Lessig

I love way Lessig began this chapter, both my brother and father are avid photographers and I was thrilled to read about the way photography began. Lessig explains that we as Americans are extremely fortunate that when Eastman created film that could be flexible that the courts allowed photographers to capture anything without required permission. With the invention by Eastman he allowed a whole new world to the average citizen, they were now allowed to capture a moment, a memory, or a person in a picture and hold it with them. As Lessig says this is the "first time in history there exists an authentic visual record of appearance and activities of the common man made without [literary] interpretation or bias". Film was the beginning to free expression via technology.

"Just Think" is an amazing group helping children learn a new way of expression. School has always taught through reading and writing, which can be fundamentals but as our society changes we need to be aware of ways to change learning. Every generation has different thought processes, and while technology is advancing so should our teaching skills. Teachers could benefit from using new technology to hold the childrens attention and this is exactly what "Just Think" accomplishes. While allowing children to express themselves through technology the eventually want to write to explain their expression which causes them to use literacy. Instead of literacy being the first priority, we are now allowing expression first and literacy follows in their explanation.

September 11 is no longer a regular fall day, it is now a day tagged with many emotions and fears. September 11 and our technology of the 21st Century allowed any American citizen to express their emotions. Blogging began and suddenly anyone could put their thoughts on the web for everyone to see, no longer making us rely on the television for news. Lessig explains that we see a more pure aspect of peoples opinions because what we read is not changed by a corporation who wants to end every story on a positive note. The only down fall to this expression is that now things are online forever, Lessig writes about a politician who misspoke and it will never leave the internet. Anything that is posted could follow us the rest of our lives.

Lessig compares generations and how they "tinker" to learn, people used to tinker with cars and now they tinker with technology. Open source software allows people to download and run programs, and then they can also "tinker with the code". A great example of an open source software that I use often is Mozilla Firefox which an individual can change to express their individuality.

As I finish the article I realize the biggest point in this chapter is expression and how technology has helped us express ourselves in more ways and more public. Living in America we are suppose to have freedoms and we began this article discussing our rights to express with photography. But Lessig concludes the article showing his concern that our government might be suppressing our teaching abilities, which is holding us back from the freedom we deserve.