the problem with Project Tuva

To quote Wikipedia:

"Project Tuva is a venture between Microsoft Research and Bill Gates designed to teach people about the "core scientific concepts" using interactive media. At its inception, it included the Richard Feynman The Messenger Lectures on video, with expert commentary. Gates saw the lectures when he was younger, and he enjoyed learning about these concepts, and hoped to make them available to others. He also hopes that this will help encourage others to make other educational content available for free."   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Tuva

I went and checked out the first Feynman lecture, and look forward to some day finding the time to listen in full.  

The lectures are delivered in Silverlight, and are presented with a presentation layer that includes searching of the transcript (with jumping to place in the video matching the search term), and extras such as contextual photos and information.

Where I'm concerned that the Project Tuva vision falls short is that the videos seem to be stuck within the player.  I could not find a way to link the video, or grab short chunks of the videos so that I could mashup and re-publish the content.

We've been debating on campus the future of lecture capture.  Some very smart folks (not me) have made the argument for separating capture from presentation.  The Project Tuva experience tends to support this view.  It seems that lectures are valuable only when we can do something active with them, when we can grab parts, mashup up, and re-publish.   

For all the wonderfulness of Gates and Microsoft Research securing the rights to the lectures and putting them out for the world to see I'm afraid this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the learning process.

Perhaps I'm wrong, and the Project Tuva player will allow active learning.  Or maybe they will be moving in this direction.  I certainly hope this will be the case.

I also hope that we don't make the same mistake with how we choose to share our lectures, and build the system from the ground-up to allow active learning through mashing, remixing and publishing.