And on the Eighth Week...

Caleb brought his blog project to a close. I feel like maybe there should have been more resting in there somewhere...

Well this week's topic (which was done after my final, which was a funny trip) involved everyone's favorite thing: MONEY! Oh what a joyous occasion, discussing how to get it... fo FREE. I mean free money for free. That's good, right? In the words of the great Wayne, "SHA!" Of course, most people aren't going to just throw it at you. You have to work at it. Like a college scholarship. On steroids. Twice.

It's only logical. It really is an investment in the classroom. A grant is only going to go to a classroom where a person feels there will be a great benefit. If a business or organization doesn't feel that their money will do a whole lot, why would they give it away? Ca-razy. The work involved is more than just a "do you really want it" process. Their goal is to make you prove that you aren't tossing their money away for no reason. I think it's a great encouragement and motivator. The only downside is that even when teachers really will put the money to great use, the task of getting the money is so daunting that they feel like they couldn't ever get it, and so give up before they even begin. But that's something they have to deal with on their own time, because I'm getting that money. Aw yeah.

And thus ends this little project. It's been a ride. A fun one. A short one, as well. At least as far as classes go. An actual ride that took eight weeks is a little crazy. That would be better tagged a "trip." Bring snacks, kids. But I digress. It's been fun, and I look forward to toying with the bloggifier and finaggling with the whose-a-whats-its to achieve full blogdom. Yeah.

End.

Copywrong

Oh noes, the class is almost over! That means this could be, like, my second-to-last blog post. Maybe. Who knows anymore?

So anyway, we talked about copyright laws and Fair Use policy and such this week, and there were some pretty big eye-openers. Some good, some bad. Some mediocre. Can there be a mediocre eye-opener? We shall see.

For one thing, it really surprised me how much like every other type of law copyright law really was. Despite the clear-cut rules, there seemed to be a loophole to everything. Oh, sure, you thought you followed the rules, but you did this for this reason instead of another reason, so bad on you. The quiz we took had some pretty ridiculous outcomes, to be honest. One case even specifically stated that the moral implications were not considered. Like... at all. Odd, no? Kinda thought that was part of the process.

But for every negative thing, there was a positive, or at least chin-scratch-worthy, surprise. For instance, who knew that Bill Nye was such a cool guy that he lets his tapes be used from tapes even if protocol was not followed to a t? That was pretty awesome.

Overall, I still think that it's hard to follow copyright law perfectly. Then again, it's hard to follow every law perfectly when you don't know all the rules. This is likely just going to have to be a "learn by doing" type thing. I'll probably make a few mistakes, but I think in the end I'll have a better understanding not just of the process, but of the thought behind it.

At least... I hope so.