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iPods Valuable in the College Classroom?
Infonaut writes "The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article called When iPod goes collegiate, examining the iPods for students program at Duke University. It seems that while many students and professors find them valuable for classwork, this is America, so questions about intellectual property rear their ugly head: "Do they have permission from the person who wrote the lectures to share it?" asks one IP attorney, referring to lectures recorded on iPods."
The means to record and share recordings of lectures have been around for quite a while. I know back in the dark ages when I was in school, most profs already had policies in regards to this. Why would doing this with an ipod as opposed to a tape recorder be any different?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
... from handwritten lecture notes?
Granted, you could accomplish the same thing with anything that plays recordable media, but I absolutely love having the ability to listen to French lessons during my walk to and from campus, as well as I'm walking around the apartment (roommates don't like boring language tapes). Sure, the people around me get freaked out from time to time when I occasionally repeat "je voudrais de fromage" or something like that slip, but I really have found it a great tool for improving my pronunciation and comprehension.
Substitute pocket tape recorder for iPod and many of the concerns are the same.
I stikes me that this is the result of, "hey, I have a great idea... let's give all the frosh iPods!"
"Uh, what will they do with them?"
"I dunno, we'll figure something out."
It sure seems like the Duke program could have been better thought out, though sometimes the best ideas for a device are not envisioned by its creators, so something good may come from this.
Wht I really want to know is why the fvck does Duke, a school that costs a gazillion dollars a year, need to get a grant to give its students iPods?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Yes, this was cover with the BetaMax lawsuits. Time sharing is perfectly legal, redistribution and selling the file is not.
On top of that, actual questions could be answered from TAs, or perhaps the professor himself or herself.
It makes you think about what is happening to education, and if this is a good or bad thing.
Thoughts?
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Being the Mac, iPod, and gadget in general fan that I am it pains me to say this, but I don't see the point in this. It's cool, but that's all.
I was in college in the early 90's and recorded my lectures on a $30 tape recorder--and it did me no good. Recording lectures doesn't help everyone. I also didn't have a computer. I had a 3.5gpa though so I did something right.
Neat gadgets do not make you a good student.
You would think the $30,000+/year I'm paying in tuition gives me a "license" to share a lecture with my classmates.
Also, how many people outside of those in the class are interested in it anyway?
A: "Apple is providing project management expertise and technical and functional resources."
Contrary to the stated comment, I noticed that most students would just relax, relying on the tape to be able to take the test later on in the year. They were less concentrated, and *my* job was more difficult into getting everybody's attention.
So after my first year, I've sworn not to let any electronical device interfere with my teaching. I've had very little complaints since.
Replace "lecture" with "movie" and see if your theory still applies.
A movie, book, song, etc., is a creative work of value to be sold. Lectures are public domain just like free and open speech in a public arena. BTW - This comment is Copyright (c) 2005 lbm.
Actually, even without paying fees, many universities will let you sit in on lectures. At that point, it's probably considered public domain.
And for $32,000 I should own more than just the lectures.
You are paying for the lecture, and the professor is performing it as a work for hire - that is what he/she is paid to do. At least that should be the relationship between the professor and the university. If not allowing recording inhibits the learning process, that is a very serious matter. For example, I do not have a good "auditory" memory but am more of a visual person, so I always had to record the more difficult classes to go over the words later. This was years ago, no questions asked. Has the IP fetish gotten to the point where now some professors don't allow recording lectures anymore? If I went to school now, would I have to have a note-taker assigned to me from disability services for all my classes then? And what if the note-taker can't take good notes (by not having the prerequisites and being unfamiliar with the material)? Seriously, I'd be up in arms about something preventing me from getting the education I was paying through the nose for.
Well, what can you do with audio, in general?
Store lectures
Store conversations (for language)
Audio flashcards (for any subject)
Audio books (for stories)
Performances (for actors and storytellers)
GPL Deconstructed
Unless they're getting kickbacks from Apple as some other /.ers have suggested.
Who am I to blow against the wind? -- Paul Simon
Any evidence to back this up? Programers are hired for their expertise in deciding what to do in a program, not merely telling him/her to program a very well defined list of features (sometimes it is though). So the programer owns the particular realization of what is a very broad project to implement for a given problem.
Still confused?
It may be that the law protects the IP for professors. I don't know. But somehow I think it has a lot to do with the policy of the university. Unless the professors have a contract in place preserving their copyright, or there is a state law which preserves it for them while working for the state, then your argument is pretty groundless.
Then again, I don't know either way. I'm just pointing out that the only way for the professor to keep his copyright on a lecture would for him to have a contract or a state law which grants him those rights explicitly. And I am currently unaware of any such contracts or laws (but I'm sure they exist in some places and instances.)
Your ignorance is infinitely greater than you realize.
at what point does 'learning' become 'IP theft'? something is seriously wrong with the culture at your university, and with society in general, if knowledge is going to be wrapped up in disclaimers and intellectual property rights.
in fact, it sickens me.
I expect that in the not too distant future, electronic devices will be widely used to assist people with sensory or neurological defects, and to enhance "normal" people. Some people have natural gifts that allow them to remember and reproduce, images, music, the spoken word, etc. What happens to "intellectual property" and "no pictures or recording allowed" when these artificial sensory augmentations become common? Is the RIAA going to ban me from concerts or sue me because my audio processor implant has a memory chip? What if I wear a computerized vision correction/enhancement device?
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
In an introductory class, that may be true, but most professors do spend a lot of time on research, etc. Publish or perish, right?
They do have to produce original works, and most classes, especially at higher levels do include a lot of what the Prof. has learned from their own research in them.
Besides, if I wrote a book about the Civil War, should that be public domain because I didn't start the war? Of course not, the book, regardless of its topic is an original creation and therefore should be protected. However, there is nothing that protects me from someone reading my book on the Civil War and using the knowledge gained from that to write their own book -- but they can't use my words.
If you tape the news, you don't violate the newsreader's IP. If you re-broadcast/re-transmit the news, you violate the IP of the station, who wrote (or at least paid the guy who wrote) the news report, and also spent a lot of money producing the broadcast (lighting, editing, paying personalities, etc.).
Sometimes the anchor writes their own script though... then we're getting closer to the same situation.
Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!