I started my practice this week by working on line art and shading on this image of a wolf and pup. I was mostly focusing on shape language and basic shading. While I’m not the happiest with the results, I think it went well for my first attempt at both this kind of figure work in digital art and my first ever attempt at shading this way. After that, I did several hours’ worth of practice on line quality and shading by looking at human face anatomy. I made six identical faces and tried out shading using six different light sources, as indicated by the direction the eyes are looking. The picture below is the result of this practice. I am very pleased with the progress I can see between the wolf piece and the face piece, and I am excited to keep on learning more.
Although the idea of SAMR is conceptualized as a progressive adoption of technology into a classroom, I believe that it can be broadened in scope to encompass the ever-changing and evolving strategies and pedagogies we as educators implement in our classrooms. For example, if we start with a basic classroom tool such as a textbook, there are many ways that we can follow the SAMR model to evaluate any technology, adaptation, modifications, or further tools implemented for any given lesson.
Substitution: instead of a textbook, an educator could use a primary source document or a lecture to convey the same information to their students in a different format. Both of these sources have their own strengths and weaknesses, but in their basest forms, they are simple substitutions for the traditional textbook. A primary source might increase levels of engagement due to its nature as a historic artifact, but it is a static object. A lecture is more easily adaptable to the classroom, but is still a relatively passive mode of instruction.
Augmentation: a historical fictional novel could be considered an augmentation due to higher rates of engagement from students due to a stronger narrative and emotional connection to the story. A website or online encyclopedia can also be an augmentation because they are more easily updated for newer information and corrections than a printed textbook, and therefore (provided a trustworthy source) could each be a more reliable source than a textbook. A video could also be considered an augmentation due to its ability to incorporate not only text and images, but also audio narration, reenactment or other visuals, and greater engagement.
Modification: a lecture can easily become a modification of a lesson if the educator includes an aspect of discussion, Q&A, or simply allows for clarification and greater understanding from their students. By changing the mode of education from a more passive to active form of engagement, the educator provides greater opportunities for critical thinking, conceptual understanding, and different perspectives. Allowing students to engage more thoroughly with any given source by encouraging investigation changes the purpose of a lesson from a simple lecture to a collaborative learning process. This is also possible for websites which provide links to further learning, allowing students to deepen their understandings of different concepts by gaining a broader and more intricate engagement with the material.
Redefinition: once an educator has embraced a more active and engaged model of education, any of the beforementioned sources can become jumping-off points for a complete redefinition of the traditionally passive western form of lecture. In addition to the vastness of the internet which the students have at their disposal, there are other ways that educators can promote independent research and creative projects for their students. Bringing in experts on materials is much easier with the option of video calls or interactive websites. Assessments can be undertaken in a variety of ways outside the basic essay or multiple-choice test format. In our current digital age, the educator is no longer the primary source of information, but rather the instructional booklet on how students should conduct their own research. By explaining concepts such as primary and secondary sources, academic articles and commercial websites, bias, critical analysis, and interconnectedness, educators can set their students up for success not only in regards to independent research projects, but also how they engage with information for the rest of their lives.
I have a fair amount of prior knowledge about Fair Use laws, particularly on content-creation platforms such as YouTube and Tiktok. I believe that the commonly accepted practices of Fair Use regarding copyrighted materials and intellectual property is adequate in terms of protecting creators on both sides, but the application of these premises is inherently flawed.
The idea behind Fair Use is that you cannot simply steal someone else’s work – which is justified and understandable. Of course, if you want to critique or add to a work, Fair Use allows transformative use of a work as necessary. The rules are fairly vague by necessity, but unfortunately they are often not applied equitably.
One example is where Fair Use fails to protect creators, especially smaller ones. If their content receives a copyright strike, they have the ability to contest this, as they should. However, their content cannot be monetized and often will not be promoted until the claim is settled one way or another. This means that a creator will lose revenue and be shunned by the platform’s algorithm until the matter is resolved, and they cannot reclaim any of this revenue if they are proven to be in the right. Therefore, creators but especially larger creators can silence criticism of their work by claiming that a video has stolen their content despite the usage being protected under Fair Use. This causes the criticizing creator to lose their income for that video for an undetermined amount of time, particularly as larger creators are awarded faster responses from the platforms hosting their content. This amounts to creators losing income, sponsorships, views, engagement, and possibly their livelihood as they’re pushed off the platforms by larger creators with more resources.
Another example is of the Fair Use rules being applied to liberally. The entire genre of “react” videos, as well as many compilations, inherently use content from other creators to gain far more views than the content they’re reacting to. They may or may not compensate or even credit the original creators in their work. Though this is protected under Fair Use for being transformative, and most of the work may not be copyrighted to being with, I think that greater scrutiny must be placed on the real impacts of Fair Use on social media sites. Professionals making decisions regarding whether content is protected under Fair Use or not need to ensure that their domain is accessible, does not prioritize larger creators to the detriment of the majority, and follow evolving trends to ensure that their work is equitable in such a rapidly changing environment.
Here is Tom Scott, one of my favourite Youtubers, going more in-depth into some more problems with copyright laws
