Levon Thomas’ blog

They both have a place in my heart.  I have been on the movie end of thins lately because I have been so busy and all I want to do is chill and not think.  But when summer comes around I will play more games.  I think that it really matters if you are looking for a 1st or 3rd person perspective on you entertainment.  I enjoy both equally and my schedule will dictate what I am into during that time.

This was a cool assignment of what I really want in a classroom/presentation.  I first got really sad then I realized, other than me being lazy, what is holding me back?  Nothing!  So today I started to make a "summer" wish list of multimedia assets I need to make this summer.  We will see if I will be able to get out of a lazy state and get it done to make the dream happen.

7. The Way Things Are
•    This is where the book should have started.  This is the realm that all educators have to work in.  We are restricted with things like budgets, non-cooperative teaching staff and restrictive board policies that are designed to prevent progress.  This book really gets your hopes up and leads you down a rainbow train into broken hopes and dreams.

8. Giving Way to Passion
•    “Giving Way to Passion” can land you in some hot water.  I almost lost my job my first year teaching because I gave in to my ideals and passion and tried to change the curriculum too much for the taste of my principal.  It is good to be willing but a lot of times action going all out can cause alienation from your students, staff, and your administration.

9. Lighting a Spark
•    This is true that having a spark and finding it is important to the education process in regards of winning the trust and harboring excitement of our students.  Your students will mimic your intensity and excitement in the learning practice.
10. Being the Board
•    I am all about taking responsibility on my decisions in my classroom but there has to be a category for students wanting and choosing to fail.  Some students just do not want to succeed to be the best that they can be.  It is free will.  Do you abandon a class of eager learners to stop the drowning of the one?  I don’t have an answer for that but it is something to consider as an educator of today’s apathetic youth.
11. Creating Frameworks for Possibility
•    The only framework, in my opinion, is action.  Yeas there has to be planning and organization on your part but just acting on what and how you want the class to be will pay off more than a life time of speaking “vision”.  The only things students will response to and respect is action.  Be clear on your intentions and goals of a lesson and then move out inaction.  The ones who want to learn will follow you and the others will get on board sooner or later or be left behind, yes I said left behind.  It is unrealistic to believe that we are expected to leave no child behind, Mr. Bush.  I know it sounds good in a speech but it is not reality.

12. Telling the WE Story
•    The practice of WE in reality is the practice of YOU.  All this is, is some sly way to get the class to do what you want.  If you did all the other practices right, then this should be your result should be the WE mentality.  This never works in a high school setting.  They do not allow themselves to be let so easily into conformity.  This is a ridiculous idea and along with most of this book, lives in a land of impossibilities in a classroom setting.  I do not tech K-8 so it might work on younger students but all I know is if you tried this on my students they would run me out of my class and out of a job.  I have seen it happen.

I am currently writing my thesis on this very topic.  Here are some questions that I asked Philo T. of the "Illegal Art" record label.  Illegal Art published such artist like "Girl Talk", who is under great scrutiny for this topic of fair use in his music.  Girl Talk uses nothing but clips of copyrighted music to create his remixed hip-hop dance tracks.

>Where do you believe the limits of fair use lie?

The limits are up to the courts.  We're waiting for cases to emerge
that will help define new boundaries.  Currently there is a lot of
grey area.

>How do you see current copyright/fair use laws restrict the digital age?

It seems that recent copyright laws are actually limiting fair use.
A prime example is that while it might be fair use to make a copy of
a DVD I own for my own backup, I would have to first break the law by
circumventing the digital copy protection.

>How do you see the digital age change and form the future of copyright laws?

It seems to be working both ways.  On one hand digital technology
allows for more protection (e.g. DRM), yet at the same time the ease
with which copies are made and distributed seems to suggest that
protectionism won't win the fight.

>What is your opinion on the time it takes for a copyrighted item to pass into Public Domain?  The time line is currently the author's life plus 70 years.

I think 20 years would be sufficient.  That time frame seems to work
for patents, so I don't see why copyright has to last so much longer.

1. It's All Invented
•    Man that says it all.  Unless we have another renaissance anytime soon we will never develop any other NEW ideas to better man.  There are a few questions that I would like to raise.  One is there ever a true original idea or just a recreation or an addition to one?  Lets take a pop topic these days, File sharing. File sharing has been around as long as human hands and the written language.  Over the years the idea of copying information for the masses has just evolved, the idea has always been there.  It all started with Ezra the scribe copying copies of the Torah for the Jewish nation and now we have torrent sites and the 80/20 rule in full effect.  The idea and spirit is the same but we have reinvented it and put it on steroids.
2. Stepping into a Universe of Possibility
•    I think that this title is misleading and this place does not and will never exist.  In reality and non-utopian society it is the universe of rethinking.  Not “thinking out of the box” which is a saying to self promote your self and in it’s self is putting it in a box, but use the “box” we need it.  It is our limits of reality and what is practical.  So I feel that within the limits of reality the universe we should be seeking out is one of reinvention and recreation, making old ideas new.
3. Giving an A
•    Man there is one big hole in that theory.  Not all “blocks”, as Michelangelo was quoted, wants to be a statue.  Some want to be an unattractive block of stone, unmovable and dead to their surroundings.  So as an educator you have to know when to push, when to encourage and when to allow your student to choose to fail.
4. Being a Contribution
•    I know that I have mentioned this before but always when you are with people the 80/20 rule will be in place and active.  80% of the content will be produced 20% of the content available.  This has been proven and will not change.  You can give as many pep talks to encourage people to become creators but that creator pool will only represent 20% of all users.  That is reality.  The author seems to forget what that is and lives in a virtual community existing in a non-existent utopia.
5. Leading from Any Chair
•    I understand the point of the author but come on.  The idea that everyone has a voice is as ridicules as the idea that all CEO’s or Managers actually read the comments and suggestions in the comment box.  As redundant as one can be… let’s live in reality, this view is not reality.
6. Rule Number 6
•    Because of the ridicules nature of thesis concept I choose to not take this part serious as it suggests that I take my self..
7. Summary
•    Benjamin Zander is a dreamer and I will keep doing what I am doing until things do change.  What it looks like will change but people’s nature has not changed in course of human history.  The scenery has changed not the people in it.

Q) What is Hollywood High School and what is there focus?
A) They are a high school that focuses on entertainment career based education.  They have a desire to give students a real life experiences before college.
Q) What type of media are students gravitating toward today?
A) Flash
Q) What tools does Ron Smith use to engage his students?
A) Movies, Sound, Web Sites and what ever it takes to keep them focused on what is happening.
Q) According to Ron Smith, how do presentations differ from teacher to student?
A) Teachers are happy with just basic Power Points while students focus more multimedia presentations to get there point across.
Q) What does he say is “front loaded”?
A) Digital Teaching
Q) What is Sketch-Up?
A) A Google 3D modeling program
Q) What is Blender?
A) A 3D animation Program
Q) What is Scratch?
A)  A Game Building Program From MIT
Q) What types of programs are the three above?
A) Freeware/Shareware
Q) What type of Things can be imported into Sketch-Up?
A) Google Map information
Q) How does Ron Smith decide what his assignments are?
A) He dreams them up.
Q) How many solutions did he get for his New Orleans assignment?
A) 22
Q) What trends does Ron Smith say will come to the forefront in the future?
A) Curriculum Content entering the realm of the Internet to better service students to meet them where they are.

Video in education is taking on a a whole meaning.  There was a time when you said video in education you thought of pushing the TV from the Library to you class room where you would torcher your students with VHS's from the 70's with cheesy acting and worse camera work.  But with online access and hi speed internet, the availability of video educational or not has reached an all time high.  This will be the way that alot of presentations are heading and distribution of idas.  Only time will tell.

I love breaking out of a "normal classroom" idea.  I have recreated our IT and Video/Broadcasting to reflect the 21st century and our digital age.  I have used more online content that the students can access at home and encouraging students to use you tube for class to share ideas and to turn in projects much like we do at times.  I would any ideas people might have to make my classes even better.

John Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government & the Declaration of Independence is a perfect example of copyright violation.  These two documents are almost identical in every way.  So our own forefathers were criminals?  Well that is rhetorical we know that many thought they were.  This is not an issue of fair use because the idea was not developed yet.  I don't think that anyone will say that they should have not written the deceleration of  independence.   I am in the mind set that there are no new ideas just the recreations of existing ones.  More now in our digital age we need to be open to the recreation of existing materials.  It is where our culture is going and we are going to have a mountain of law suites on our hands.  Only time will see.

Well the week two videos remind me of something..........  I hate web media.  Well creating it at least.  Making web assets and web design is so difficult to me.  I guess it is my kryptonite.  Mainly Flash.  I hate Flash it takes so long man I really hate flash.  I love the videos I hate the program.  Well this sums it up.... I hate Flash.