Our Skype Conversation with Lawrence Lessig
October 18th, 2009
Remixes & Copyright Law
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Sites & Questions About YouTube
One of my film literacy classes had the chance this week to participate in a Skype video conference with Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig. Professor Lessig is an expert in copyright law, and is on the board of directors of Creative Commons, a nonprofit corporation “dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.”
In his most recent book, Remix, he argues that we shouldn’t criminalize an entire generation of young people with outdated copyright laws.
It was very gracious of Professor Lessig to spend a half hour taking questions from my 7th graders. I edited the Skype conversation into two separate videos. This Skype session is part of our ongoing conversation about what we can and can’t do on the Internet. As Professor Lessig points out in our conversation, copyright is extremely complicated.
October 19th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Mr. Mayo.
That’s awesome. Way to reach out and provide students a direct connection to what you are teaching them. Keep it up and hopefully I’ll see you at EduCon.
Dave
October 19th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Kudos to Lessig for taking the time to do this. This is awesome. Great to see connections being made in schools with socially relevant issues.
Congratulations Mr. Mayo.
October 19th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Mr. Mayo,
Thanks so much for sharing this! We are discussing copyright and creative commons in my sixth grade computer class, so I am going to share this. Also, with using Voicethread, wiki, photopeach, Google Apps, and Skype in our middle school science classes, copyright is an ongoing issue.
p.s. Twitter via Will Richardson got me to your Skype session.
October 19th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Mr. Mayo,
This is an excellent connection for students. Thanks for your example!
October 19th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Excellent example of removing classroom walls through the use of Skype. It’s always a great idea to record the conversation as well since kids sometimes get caught up in the “how” of Skyping and not the “why” (plus the experience can be shared with others like myself!).
October 20th, 2009 at 7:25 am
This is terrific. Great questions from the students, great poise, and great responses from Mr Lessig. Thank you for sharing this. I will be pointing folks to this post when they tel me that their school blocks Skype.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
What a wonderful learning experience for the kids. And hats off to Prof. Lessig for his willingness to Skype with this class!
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Way to go! I love the way you have your kids tee up the “hard questions.” I’d be curious to hear/read their reflections on this experience, and in particular how his opinions on these tough questions will guide their practice, their creativity, their sense of right and wrong in this space.
Thanks so much for sharing. And, I’m with David, love to see you back at EduCon this Jan!
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:35 pm
[…] 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment “Mr. Mayo” has posted video of an interview with Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons. The interview was conducted by […]
December 6th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
[…] students and I use CC licensed content in our classroom projects. We also talked about our recent Q & A Skype session with Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig. The interview is part of the ongoing CC Talks […]
December 7th, 2009 at 11:58 am
[…] Other examples from around the web include these – a middle school class in Maryland, US speaking to Larry Lessig about remix culture, and my favourite, a pupil at a school in North Carolina, US who has been attending all of his […]
December 7th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
[…] Other examples from around the web include these – a middle school class in Maryland, US speaking to Larry Lessig about remix culture, and my favourite, a pupil at a school in North Carolina, US who has been attending all of his […]
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Thanks for these. Great value for your students and for the rest of us watching.