Cory Doctorow’s PWNED class finishes the term

by billso on Saturday, 26 May 2007

Cory Doctorow has posted a wrapup announcement about his copyright course at the University of Southern California, with links to several student projects.I first heard about Cory’s course on BoingBoing, a blog that he edits. The Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article about Cory on April 6. I didn’t follow the class blog or Cory’s podcasts very closely over the term, as I had 4 graduate sections of my own to teach, along with my own writing for this blog.Of all the student projects in the course, my favorite is teachingcopyright.org. This site by Richard Esguerra helps California K-12 teachers fulfill that state’s requirements for technology grants. I’ll take a look at the site and try to use some of this material in my fall courses.Cameron Parkins did an interesting project on the restrictive copyright policies of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. USC asserts copyright over student films, and dissuades students from posting their work on the Web and sites such as YouTube. I’m surprised by Parkins’ assertion that SCA faculty and staff avoid discussing this policy with students. His white paper attempts to address these problems.I hope that Crystal Larsen’s examination of Major League Baseball’s press credentialing policy results in some changes. As we approach another season of steroids and violence, MLB needs all the good press it can get. Credentialing bloggers would provide baseball fans with some interesting reading.I do agree with RobotSkirt’s comment about Cory’s announcement: Cory’s students may have done some excellent work, but “brilliant” seems a bit extravagant for an undergraduate COMM499 course.