media centered

I attended an event in Second Life that might be of interest. “Beating the No U-Turn Syndrome: A New Approach to Teaching and Enforcing Copyright Compliance” by Doug Johnson. The text of this presentation is available on Doug’s wiki.  Here are my notes from the evening.

He began by talking about the image of the Library Media Specialist related to copyright. Currently we are viewed as the enforcer (a role many people might enjoy) but we need to change to an enabler role.

His four main points are:
1.) refocus copyright education with an emphasis on what is permitted - not just what is prohibited.
2.) when in doubt err on the side of the user - safe harbor posters are not statements of law, they err on the side of extreme caution (these are the posters hanging over copy machines in many schools)
3.) be prepared to answer tough questions about copyright - for example what if someone brings up the public performance question? Does your school have rights to show all of the video content it uses? Be a counselor though - not the cop
4.) teach copyright from the point of view of the producers (as well as the consumers). this makes good sense, especially if we are teaching in an environment that encourages students to create content. As a way to approach this topic ask students to assign Creative Commons licenses to their own works.e

The Second life experience was great- Doug is an engaging speaker and something about the 3-d element made it feel more real than a podcast. Now back to my First Life……