Blog Carnival

With the internet being a facilitator to so much information, sometimes it can get so overwhelming with where to find what we need. The Music Education Blog carnival is a collaboration, updated monthly, of various blogs, articles etc. dealing with music  technology and education, and everything in between. I found it to be a really interesting tool for consolidating resources in these fields.

http://mustech.net/2011/10/online-music-education-news-magazine/

Final Project. Technological Adaptations to Better Understand Reading Music

My matrix was based around a lesson plan that would be for teaching students the beginning steps in reading music. When starting a lesson such as this, it is important that the students can observe and have access to a staff easily. A traditional chalkboard can suffice but many times students can get lost or unfocused when only one staff is provided for an entire class, so instead I have arranged this lesson to be completed in a computer lab equipped with music notation software on each computer as well as a midi keyboard and midi software on each as well. Each computer will be prepared with a set of headphones and speakers to facilitate individual work when needed.

For the first portion of the lesson, students will be required to listen to a brief lecture explaining the staff and the order of the notes on the staff. At this point, each computer will be using the music notation software to facilitate a staff using the treble clef with each note-head and letter name corresponding to it so the students may observe, more closely and intimately, this concept. The teacher’s computer will also be hooked up to a projector so the students can make sure they are on track with their computers and software (or if any unforeseen technological difficulties arise, students will still have access to see the software in use and familiarize themselves with it). It is also important to note that each note on the staff can be clicked with the cursor to play it, so not only will speakers have to be provided for each computer, but the room itself must be equipped with a set of multimedia speakers for the teacher to model various sounds to the entire class.

The next portion of the lesson is dedicated towards analyzing how the notes work and relate with each other and how they operate on the piano and Orff instruments. Students will work in groups or pairs for this portion so they can acquaint themselves with the notes on the midi instruments (virtual instruments via Max MSP software will be available for students with any disabilities rendering them unable to use the midi instruments) with where they lie on the staff. A group discussion of this concept will follow so the teacher may assess that the students understand the relationship.

Finally, the last portion of the lesson will revolve around individual understanding and application of the concept. Students will be required to perform a C scale on their midi or virtual instruments with their headphones in, and students showing exceptional work may be recorded and modeled for the class (similar to the lesson in my last interactivity). The last few minutes of class, or even for homework if time does not permit, each student will have to create their own mnemonic sentence for the order of notes on the staff. The students can pick whether they want to create one giant sentence that includes the actual order of notes (EFGABCDEF), or if they’d rather create two separate sentences, one for lined notes (EGBDF), and one for spaced noted (FACE). These sentences will be typed in the provided text-editing program that is on the computer (more than likely Microsoft Word, Text Edit, or Pages) and print it for the teacher.

The technology in this lesson plan turns a beginning learning process of music into a collaborative and media friendly environment. Not only are the students learning to read music, but also they are indirectly learning how to work with computer software and technologies, like the midi instruments. To take the learning experience even further, students are also required to acquaint themselves with simple computer functionality such as opening up and navigating programs, using headphones, and powering up and shutting down the computer. Although the computer-centered learning is not the main goal of the lesson, it becomes an acquired knowledge in the end if these technologies are used with a plan of continuity.  Students are also faced with more decision-making and independence in this type of atmosphere. Because each student is equipped to individually view the content on their own computer, and it is also projected for the class to see, students can make the decision to follow along precisely with the teacher, or to learn independently on their own computer. This also facilitates students that may be ahead of the class as they can choose to explore the next level of the lesson. Students may also have the choice if they want to use the midi instruments or the virtual instruments (although ideally the virtual instruments should be more for students who are physically unable to coordinate their fingers on the midi instruments).

The technological adaptations to this lesson make the classroom a well-rounded learning environment as well as create a more democratic atmosphere for the students. It is often forgotten that curricula should cross-reference multiple literacies, including technology and media literacies, so they can relate to a wide variety of contexts. 

My Matrix

Is Face Recognition an Invasion of Privacy

Recently more and more corporate giants of the internet have been implementing face recognition options into their picture settings. They constantly emphasize how privacy issues should be no concern as it is completely safe and optional. However, I can't help but feel that the more public everyones' lives become, the less privacy is valued. Years ago taking a picture with someone meant that only a select few people would see it as it was just a picture, now we have come to accept that now a picture means that hundreds of thousands of people can have access to seeing us (whether we are tagged or not). I'm interested to know how other people view the devaluing of privacy due to these corporations, or if you feel that privacy has the same meaning as it did years ago.Here's the article for more info

Social Networks Recognizing Cried For Help.

Recently sites like Facebook have realized the need to recognize suicidal tendencies online and to take action with offering help. With cyber-bulying becoming such an epidemic I think it's great that Facebook and Google have implemented steps to recognize cries for help since these cries are often posted online in some way. This CNN article goes into detail about some of the things these corporations are doing to recognize and help those in distress and showing threats of suicide.http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/13/tech/web/facebook-google-suicide/index.html

A helpful site

I thought the videos we watched were really helpful as far as how copyright laws effect us as educators. I did find this site that breaks down copyright laws for music in general and also thought it was really informative without being overly wordy and hard to read (which I find most informational texts to be). This site is just an excerpt from an entire audio book but it really gives some good pointers and I think looking into the audio book in it's entirety may be of interest to any musician out there ESPECIALLY anyone interested in writing and performing music of any kind. I'm sure there are tons more site and resources like this too so if anyone wants to share, please do

http://www.legaljungleguide.com/resourc/musician/articles/musiccopyright.htm

Interactivity 5--Copyright and Fair Use

To start this activity, I did have to make a few changes to my original spreadsheet before I began the actual 5th interactivity which included actually explaining how the technologies would be used to facilitate learning in the class (as opposed to just having the technologies listed like I did before). Specifying these uses of technology actually made it easier and a smoother transition to start the ideas on fair use because once the intent of the use of technology is laid out in front of you, it's pretty easy to find out if fair use applies. For example, instead of just saying that a "recording of a piece using question and answer form will be played." under the technologies section, I specified that it would be played BECAUSE the students need to hear an example of the task they are being asked to complete. Now that the intent is clear, it's also clear to see that Fair Use applies to the task. As I continued to incorporate my new ideas into the spreadsheet, I realized that it's nice to know that there are still some things in place, like Fair Use, that are meant to help teachers teach. There are so many restrictions put on education that we should really appreciate every little thing in favor of us and our purpose. For the lesson plan I picked however, Fair Use would not protect a teacher to use most of the copyrighted technologies listed. For example, MIDI software and notation software (like Sibelius) is generally made to be used in schools and would thus not fall under fair use. Each computer in this lesson plan would have to have a legitimate subscription to these softwares. However, many manufacturers of these softwares will cut a teacher or a school a deal when purchasing in bulk, so it's not all bad news. There are free programs that exist that would serve these purposes but there may be a catch to them and must be watched closely. For example, Garage Band is a "free" software....sometimes. Garage Band is only free with a subscription of iLife, which happens to be free on most newer Apple computers. However, on an Apple computer without iLife (mostly older generations) Garage Band is not so free. It would not be acceptable to try to obtain a copy of Garage Band for free to put on an older Mac computer so that your students can use it. If a teacher did so desire to use Garage Band for free on a computer without iLife, they would have to contact Apple for permission. The same concept applies when a new version of Garage Band is created. As mentioned before, the only copyrighted technology that was completely protected in the plan was the portion of the recording that should be played for the students. I did not specify which piece to use because that part should be up to the individual teacher, but it would not matter. Fair Use protects a teacher so that he or she can use a portion of a piece for educational purposes, and since composing such a phrase is the point of the lesson, it falls well within the fair use guidelines, as does the time length needed since question and answer phrases are rarely longer than 30 seconds or 10% of an entire piece. I still think this lesson plan was a good one to pick, even though Fair Use didn't protect much of it. 

SpreadSheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Akf4uVeNWvtrdG0tcjQtQktfYTdSdEx2c0ZMQTVlUVE&hl=en_US&pli=1#gid=0

Technology in Opera

This isn't really new since it was over a year ago, but I just discovered this incredibly cool opera that MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) put on involving all sorts of outrageous music objects (including singing robots!!). The story line involves the antagonist, an inventor, essentially downloading himself into the physical world, and once that happens he is not seen anymore in the opera, but he is present in the objects he inhabits. I think this is a really abstract idea, not only because it uses all sorts of unheard of technologies that are incorporated into the opera, but the idea of one's self living on in physical objects is something I found interesting. Since this opera has been out for some time, I'm wondering if anyone has actually seen the opera, and if so, I'm curious to know if the technology they use actually serves a purpose to the opera and the story line itself or if it's really "gimmicky" and unnecessary.

 "Disembodied Performance"