Audio Mix Using ClubRemix

This software was really cool. You can find it at Club Create.  The only issue I had is that as I added tracks, the player within the app would not play all of the tracks, making it really difficult to preview my work and add to it. But, the embed code for the track works even after the user updates the track, so I was able to embed the track into this blog, and preview the track by using the player  embedded in the blog. This is a great feature because you can go back and change your music and it will automatically update wherever it has been embedded. Anyway, enjoy!

Fun Group Project

There are three ideas that I really like.  I am going to list them and then discuss each one.

1. Create our own Song:
Jam Studio Using Jam Studio as a platform, we can collaborate and create our own songs. We would basically have the same login and then work on the song indivdually, each of us adding our own piece.  This site helps schools with education grants for equipment and also offers a license to educators.  It could be a great resource for schools and education in general.


2. Create our own story video or film of a children's story.  We could also use Jam Studio for background music for this, or DanoSongs, a place where Internet artists allow their songs to be used freely (probably a lot of other sites out there that do this as well). Then place our voice audio tracks on top.

3. Subtitle a video, kind of like the Hitler & i-Pad video. 

I like a lot of the other ideas out there, even creating an app for the iphone, but I don't own one, so we will have to see how many of us in the group actually own iphones so we can test, and then strictly monitor the downloads and views to see how quickly it gets out there and how many people download (these tools are inlcuded in the iphone appmaker that Richard sent out). 

B-R@d's YouTube Highlight List

Hitler's Reaction to the i-Pad

The first YouTube Collaborative Movie     The actual movie

Noah's Daily Photos


Dancing on TreadMills

Crazy Cats

The movie is a parody on Spanish soap operas, called "novelas."  I am married to a Latina, so this is absolutely hilarious for me (and I speak Spanish...).  Ok, the Tortuga n' Periquit guys are crazy, but they are right.  Even if the movie is nuts, this effort was huge for the YouTube community.  Collaboration is something that YouTube videos lack, in the sense of artistic ideas put out there and worked on together.  Now, obviously, people's idea of art really varies (I see this point clearer and clearer everytime I watch this video).  Nonetheless, it is an area that could really grow.  I also saw a Harry Potter Puppet show with vocal rhythms.  The storyline was practically non-existent, but it was artistic. I really like the idea of doing a short story through YouTube.  One person can focus on the  video, another the audio, another the story, and we can all read the parts.  Or, we can film ourselves or other people, each of us doing a short scene.

Regardless of how our projects turn out, I have definitely learned a lot about YouTube, people (this part mostly scares me :D, and collaboration.  Anyway, I welcome your comments.  I hope you enjoy the videos I pulled off.  It was very difficult to filter through the videos and find videos that were funny and collaborative.  There is no search filter that really works so I spent at least 4-5 hours going through videos.  This was the best I could find.  By the way, I saw my first two-million dollar bra in the process...I know...what...?  Victoria Secrets...you've done it again !!!

Refocusing is important!

If you haven't seen my course objectives yet, please click here. 

I firmly believe that developing, editing, and reviewing course objectives is an essential task that must never be overlooked.  Many times, especially in a class such as this, it is easy to get lost in the sea of tools and applications that we use.  It becomes very easy to complete a set a tasks without a focus.  When there is no focus, the task becomes meaningless, because there is no driving force. When one keeps course objectives in focus they become a filter, through which all coursework is seen.  For instance, I can write this blog and say something like, "It was nice to be able to review my work and see the difference and how I have changed since the beginning of the course." While that may be true, how does that comment apply to my objectives?  It doesn't.  It is much better to apply this to education like I am doing with this blog.  Students must always be reminded of the focus, the goal, etc... so they're efforts actually produce a fruit in their learning and so the teacher doesn't spend countless hours developing lessons that don't work because the student had a poor vantage point (in other words, the student wasn't looking through the filter of the objectives; there was no driving force, no goal in mind).

To me, this is the difference between trying to earn a grade by completing a set of tasks and learning.  And, let's face it.  It is human nature to choose the path of completing the tasks.  Honestly, even religion, has been reduced to this.  "Do this, this, and that, and then you're fine."  No, allow the purpose for these tasks to change you, the way you think, your desires, etc... and then you have learned!!! 

Does this make sense to anyone, or am I rambling...?

Meeting in Second Life

Attending a meeting in Second Life is way better than attending a meeting in real life. Not having to drive anywhere, get ready, or sit without being able to get up and grab a glass of water or even go to the bathroom are just a few reasons why I like meeting in Second Life. Now, depending on the tools the speaker uses any meeting can vary. For instance, I attended a meeting today where the speaker had this interactive polling system. This added a nice dimension to the meeting, allowing the attendees to interact with the speakers and each other, as well as enhance the subject matter, which happened to be "copyright."

In this photo, you can see the Instant Poll on the left and the two key speakers in the middle.  Directly behind the blue dragon was a slide viewer where definitions were presented.  To the right there is a little blue box.  The notecards for the meeting were here, giving directions on how to interact during the meeting, as well as an array of online links to resources related to "copyright."

I really enjoyed the interactivity of the meeting and the professional presentation of a very difficult material.  In the end, I would have liked to have had more concrete lists of do's and dont's with regard to the use of copyrighted material, but the dialogue was nice. Besides, I still need to look further into the resources that were provided for us in the notecard, a few of which are posted below.

Here are some notes and resources from the meeting that may interest you:

The fair use of a copyrighted idea for criticism, comment, news, reporting, teaching, scholarship or research is not an infringement of copyright.

Copyright Remix:  What’s Copyright, Copyleft, or Copywrong in a Participatory Culture?  Live in the Bookhenge, October 21, 8 pm ET

To be archived at www.bookosphere.net

** Talking the Talk **

(Definitions from the New Media Literacies Skills, New Media Literacies Lab, USC http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/try-the-library.php and the MacArthur White Paper:  Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century,  Jenkins et al., eds, (2006). http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf

Appropriate --  to sample and remix  media content

Transform – to transform media content means to not replace original thinking but build upon it in an original, innovative way;  to repurpose and add value

Negotiate -- to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms

** Fair Use Analysis **

Four Fair Use Factors:

1.    Purpose and character of use

2.    Nature of the copyrighted work

3.    Amount and substantiality

4.    $ effects on market $  

(Stanford University Libraries -- http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-b.html

Couch Surfing

The idea of Couch Surfing is amazing when you sit back and look at the big picture. I can make a friend online and then travel across the world and stay with that person for free, and he/she will even show me the sites. Wow! The implications of it are that social media can be used to create initially virtual creations that become physical. The idea really isn't all that new. As an example, take online advertising for a home. I am looking for a home, I check out a site, call the number, meet the agent and see the house (which beforehand only existed as pictures in my imagination). Then, I can meet the owners and purchase this house. Of course, couch surfing goes a step beyond, creating a different class or social relationships, one built on mutual trust and interests, which were completely founded on the web. Also, looking at a home takes no investment. Traveling around the world to stay with someone you've never met is quite a risk. What if the person is a lonely, miserable pervert? Of course, Couch Surfing takes steps to ensure that the people in its database that are verified are OK, but it can't really offer that much protection. It is definitely more secure and user-friendly with regards to security than other social media sites such as Facebook. Two-way acceptance of friendships, ratings for users and interactions with users, specific data fields for friends so that you know what you think of this person and can remember how you met, when, and how you have interacted, as well as an array of other similar tools really highlight the involved processes of tracking friends and acquaintances on the site. And, it should. Given the very nature of the site, I would think that even more security measures should be put into place. Just because I can verify my address doesn't mean that I'm not crazy. Sure, if I commit a crime against another couch surfer, then I would eventually be found out, but couldn't I simply fake another identity, or steal a credit card, use it to donate (step 2 of verification), and then look up that person whose card I have and get his/her address? Then, there have been issues with people never receiving their verification cards through the mail. I could be one of these victims who never receives the verification card and then requests another way to verify identity. And, social security numbers are not secure either, so what is next?

I like the site, but I would not put my family at risk by having a total stranger in my house. I may be willing, though, to travel somewhere else. If I lived by myself I would probably host someone, or if the person I was hosting was a good friend of someone I had known for a long time.

Thoughts on Privacy

I was reading an article on privacy from Harvard Magazine as well as an article I read in EduCase and I wanted to share. Here are links to both:


7 Things You Should Know about Privacy in Web 2.0 Learning Environments

The Erosion of Prviacy in the Internet Era

Everything is now digital and everyone uses credit or debit cards way more than cash. I must say that I am extremely uncomfortable with the fact that my purchase history can be sold to the government and can affect my future considerations for things like higher credit limits all the way up to loans (and who knows why the government is interested in it). We don't see many ramifications of this now, but what could happen in the future? As the government gets bigger and we become more dependent on the government (which is happening during this administration in a big way), who could we turn to if we had unknowingly violated some future law. Let's take religion, for example. I am a Christian, and there is evidence of that through the purchases I make at Christian stores and Amazon.com. If this religion were to one day be outlawed, would I be hunted down and persecuted? Even if I wasn't a Christian anymore, would I still be persecuted? The article used the example of intellectual philosophers in the 1930's having discussions about socialism, which had ramifications later during another administration. These people were simply discussing the validity and applicability of an idea. Where is their crime? I know that some of these fears could be unfounded (although I don't really think so) but it is worth our time to ponder. Could the decisions you make today put you at risk...your life, your ability to gain financial independence, or even your ability to get the job you want in the future? And when you finally do become aware of this, as we are now, is the Internet really as free as we think it is? Sure, I have the freedom to publish anything I want and it can reach far, as far as China even...or perhaps it is reaching too far, further than I want it
to reach.