Guide to media re-mixing

Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video from American University's School of Communication looks to be an understandable guide to what all our wanna-be Ken Burns re-mixers can and can't do with copyrighted material in their own videos. There is a link to a good video clip from the Chronicle for Higher Ed on the page as well.

The basic idea here is that "fair use" is broader than usually interpreted, especially in the areas of parody and criticism. There is a great list of examples in a variety of categories of fair use, including Satire and Parody, Negative or Critical Commentary, Positive Commentary, and Quoting in Order to Start a Discussion.

Maybe it's time we started teaching kids more about what they CAN do with copyrighted material than what they CAN'T do with it if we want avoid raising a bunch of scofflaws?

(Thanks to Bill DeJohn at U of M's Minitex for the head's up.

My 2008 Wish List

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. - Mother Goose

If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass when he hops. - probably not Mother Goose

After reading several blog posts of New Year's predictions, concerns, and accounting, I've decided to take the safe route and simply list some wishes (rather than predictions) for 2008. Just assuming everyone already wishes to end world hunger, to assure democratic governments through world conquest, and to lose weight, I'm restricting these to education-library-technology areas.

I am not holding my breath, but ya just never know...

1. I'm still wishing for a practical student laptop. The ASUS Eee and OLPC XO are exciting, but not there yet.
   
2. I'm still wishing for a new library catalog worth the cost of upgrade.
3. I'm wishing for a clearly written guide for students (and teachers) about what is legal, what is illegal and what we don't know about fair use and copyright, especially digital content rights. (I am not the only one confused. So are Joyce and Jeff.)
   
4. I'm  wishing for a single set (or at least coordinated set) of Student Skill Standards from ISTE and AASL that are both visionary and understandable to the non-librarians and non-techies.
   
5. I'm  wishing for a broader view of what constitutes "evidence." That professional experience, common sense, good anecdotes, and intrinsic goodness still count in educational decision-making - not just numbers which are as easily misinterpreted as meaningful.
   
6. I'm wishing Google weren't turning evil and privacy weren't necessarily a thing of the past.
   
7. I'm wishing for a comprehensive, longitudinal survey of library media staffing to see if the profession is actually losing, gaining or staying steady postion-wise. Why is the school library field crying both about cuts and the lack of certified staff to fill positions?
8. I'm wishing I wouldn't feel guilty about not liking Twitter, Ning and other very-social, social networking sites. Is there an "anti-social" web somewhere for me?
9. I'm wishing my elementary schools will abandon Microsoft Office and go with OpenOffice/NeoOffice this year.
   
10. I'm wishing any revision of NCLB includes mandated IL/IT skills for all students.
11. I'm wishing this election year will result in an awareness by teachers of how important Web 2.0 tools are for engagement in political discourse. And why closing the digital divide - however defined - is more important than ever.
12. I'm wishing more educational bloggers would develop a sense of humor, show more online civility, and see comments as problem-solving opportunities, not pissing contests.
13. I'm wishing everyone's "out-of-the-office" e-mail notification would just stop working.
14. I'm wishing never to read another document with 21st Century or 2.0 in the title. (Although The 21st Century Blue Skunk Blog 2.0 has a nice ring to it.)
15. I'm wishing a school library media specialist gets elected to the ISTE Board this spring.
16. I'm wishing Miguel Guhlin a successful career as a real writer.
17. I'm wishing Second Life would get more stable, less bandwidth intensive and easier to use (and the LWW would be less suspicious of the cute avatars within it.)
18. I'm wishing that all of us remember that collaboration is a method for achieving a goal, not the goal itself.
19. I'm wishing schools would figure out a better way to individualize the educational experience for both kids AND teachers.
20. I'm wishing Blue Skunk readers would contribute some of their own wishes in the comment section of this entry.
    

The Wart Fairy - one of many intriguing winged creatures at the Wings Picture Gallery at Freaking News. 

Required LMS staffing wiki

One of my hats is that of legislative chair for Minnesota's school library/tech organization, MEMO. A platform plank we will be advancing this year is a state requirement for professional library staffing in schools.

Soooo, I've been looking for language from other states'  laws to use as a model for our own language, sending the request to the AASLForum list, LM_Net, and SIGMS. And I've had some replies. Along with the information I received from these sources, I've summarized the results of a survey conducted by Judi Paradis last summer in the area that pertained to state staffing requirements.
 
All of this can be found on an editable wiki (is that redundant?) at:
http://dougj.pbwiki.com/State-staffing-requirements

I would ask Blue Skunk readers from the U.S. to take a look and add information or correct any errors in regard to their own state's staffing requirements. I'll the the page up for anyone to use.

Illustration for gratuitous attention getting purposes only.