Author: devin

I didn’t get introduce to Creative Commons until I was a part of a project where I am regularly blogging once a month. The first thing that was addressed was the issue of copyrights. This blogs will be out in the world and anyone can technically see them. Of course to liven up blogs, pictures are recommended. Even for our blog posts here. The one major thing we have to keep in mind that pictures online came from somewhere/somebody. We can’t just nonchalantly pick a random photo online and put in on a PowerPoint without doing some investigation on if we can use it in the first place (I was definitely guilty of that in my high school and undergrad career). It’s so easy to take a photo off Google and put it on an assignment or presentation. We must keep into consideration that the photo needs to be credited to the author.

When doing the blog, Flickr is a wonderful tool in which to find pictures you can use however you like. You can do the “modifications allowed” search to find certain pictures in which you can add meme’s or edit yourselves. The one thing I noticed in the searches is that if you want to use a pic of a celebrity, it might be hard because majority of the rights aren’t available to use. Majority of the photos will be of people taking pictures themselves of them in a public setting. If all else fails and you wonder if you can use a picture or not, just try to take your own photo of what you are wanting to use. You can never go wrong!

For my final project, I want to incorporate my own talents/what I’m pursuing and utilize it into something that pertains to academic integrity in some way shape or form. Since I’m a poet in the MFA program, I think I’m going to do a poem in which embodies originality. I thoroughly enjoy Austin Kleon’s presentation on what is the definition of originality in terms of the art world. Is it even possible to be original?

For my poem, I might do something similar that Kleon did, but instead of using newspapers, I would go through some modules within this class and see if I can make any funky poems with them.

I was also thinking of doing a found poem which takes bits and pieces of the outside world and I group them together to make a poem. This also takes on the idea that the poem isn’t completely one’s own thoughts, but instead a collection the poet consciously made when grouping these things together.

This will help me learn test out the idea of what is originality and does it count as plagiarism. This directly correlates to academic integrity for the fact there is still talk and debate about this issue. Is it academically dishonest to use work of a different writer and then incorporating it to one’s personal work?

I’d love to hear any opinions on my project and if there are any suggestions or a new poem idea that I haven’t thought of, please let me know.

As a poet who is surrounded by tons of other writers, there is a strong emphasis on the question, “What makes you stand out amongst the rest?” It’s a field where we are constantly being comparing to one another and trying to figure out how we can be more original than the person next to us.

In watching Austin Kleon’s TedEx talk, it was kind of refreshing. I was already aware of the quote of T.S. Elliott talking about how great poets steal each other’s works. The word steal feels harsh, but he literally doesn’t mean steal, because that would be plagiarism but rather use similar ideas you enjoy and then try to make them your own.

The David Bowie example was a good one where he says he’s more of a tasteless thief than someone who is original. When we think of Bowie, we think of someone who is “original.” Lady Gaga is someone who gets hit on for being unoriginal, but even she would say she isn’t original. She is open about who are her influences and who has inspired her.

As for my work, I’m influences a lot from the poet’s works who are Zachary Schomburg and James Crews. There are some poems that are similar to their work. Does that make me unoriginal? Perhaps. Does that make my work any less important? Definitely not. Art, just like academic writing, is supposed to be immersed with conversation with one another. In doing so, similar ideas will then flourish.

Since I’ll be teaching come spring, I know emphasizing citing is crucial to the students learning and how they are not plagiarizing within their own works. Some of the sources the module gave are will be extremely helpful. For example, I didn’t know about Zotero or EndNote in helping one to cite their sources. I know I have difficulties when citing when it comes to the actual works cited page at the end of an essay because each type of source of varies.

Although the citation game is something that can be used to help students and instead of lecturing the students or guiding them to Purdue Owl and calling it day, it is crucial to note that the citation game is wrong since the MLA has recently changed. For instance, the town of where it was published isn’t used anymore. At this point, Purdue Owl will be the best source since they update their website quite readily.

Finally, the topic of the monkey having copyright rights is very interesting. Where does the line cross? Besides the ethics of the monkey having rights, the website addresses what defines copyright issues in terms of people using selfies, which I wasn’t aware of. If a person intentionally took a picture of himself/herself, then that person should have the rights to it since they did the action themselves. This can also be applied to humans and it’s something in which we should be aware of. All these things can help us steer away from the possibility of plagiarizing.