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Oh Copyright!

Copyright, oh copyright, where do we draw the line? Even after doing research and learning more about copyright I am still confused to what I copyright and what is fair use. In the article, "A Tight Grip Can Choke Creativity" it starts off talking about a case between RDR books and J.K. Rowling where she is fighting for the right for only her to be able to write an encyclopedia book about Harry Potter. In this case, I would have to agree that she has the right to publish this book because she is the sole creator. The fact that she would give the profits to charity is a side bonus. The author of the article talks about how the copyright laws are limiting people's creativity but that just does not make sense to me. If you are being creative and original then you wouldn't need to copy someone else. The point of a copyright law is to protect the work of an artist and not have other people use it and claim it as their own.
Another point that was interesting in the article was about the J.K. Rowling case and how it was over a book. So many copyright lawsuits today deal with the music industry or the internet, you rarely hear about a book fighting for its right to originality. We live in such a technological world that we forget about those bulky things called books! Overall I just don't really understand the point the author is trying to make. Personally I would argue for clearer, easier to understand copyright laws instead of laws that do not protect people's work. I don't see any creativity being snubbed if you can't copy or use someone else's work.

Wikipedia

Hello and what a beautiful day today is! Well, after listening to Michael Bess from Vanderbilt talk about how he designed one of his classes around wikipedia, it was really interesting to hear his results. Today, many students love to use wikipedia and many teachers hate it in an academic sense. Wikopedia is a great tool to use when information is needed and needed fast. Personally, I do not use wikopedia and I had never heard about it until I started talking to college students. From listening to the podcast, I think it was a good idea to incorporate wikipedia in his class. He was pleasantly surprised by how accurate the information was and the discussions that were going on over controversial events. It was a clever idea and it turned out to be a great learning tool for him in his classroom. I think that when many teachers are frustrated with things that their students use today, such as wikipedia, it is smart to try to incorporate it in their lessons. Teachers need to learn to be flexible and open to new ideas. Michael Bess took a chance by using wikipedia and the information he would find and it worked out for him. The class sounded like it turned out to be really interesting and I almost wish I could have taken it. However, I agree that wikipedia should not be the main source of information for a research paper or an essay, but it sounds like a great tool to use to learn more information when you need it fast. You should also always be aware that everything you read may not be true. That is why the discussions are so great because then you have a chance to change something if you think it is false and back it up with sources and facts. It is a chance to participate in discussions of things that interest you and when used correctly it can be a great tool in the classroom.