music and for what, but I think we are going to see a lot of artists support creative commons. There are tons of options when it comes to licensing, whether they be looking only for attribution or non-derivative or non-commercial use. I believe creativity is stifled due to the strictness of the copyright laws, and it doesn't have to be this way.

Anyways, if you haven't seen the documentary, absolutely watch it because it is definitely worth it. Whether you agree with its points or not, this is a discussion worth having.

Thoughts on "The Storytelling Animal"

As I read through the beginning of The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall, I could not help but think about my own life. Just like the children that Gottschall describes, I grew up creating stories out of anything and everything. My friends and I would pretend that we were spies and we would run around outside trying to beat the "bad guys." We would play a game we called "Town" where everyone would create a home out of couch cushions or whatever was around the house, and then we would ascribe to ourselves an occupation -- doctor, policeman, banker, etc. Then we would play out various scenarios in this world that we created.

Gottschall states that as we grow up, we may move out of "Neverland" but we don't stop crafting stories; we just do it in different ways. I'm studying film at U of M. I'm going to school to learn how to use the visual medium of film to tell stories. I've also done a lot of creative writing, and I would argue that I used writing as an outlet to replace playacting with friends.

Photo Credit by Angie Garrett, CC

I also find it very interesting that the enigma of storytelling has no easy answers. Why do we tell stories, if there's no real reason for it? How has storytelling prevailed throughout the ages? Gottschall offers several possible suggestions but it's crazy to me that we just don't know, even though we all accept storytelling as a natural part of our daily lives. And it really is inescapable.