Learning Platforms for the 21st Century and Beyond

The 2009 AEP Summit session “Learning Platforms for the 21st Century and Beyond,” presented three different cutting-edge technologies that could be used to deliver content to students. Jeff Keltner from Google, Laura Porco from Amazon.com, and Michael Riordan from the Open Publishing Lab at Rochester Institute of Technology discussed why classroom technology is 10 years behind the consumer world and how their products could be used in the education market.

All speakers agreed that the students are the biggest driving force behind advancing the technology in the classroom. Keltner said that for every generation, technology is what is invented after the students were born. Reflecting the advancements of iPhones, laptops, and social media sites, students expect their education to be mobile, use multimedia, and have the ability to involve the community. Riordan concurred that students are asking their teachers to use educational technology that lets them learn together; they want teachers to abandon podium-style lectures for a dialogue.

How Fair Use Enables Media Literacy to Thrive

When educational publishers hear the term fair use, they often brace themselves for the argument that teachers should be able to copy, post, and reuse the material without permission as long as it’s for educational use. However, when Renee Hobbs of Temple University’s Media Education Lab and Peter Jaszi of the Washington College of Law, American University, spoke at the 2009 AEP Summit they explained that while the principle of Fair Use is important in education and educational materials, it does not trump a publisher’s copyright. In fact, in their breakout session, “How Fair Use Enables Media Literacy to Thrive,” they presented a compelling case for how Fair Use can actually help publishers enhance their own products and resources.

Over the last 25-30 years copyright has become a dynamic field. Copyright lasts longer, covers more material, and the penalties are much higher. The courts–including the Supreme Court–have said, though, that what keeps copyright from impinging on free speech and the First Amendment is fair use.
Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows for the unlicensed, unauthorized, and uncompensated use of copyrighted material when the social and cultural benefits exceed the costs imposed by private parties. While there are four parts to fair use–nature of use, type of use, amount used, and the economic effect–Jaszi said that the courts really look for two critical standards when applying the concept.

I’m Dreaming of a Place We Can All Go for Content – Which Platform Should Publishers Use?

As part of the 2009 Summit, AEP held an international CEO Roundtable, allowing executives from around the world to discuss the impact of “free” content on educational publishing. Kim Kleeman, President of Shakespeare Squared, attended the event and told AEP the five most important lessons she learned from the presentations.

The International CEO roundtable proved to be the perfect springboard for a variety of discussions regarding content and how we choose to deliver it to the general public.

Our panel was a powerful group of people who understand the balance between capital enterprise and availability of free content. The moderator, Seth Russo for Edureach International Consulting, facilitated a conversation and the presentations of companies from different countries allowing for a variety of opinions and strategies. Jim McVety from Bill Smith Group started us off followed by Poland native Artur Dyro, Young Digital Planet; Sameer Shariff from Impelsys; and Lewis Bronze from Espresso Education located in the UK.

The topics covered ranged from how to create an infrastructure to distribute content, to the scope of the market regarding technology, to how this will affect the US on the state level.

Fast, Cheap, and Under Control

At the AEP Summit 2009, Tim Frick, Owner of Mightybytes, led the workshop “Fast, Cheap, and Under Control,” where he discussed tools that can help publishers easily create dynamic, content-rich blogs. The workshop included a hands-on demonstration of how to create a blog but also featured a discussion about blog strategies. Here are highlights from his session.

• Don’t skip the first stage: developing your blog strategy. Ask yourself why you are creating a blog: Who do you want to reach? Why are you trying to reach them? This should guide your content creation and help save time when you are determining what to post.
• Also, think about what resources you have–and not just in terms of money. Updating blogs and commenting on social networking sites take time. Understand the commitment you are making with a blog and use your time wisely.

Publishers Still Need to Police Web for Digital Piracy

Although the recent convictions of the Pirate Bay founders and financier were a victory for copyright protection, this is only one out of many file-sharing, self-publishing, and peer-to-peer sites on the web. And while some sites like the Pirate Bay proudly and vocally violate copyright law, there are also sites like Scribd.com and esnips.com that say they support copyright, but they do not actively search for illegal materials. Unfortunately, as many AEP members have discovered, the onus is still on the publisher to monitor the web for infringement.