Lecture Notes.

Online lecture given by James Humberstone.

• New Technologies, advent of social media.

• Disruptive Education, Wikipedia: "Disruptive Innovation" 

• Technologies that change things. Especially in junior pupils. These students have grown up in a world with screens practically everywhere, we as music educators will need to cater to their needs. Using technologies in the best possible way.

• Innovation and disruption:

  • 25% of the Australian population have a bachelors degree

  • 39% of the Australian population went to private schools

  • 27% of the Australian population did not finish the final year of schooling, year twelve

  • 20% of the Australian population finish their education at year twelve, do not go further than that.

  • 50% of the Australia public get their only education at Secondary School.

• Communicate

• Learn 

• Search 

  • What does this mean for current education and what does it hold for future education?

• As Mitra said we can "self teach" with a single computer and internet connection!

• Fortunately, with technology today, we have a mini computer in our pockets everywhere we go. We can learn a new language when we want and where ever we want.

• "Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer...Should be" - Arthur C.Clarke

• "Filter Bubble: I liked everything I saw on Facebook for two days" - Written by Mat Honan. More information here: http://www.wired.com/2014/08/i-liked-everything-i-saw-on-facebook-for-two-days-heres-what-it-did-to-me/ 

• Interested in more? "As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy." Eli Pariser

  •  http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles?language=en

Week 2 (week starting 3rd August

During this week in Technology in Music Education, we explored different notation software. We focused on Sibelius, but explored other programs such as Musescore and Noteflight. Notation software is used by most students who compose in stage 6, so a thorough understanding of one of the leading titles (Sibelius or Finale) is required. In addition, teachers need to be able to create their own resources, often exporting notation as graphics into other computer programs. Students will consider how to deliver digital resources in new formats such as interactive eBooks and HTML5 websites. 

In the following class, as a group we worked on producing polished recordings of acoustic instruments (focus on HSC composition recordings), mixes of acoustic and VIs. 

Week 3 (week starting 10th August)

Skills 4. It’s all about the format.

Understanding different image, video and audio formats. Why MIDI isn’t audio. Creating quality and legal resources. Making software tutorial videos and video editing in Screenflow. Combining these formats in iBooks Author.

This week also looks at essential digital tools for GTD.

Teaching with technology. Design and Instructional Design. Aural drilling and music theory.

Introducing the flipped classroom of the 21st Century, or the MOOC of the future. Which is your preferred BL? Hours of classroom time and improved differentiation can be achieved through use of these latest technologies. However, teachers can also cancel out a lot of their own good work through poor instructional design.

Gamification and game-based learning in music education, with guest lecturer Rebecca Ly.

Week 4 (week starting 17th August) 

Filming and recording with Musica Viva

Making the content for Assignment 1 with one of Musica Viva’s in-schools ensembles, Pastance.

1-to-1 computing focusing on laptops in Music Education.

The options with Mac and Windows laptops. Freeware and open source. LMSes. Copyright issues.

Tablet computing and BYOD.

iPad or iFad? Many schools are investing in these new devices and little research has been done on possible benefits in education. A review of the research that is out there, and a live Google Hangout conference with experts in the field.

Reflection for assignment 2, arrange a piece of your own choice combining studied pedagogies.

For the first assignment in the subject Composition in Music Education, we were given the task to arrange a piece or a song, for children in the classroom, combining the two learnt educational approaches. Orff approach and Creative Music Movement approach of the 1960s and 70s were to be integrated into our arrangement. We were to use this “formulae” to create a hybrid pedagogy and arrangement. 

After research into these educational approaches, I found a piece which catered for both. 

I chose the theme from the film The Imitation Game (2015). Music composed by Alexandre Desplat, this piece has a very important recurring ostinati throughout. This piece is also extremely repetitive, which means that learning this in a classroom will not be a great challenge. I have catered for a wide range of abilities and instruments. 

As we could be in any classroom setting with a range of instruments and abilities, this arrangement is also a mixed bag arrangement, an arrangement that will work well with any range of instruments. 

To arrange this piece as a mixed bag arrangement, I listened to all parts of the piece and divide them into several important  parts. Melody, harmony, bass, percussion and piano were my main parts. I have transposed parts for instruments such as the clarinet and trumpet. 

The structure of this piece is simple, and I’ve simplified the structure and melody lines to make it as easy as possible to be learnt by rote. There is the main theme, three different sections, then the return of the main theme. As I did mention, this piece is repetitive and all sections are extremely repetitive, which means they are all easily learnt by rote.  I have included an improvisation section before the main theme returns towards the end of the piece. This 4 bar (with repeat) improvisation section has the bass (bodun) integrated into it, which will help students when forming their improvisation. 

Online Diary entries/Reflections. Task 1: Design and create digital resources for a unit of work for a specified stage of student. ALL RESOURCES: http://tiny.cc/smctme15 (Printable/downloadable)

Entry 1:

Righty! So, for the first task in Technology in Music Education, we have been given the opportunity to create professional resources with one of Musica Viva’s TOP ensembles and professional musicians, Pastance.

We were specifically asked to create this over iBooks Author. This program comes with all apple computers (macs and mac desktop computers) It is downloadable (free of charge) from the App Store. I have never worked with this program before! It was a fun couple of days/weeks figuring out what was what, how all these different options work, and how to customise basically everything.

There is a wonderful tab on iBooks Author called ‘Widgets’. This is FANTASTIC. What a way to incorporate interactive presentations into iBooks! My mind was filling up with ideas about how iI could put lessons onto iBooks and make it interactive. Interactive learning!! 

Now to think about what to do for this assignment!

Over and out. 

Entry 2:

My resource must integrate the three learning experiences per the NSW Syllabus.

At the moment my ideas for the three learning experiences:

       Performing: Performing Xylophone Arrangement of the Skye Boat Song. 

       Composing: Composing melody and harmony in over existing accompaniment. Improvisation component here too maybe?

       Listening: Musicological analysis of the Skye Boat Song. Listening to Covers of the song? Analysis through concepts? 

Now I need to make sure that all of these LINK in SOME way. More thinking is needed to go into this.

Back to my exploration with iBooks Author...

       I have fugured out how to insert my own photos for backgrounds. AMAZING! Learnt something new. I have chosen the template                      'Contemporary' for my iBook. Looked the best for me and what I am aiming to achieve. I liked the layout. 

  Media

    I had to devote an entire day to downloading content from the Music Viva recording morning. Took a while if I may say! Once that was all     over I went on to look at the content I downloaded and started to think a little more deeper into WHAT it was that I am wanting to do.

    Should i use recordings? Video and Audio? Both? How long should they be? Should i add effects to them? Which ones?!      

    I had a play around again in garage band and iMovie. I added some effects to the ZOOM recordings in GarageBand. With the Video                 recordings I edited the bits I wanted in iMovie. iMovie (having used it before) was quick and easy to do. I was quite happy with the                   outcome for the first video I recorded. 

Entry 3:

Wonderful! We are now experiencing problems. I knew they would pop up somewhere. 

The distress!! I had the pleasure of experiencing extreme frustration when trying to sync up the ZOOM recording with the accompanying

video! Such fun.

I eventually found the easy way of doing it after a very long hour. I did very nearly throw my laptop off my balcony. 

In other news, I have found a lovely picture of mine to use as my background! I was on a boat at the time, so I thought it went well with the content!