Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > July > 12
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
MSM rides again!
It just makes me so proud to see the kids grow up!
Back last October, when Get on the Bus itself was just a tot, it was part of an online journalism first when the Carnival of Education was hosted here. Until that week, as far as I have been able to tell, a mainstream media (MSM) website had never hosted an a blogging carnival.
So now the MSM edublogging new kid on the block, School Me! at the LA Times, becomes just the second MSM site to host the Carnival of Education. School Me! authors Bob Sipchen and Janine Kahn do it up right, too, with their signature flair — they are calling it the “jukebox edition” of the carnival, complete with song clips.
Unfortunately, my serious post about the death of a promising high school student is sort of the downer of this carnival, necessitating the only “sad song.”
Thankfully, Mamacita over at Weekly Scheiss bails me out with a humorous post about the website Rate My Professor (there’s also Rate My Teacher for high schools).
Mamacita pulls out some of the funniest comments students have left while rating their professors. For a quick taste, here are a few of my favorites:
“His class was like milk, it was good for 2 weeks.”
“Three of my friends got A’s in his class and my friends are dumb.”
“Instant amnesia walking into this class. I swear he breathes sleeping gas.”
“She hates you already.”
Some teachers detest these sites, I know, and for good reason. A vengeful student could really slander a teacher with insulting or false comments. But when I read these sites, the kids seem to try to be honest and fair most of the time, even if they can be somewhat brutal.
Still, I find a lot of humor in it, and a prospective student just might find some useful information.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: The Carnival of Education
Cleaned up movies declared illegal!
A federal judge has ruled small companies that edit out sex, nudity, profanity and violence from Hollywood movies must stop doing so. (I was pointed to this story by the Friends of Dave blog.)
I had not heard of these companies (the New York Times said CleanFlicks, CleanFilms and Play It Clean Video are in Utah and FamilyFlix USA is in Arizona), but they really went to some lengths to try to stay legal. The companies:
“…purchase an official DVD copy of a film on DVD for each edited version of the title they produce through the use of editing systems and software. The official release disc is included alongside the edited copy in every sale or rental transaction conducted. As such, the companies argued that they had the right on First Amendment and fair use grounds to offer consumers the alternative of an edited version for private viewing, so long as they maintained that “one-to-one” ratio to ensure that copyright holders got their due from the transactions.”
The judge instead found the companies violated copyright law.
Since I work in the publishing business, I’m in favor of respecting copyrights. Movie directors who sued these companies said it was unfair to distribute movies with their names on it that have been altered without their permission. One of the companies has already said it will shut down in light of the ruling.
Is there a middle ground here? How about this: if four companies can make a living doing this editing, it sounds like there must be some money in it. Maybe the studios could issue their own edited versions. Then those that want clean movies can get them and the studios protect their copyrights and even make a few bucks off the deal.
What are the chances a studio would take me up on this idea?
