Moving at the Speed of Creativity

We didn’t plan this in advance, but each of our children ended up publishing (with help) a media file tonight after dinner. Our eight year old attended a theater camp for the past two weeks in Texas which culminated in two performances of “Schoolhouse Rocks Jr.” and recorded a VoiceThread about her experiences. She also sang excerpts from several of the songs, which was a real treat! Our four year old saved some of her money (80 cents) from doing work around the house in the past few months to make a donation to a mission trip to Uganda, and recorded a two minute audio message which also included some attempts to sing a Ugandan song she learned. Our ten year old started a two minute stopmotion movie today at our church’s fine arts camp, and completed the project this evening using Frames software and uploaded it to YouTube. An evening media triple play of web publishing for our three kids is definitely a first! I’m sure as they get older and more media saavy, this won’t be such a novelty.

My experiences talking and working with each of my children this summer have reinforced how important it is to “strike when the iron is hot” in terms of recording thoughts, ideas and memories. Our brains truly are wired to remember “the gist” of experiences rather than verbatim transcripts, and if we don’t record things soon after they take place (or right when we are experiencing them) it is difficult (or impossible) to recall them fully. Our 4 year old remembered some of the words to the Ugandan song she learned, but just a few, and had already forgotten about her chores and how she earned her money that she donated. My 10 year old, who recently setup his own video podcast and blog site about string figures, had trouble remembering some new string figures he learned from David Titus the previous day. Short term memory! Even when our children do engaging, hands-on things for which they have a high level of intrinsic motivation to learn and remember, it’s VERY difficult for them to remember things just a few days or weeks later!

I hope at some point my children will be able to attend schools here in Oklahoma where they are encouraged and supported in their regular publishing of thoughts, ideas, and media products just as they are at home. If such a school exists in my state, I have not found it yet. We are still looking.

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I have created a 1 page PDF file titled, “Guidelines for Non-commercial Recording and Podcasting at Educational Conferences,” in response to ongoing discussions about session recording and podcasting at NECC 2008.

At the bottom of the document, I included the following disclaimer:

* NOTE: These guidelines are provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Individuals seeking legal advice and opinions should consult a lawyer licensed to practice law in their jurisdiction. The Podcasting Guide from Creative Commons (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide) is an outstanding source of information on these issues. Also refer to Colette Vogele’s podcast, Rules for the Revolution (www.rulesfortherevolution.com).

If you think I’ve left something out of this document which should be included please let me know. I wanted to keep this limited to a single, printable page. Feel free to use and modify this handout for your own purposes/use, or those of your organization.

I had not previously heard of Colette Vogele’s podcast, Rules for the Revolution, and am subscribing in iTunes now. According to the EFF webpage where I found her podcast linked, she is a practicing lawyer in San Francisco, a non-resident fellow with the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, and the primary author of “The Podcasting Legal Guide” hosted by Creative Commons.

If you are looking for additional resources related to podcasting, copyright, and intellectual property issues as they relate to educators and students, refer to my wiki curriculum for my presentation, “Copyright, Fair Use, Intellectual Property & Podcasting” which I shared at COSN in March 2008.

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Great news! Thanks to comments from Mike Muir and Tammy Worcester on my blog this morning and yesterday, I was alerted to ISTE’s announcement emailed to NECC 2008 presenters at 23:15 GMT on 21 June 2008 (yesterday evening here in US Central time):

Dear NECC Presenter:

ISTE recently disseminated a code of conduct regarding video and audio recordings at NECC 2008 which has generated some thoughtful and energetic discussion.

We welcome your interest and comments and would like to clarify and amend the code of conduct for NECC 2008.

For NECC 2008, ISTE’s permission is not required for non-commercial video and audio recording of sessions and workshops.

However, for NECC 2008, written permission from the session or workshop presenter is required prior to capturing a video or audio recording. Any permitted recording should respect the presenter’s rights and not be disruptive.

Under no circumstances may any length or quality of video/audio capture be used for marketing, advertising, or commercial purposes without express written permission from both the session presenter(s) and ISTE.

Thank you. We look forward to an ongoing dialog about fair use.

NECC Program Staff

I have several responses to this new announcement, but the first and most important one is this: Thank you ISTE leaders for being “plugged in” and listening to the ideas and input of your members and constituents! I am very pleased to see ISTE making a policy change on this issue for many reasons, but one of the most important is the MODELING opportunity which ISTE has and is utilizing to show educational leaders around the world how new media recording, sharing, and collaboration technologies can be used CONSTRUCTIVELY to improve opportunities we have for professional learning and growth. Thank you ISTE leaders!

The NECC 2008 Attendees: Registration: Overview webpage which contains the original code of conduct has not been updated yet, but I’m sure it will be soon. (It IS Saturday here in the U.S., after all.)

This ISTE announcement sparked a large volume of discussion and conversations about intellectual property, new media coverage and publication, and educational conference participation in the blogosphere and in face-to-face meetups. I understand (thanks to a tweet from John Maklary) many people at the Classroom 2.0 meetup in Houston, Texas were talking about this yesterday. I sense this situation triggered MANY conversations at MANY levels with MANY folks. In this context, I think catalyzing these conversations is a wonderful thing.

I haven’t seen Miguel Guhlin get as worked up and passionate about an issue as he did with his original post on this topic, “NECC 2008- Old Fears and Habits Rule.” To Miguel’s credit along with ISTE leaders like Leslie Connery, these thoughts and emotions translated into thoughtful email messages which were not only received, but also thoughtfully considered. In reviewing the background of what transpired late this week, I encourage you to read Miguel’s posts “Not the Evil Empire” and “ISTE Responds.” According to Miguel, Leslie wrote:

We …have had great internal conversations in the last 24 hours about how best to respond. We needed to listen to and address the valid concerns of ISTE members while also protecting the rights of the people who have agreed to present at NECC… Post NECC2008, we are planning to convene a discussion around the issue of broadcasting presentations and to work together collaboratively with podcasters, bloggers, presenters, and other stakeholders to develop guidelines for NECC2009 that meet the needs of the education community… For NECC 2008, ISTE’s permission is not required for non-commercial video and audio recording of sessions and workshops.

One immediate result of these blog posts, email messages, and conversations is the official email announcement from ISTE which I quoted at the beginning of this post. It appears, however, these conversations will continue at an official level, and that is outstanding.

As I wrote in my post last week, “Are teachers in your building parallel players?” it is conversations which change us as individuals, and collective conversations which change the cultures and organizations in which we live, play and work. It takes TIME to change perceptions. It can be frustrating to wait for changes, especially when we see something taking place slowly or a policy announced with which we strongly disagree. Conversations, however, are the key to change. Conversations involve thoughtful sharing but also intentional and careful listening. This photo remains one of my favorites to visually communicate these ideas:

Chris Rogers, a management consultant, echoed this perspective of organizational and cultural change in his comment to my post last week. Chris wrote:

As a management consultant, I view organizations as networks of conversations, through which people make sense of their world and decide how they are going to act. Outcomes emerge from the interplay of these formal and - most importantly - INFORMAL conversations, and the actions that flow from them. As the content and patterns of conversation change, so does the organization.
The more scope that individuals have for meaningful conversation with others, the more likely it is that novel perspectives will emerge and new behaviours take hold, as people coalesce informally around these emergent themes.

These perspectives have been important as I’ve attempted to articulate “who I am” on my personal bio page, which includes the phrase “catalyst for creative engagement and collaborative learning.” According to WikiPedia:

Catalysis is the process by which the rate of a chemical reaction (or biological process) is increased by means of the addition of a species known as a catalyst to the reaction. What makes a catalyst different from a chemical reagent is that whilst it participates in the reaction, it is not consumed in the reaction. That is, the catalyst may undergo several chemical transformations during the reaction, but at the conclusion of the reaction, the catalyst is regenerated unchanged. As a catalyst is regenerated in a reaction, often only a very small amount is needed to increase the rate of the reaction.

Authentic conversations have great potential to constructively change ALL the participants. Conversations are NOT simply one-way delivery exercises in content delivery, but a dialog. My favorite definition of dialog comes from Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelson, who defined it as “a meaningful exchange of perceptions in a non-threatening environment.” When we engage in conversations and dialog, we grow in our thinking and our intellectual development. Sometimes, cognitive changes lead to behavioral changes. Sometimes, those changes lead to larger political and policy-level changes in organizations.

To ISTE’s credit and specifically to the credit of ISTE’s current leadership, it is clear they ARE listening. And to the credit of many others, like Miguel Guhlin and Christian Long (who wrote not only in their blogs but also directly to the leaders of ISTE on this topic) we’ve seen in a few short days how the voices and opinions of ISTE members can and DO shape the policies of the organization.

Along these lines of organizational participation, Sylvia Martinez summarized the opportunity this situation presented and continues to present to US, the members of ISTE, in her blog comment post yesterday:

ISTE is a member organization. This is not “us” against “them”. Every member should expect that these policies are open for discussion and can be changed.

This is a perfect opportunity for ISTE members to make their voices heard - so now seems like the time to get involved. How about coming to the ISTE Member Welcome session Sunday afternoon and state the case there?

In fact, in past years, wasn’t there a member meeting at NECC to discuss ISTE policy and direction? Did that go away? Or am I not seeing it in the schedule?

I plead totally guilty of ignoring my duty as an ISTE member to speak up and take part in the organization policy development.

Sylvia is absolutely correct, this IS and REMAINS “a perfect opportunity for ISTE members to make their voices heard.” In much of the world, the opportunities for individuals to freely participate in public discussions about organizational policies and procedures are sharply limited. I know we are not talking directly about human rights issues, terrorism, or other more “explicitly political” topics, but the subjects we are addressing here and the processes through which we are discussing them are HIGHLY relevant and important to multiple facets of our connected, digital lives and societies in the early 21st century.

For some time, I’ve sensed that the potential for new media technologies like blogs, podcasts, photo and video sharing sites to constructively catalyze and organize conversations focused on supporting change at political, organizational, and societal levels is HUGE. If I had the time and opportunity to develop and lead a university course this fall on any topic, I would choose citizen journalism. When new media technologies are combined with more established communication technologies like email, television, radio, and print publications, the results CAN be dramatic. Any of us are just a phone call away from an invitation to be on Oprah. It doesn’t take a traditional television broadcast program leader like Oprah, however, to galvanize attention on a specific topic or situation today. “Regular folks” can do that as well, via the extended, digital learning communities which now connect us. While we may feel isolated and alone at times in our individual educational contexts, the web 2.0 world has offered us the potential (which is now only beginning to be realized) of drawing us ever-closer together in more tightly connected communities. When leaders in these contexts are responsive to the ideas and imaginations of individual members, the result can be a dynamic, forward-thinking and relevant role for the organization in helping influence and guide others who are both members and non-members.

The advocacy issues at stake in this conversation over who “owns” the right to give permission to record and share non-commercial copies of a person’s ideas at an educational conference extend far beyond San Antonio, Texas, at NECC in a few weeks. The tools and communication potential now at our fingertips as bloggers, podcasters, educational change agents and digitally connected learners in the 21st century are unprecedented in human history. It may seem repetitive and now blase, since I stay this fairly often, but I personally find this reality to be mind-blowing. Convergence is taking place before our very eyes, and we are participating in this digital communications revolution.

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Although ISTE has published a controversial “Video/Audio Recording Code Of Conduct” for the NECC 2008 conference in San Antonio, they also have announced facilities will be provided for podcasters at the conference. According to the “NECC Presenter: Final Preconference Email” message this evening:

NEW! PODCASTING SUITE
Room 215 at the convention center will be set up as a resource for people who wish to create podcasts. There will be two stations for conducting and recording interviews and tables with electricity and Internet connections for editing and uploading.

From what I take from this “code of conduct,” ISTE is wanting participants to create podcasts of interviews from the convention hallways and vendor floor, rather than recordings of full conference sessions.

As in the past, selected NECC presentations will be published as podcasts by Apple on the Apple Learning Interchange following the conference. The NECC session program search includes a radio button to query the database for those sessions pre-selected for podcasting.

As of this evening, 27 sessions show up as “pre-selected for podcasting” presentations. I wonder if all these presenters have provided written permission to ISTE in advance that it is OK for their session to be recorded and shared? One of the presentations designated to be officially podcasted is “One Hour PowerPoint: A Strategy for Improving Presentations” by David Jakes and Dean Shareski. I’ve asked them both via twitter:

Has ISTE asked you both to provide written permission for your NECC session to be recorded and shared as a podcast?

It will be interesting to see the answer.

I did submit this evening via email a formal request to ISTE conveners to audio record for subsequent, non-commercial podcast publication 32 different NECC 2008 sessions, including two of my own. Hopefully ISTE will say yes! Since they are providing podcasting facilities at NECC 2008, I’d sure like to be able to use them!

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This is the first time I have ever seen a statement and legal requirement of this type for an educational conference, and I suspect it will not be the last. According to the current (19 June 2008) NECC 2008 Attendees Registration Overview and Confirmation page, NO ONE is permitted to make a full-length audio recording for an online podcast of any NECC 2008 conference session without the explicit, written permission of BOTH the presenter and ISTE:

In case you are not able to view the Flickr image above in your present location because of content filtering, here is the text of the policy:

VIDEO/AUDIO RECORDING CODE OF CONDUCT

Full video/audio capture of NECC sessions and activities is strictly prohibited without express written permission from BOTH: 1.) the session presenter/s, and 2.) ISTE. Those holding official ISTE-issued press credentials may capture footage for media coverage purposes only.

Amateur video/audio capture is permitted of ambient environments, informal exchanges and sessions, and sessions and activities not organized by ISTE, etc., provided that appropriate permissions have been granted by the parties affected. ISTE assumes no liability for copyright and/or intellectual property violations that may occur as a result. Amateur video/audio capture is also permitted in NECC sessions and activities provided that the length of capture does not exceed 10 minutes AND appropriate permissions have been granted by the presenter/s.

Under no circumstances may any length or quality of video/audio capture of NECC sessions be used for marketing, advertising, or commercial purposes without express written permission from BOTH: 1.) the session presenter/s, and 2.) ISTE.

This policy actually says two different things, as I understand it, which relate to full length session recordings:

1. Prior WRITTEN permission is required from both ISTE and a presenter(s) to record a full length presentation for any purpose. This apparently applies even to recordings made by actual presenters of their own sessions.
2. No COMMERCIAL use of any recording made at NECC can be used without ISTE and the presenter’s written permission.

Given the disruptive power of new media recording, sharing and collaboration technologies, I suppose a policy similar to this addressing these issues is inevitable. In many ways, including the NECC 2008 conference Ning and ISTE’s island in Second Life, ISTE is continuing to lead the way for advocacy of blended learning and digitally-infused professional development strategies. I hope we’ll see this policy and the ways ISTE addresses intellectual property issues continue to evolve and mature. (I feel confident we will.)

I’d like to see a set of fields for presenters which encourages and permits them to explicitly give permission to record and share their session online with audio and video included in the call for proposals. (Let presenters specifically select a Creative Commons license and other terms under which they want to share their presentation. LOTS - in my view a majority - of educators still don’t know about Creative Commons and understand how it can and should be used in education to support the open content movement.) This is what we do for the K-12 Online Conference in our call for proposals, except presenters can’t select a license, they have to agree to the one we’ve selected (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported) in order to submit. (The K12Online08 call has been extended to July 11, btw, giving everyone a week after NECC to complete them!)

To meet these NECC 2008 session podcasting requirements I have and am doing several things. First, I have created a new Podcast Permission and Release page on my blog, which includes a printable PDF form which I can use for presenters to sign face-to-face at a session, and an electronic form which can be completed by a presenter in advance. My plan (at this stage) is to flesh out my planned schedule for sessions to attend at NECC using the online conference planner, and then contact each presenter individually via email whose session I would possibly like to record and share on my podcast. I am thinking I’ll then email ISTE (unfortunately an email contact link is not yet provided on the Video/Audio Recording Code of Conduct page) with a complete list of the sessions I request permission to record and share as non-commercial podcasts. I’ll also (I guess, just to be legally safe) ask for permission to audio record and share MY OWN presentations at NECC 2008. This seems a little silly to do, but appears to be required by the verbage of the current policy.

In the past I have recorded and shared multiple presentations from NECC, but have always done so with the direct, explicit permission of the presenter and NOT ISTE. Having to obtain the permission of ISTE is something new, and will present new hurdles and challenges. It will be interesting to see what they’ll say in response to my requests.

This entire conversation over intellectual property issues and new media recording/sharing is both important and very interesting. This is similar to the conversations (and arguments) which took place at the university where I worked on staff for five years, over “who owns” the distance learning courses and course content created by faculty. This issue is still unresolved at some universities, but many have adopted policies which basically say ownership is “shared” by both the professor and the institution.

In the case of an educational conference like NECC, which is not paying “regular” session presenters anything to share their content, I question the legal basis for ISTE requiring written permission for anyone to record and share a conference session, when that recording and session is done on a non-commercial basis. In the case of a university and a professor who is developing a distance learning course, that academic professional in that case is receiving monetary compensation from the university, and as such their “work for hire” can arguably be co-owned by the paying institution as well as the educator. The situation with an academic conference is different, however. If keynote presenters and others are receiving financial compensation for their sessions, then perhaps the organization hosting the conference could lay claim to the intellectual property shared at their conference. That could be up for a lot of debate, however. I’d think the contracts keynote and spotlight speakers sign for conferences should address these issues. I may ask someone I know at EFF to share this with their lawyers and see if there are precedents to follow and know about in other conference contexts.

Again, I think this issue should be addressed directly in the call for proposals for academic conferences, where presenters are able to directly select a Creative Commons license for their conference presentation and UP FRONT specify the terms under which they are willing to allow or not allow others to record and share their work. At our recent “Survive and Thrive” single mom’s conference in Edmond, Oklahoma, conference conveners asked the Tulsa-based company Conference Resource to record and offer for sale all the presentations shared during the 2 day event. This was very cool, but I was surprised that:

1. Presenters were not asked whether it was OK to record, share and SELL their presentation audio.
2. The company sold audio recordings of each presenter’s session for $6 each, which was about half what they normally charge for events of this type.

Conference organizers SHOULD pursue the option of getting all sessions at an event recorded and shared, but in ALL cases presenter permission should be obtained. (This goes for amateur podcasters as well, of course.) This is particularly important if someone is going to SELL and profit from the recorded audio and/or video files. This permission-granting process is best accomplished at the front end, when presenters submit proposals. I consider it a 21st century educational conference “best practice” to solicit Creative Commons licensing terms from presenters at the outset, and then make those terms available/public on the conference website pages for each session. In addition to listing session tags for bloggers, NECC2009 can and should list whether the presenter consents to audio and/or video recording of his/her session, and the licensing terms of the content under which they are willing to share their recorded ideas.

Amidst all these discussions, I think we need to keep in mind that the ostensible goal of educational conferences and professional development events like NECC is to foster learning, personal growth, collaboration and idea sharing. Some observers (Gary Stager is the main one who comes to my mind in this context) have observed that educational technology conferences like NECC can take on more the atmosphere of a “boat show” than a learning event, and I think there is a LOT of truth to that on the vendor floor from time to time, as well as in some sessions. As leaders of different organizations, both local and national/international, we need to keep our focus on the learning and collaboration opportunities and be careful not to become focused on the “boat show” elements of conferences. Should conference attendees at NECC and other events be free to record partial or complete conference sessions and share them later as podcasts, if they receive permission from the presenters? (That is what I did last year in Atlanta with Dr. Tim Tyson following his closing keynote.) Absolutely yes! Will “we” (volunteer new-media archivists and documentarians of learning conferences) be able to do that this year at NECC 2008 in San Antonio? It looks like that answer is a qualified yes. WITH prior permission, session recording and subsequent online sharing will be possible.

I’ll discuss these issues in greater detail the week following NECC during my breakout session for the Missouri Distance Learning Association’s annual conference (on July 9th) titled “Digital Learning Objects on the Open Web.”

Now, to figure out all the sessions I want to attend at NECC this year…..

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If you and your students think you face “high stakes” for standardized tests taken at school this year, consider the case of Daryl Atkins, whose life was literally on the line based on his repeated test performances. His story is instructive not only because of the heavy weight it shows our society sometimes places on test scores, but also because of what it suggests about intelligence and the ways we measure as well as cultivate its development.

Stephen Murdoch is the author of “IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea” and shared a presentation about IQ at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on April 16th, 2008. The complete video of his presentation is available from FORA.tv. I listened to a brief excerpt of it on my iPhone while driving in the car today, and several things Stephen said piqued my interest. (I subscribe to the free FORA.tv - Daily FORAcast (short form) podcast.)

According to WikiPedia:

An Intelligence Quotient or IQ is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests attempting to measure intelligence.

We’ve all heard of IQ tests and many of us have likely taken them, and/or had our students or our own children take them. As an aside, I remember that my mother (who was an educational diagnostician) would never tell me what my own IQ test score was. As I recall, I think that is because she didn’t want my perception of that score to shape my own ideas of my capabilities and intelligence. I’ve always been glad she made that decision, because I resonate with the idea that as a human being I can exceed the performance expectations and valuations which others may attempt to place upon me. This podcast reinforced that view, to a degree.

In his presentation, Stephen discussed the criminal law case of Daryl R. Atkins, which was ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002. During the series of trials which led to a ruling by the highest court in our land, Atkins repeatedly took IQ tests and his scores increased seventeen points over a period of several years. From a criminal defense and prosecution standpoint, this was very significant, since Atkins’ IQ score went from a 59 (below 70, which was considered “mildly mentally retarded”) to 76. With that score, Atkins was “competent to be put to death under Virginia law.” He was eventually sentenced to life in prison (rather than executed) for reasons other than his IQ test scores, but the stakes of his IQ tests could not have been higher.

Why did the IQ test scores of Daryl R. Atkins increase over time, when educational diagnosticians (at least those who are fervent disciples of IQ test integrity and value) might argue they should not have done so? Stephen Murdoch suggests that perhaps:

1. The more times Atkins took the IQ test, the better he got at the test, because he become more experienced and used to the test. (Does this sound familiar in states which have been subjecting students to high stakes testing for years?)
2. Atkins may have actually received a better and more worthwhile (authentic) education during the years of his trials and trial preparation than he received in formal school environments, and those experiences actually helped him to become smarter.

I find both these suggestions worth pondering. I had a conversation this past weekend with someone who staunchly defended the regime of high stakes testing in Texas and now across the United States thanks to NCLB, because “clearly they have raised test scores.” My response was, even if the test scores have improved, what does that really MEAN? Have the drop out rates gone down? What can the students who are graduating from our schools actually DO in terms of their skills? How can we place faith in aggregate test scores, when the tests themselves are highly variable state-to-state and are regularly changing even within most states?

Conclusions about aggregate test scores are different than conclusions about an individual’s test scores, however, and this case DOES seem to suggest that something significant had taken place cognitively with Atkins over the course of his criminal trials. I found Murdoch’s second suggestion quite thought provoking as well. Perhaps a criminal trial procedure provided Atkins with more opportunities to develop his vocabulary and capacity to both understand and communicate in our world than his years of formal educational had. What expectations did Atkins’ teachers have of him, being “the student in the room with a 59 IQ?” When I taught fourth grade, one year I taught a student who also had an officially measured IQ of less than 70. I was told, “He is too low to qualify for special education.” It was a real challenge to help him stay engaged and focused in class, but I think the fact that he had regular opportunities to learn with and interact with other students his age was a great benefit. Mainstreaming is not always beneficial for every child with special needs, but often (as the law prescribes) the “least restrictive environment” for children is the one with the most educational opportunities. Whether in a mainstreamed or pullout classroom setting, however, I think the EXPECTATIONS of the teacher are critical in shaping the sorts of learning and interactive opportunities to which students are given access. I am a big fan of real-world problems solving contexts and project-based learning environments for students. Whether classified as “gifted and talented,” “special needs,” or “too low to qualify,” I think all people learn best in real-world contexts where the relevance of learning tasks is immediately apparent rather than elusive and simply theoretical. This is a key element of constructionist learning, as I understand it. Let’s not just talk about things in theoretical terms, let’s actually make things. Let’s make stuff. In making “stuff” together, particularly in engineering solutions to problems and challenges which learners can readily understand and relate, learning becomes much more situated and therefore impactful.

The final issue raised in this presentation excerpt from Stephen Murdoch regards the issue of “cognitive development.” For years, from what I understand, scientists and doctors believed that the number neurons in our brains was finite, and as we grew older we we progressively lost more and more brain capacity. This is a pretty depressing conclusion, but it is one most scientists and doctors held for years.

Today, however, we understand that neuroplasticity means our brains are far more flexible than we had previously believed to adapt and change. Even when we are very old, our brains still have the capacity to make new neural connections as we are exposed to novel experiences and have opportunities to experience growth via different experiences, especially cognitive dissonance. In his presentation, Stephen Murdoch stated that it is ridiculous for elite private schools to use IQ tests on young children to measure their actual and potential intelligence, because those young people are still experiencing “cognitive development.” If I am understanding current brain research and ideas like neuroplasticity correct, however, it seems that none of us are ever entirely “finished” with our cognitive development unless we choose to stop learning, or we are placed in such a controlling and limiting environment that continuing cognitive development is impossible. (Solitary confinement in prison for years might qualify.)

I have read and heard that average IQ scores have been rising around the world for many years, but the jury is out about “why?” Perhaps our access to greater levels of information and new ideas is permitting us, as adults, to continue our cognitive development beyond the levels which were “normal” for the everyday citizen (as opposed to a cultural elite) in previous eras? I’m not sure. In any event, I certainly found Stephen Murdoch’s presentation excerpt to be thought provoking, and I look forward to hopefully hearing his entire presentation online or on my portable audio and video player sometime soon.

As the recently released North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) report “Blended Learning: The Convergence of Online and Face-to-Face Education” concludes, blended learning is one of the only instructional reform proposals which can genuinely help educators reclaim the #1 most precious resource in their day today: TIME. I was not in San Francisco in April to hear Stephen Murdoch share this presentation, but I was able to hear part of his message today in my car as I drove across the plains of central Oklahoma. It is a blessing and a gift to live in our present age of digitally-powered blended learning experiences. The educational and learning opportunities which lie before us are astounding to both contemplate and personally experience. Armed with content like this lecture from FORA.tv, I’m sure my own cognitive development can continue indefinitely as long as my physical body cooperates. The web is empowering new opportunities for distributed learning which prior generations of educators, learners, and leaders likely never imagined were possible. This environment is ours to both enjoy and to shape.

It is no understatement to say we’re on an incredible journey.

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Following our conveners meeting for the 2008 K-12 Online Conference this evening over skype, we recorded a short (approx. 10 minute) discussion of the length changes for presentations in this year’s conference. Please give a listen and share your comments and feedback on the podcast blog post.

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I have absolutely LOVED using Juice Receiver along with PodNova and iTunes to manage my podcast subscriptions the past several years. Unfortunately, the developers of Juice Receiver appear to have discontinued updates, and the available version (2.2) for Macintosh OS X runs VERRRYYYY slowly and sometimes (at least for me) doesn’t run at all. I usually run Juice Receiver every week or so to update my podcast channel subscriptions, and have noticed for several months that Juice runs very slow. (I keep my primary iTunes library on an external hard drive, so this updating process requires a bit more inconvenience because of this.) For some reason this evening, however, Juice will not run an update. It launches fine, but locks up when I click the update button. My computer shows that Python maxes out the CPU cycles on my MacBook, and I really can’t do anything until I force quit the application. The graphic below shows my CPU usage history (with iStat) just after I force quit Juice Receiver. You can see the cycles were just maxed out before this screenshot was captured with Skitch:

Since I maintain my podcast channels on PodNova and PodNova permits the downloading of an OPML file of podcast subscriptions, I decided to download the OPML and then import the podcast channels included in it directly into iTunes. Initially I had trouble with this because PodNova wanted to append the extention “.xml” to the OPML file, and iTunes didn’t like that. When I chose FILE - IMPORT within iTunes, I could select the opml.xml file created by PodNova, but iTunes wouldn’t import anything.

To troubleshoot this, I subscribed to a couple podcasts via the podcast directory in iTunes, and then exported that OPML file from iTunes to the desktop to see if I could identify a difference between the OPML file syntax which iTunes likes versus the OPML file syntax of PodNova using TextWrangler. Fortunately, I didn’t have to even look “inside” the OPML file and make any changes– the difference was the file extension! iTunes apparently requires OPML files have the extension “.opml” to import them as podcast channels. Once I changed the extension, whoa-la! All 44 channels directly imported into iTunes!

It is entirely possible I have a misconfiguration or a corrupt file on my system which is causing Juice Receiver to malfunction on my Macbook running OS 10.5.2. I have actually ordered a new laptop hard drive and plan to soon reinstall my OS and all my applications– At that time I’ll give Juice Receiver another try. For now, however, it looks like I’ll have to settle for using iTunes to manage my podcast channel subscriptions. The main feature of Juice Receiver I’ll miss is the “clean up” feature, which I detailed in my January video podcast “Cleaning Up Downloaded Podcasts with Juice Receiver.”

Is anyone else continuing to use Juice Receiver on a Macintosh computer with iTunes, running the latest operating system? I’m hopeful I’ll be able to return to Juice Receiver at some point in the not too distant future.

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podnova, juice, itunes, podcast, subscribe

As I am sure you have noticed, we’re living in an attention economy where information is exploding. With all the content around us, how do we manage available information streams most effectively and efficiently? This is an essential question for EVERYONE, not just those of us who are admitted “geeks.” Information continues to explode, but we continue to just have 24 hours in each day. I love my iPod and all the great content now available digitally, both from free and commercial sources. Eric Hileman and I taught a group of seniors about iTunes University, among other topics, last week in our “Tech Talk” at a local church, and I think many of them were really amazed by everything that is now available FREE online as audio and video podcasts. When it comes to podcast channels, how can we effectively manage all the GREAT content “out there” and avoid being overwhelmed by it? These are questions with which I continue to struggle. I don’t have all the answers, but I have found some helpful ways to answer at least some of them.

I created a short video podcast / screencast several weeks ago explaining how I use Juice Receiver (free, cross-platform software) in conjunction with PodNova (a free, web-based service for podcast channel subscription management) and iTunes to periodically “clean up” the podcast channels to which I’ve subscribed. (Currently I subscribe to 53 different channels. PodNova provides an OPML link if you want to download these and subscribe to any of them yourself using any OPML compliant podcatching software.) Certainly you can manage all your podcast subscriptions within iTunes, but I have found this mix of software and web-based services to be beneficial for several reasons. (See my post last May, “The joy of Juice Receiver and PodNova” for more background on this.)

During my most recent “podcast channel cleanup,” I was struck by how important podcast episode titles are. As I scan through several hundred podcast episodes, the title of individual podcasts is really all I have to go on to make a split-second decision: Keep or delete?

I love maintaining a rich and diverse array of high quality podcasts on my iPod and iPhone, which I can turn on anytime I’m in the car alone driving somewhere. No, I don’t always listen to podcasts in the car, but I frequently do, and it is wonderful to have such wonderful professional development options literally at my fingertips 24/7.

I took some journalism classes when I was in high school, and I remember a few lessons our teacher presented about the importance of writing good headlines. Headlines generally aspire to “grab” our attention as well as summarize the content of an article. We live in an attention economy, where information is plentiful but time (and our attention) is very limited. It is important for us to help students learn the techniques as well as the importance of “headline writing” not only in formal journalism classes, but also in other content area classes where learners are writing and publishing.

Does that title or headline grab my attention?

Does that title succinctly summarize the content of that podcast episode?

Those are important questions for learners and content publishers in the 21st century information landscape to consider. Shouldn’t that “group” include everyone in your school and mine? I think so.

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This podcast is a recording of a conversation I had with Kamala Jolly-Stewart of Mid-Del Schools in Midwest City, Oklahoma. For some time, I have viewed the ability of individuals with access to digital technologies and the web to publish their ideas and voices DIRECTLY on the global stage of the Internet as the ability to “publish at will.” The publish at will challenge for schools and colleges has multiple facets. For school leaders who understand the value of blended learning and distributed learning, it is very important to determine how ALL teachers, instructors and professors can be enabled to relatively easily publish their lectures, handouts, and other media files directly to the web in a user-friendly podcast feed to which students can subscribe using their desktop computers, laptop computers, or portable devices like iPhones. Creating a podcast in a program like GarageBand or Audacity can be relatively straightforward, but it can still require a lot of “clicks” of the mouse. How can this process be streamlined? How can coursecasting for an entire school, department, or college be enabled? Podcast Producer is part of the new Macintosh Operating System 10.5 (Leopard) Server and utilizes the free Mac OS 10.5 desktop client utility “Podcast Capture” to solve the publish at will challenge. The Mid-Del school district is starting the third year of professional development for educators in the district’s “Pod Squad,” but adding the ability to utilize Podcast Producer as a publishing process instead of using iWeb. (An application included in the iLife software suite.) Kamala and I discussed the background of Mid-Del’s Pod Squad, why they are utilizing Podcast Producer, what we understand to be the capabilities of this solution, and the questions we have moving forward into the implementation phase of this digital media publishing project.

 

 Podcast242: Solving the Publish At Will Challenge for K-12 Teachers with Podcast Producer [56:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1288)

Show Notes:

1. Podcast Producer
2. Episode Podcast (accepts and transcodes to all major video formats with Podcast Producer)
3. Mid-Del Schools PodSquad Podcasts
4. Mid-Del Schools Technology Plan (on Wikispaces)
5. Mid-Del Schools, Oklahoma
6. “Connected” movie from Abilene Christian University (learning where everyone has an iPhone)
7. Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project
8. Echo360
9. Duke Digital Initiative

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Technorati Tags: podcast, producer, podcastproducer, apple, publish, school, learning, ipod, iphone, training, podcasting

This podcast is an audio recording of a fifteen minute press conference held on April 1, 2008, at the Oklahoma Heritage Association in downtown Oklahoma City. During this event, AT&T Oklahoma President Don Cain announced $100,000 of new grant funding from the AT&T Foundation for Oklahoma non-profit organizations. These groups include the Oklahoma Heritage Association, the Oklahoma Art Museum, and the Oklahoma National Memorial Museum. Grant funds provided to the Oklahoma Heritage Association will support expansion of the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project, which is a statewide digital storytelling initiative which began as the Oklahoma Digital Centennial project. The Oklahoma Art Museum will be expanding its virtual exhibits as well as its offered podcasts. The Oklahoma National Memorial Museum, among other things, will use its grant funding to create cell phone audio tours for visitors to the Memorial and Museum.

 

 Podcast241: 100K of New AT&T Foundation Grant Funding for Oklahoma Digital Storytellers, Museums and Memorials [17:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1217)

Show Notes:

1. The AT&T Foundation
2. The Oklahoma Heritage Association
3. The Celebrate Oklahoma Voices Project (formerly the Oklahoma Digital Centennial Project)
4. The Celebrate Oklahoma Voices Ning (social network and videos)
5. Oklahoma City Museum Of Art
6. Oklahoma National Memorial and Museum
7. OnCell Systems (cell phone audio tours)
8. Guide by Cell (cell phone audio tours)
9. Howe Public School (Oklahoma) high school students win KC3 2008 (nationwide virtual field trip contest)

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Technorati Tags: oklahoma, digitalstorytelling, history, art, museum, national, memorial, att, foundation, grant, pressconference

What is dark matter? Do you “believe in it?” Why do some scientists say dark matter must exist, even though humans on earth have yet to invent (or discover) a “detector” which can sense and measure dark matter? What elements compose dark matter? If dark matter exists, how much of the universe is filled with it? Would the proven existence of dark matter invalidate or contradict our current theories of physics, particularly those of quantum mechanics? I’ve read that some of the formulas of Einstein included a variable he could not explain or point to, so it was removed. Was that mysterious variable “the dark matter?” Why is a discussion of dark matter not included in my children’s science textbooks? As science educators, are we adequately communicating to our students how MUCH we still have to discover, explore, and learn in the various domains of science?

These are all excellent questions, and raise issues about which I have minimal expertise but high levels of interest. Thanks to my new favorite iPhone web app, Podcaster, (which I blogged about last night) I discovered the NOVA Vodcast channel this evening and watched the humorous yet informative episode, “The Dark Matter Mystery.”

Incidentally, I did a fair bit of searching to find a website which would generate the HTML code I needed to embed this podcast in this post. Rather than use a WordPress plugin for video embedding, I wanted a site that would generate code I could insert into MarsEdit. After several attempts, I finally found freevideocoding.com. Very straightforward and handy.

For a higher resolution version of the first image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of the Bullet Cluster, refer to this page on the HubbleSite NewsCenter. The Bullet Cluster “was formed after the collision of two large clusters of galaxies, the most energetic event known in the universe since the Big Bang,” and is one of the subjects addressed in “The Dark Matter Mystery” video podcast.

Shouldn’t all our students have access to mobile devices which provide direct, personal access to this type of high quality video content? Absolutely. Too bad our state governments are still mandating the purchase of paper-based textbooks.

Technorati Tags:
science, darkmatter, nova, pbs, video, podcast

I did quite a bit of driving this past week, traveling to and from Tulsa, Oklahoma, on both Wednesday and Friday. It’s about two hours of driving one-way from where I live north of Oklahoma City, so that’s almost eight hours of driving in two days. One of my favorite things to do when commuting or traveling in my car is listening to my iPod on “random shuffle.” Since I am subscribed to 53 different podcast channels (via the free PodNova sevice, my OPML is available) there is little chance of boredom when I’m in the car and want to take a break from listening to music. My loaded iPod is a deep reservoir of compelling content about science, art, technology, history, education, and many other topics. I like to drive in the car because it gives me a chance to reflect on things and put my brain, to an extent, on autopilot. Having a content-rich iPod allows me to immerse myself in a world of complex and compelling ideas whenever I desire that experience, and I think those opportunities are both amazing as well as often compelling.

Today, I listened to artist Greta Pratt’s WGBH Forum lecture “Nineteen Lincolns.” Greta spent ten years traveling around the midwest of the United States photographing a wide assortment of festivals, fairs, and other “cultural events” in small towns. Many of these included historical re-enactments. Greta’s analysis of how our perceptions of history are constantly changing is very interesting, particularly given the fact that “regular folks” now have access to media recording tools and a global communications network to share stories from and perspectives on history which could not have been broadly disseminated in previous decades. (I’m thinking of our statewide “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” project in this regard.)

If you are not already subscribed to WGBH Forum Network podcasts, consider doing so. I love the ecclectic mix of topics and speakers. Like most podcasts, they are 100% free. I know I’ll never listen to ALL of the content on my iPod, and I use Juice Receiver (which connects to PodNova and iTunes) to periodically “clean up” my podcasts and remove ones that I don’t think I’ll ever listen to, but since I have an 80 GB iPod that is only about two-thirds full with over 4,700 songs, podcasts and videos, I don’t feel any pressure to keep “extra podcast episodes” cleaned off. Excess iPod capacity is a wonderful thing in this context.

For more on using PodNova, Juice and iTunes, check out my post “The joy of Juice Receiver and PodNova” from last May and my video podcast / screencast from January, “Cleaning Up Downloaded Podcasts with Juice Receiver.”

Those who record history have an important and extremely serious responsibility. In the past, we might have considered the “official” histories recorded in our textbooks as the histories written by “the winners” of historic conflicts. Now that new media tools, including web 2.0 resources, can literally be at the fingertips of anyone on our planet with digital connectivity, that perception of history may change in fundamental ways. I hope it does. We need to have access to MORE VOICES from history and from our present age. Web 2.0 technologies certainly ARE promoting that ethic of making diverse perspectives more accessible to a broader audience than ever before in the history of humanity on planet earth.

Technorati Tags:
history, podcasting, lincoln, voices, recording, wgbh

I posted the following Q&A series to the TechLearning blog, but am cross-posting this here for my own archival purposes. Generally my TechLearning blog posts aren’t quite this long and I don’t cross-post, but in this case I’m breaking with traditions….. This could probably qualify as an article rather than a blog post! None-the-less, the issues are very important and we need to have more conversations in our schools about them! I’d welcome your feedback and ideas either here or on the TechLearning post. (They are identical mirrors of each other.)

A high school librarian asked me several questions this week regarding iTunes, music purchased on iTunes, podcasts, playing purchased music in class for students, and music played at assemblies and by DJs. I need to emphasize my normal disclaimer before sharing answers to these questions: I AM NOT A LAWYER. FOR LEGAL ADVICE ABOUT THESE AND OTHER QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONSULT A LAWYER WHO HAS PASSED THE BAR IN YOUR STATE OR JURISDICTION. The following answers are my own best attempts based on what I have studied and been told regarding U.S. copyright law. For more resources on copyright, refer to my copyright workshop links (which I’ll be updating before next Monday’s presentation at COSN in Washington D.C.) and my article “Copyright 101 for Educators” in particular.

Once our teachers have iTunes installed on their district-owned laptops (with a site license), may they download purchased music on it without violating copyright?

Yes. As long as teachers are purchasing music from iTunes, they should be in compliance with U.S. copyright law when downloading those songs. Songs available for purchase via iTunes have been specifically licensed for individual download and use. Note the iTunes use license is for INDIVIDUAL use and not group use. Individuals are permitted to play iTunes music (DRM protected as well as non-DRM music) on up to five computers in the same household. Those computers authorized to play a song are authorized within the iTunes application. It is possible for teachers to “share” their iTunes library over the local network, but that sharing just allows for streamed playback of songs, not actual copying of songs from the original hard drive to another.

While purchasing and downloading music from the iTunes store is not likely to pose copyright scenario issues for teachers, the choices teachers (as well as students) make with music they download from iTunes COULD pose copyright problems. I will address those below in subsequent answers.

The place teachers as well as students can get into trouble (generally) when it comes to copyrighted music is when they download and run peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing software. Most school network content filters will prevent users from downloading these programs over the network, but with laptops students and teachers can potentially download and install programs off the school network. Network monitoring software like InterMapper should be used by the district’s IT staff (or others providing network maintenance services) to determine if and when P2P file sharing applications are in use. In most university contexts today, network monitoring solutions are in place which permit IT staff to turn off network ports of computers which are running P2P software or sending/receiving packets in large quantities in a pattern that indicates malware is installed on the computer. This answer is getting beyond your original limited question about iTunes music, but I think it is worthwhile to understand the BIG differences between a commercial “store” application like iTunes and P2P file sharing applications which are often used for piracy of music, movies, and software. EFF has an excellent website about file sharing which points out (among other things) that all uses of file sharing are NOT illegal. Despite that fact, however, most school districts in the U.S with which I am familiar DO block P2P applications and application uses on their networks. The proliferation of malware distributed via P2P applications and downloaded files makes them a security nightmare, and I think schools are well-advised to have hardware, software, and monitoring procedures in place which limit P2P software use by network users. iTunes, however, is NOT a P2P application and does NOT present the malware risks associated with P2P software used for music downloading.

May they [teachers] rip their own CDs on these same laptops with songs purchased/downloaded from iTunes?

The Terms of Service of the iTunes Music Store is the best source for answers to this question. Obviously this is written by lawyers, but it is worthwhile to read this and other “terms of service” agreements to understand “the fine print.” A great way to help students as well as teachers understand the answers to some of these questions would be to point them to this link, and then have them use the document to answer the question. To communicate their answer, have them create a short skit which is videotaped. After parent permission is obtained, share that video on YouTube, TeacherTube, or other social video sharing websites so those short, dramatic “lessons” can become digital learning objects for others around the globe.

As was the case with your first question, the short answer is YES: teachers (and any other individual) may legally create CDs (rip their own CDs) with music they have purchased and downloaded from iTunes. The specific verbage in the iTunes Store terms of service which applies to this question is:

You shall be authorized to burn an audio playlist up to seven times.

The use of “seven times” in this terms of service agreement is interesting. This is not based in U.S. copyright law, in that copyright law does not specify a limit of seven times for creating duplicates. My understanding is this restriction is imposed because duplication and dissemination of purchased iTunes music SHOULD be limited by the terms of the service agreement.

There are multiple ways teachers can use copyrighted content from iTunes or other sources in ways that are not legal, and the subsequent COPYING and DISSEMINATION of those purchased music files to others for their use is an example of an illegal use. As a librarian, you cannot purchase a single copy of a song on iTunes and then provide unlimited copies (or legally, even one copy) of that song to someone else for them to keep and own. Purchasing a song from iTunes includes a license for individual use. Understanding this, you want to make sure your teachers know it is NOT LEGAL for them to create burned CDs of playlists (”rip” audio CDs) of music they’ve purchased from iTunes and give or sell those CDs for others. Burned or “ripped” CDs which include copyrighted music (including music purchased via iTunes) are for the exclusive use of the purchaser, per these terms of the iTunes store.

To summarize: Teachers MAY burn/rip a limited number of CDs of music files they purchase from iTunes. Those CDs should NOT be shared with others, however, they are legally for personal/individual use only.

May they [teachers] play entire songs in their classroom from the laptops/CD players/desktop computers or only 10% (or up to 30 seconds) of a song?

This is a tricky question. Before going into detail, I’ll say that playing music which a teacher has personally purchased (either via iTunes, as an actual, commercial compact disk, or via other means) in the context of their own classroom is most likely fine. I say “most likely” because in our litigious U.S. society, the reality is that anyone can sue anyone for just about anything. Philip Howard’s book “The Death of Common Sense” is one of the best treatments I’ve read about how crazy our legal system has become, and how much we are in need of tort reform.

The reference you are making to “10% (or up to 30 seconds)” of a media file is most likely traceable to the 1986 Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia. As I describe in my 2003 TechEdge article “Copyright 101 for Educators,” this well-intentioned document attempted to establish “bright-line rules” for fair use copyright compliance in the U.S. for educators, but those guidelines are NOT entirely accurate and can lead to problems. First, they can lead to overly conservative limits on uses of media, which CAN be “fair uses” under U.S. law. Secondly, rigid adherence to that document can lead to uses of content in the classroom which result in a lawsuit. Some known U.S. entertainment companies have become rather famous for their defense of copyrights, and have actually sued school districts as as well as teachers from what I understand. (I was not able to find a web link to a case like this for this post, if you have one please include it as a comment to this post.)

As I state in the previously referenced “Copyright 101″ article, the best thing for teachers to look to when asking questions about “fair use” and using materials licensed under traditional copyright terms is the actual text of U.S. fair use law. There are four different aspects which are considered by courts in interpreting fair use law, and these are also described in the article. When it comes to “fair use” under U.S. copyright law, teachers do NOT have an “anything goes” sort of blanket permission. Many teachers have this misperception. I heard a conference presenter last month tell an audience, “If it is on YouTube, I just assume it’s OK for my students to use and republish it.” That is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. Copyrighted materials are posted to YouTube frequently, and while some are taken down many remain. As a user-created media website, YouTube cannot and does not vouch for the copyright compliance of all the content posted there. YouTube will take down content reported as violating copyright law, but their “terms of use” spell out their limited ability to vouch for copyright compliance of user-created videos.

Generally, the place where teachers and students get into trouble when it comes to copyrighted music is when anyone is doing something for a COMMERCIAL purpose (like a fundraiser) and using copyrighted content without permission, or when they are RE-PUBLISHING content without permission on the “open web.” (The public Internet, on a website which does not require a login or authentication to access it.)

I’m sorry for the long winded answer, I think (scary thought) I may be sounding like a lawyer here. (I’m definitely NOT one.) As I stated in the initial paragraph of this answer, teachers are probably fine playing music they purchase over iTunes for students in their class. They are NOT fine using those songs without permission in videos they republish to the Internet, however, in their entirety. Shorter segments of songs CAN be used in ways that conform to fair use law, however.

An extensive conversation about copyright and use issues is available on Tim Holt’s Classroom 2.0 post from September last year, “Creative Excuses Not to Use Technology.” This is an important conversation to have with both teachers and students, both offline and online.

In regard to a podcast that is available for free download: are there any restrictions on where it can be placed and/or how it can be accessed?

Podcasts are licensed under different terms. The fact that a podcast is freely downloadable does not mean it can be used in any way. Some podcasts (including mine) are licensed under Creative Commons terms, which are more permissive than traditional copyright. I have several links on my copyright presentation wiki page which relate to licensing and Creative Commons in general. The 2 page PDF file “7 Things You Should Know About Creative Commons” from EduCause is a good place to start.

The short answer to your question is: Yes, there are restrictions about how freely downloadable podcasts can be reused, remixed, and/or re-posted online. In all cases EXCEPT podcasts which are specifically licensed into and placed into the public domain, some sort of restriction (even if it is just a requirement for proper attribution) will apply to the reuse or re-posting of media content.

What about playing music at assemblies and dances (admission is charged for dances)? Are we breaking fair use rules here?

Whenever you play media files (including music and videos) in a public forum, rather than a more limited instructional, classroom setting, the context of use is different and therefore the interpretation of what constitutes “fair use” may be different. Whenever you are playing media files for a COMMERCIAL purpose, the context is also different from the instructional context of the classroom.

I am less familiar with these situations, but do know that some DJs have been found guilty of copyright violations for (as I discussed above) the illegal duplication of purchased music. Bob Moffett’s article for Performance DJ, “Copyright: What Does It Mean To You?” goes into more detail about copyright in the context of DJs and provides some suggestions for avoiding potential copyright problems with DJs you hire.

When it comes to playing songs at assemblies, those are likely considered “public venues” rather than instructional settings. Practically speaking, I think copyrighted songs and clips of copyrighted songs are played at sporting events constantly without the explicit permission of the copyright owners. Does such use of the media constitute “fair use?” If the sporting event is charging an admission fee for tickets, that is less clear. I have not heard of K-12 schools being sued (much less sued successfully) for playing copyrighted songs during a school assembly. That does not mean a school out there hasn’t been sued for this, or that some music company isn’t going to file suit against a school tomorrow for this.

I will reach out to some others I know (including some lawyers) to comment on this and hopefully provide more background and ideas on this last question. I hope these answers overall are helpful to you. Again, please refer to my wiki on copyright for educators for more related links. These are important issues, and I appreciate you raising them so more people can discuss and consider them!

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copyright, fairuse,