Today I post to my blog for the 400th time. It has certainly taken me a little longer to post another 100 posts than it did in previous years (I posted my 300th post in April of 2008), but I am still thoroughly enjoying the blogging experience, and I thank you for taking some time out of your day to read this. I started this blog in September of 2006, and nearly three years later it is still a rewarding endeavor.
As many of you may know, for the past 18 months I have been the Managing Director of SoundTree, and it has been the most exciting part of my career thus far. I have traveled extensively across the country, speaking with educators about the integration of technology in music education. My blog has been a way to connect with these educators after my sessions are over, and it is quite rewarding to hear from them months later. I plan on continuing this effort for many years to come. I enjoy finding out about new products, websites, and innovative ways that educators are integrating technology into their music curricula. There is never a shortage of new content to blog about, and it is certainly a challenge to keep up with the ever ebbing tide of new technologies. I am always amazed by what I find, and by what fellow bloggers find as well. To anyone who has ever asked me: “How do you keep on top of all of this new technology?”, my answer remains: I read and write blogs. Hopefully you will too.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to comment over the past few years. Every blogger knows that it is comments (more importantly the discourse that comments foster) that drives us. Please keep them coming!
If you’ve been around the music education/technology blogosphere, you’ve probably heard of Andy Zweibel. Andy is a music education major at the University of Miami and is a member of the ME Blogger campaign started by Joe Pisano of MusTech.net. I first met Andy at FMEA this past January. He came to one of my sessions and was Tweeting throughout. I enjoy checking out Andy’s blog and many of his posts provide incredible insight into the perceptions of music education majors. Andy is a very enthusiastic music technology and future educator, and I know that we will be hearing wonderful things about him in the years ahead.
Recently, Andy started a terrific new website called MusicEdMajor.net. The mission of the site is to provide undergraduate music education majors with a place to gather online to blog about a wide variety of topics - many of which are yet to emerge. The site’s design is very slick, and Andy has created some highly interactive content already. During the MENC Music Education Week he was running a live blog feed throughout. Another testament that the youth know this stuff inside out, while people like us sit back and watch in amazement. I strongly urge you to check out his site, and more importantly, if you teach pre-service music educators recommend that they utilize during the semester to connect with other music education majors around the country. I know that this site will catch on, and I wish Andy the best of luck with it!
I am currently sitting on the Amtrak Regional Express heading to Washington DC for the 2009 NECC Conference. SoundTree is exhibiting (Booth #846) and is a part of the Digital Playground - demonstrating the incredible SoundBeam device. I will also be presenting at the SIGMT Meeting on Tuesday evening as a part of the Music Technology Gathering. The meeting will take place from 4:45pm–6:15pm in Room WWCC 154 B. Please stop by if you around. As always, I will be podcasting the session.
I always look forward to NECC. It is the largest gathering of educational technology professionals in the country, and I always find the sessions to be of the highest quality. There are hundreds and hundreds of vendors exhibiting, and it is great to get to see all of the new products that are available to educators. If you’ve never been, make arrangements to go next year in Denver. If you are at all interested in educational technology, it is the most important event of the year. I hope to see you there!
This weekend, MENC is hosting the first ever Music Technology Education Academy at the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Arlington, VA. The two-day event is filled with a wide variety of sessions on how technology can be effectively integrated into the school music curriculum. I have the honor of moderating the Opening Plenary session on Saturday morning at 9am on behalf of SoundTree. The session, titled The Case for Music Technology, includes a panel of three outstanding music technologists: Dr. Brian Moore from the University of Nebraska, Stefani Langol from Berklee College of Music, and Dr. Joe Pisano who runs the very popular MusTech.net. Our conversation will revolve around a few aspects of technology in the music classroom, including a rationale for incorporating technology, curricular integration ideas, how Web 2.0 cab be used with students, and new trends in music technology. The session will be podcast, as well as Twittered, using the hash #menc09. To listen to the podcast (which will be available by Sunday morning) click HERE. To follow the conversation live on Twitter, just search for #menc09 and you’ll be able to get live updates during the conversation. All of this information is posted at a special landing page created just for this event located at: www.soundtree.com/menc09.
I hope to see you all at the session. I plan on attending all of the sessions on Saturday. I am very interested to see how this new format that MENC is pursuing works. I wlecome your comments and suggestions.
Do you Twitter? I do. I’ve been on Twitter for almost a year now. The number one comment I hear from people who don’t Twitter is: “What are you doing? Who cares????”. For those of you who haven’t yet heard of Twitter it is a free micro-blog site that allows you to update your “followers” with brief, 140-character status updates that you can create from a wide variety of software programs, including things like Twitterific for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can also follow a wide variety of very interesting people. Some measure their culutural significance by the number of followers they have. People like Stephen Johnson (one of my favorite authors) and Evan Williams (founder of Twitter) have hundreds of thousands of followers, and others have a few hundred. Many companies (such as SoundTree) have created Twitter feeds to stay in touch with their customers. Twitter is playing a very important role in our wired culture, often having important political and social significance (especially when current events are happening in real time). I find so much incredible information about music technology on Twitter. You can check out some of the people that I follow to see where I find my information. Following someone is as simple as clicking on “Follow Me” and you’ll instantly have access to their “feed”. Creating an account takes about 2 minutes. Soon you’ll be using Twitter jargon - re-tweeting, creating hashes, and more. Be careful, you just might get addicted to this incredible site.
What are the educational implications of Twitter? Can you see using it with your students? Do you use it with your students? What if your students were Twittering live during your lectures or classes? What lessons could be learned if your students were required to follow a famous author or musician? What if your students assumed the identity of a famous musician or composer and created a Twitter feed for them? Who do you follow? I’d love to hear the kinds of things you do with your students. I personally believe that Twitter has incredible potential in education. I only wish that I were still teaching middle school - I have so many ideas for how to use it with my former students.
As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions. And please, take a minute to follow me.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has recently launched a new website dedicated to providing educators with a comprehensive approach to teaching students about copyright. The site, called simply Teaching Copyright, provides lesson plans, handouts, and online resources to help students (and teachers) understand how copyright law effects them and the media that they encounter on a daily basis. Here is a quote from their site about their mission:
The Teaching Copyright curriculum is a detailed, customizable learning plan to help educators raise interesting questions about copyright, technology, and law, such as:
* What is legal online?
* How is creativity being enabled by new technologies?
* What digital rights and responsibilities exist already, and what roles do we play as users of digital technology?
Through the Teaching Copyright curriculum, students and teachers will learn the answers to these questions and come to a greater understanding about the role of technology in our lives.
The site includes a Curriculum page complete with 5 units covering various aspects of copyright law geared toward high school students. The downloadable resources are wonderful, and I think that every teacher interested in copyright law should bookmark the site and send colleagues there as well. Because the EFF has created the site, users can be sure that there is definitely an agenda behind the curriculum that leans toward copyright reform as well as taking full advantage of Fair Use guidelines. It is a perfect site to counter similar sites set up by organizations such as the RIAA. I must admit that personally I appreciate the approach that Teaching Copyright takes over the RIAA approach.
I recommend checking out both resources and deciding for yourself which to use with your students. It could be a great project to have students compare and contrast the messaging on each site. Teaching copyright in the 21st Century is becoming more and more of an essential subject - especially when the students we teach are effected by it so deeply.
While at the MIT Media Lab last week, I saw a strange looking pencil in the Lifelong Kindergarten area of the lab with a small sign that said “Drawdio”. That was it. Our guide at the time was unsure exactly what it did, but upon entering the name in Google, I came across a website created by some of the students in the lab with a great little YouTube video that explains exactly what Drawdio is. In a nutshell, it is a pencil that let’s you draw music. With the help of an ingenious little circuit board, a thumb tack, some copper tape, and a pencil, you can turn anything into a theremin.
You can buy a kit to build your own Drawdio device - so I did just that (it’s only $19.95). With the help of my friend John (I am terrible at soldering) we followed the instructions and built the device in just under an hour. It worked right away. The device sends a low voltage current through your body (a AAA battery) and the distance between the pencil and your finger (connected through some type of material that conducts electricity - like graphite and water) completes the circuit and creates a pitch. The closer the points are, the highre the pitch. It is a great little project for you if you are into music and electronics. I am thoroughly enjoying playing with Drawdio (when my kids will let me have it).
Last night I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with 15 teachers who are a part of the 10th class offered by the South Carolina Music Technology Institute. The project was started in 2000 by Dr. Patricia Foy, who teaches at Converse College in Spartanburg, SC. Dr. Tim Brimmer and Dr. Foy created the original course curriculum (Dr. Brimmer taught at the Institute for a few summers) and now both Dr. Foy and Steve Rummage - a great teacher and fellow technology proponent - teach the course. The model of the program is fantastic, and should be replicated throughout the country. Teachers from around the state submit a grant application, and if selected, receive a complete music technology system so that they can use it to help teach their students in the coming school year. The students spend 7 days learning how to set up a PC-based music technology system (complete with a computer, USB MIDI keyboard, powered speakers, and software), and how to use a variety of software titles that are selected based on the level taught (K-5/MS/HS). Patti and Steve teach the teachers not only how to use software such as Sibelius 6, Music Ace Maestro, Musition, the Groovy titles, and productivity software; but also how to teach with music with them. Provided the teachers complete the curriculum they are then able to keep their setup so that they can bring the technology back into their classrooms.
I was around last night to help the teachers put their systems together. They were all very excited with the new gear and I know that they will all do great things with it to help students learn about music. This morning I will have the chance to speak with the students, and I am looking forward to it. SoundTree has been involved with this program from its inception, and I look forward to staying involved with it for many years to come. The project is funded by a grant and through the hard work and dedication of both Patti & Steve, I think it will run for many years to come.
This past Wednesday, I had the distinct pleasure of taking a tour of the MIT Media Lab along with my co-worker with the incredible Tod Machover serving as our guide. Seeing the inside of this building has always been a dream of mine, and I was not disappointed. The MIT Media Lab houses a unique program where graduate students from various disciplines join specific research groups, focusing their talents on one goal (though many might emerge from their work). So many incredible innovations have been born at the MIT Media Lab, especially within the wireless technology, Internet, robotics, and gaming worlds. Perhaps one of the most famous innovations to come out of the lab in recent years is the wildly popular GuitarHero game, which spun off to RockBand. In short, there is no shortage of creativity flowing through the building at any time. It is an exciting place to say the least.
We visited Tod Machover’s research group called Opera of the Future. When we entered their area of the lab, we were met by many fabulous instruments and innovations, all being actively worked on by a set of brilliant students. I won’t go into any specifics about the types of things the students were working on, but needless to say, my face hurt from smiling. I really look forward to seeing Tod’s project come to fruition. He is an incredible composer and visionary thinker on the role that technology can play in music making. After a tour of his area, Tod took us around the rest of the lab and all I kept saying was “wow”. To write specifically on everything we saw would take volumes, but there is a wonderful page on the MIT Media Lab site that has links to all of the research groups with tons of multimedia presentations on the projects the students are currently working on. Everything in that lab has potential to be on the shelves for consumers, and I am sure that quite a few things will make it - in about 5 years. I’m not sure that society is ready for everything I saw. but I sure am. Our lives in the future will be even more intertwined with technology, and the students in this program are the ones writing the framework for the future right now. I hope that in your future you have an opportunity to see what I saw last Wednesday. I am looking forward to going back to the lab in the near future. Perhaps I should head up there now…
The folks at MakeMusic announced the chance to pre-order latest version of the well-known notation software program, Finale. I have used Finale since the 2.0 days, and I must say, every single year the product gets better and better! Finale 2010 has a very impressive range of new features and every Finale user will love the upgrade. I am always really impressed with what the engineers at MakeMusic come up with. The program has been around for more than 20 years and the product has grown with their huge user-base. Here are some of the new features of 2010:
Easier percussion notation: it’s never been easier to create percussion parts with Finale. They’ve simplified the process with drag & drop functionality.
Chords: you can now change notes within a chord without changing the symbol.
More Garritan Sounds: improve the playback of all of your Finale scores with an expanded sound palette from the folks at Garritan.
Automatic Rehearsal Marks: the improved keyboard shortcuts will make creating all types of rehearsal marks even easier.
Music Education Worksheets: choose from 300 ready-made worksheets designed specifically for music educators, or create your own!
Improved Graphics Support: you can now export your Finale files as JPEGs and PNGs and import JPEGs, PNGs and BMPs.
Improved VST/AU Support: Finale 2010 now works with all third-party VST/AU Instruments and effects.
These features are truly exciting, and I know that all Finale users will love what MakeMusic has given them in this fantastic update. To keep updating every year and continue to satisfy their most loyal customers is an amazing feat, and Finale keep getting better year after year. I strongly recommend checking out the Finale site for yourself to find out even more features that aren’t listed here. No release date has been published yet, but a free demonstration copy of the software will be available for download in the near future.
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