Desperate SBTS

I have young adult children.  My 27 year old daughter is just old enough to have missed the remix craze, so she is sometimes as mystified as I, but has greater appreciation for its inherent creativity than I.  My 24 year old son and his high school buddies have produced several amateur films and their experiences with editing naturally led them into this genre.  My 22 year old son lives at home and frequently shares interesting tidbits he finds on the internet with me!  So I am not completely unfamiliar with the remix genre. 

But – until I watched this presentation – I hadn’t thought of these videos as a genre.  I am not exactly sure why that matters – maybe I just realized that these videos are truly creative work.  If raising our awareness about this genre was one of Lessig’s objectives – then his presentation was successful for my part.  I will have a greater appreciation for the effort an consideration that goes into their creation.  If I agree that these remix videos are the literacy of the youth – and not merely entertainment – then the amount of time an effort that goes into creating them is a reflection of the earnestness of the message and the messengers, the video’s creators.  

A point of connection with the November presentation – Lessig speaks about how the remix genre is being forced underground by the refusal of the recording industry to loosen its control of “copyright” regulations an November speaks about how Ipods are worn by our children where every hour of the day – except when they are in school where they are banned.  It seems that in both cases the opportunity to foster, promote, and support creativity and the critical thing that goes with it is being lost because we are suspicious of a technology.  We could probably think of other examples.  As SBTS, maybe the most important part of our job isn’t to know how to use these technologies but to know how to promote them as the ne tools of creativity.  November tells us that the students will figure out how to use the tool.  It will be the teacher’s job to present students with situations and opportunities for using these tools in a creative process.

And I really liked the PowerPoint!  It was very interesting how the sides did enhance his words – and I thought he was a very good speaker.  Perhaps speakers who are less animate could benefit from this style of presentation. I am going to try to model my next presentation after his technique!    

Filed by sepowell50 at 2:51 pm under Uncategorized
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