My take-aways from today’s Educon sessions come from two workshops:

The Cost of Copyright Confusion: The Future of Intellectual Property in a Remix Generation – Kristen Hokanson – Today’s session was actually my second time to participate in one of Kristen’s copyright workshops.  Last summer I joined the 3-hour NECC session she and Rene Hobbs facilitated – and I blogged the session, with links to all their resources.

I attended today’s session to see how Kristen would compact her presentation into 1 1/2 hours.  It was a fast-paced 90-minutes – but still highly participatory.  I lucked out by sitting at the same table as Rene Hobbs. So here are a few gems I gathered today:

* Effective use of copyrighted materials enhances the teaching and learning process.  It’s important that as educators we exercise our fair use muscles – and teach our students to do the same.  Our students need to think about why they are incorporating copyrighted materials and the amount needed to accomplish whatever their message is. Kids have to think critically about the materials they’re using.

* The big question: Is the benefit to society greater than the cost to the copyright holder? It’s all about balance.  But as Rene points out, “Fair use is never crystal clear until a judge rules on it.”

It still amazes me that Cost of Copyright Confusion wiki did not win a 2009 Edublogs Eddie Award. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one to nominate – and recognize -Rene’s, Kristen’s, and the Center for Social Media’s substantial efforts to make this complex topic accessible.

Youth Voices – A Social Network Where Teachers Nurture Student-to-Student Conversation – Paul Allison – What if students were allowed to participate in “passionate inquiry’? Would they write more? Would they write at a deeper level? Would they connect with others who shared – or disagreed with – their ideas?  If you take a tour of the Youth Voices project, I think you’ll agree the answer is “yes” to all of the above. The Youth Voices project is a great example of what can happen when a group of teachers, with encouragement from Paul, continues to grow the project, both in the thoughtful, sometimes experimental, use of technology and the structure and support offered to their student community.

My gems from Paul’s session are the Youth Voices Guides – http://youthvoices.net/guides! Workshop participants had a chance to use the Agree or Disagree form – http://youthvoices.net/node/1904. The forms/templates are there for as long as the students need them.. I knew Paul and YV colleagues Susan Ettenheim and Chris Sloan had been working on a few guides, but oh my, there are currently over 30 guides, with some available in Spanish. Great take-aways!

Heading off for meet up with NWP colleagues @Pauloh and @azellner to debrief the day:-)