Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology

I think the most shocking part of Lessig's speech was this table about the copyright status of items in the Google Books inventory

16% - public domain (older works)
9% - copyrighted and in print
75% - copyrighted, but out of print (aka "Orphaned Works")

I've been aware of the issue of orphaned works, but I had no idea that it was such a large percentage. Apparently the vast majority of content produced is considered commercially non-viable over the long haul. But how can we make sure that these works aren't locked away just because they generate enough of a revenue?

This is especially critical for academic institutions because scholars are notorious for wanting access to those obscure books that few others need. Not being able to access them easily leads to either extended checkout times from the library (for years at a time) or to rampant photocopying.

Here's an idea to build upon the stickies we used this year - VW for Virtual Worlds, etc.

First, we complete the set as much as possible.

Then we order and color them in order of volatility or disruptiveness. Text, for example would be our Helium. A basic building block or element, almost always needed, but fairly stable (we know what to do with it in most situations).

Then we start to build compounds/molecules from these elements - combining them in ways that visually represent a tool or method. Blogs, for example, would be text + graphics + ....

From there we can build more complex substances - add the technological compound to pedagogical compounds (theories, best practices, etc.) to finally have a visual, colorful representation showing all the parts that make up the whole! This will also help others understand convergence of the Web 2 technologies out there - how they are being combined, mashed, and used in new, creative ways.

During the Symposium, attendees can tag themselves with some stickers that we have on hand. I hope this will help to strike up conversations between people who share a common interest, but who don't know each other yet.