There were about 50 participants in my workshop, and we had been talking about using a permissions process to get rights to copyrighted works. When polled in a "what would you do" example, 90% of the attendees said they would not request permissions. When asked "why not", their response was, "we have to teach, and this slows down the educational process."
A lady on the front row who was in the 10% minority said, "I run a large video project every year that goes on the web and gets much exposure. At the beginning of last school year, the student in charge of the introduction brought in popular music. I asked him if he thought this particular song was critical to the video. He said 'yes', so, his assignment in class and at home was to get the permissions."
Someone from the 90% group asked, "how long did that take?" "Four months" she said, and the majority piped up with, "see?, a waste of time."
"You're missing the point" she said. My student sent the emails, made the phone calls, contacted publishers, labels and business affairs doing real-world work." Then, she silenced the room with: "My point is, who learned more, my student or yours?"
You could hear a pin drop on the carpet.
Don't miss those teachable moments, now matter how long the moment may be.
Barry S. Britt
President, Soundzabound Music
Author for School Video News
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