Extra Credit Blog Post

According to Copyright Alliance.org, fair use is defined as: 

   "Fair use is an affirmative defense that can be raised in response to claims by a copyright owner that a person is infringing a copyright. Fair use permits a party to use a copyrighted work without the copyright owner’s permission for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Copyright law does establish four factors that must be considered in deciding whether a use constitutes a fair use. These factors are:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes.
   
   
2. The nature of the copyrighted work.
   
   
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Appropriation is essentially when someone takes the work of another artist with the intention of making it their own in a completely new form, idea, etc., but the finished work that was built on contained too much of the original idea to be grounds. for any of the four factors that constitute fair use. A controversial lawsuit in the music industry during the middle of the 1990s is a moment in history illustrating the rules of fair use and appropriation. 2 Live Crew was sued by Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.with a claim of copyright infringement, and 2 Live Crew lost the lawsuit. The court found that the song created by 2 Live Crew was found unfair in accordance with the first of the four factors. In the same decade in the same genre of music, the rap scene saw another case of copyright infringement with Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby," which was found to contain too much of the original content of Queen and David Bowie's hit collab "Under Pressure." Both are absolute jams. 

In terms of fair use, the first thing that comes to mind was AJ's parody for the digital composition project. She created a music video and wrote a parody over The Notorious B.I.G.'s song and she gave credit to the authors' content that she used to create her project. After doing research on my second example, I wanted to talk about Weird Al Yankovic. He is a well-known musical artist famous for his comedic rewrites and parodies of popular songs, one being Amish Paradise, his take of the song Gangster Paradise by Coolio. Over time, the rules of fair use have slowly shifted in favor of the appropriator, for in this situation, Yankovic doesn't legally have to seek out permission to parody an artist's song, however, he actually asks for it anyway. Snaps for our guy.  Under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law, Yankovic and other parodists don't need permission for original artists to satirize their work, as long as royalties are paid. So, there is still a catch. 

Hobbs suggested a strategy to normalize, practice, and get students acquainted with the process of giving credit to those who deserve it and why it is important. The suggestion about assigning students to do a comparison-contrast essay involving two YouTube videos that demonstrate proper etiquette regarding fair use and one that doesn't. 

Academic Honesty will be a prioritized expectation in the learning environment my class and I create, and it is important to provide real-life examples to demonstrate relevancy (and evidence), explain the potential consequences of engaging in academic dishonesty, and celebrate the works of those we appreciate and come to terms with the significance of their works in our lives. It is important that students understand the consequences of appropriation misconduct, fair use guidelines, and copyright infringement not just within the borders of the school, but also out in the "real world." 

Blog Post #8

Wow, what a semester. Looking back, it's almost staggering how much content we've all covered. This blogging experience was absolutely delightful, in terms of a style of digital composition, regularly assessing colleagues' work, having an awards ceremony, and demonstrating how this can be an extremely useful tool of multimodal composition. I feel like a pool of blogs by everyone in the personal learning committee is an exceptional way to promote civic engagement while also encouraging our students to pursue other methods of expressing their thoughts, emotions, or understanding of course content. This is such a convenient way to provide a structure for peer review, keep a log of progress, explore other options of information transferring, and so many other beneficial classroom concepts. I appreciate how the class was not instructed to all use a platform selected by the instructor, but instead exploring the available options and choosing one that we were comfortable with. Liberty and freedom of thought are so much more a priority to me now than they were six months ago. I've done a community log project like this in my Educational Media Theory class years ago, but it was not nearly this productive, beneficial, or functional. I truly regret my lack of promptness in terms of meeting deadlines. My unfortunate display of struggles this semester is not representative of my ability, investment, potential, or philosophy of education. I've been going through it more than I have let on, but this never-ending semester will forever be remembered as a valuable experience and lesson learned. I definitely bit off more than I could chew and counted my chickens before they hatched, and I feel the consequences. But despite all of my complaining, I think this may be the semester I've grown the most in my academic history. My workload was absolutely overwhelming, and many of my assignments were turned in late, but I take pride in the fact that I didn't cut corners and sacrifice quality of work to make up for my lack of time and promptness. This may be the most peer-reviewing I have ever done in a single semester, and I'm so grateful for that because we all know the value and potential of peer review, we just have to ensure the quality of the peer reviews is constructive. I know the voting is over for the Bloscars, but here are my votes:

1. Professionalism-Carrie-The many layers of detail and articulation that Carrie demonstrates in her posts is extraordinary. Providing relevant, valuable visuals such as the deconstruction of the writing process. The structure, organization, flow, and quality of these blog posts feels as if she ties a bow on each one before submitting. 
   
   Link to Carrie's blog-Educational Thoughts With Carrie – Carrie G-P's educational blog for Currins 547 (wordpress.com)
   
   
2. Multimodal Design-AJ-Her posts were always so refreshing and included a variety of information transferring techniques and ways to absorb ideas, even including a Spotify link on her seventh post. 
   
   Link to AJ's blog-Blog | Teaching With Triumph (alexjifas.wixsite.com)
   
   
3. Creativity-Terrence-He writes in a way that as I am reading it makes me feel like he is talking directly to me, we are all aware of the connections that Terrence can make with his writers. It just feels like rich, quality dialogue.
   
   Link to Terrence's blog-Frank Ocean Broke My Heart (terrencereno.blogspot.com)
   
   
4. Civic Engagement-Cody-His blogs were at times controversial in a way that would provoke a beneficial, intellectual conversation. He made frequent references to current events such as the Aaron Rodgers trade. His posts promoted discussion and kept me reading and wanting more. 
   
   Link to Cody's blog-(1) Cody's Substack | UWM English Education Blog | Substack

Blog Post #7

Hello everyone, and welcome to my seventh blog post of the semester! This post will break down a small couplet of assignments for Currins 547. We were instructed to pick three texts from a list that all were considered to be eco-narratives. They all tackled the top of water and animal conservation, pollution, and damage to the environment. We then recorded videos to a platform called FlipGrid that allows people to share videos they create in a community. We then had an open prompt to create a mini multimodal response to the texts we consumed. I was elated with my decisions off of the list of texts as they contained three different ways of delivery (graphic novel, video art essay, picture book, and also included three different ethnic and cultural author voices. I chose to create a call-to-action music video in response to my text set using Kygo's remix of Whitney Houston's recorded version of "Higher Love." The link to the video is below: 

Kapwing — The collaborative video editor for modern teams

In reflection, this didn't have to be a challenging assignment. There were multimodal deliveries that I was more comfortable with, but I intentionally chose music video because of my lack of experience (and skills) at video editing. The first step began with finding a free video editor that was of good quality but essentially free because I am on that full-time student budget. After checking three or four different platforms out, Kapwing seemed to have everything I would need to do this assignment free of charge. I was immediately impressed that a software that user-friendly and capable was free. All of the videos I used in the music video were free to use on Kapwing, and between you and I, I used a YouTube to mp3 converter to obtain the audio for the song. When it comes to the YouTube to mp3 converter, if you know, you know. It was a way to obtain music for free before the popular streaming services we use today came of age.

Kapwing also allows users to upload media from their devices, which essentially opens the gates of creativity--the world is your oyster. It was humbling though because I did seem to experience some glitches on the website. My internet connection appeared to be okay, so I am assuming the software was responsible. Attempting to edit a small layer of the video occasionally edited unrelated parts which became frustrating, but an obstacle the was able to be overcome. The biggest disappointment I experienced during the creation of the music video was that once I made it through two-thirds of the song, I could no longer export the file because "The file was too large to export using the free version of Kapwing. To continue, upgrade to the professional version of Kapwing." Bleh. I got the experience I needed to receive, and I am much more confident about creating and editing videos in the future. 

This assignment influenced my thinking of the text set in the context of transferring this information to my students. It is one thing for any of us to read a text set, digest the information, and allow that information to add to our existing perspectives. It is a new challenge to be able to transfer that information to students or other people that are unaware of what you have learned. Not only transferring the information, but also developing enough understanding for the audience to not only learn and digest the information, but to also be able to use that learning experience to navigate other learning experiences. This assignment really opens the door for creativity, and transferring information in new ways that may be more effective than those in the past. So yes, I read and enjoyed my text set fully, but it influenced my thinking in exploring creative new ways to transfer the information that I need my students to understand. These practices can be used to amplify learning by introducing new, stimulating, engaging, exciting, entertaining ways of learning. If we are creative enough, our students may even forget that they are in class during our period. These styles of instruction also benefit learners that learn better visually, auditorily, or in a hands-on sense. They also can be a form of classroom management, keeping students busy, engaged, and excited to learn will likely result in the students behaving satisfactorily (whether they are aware of it or not). 

Furthermore, if we are using multimodal instruction to transfer information to our students, why can't we ask the same of them? We have the power to encourage students to use multimodal delivery and explore the ways that they learn effectively, confidently, and comfortably. Many of these projects (podcasts, tik toks, music videos, book trailers, etc.) have the potential to be collaborative assignments as well. Because these assignments aren't ten-page papers, the students may develop a sense of community, appreciate the creativity of themselves and their peers, be proud of what they have created, use skills learned to navigate other learning situations, and may possibly even have fun while doing it. This is one facet of education that has a bright future, and I am so excited to explore more. As time goes on, it feels like the strides forward will be more and more significant!

Blog Post #5

The task of filling the role of a writing coach this semester was initially very intimidating to me! I don't have much work in the field under my belt, so I was quite nervous to be reviewing others' writing--especially because I am a student myself! I'm no famous author, so who am I to give feedback to anyone? It may sound silly, but I was very concerned about myself being prepared to coach someone with their writing. I am obviously on the tail end of my bachelor's degree, so I surely have all of the resources, knowledge and experience I would need. But can I do it?

The first week of providing feedback filled my cup of confidence to the brim. I realized that I don't have to be a famous author to give others constructive criticism that will effectively benefit not just that single paper they wrote, but also for those to come! I think I just truly didn't know what to expect, and now after several weeks, I feel comfortable with my knowledge and skills to be able to assist students! I

Undoubtedly, one of the first things that students need when receiving feedback is some sort of praise and positive reinforcement. Even if what they turned in isn't what any of us want it to be yet, it is important to provide encouragement and compliments for aspects of the assignment that were done well. It is becoming ever so clear to me that the slightest comments can have detrimental effects on students not even for a day, but an extended period of time. Many of my peers vividly remember hurtful or unconstructive comments that they have received ten years ago. While it is not our job to be our students' therapist, it is important to boost their cognitive confidents, emotional and social confidence, and their self-esteem. We attract more flies using honey than vinegar! However, this is a double-edged sword. We simply cannot provide only praise as this could result in the students forming a skewed perception of not only their own abilities, but also what is expected of them.

I think there are several things that writers need from their peers. This is a difficult time for students trying to juggle their social, home, and academic lives. Juggling everything as we all know can really knock the wind out of us sometimes. As a student, acceptance from my peers was so important to me. I didn't need to be better than anyone, but just seen for who I am and accepted. Receiving praise from one's peers is just as important if not more than the praise they receive from their instructor. Instructors are supposed to give feedback, whether it is good or bad. Their peers, however, are not. I think this really heightens the significance of the praise received from peers and drastically increases the value of praise.

Honestly, a writing coach should not be covering papers in ink and picking apart the ins and outs of a paper. As a coach, I believe our job is to focus on higher order concerns and explore the ideas that our writers have. I think it is very important to tell them what they are doing correctly, ask thought provoking questions, listen carefully to the ideas they have, give them direction if needed, and support them throughout the entire process.

There are some similarities among all three of these roles for our students. First would be the significance of praise. While praise is not of equal value among all three, it is definitely all beneficial in its own ways. It is the responsibility of all to do their part in the learning environments in which they exist to ensure that themselves as well as everyone else involved feels safe, heard, and seen for who they are. Responsibilities also include pushing ourselves and those involved to become the best humans we can be. Accountability needs to be universal and applicable to everyone. It is clear that teachers have the largest amount of responsibility out of the three, as they are the ones facilitating the learning. A writing coach could be thought of like a sports coach even. Let's acknowledge what is going well and reinforce those things, while at the same time providing feedback in a way that is easily receptive and motivating. The peers likely hold the least amount of responsibility because many students are just trying to survive; many times, when I think I am being judged by a class I am give a presentation in, I am overthinking how analytical the audience actually is of me. Peers are normally just as worried as we are in these situations. While there are significant similarities and differences among all three, they all have a specific role, function, and responsibility in a professional learning environment. 

Working with Novices | Writing Partner Resources (pomona.edu)

Here is an article from David Bartholomae at Pomona College talking about his approach to supporting novice writers. I enjoyed this article because it is someone in the field speaking to their own experience. 

Blog Post #4

Digital storytelling is a form of communication that I have some experience with both in my personal and professional life. Stories can be told with minimal context digitally, especially with the addition of pictures or videos. For example, if my good friend has been dating a woman for several years, and she posts a picture with their dog carrying a ring attached to the collar with emojis and no words, we in the audience can likely piece together the story that the two have gotten engaged and are advancing the progression of their relationship. The post doesn't really need any words to tell a story as it includes enough content to get the story across.

Sometimes, the intentional withholding of words or context to a post is done on purpose to allow the viewer to perceive a story of their own; it is up to them to create a story in their mind with what they are given. A prime example of this is how I share memes on Facebook. Many times, I share photos, drawings, short videos, etc. to provide a sense of humor that can have more than one meaning; that meaning is to be determined by the audience. It is important to note that not every viewer will be able decipher the meaning that the poster is trying to convey, and this leaves a risk of offending the viewer or creating confusion. 

There are definitely two forms of digital media examples that I use on a daily basis, and the first of those is Duolingo. I am proficient in the usage of the Spanish language, and I have run out of electives to take in my college career. Duolingo allows me to still continue to practice and pursue my mastery of the Spanish language in a way that is fun, enjoyable, but also productive. The app almost structures the learning in the style of a game in which one can compete against others to have bragging rights in one's Duolingo community. This is beneficial to me in several ways as not only am I brushing up on my own Spanish proficiency, but I am also analyzing how this app can still provide me with assignments that I find enjoyable despite a small language barrier. Being bilingual is a valuable skill not just for educators, but for everyone, and this can reinforce my knowledge and experience of those that identify with Hispanic culture. 

The other form of digital media that I use daily would be social media; social media has quickly become a monster with so many heads--Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit. Many apps serve different purposes or functions but can usually be used as a main form of communication. Many people include their social media presence as part of their identity, and that is something to consider going forward in terms of education. While many of these applications may be used MOSTLY for entertainment, it would be foolish to assume that they don't have a purpose or place in education or teaching. I have been a part of personal learning communities using Twitter and I was blown away with how much potential is there. It is a quick, easy way to share valuable information in a way that anyone can understand. It's also not limited to a PLC!

There are so many ways to include multimodal composition, and we have already spoken about several of these including music videos, Tik Tok, YouTube videos, and endless other options to convey the ideas and information at hand. Students can easily become involved with each other and the community through multimodal composition. This is a major difference compared to just giving a PowerPoint presentation in class: multimodal composition has potential to reach out farther than ways teachers and students are accustomed to, and this can lead to the increase of growth of personal learning communities, which is beneficial to those involved. This can create civic engagement throughout an entire community in which a school exists. 

My Third Post!

I think it is important to say that many peoples' writing processes may vary depending on how or why that person is writing! Creative writing may call for a different process than writing a paper about a book that was read. However, there are many strategies that can be considered beneficial regardless of the type of writing!

I almost feel silly admitting this, but until I started getting deeper into my English Education studies, I didn't really think about my process of writing. I unknowingly had a process that I just did unconsciously. A lot of it consists of getting ideas down on the paper as they come and editing/formatting as the paper comes along. However, in my adult life and my studies, I have been exposed to so many different strategies that can improve the overall quality of the process of writing we use. For instance, the Do-What chart that is two columns. The verb goes on under "do" and the description goes under "what."  This is a way to not only have a broken-down version of the paper requirements, but also to be building an outline at the same time. Sometimes retrieving quotes from the text can be time consuming and difficult, but that is why I enjoy trying to get my evidence as soon as I have made claims. 

I am sure that I incorporate many portions of my writing process without even being aware of it. It has never been more important in my life to be aware of this process I use as I progress farther and attempt to help others discover processes that work for them, no matter how similar or different. Many of my peers can relate to the loose grip we have on our process, but there are also many of my peers who are very particular about the entire processes of their writing; I completely understand why they are particular! 

Like I mentioned before, I believe that the process can change sporadically depending on the style of writing being done, as well as its purpose. Writing digitally or multimodally requires the writer to be conscious of a variety of specifics, such as vocabulary, delivery, and reception. Digital writing can reach very far and wide, and it is important to convey our ideas in a way that many others can easily understand. It is also important to note that there is no tone or body language, so being sensitive to language used could be beneficial for all. Multimodal projects are refreshing as they incorporate more styles of communication than just an author, a reader, and a paper. The information being displayed must have a consistent flow, relatable words/context, and a sense of engagement. 

Writing Coach Biography

 

Ello everyone 😊 My name is Bradley Klein, I am twenty-six years old, and a future high school English teacher. I don’t have a lot of field experience on my resume, so it is exciting to be working with you all. I’m a big fan of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, the outdoors, and
Wisconsin sports! While I am currently improving my relationship with reading, my relationship with writing is what pushed me to pursue a career involving literature; I have always enjoyed putting my abstract thoughts into a concrete form. Another driving force for me to walk the path I have is my relationship with language; language, like painting, singing, or dancing, is a way for all of us to express ourselves. There is such a rich diversity of languages in our world, it is refreshing to learn how people of another language communicate. In my English education journey, I have become very acquainted with the Spanish language. I honestly believe the knowing more than one language may be a life hack! But we all will be collectively learning together, and I am very grateful to be a part of this experience in which we can hopefully all help each other grow!

Link to my collage! 

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFaHpbi5dk/3z6REnIafQn7Nn6qLPwkFw/edit?utm_content=DAFaHpbi5dk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton