Portfolio 3:
Blog 2: A Follow Up to the Subscription Conversation
Blog 3: Curtains! Copyright at Lafayette
Initially, I was hoping to write about the dynamic between authorship and readership as it applies to the Fourteenth Amendment and marriage. After many hours of pondering and attempts to write the essay, I still could not figure out how to tackle the topic. At the last minute, I decided to shift directions and start fresh.
Earlier in the month I had read and blogged about a New York Times article discussing e-Textbook technology that tracked if students did their reading and what they read. Professors had more information than ever before about how students engaged with course material. I decided to return to this topic because, as a college student, this technology has current-day relevance to my life.
As I began thinking about the topic and outlining the paper, I thought of how this technology could change the role of the professor. I realized that I was better equipped to think about how this technology could change the student experience in college. First, what are some of the purposes of attending college? Then what potential implications could this technology have on these purposes if it were implemented here?
My small, liberal arts college experience, however, is not necessarily representative of all university students. This realization prompted me to investigate where the pilot programs were being run and what their ultimate purpose would be. The student experience, especially regarding interactions with professors, is greatly different between Lafayette and big state schools or online colleges. The graduation rates are also different.
My goal was to illustrate that the benefits that Devine cites, such as increasing graduation rates, would not be worth the cost of the intrusion at small, liberal arts colleges. In my opinion, the technology could harm students more than it could help them.
Portfolio 2:
Blog 2: What Constitutes Literature?
Kirk and I wanted to find a topic that interested both of us so we searched “Copyright and Politics” in Google and found the New York Times article listed on our works cited page. The article touched on how networks do not allow politicians to use their broadcasted material. We knew Goldstein thought that copyright law should protect literary and artistic works, but we did not know his definition of art. We thought it would be best to argue both sides—that broadcasted material is and is not art—rather than put words in his mouth. Another Google search resulted in the Romney-NBC controversy, which encapsulated the complexity of this topic. Also, because politics were involved, we decided that this issue would be great for talk radio. Radio hosts have differences styles of speaking so it made the collaborative writing process easier. Please note that we purposely made grammatical errors because we wanted to reflect how people speak in America.
The goal of this paper was not to answer the questions posed to the listeners throughout the show. Art is such a subjective topic that I think it is nearly impossible to define. Rather, we wanted to present arguments to highlight how complicated the copyright topic can be. Furthermore, we hoped this paper would show how copyright affects people and culture in ways that one might not normally consider. Finally, we recognized that Goldstein probably would have spent time discussing how fair use plays a role in this debate. Unfortunately, we could not cover what constitutes art and fair use in one episode. We wanted to show that we considered that angle, even if we could not analyze it.
Portfolio 1:
This paper continually evolved throughout its drafts. Initially, I planned to evaluate the incentives of authors using behavioral economics. By the second draft, I started to think about the connection between copyright law, authorship, and social commentary. I then realized that the legal, financial, and cultural elements were all heavily intertwined. Copyright law affected ownership and created lucrative opportunities for authors. The Age of Enlightenment provided writers the freedom to critique political and religious institutions in their literature without fear of punishment. As I approached and surpassed the word limit for the portfolio, I began to focus more on the implications of the Age of Enlightenment and the importance of social commentary for society.
I aimed to illustrate how the Copyright Act of 1710 and the Age of Enlightenment changed the legal, financial, and cultural boundaries of authorship. Both events gave authors extrinsic incentives to publish their works. Ultimately, I hoped to demonstrate the value and influence of authorship and literature on society.
My blog posts do not directly correlate to the content of my essay. They cover the relationship between authorship and readership as well as the effects of technology on writing instruments. Both topics were discussed in class during this unit.
http://sites.lafayette.edu/alleyj-test/files/2013/02/Portfolio-1-FINAL-DRAFT.-2.25.13.docx
