[senit] Copyright creativity and curriculum

One of the nice things about half term for me (I don't get school holidays 
but neither do I have to go into schools) is the opportunity to step outside 
the things I have to do and do a bit of gazing at things that have caught my 
attention but failed to make it onto my to do list.

I would like to share a couple of these with you; they are connected I 
think.  The first is a link that I found in last week's Naace Newsletter. 
It caught my attention because PowerPoint was mentioned - and I do lots of 
things with PowerPoint and there is a connection but not yet.  I clicked on 
the link and was treated to a great presentation by Larry Lessig about 
communication and creativity www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q25-S7jzgs . Do take a 
look if you can.  It got me thinking about many things, one of which was 
something I had heard about but never really looked at - Web 2.

I Googled Web 2 and understood more about what it is.  In his presentation 
Larry was talking about how young people are generating online content by, 
amongst other things, capturing and manipulating content that other people 
have put there and how current copyright legislation is now outdated and 
needs to change.  He was not referring people who copy entire movies, songs 
etc then redistribute them.  He was talking about taking elements from 
different online media and combining, manipulating or changing them in 
creative ways so they become something else entirely.  Web 2 is about people 
becoming participants in online activity rather than observers of it and 
that is what is happening.

That got me thinking about what I, and many others, do when we create 
resources for our pupils to use .  I use Google to find images, I look for 
sound clips and I put them together (often in PowerPoint) with a mild 
concern about copyright.  I had to consider this more seriously when I 
launched The Plasma Screen & Whiteboard Room and have still probably not got 
it absolutely right.  Who is going to do something about getting the law 
changed?

The other question I now have is about what we are teaching our students in 
terms of ICT; the ICT world has moved on considerably in the last few years 
and our teaching should reflect this.  As somebody who teaches ICT I have 
some serious thinking to do but the possibilities are exciting! As a Web 2 
user I don't have to do the thinking in isolation, which is why I am writing 
this.

Looking forward to your responses.

Sally

Sally Paveley
ICT/SEN Consultant
The Advisory Unit: Computers in Education
The Innovation Centre
Hatfield
AL10 9AB
Tel:  01707 281102
Mob: 07815 969 131
Fax:  01707 281103
www.advisory-unit.org.uk
www.whiteboardroom.org.uk 