Blogg-Ed Indetermination

What if…

1. school superintendents or heads of school could be paid no more than 3x that of the lowest paid school employee?
2. someone designed a school from the ground up having never set foot in one before?
3. the ratio of students to teachers was no more than three to one?
4. educators were free of all copyright or patent restrictions?
5. teachers, students, and parents regularly visited one another’s homes?
6. if school administrators were elected by the faculty?
7. no school could house more than four hundred students?
8. students called teachers by the first names?
9. teachers were not allowed to use PowerPoint, Keynote, Impress or similar presentation tools?
10. mastery was the important variable for student learning instead of time on task?
11. faculty and staff had to demonstrate current knowledge and skills in their field very few years?
12. faculty and staff could take fitness classes along with the students?
13. college of education professors had to regularly teach in K-12 schools?

Colleague Matt Montagne sent me a link to a great NPR interview with one of the most reasoned voices on the topic copyright that I have had the pleasure to meet: Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University Law Professor and founder of Creative Commons. (My blog is licensed under Creative Commons). Anyone interested in copyright  should listen to this guy!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98591002

People with an opinion about copyright law seem to agree that the current system is broken, or at least the interpretation of copyright law by many media companies is broken.

The fact that it is broken is little defense against infringement. There are lots of bad laws and, should you run afoul of one, you can still be prosecuted, fined and jailed.

Clearly the law must change. So how do educators help to make this happen?

We can lobby our legislators to change the law. We can conduct boycotts of companies deemed to be intransigent offenders of common copyright sense, and move our business to those with more acceptable policies. We can try to spark public outrage through acts of civil disobedience for what is believed to be unjust laws. We can go to court and attempt to overturn unjust laws by proving that they are unconstitutional or contrary to congressional intent.

None of these options appeal to me. I’ve got a life to live and I am not THAT passionate about the issue to make it my life’s work.

How about you?

The Center for Social Media at American University recently released a great video on copyright. This video was also featured in an ISTE webinar on copyright held on December 4, 2008. I offer it here as a segue to a discussion in a later post about copyright issues and opportunities as they apply to 21st century schools.