Writing Transcripts

To help me get started on the chapters I decided to start working on the transcripts for the videos. I have started with the introduction, telling students what they will be doing in the iBook. I try to keep the videos short and to the point.

Introduction:

“Choose a song you really like. You are going to be re-arranging this song as a jazz song. At the end of the project you will need to hand in a Garage Band recording. You will also work in groups as a class to do live performances of each of your arrangements.”

The second video explains that students need to work out the basics of their own choice song in order to get started:

“The first thing you need to do is break down your song. Find the chords, and record them as block chords into Garage Band to check them. Work out the melody and record this over the top.”

I would then include videos to guide students through this process.

This is a sort of introduction to the next step in the process:

“So how do you make this sound like jazz? In this book we will go through three famous jazz songs to help you. You are encouraged to listen to any jazz, particularly other recordings by the artists referred to in this resource.”

Organisation

Having established my design for my pages, I started brainstorming what should be on the pages, and how I would split up the task into steps. I am currently thinking the following chapters:

• Introduction
• Structure
• Chords
• Instruments
• Rhythm??
• Score
• Recording

In each section, students will do activities to help them analyse the element in the set pieces, and then move on to apply that knowledge to their arrangement. Each section would have at least one instructional video. I am planning to use the ‘review’ widget as an interactive way for students to engage in activities, for example students could label chords.

I will need to have some kind of transcription of the study pieces for students to make these activities. I couldn’t find a version with exactly what I wanted just by searching, so I have started the process of writing my own transcription of “Summertime”. I had to select a version, so I am using this version by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong:

In my transcription I am trying to be as accurate as possible to the rhythm and pitch used in this version, rather than having a standard lead sheet. This has proved quite difficult, as the rhythms are very loose.

Tying it Up

In teaching, we should always be teaching with technology, rather than about technology. It is a tool, something that we can use to greatly enhance the learning of our students if we do it right. In the words of James Humberstone, it is “not the technology itself, but the barrier to knowledge, and maybe even creativity, that technology has broken down” (2016) that matters. As teachers, we need to remember the purpose the technology serves, making sure it is always an educational one.

We discussed the issue of the digital native / digital immigrant. We agreed this is basically just a myth, certainly something that is backed up in my own experiences. When on teaching prac, I was actually surprised by the students’ lack of knowledge of some basic computer functions, for example making a table in word, or using Ctrl S to save their documents. Some of them were capable of much more advanced functions, but my guess is they did not get these basics, which I was taught back in primary school (all the way back in the mid 2000s). This backs up the idea that the only difference between generations is their experiences and how they have been taught, there is no innate ability to understand technology. This is great, because it means we can all learn if we have an open mind and want to!

We touched on ideas of how assessment is approach in schools. Trigwell believes that “all children know how to do deep learning. They learn surface learning when we bring in assessment” (2013). Children will automatically create meaning from their own interactions with the world around them, that is how we work as a species.

Sugata Mitra illustrates this perfectly in his experiments. His basic concept was to leave a computer for students to access with certain information and go away. From this, students in third world countries have been able to teach themselves English, and learn what we consider to be incredibly complex concepts with no teacher or additional help. All Mitra would sometimes do is use what he called the ‘Grandmother technique’, where he would say things like “Oh, I couldn’t have done that when I was your age” to encourage the children to keep learning when they felt stuck. From this he has created a SOLE (self-organised learning environment) Toolkit for self-driven learning.

This example perfectly illustrates children’s innate curiosity to learn about new things, something we currently manage to squash out of them in the school system it seems.

 

Design

I started work on my iBook. I learned something very useful this semester, which is that you can actually change the layout templates, rather than having to change each individual screen. So I figured it would be easiest to sort out the basic design before working on the pages. I selected a design with a format which I thought would work well with videos, and set about changing the background images.

I used pixabay to ensure any images I used were free of copyright or any associated issues. I have selected Image 1 for my background, and Image 2 for the ‘chapter’ backgrounds, as the text is on the left so I needed more of the image to be on the right side of the page.

Image 1

Image 2

An page with an instructional or tutorial video will look like this:

I will use the box on the left to put some bullet points summarising the main points in the video, for easy reference.

Mobile Phones in Education

It seems wrong, that we hand students a device with access to almost infinte information, and then ban them from using it during class time. And yet, for most of my schooling it was definitely not allowed for us to have our phones out in class. My friend experienced a similar thing on prac, where she had allowed students to use their phones to look up the lyrics for a song they were learning for class, and yet the teacher questioned why they should be allowed to have their phones out.

Students know what information is available to them on their phones, they know what they can learn there. How can we possibly ask them to switch off and learn from a textbook after that? Why read multiple paragraphs of information to answer a few questions when you could Google it? Why do we insist on forcing often out-of-date technology on children rather than letting them use what they already have, and know how  to use?

Schools regularly appropriate technology for their own uses, which makes sense. However we don’t always choose the right technology, and don’t make use of what students already have. If you are in a classroom where every child has a phone, why not make use of them? It’s not that they should constantly have access to the point of not listening to the teacher. But quite simply they will not be engaged in having to read things and take in information that they know they can easily find on their phones and other devices. They have developed a sense of entitlement based on the technology they are familiar with, and will not like being forbidden from using it.

There are plenty of ways of engaging students in the technology they are familiar with, without allowing them to waste time and become distracted. The example at the beginning, of looking up lyrics for a song, is a very simple start.

 

 

 

What Makes a Good Presentation?

From an early age we make PowerPoint presentations for school. The typical format I and many of my classmates at school used, was a page, probably with an image, and bullet points of text summarising the key points. In presentation I would elaborate on the points presented on the slide. In looking back at my work, it seems I would even put whole sentences on a slide (example from a Stage 4 geography assignment below). I would, however, talk for the entire presentation, so what was the point of the text on the slides? I had always thought the text reinforced my key points for the audience, but maybe I was wrong there.

Research suggests that in fact we can’t actually process something we are hearing at the same time as reading. So all those times I have text on my slides, people have to choose to either read that, OR listen to me. I’ve payed closer attention after learning about this, and realised I usually zone out the speaker for a moment while I quickly skim the slide as it comes up, then tune back in. This is therefore not the most effective way of communicating information, I could have just missed something important the presenter said.

Do I think we should get rid of slides completely? Definitely not. But they do need to complement what you want to say, not drown it out. One of the best ways to do this is with images and diagrams. If you can find visual ways of enhancing the information you are communicating this is ideal. Here are some examples from James Humberstone’s lecture slides for this course:

If you want to have text that’s fine too, but allow your audience time to read it. For example, I recently presented on some research I am working on. I wanted my audience to read my research questions, rather than just hear them. So I didn’t say them at all. I put up the slide and asked my audience to read them. To make sure I allowed enough time, I read them myself, had a small pause and then continued on. This allowed my audience to fully engage when I was speaking, rather than being distracted by the text.

Developing Ideas

I have finalised my decision to make this resource in the form of an iBook. I did want to consider other ways of presenting the information, however the only other option I came up with was a website. I felt this would not be as suitable for my prac school, as we often wasted time trying to make the iPads connect to the WiFi and on occasion didn’t succeed.

I have also been thinking about what the best way to take students through the process is. I am planning to use a few (maybe three) pieces as ‘set pieces’ for the project, which students will study. What they learn during their study will guide their decisions on how to arrange their song of choice. For example, I will have a section where they will look at the structures used in the set pieces, after which they will need to come up with their own structure. They would do similar activities with chords, and with instrumentation.

I am thinking of using “Summertime” as one of these pieces, as it is, as far as I’m aware, one of the most well known jazz songs, and therefore something students may recognise. For the other pieces I will look for things that maybe sound a little different, and use different instrumentation so students can make decisions about their preference for their own arrangements.

Making Beats (Live?)

There are many sites out there that can be used for creating drum beats. This blog will only discuss a few of them.

We started working with Drumbit. I had a lot of fun playing around with this, and seeing what I could come up with just by completely randomly clicking boxes, creating patterns, or by writing my initials. I could set them on different loops, and have different things at once, so I could also make a more serious attempt and creating a drum beat loop. There are a number of positive things about this. One is that, according to Humberstone’s findings, it works well on all devices as long as you use a chrome browser. One potential downside is that it is limited to 4/4, though in most cases this is likely to be genre appropriate to music that uses a drum machine.

Random

Pattern

Initials

Currently FLStudio is only available in Windows, and as such I have not been able to try it. However I believe it will soon be available for Mac, which would be ideal for any BYOD school. The added bonus here is that multiple time signatures are possible, allowing for further student creativity.

 

These drum machine programs could be used to meet a range of educational outcomes. Students can learn important features about music, for example where to put the bass drum and snare.

O-generator shows a different way of thinking about a bar, using a circle / clock format.

This allows students to think about beats and bars in a different format, trying things differently. It also incorporates notes and chords, which the drum machines discussed above do not.

 

Scores and Recording

I have been giving some thought to what students will submit at the end of the project. Do they need to make a score? Does it need to be a live recording?

It depends on the individual group of students, but I am aiming this project at approximately year 10 standard. For compositions, the syllabus does not require notation until Stage 6, however given that year 10 students be close to that, I think it is a good time to start expecting scores. I am working on the basis that all students would have some knowledge of notation, but want to be aware that they may not be confident. I recently discovered the ‘score’ feature in Garage Band, so think I may make use of that to help students convert their ideas to notation.

I am generally all in favour of students making live recordings of their compositions and arrangements on real instruments, but don’t think that is entirely possible given this task. I think instrumentation is a big part of what makes the genre, and so to properly understand it students need to be using mostly instruments associated with jazz in their arrangement. I am thinking of a compromise, where they may use Garage Band software instruments for any instrument they wish to use that they do not have access to. As much as possible, they are encouraged to work with their classmates to help each other record. As there will be vocals, these must of course be recorded. I think I will make the rule that the student must record one of the parts themselves, and do an improvised solo as part of their arrangement. Even if they play an instrument less common in jazz (e.g. violin, flute, oboe), instruments can generally be adapted as long as the rest of the ensemble is stylistically appropriate.

Synthesizers

This is a very new field for me. I have never really explored this way of making sounds using electricity. Our first activity was to make a simple synthesizer by piecing together a few pieces of a kit. We then got a number of other pieces including features to add delay, a keyboard and a sequencer. We also explored how a second oscillator allows us to control pitch and rhythm among other ideas.

Check out the video which I tweeted!

I may not remember all the specific details of how the pieces work, but I definitely have a much better understanding of how a synthesizer works. For me, one of the most interesting parts was the envelope, which allows you to control attack and decay. A more sophisticated envelope would also allow the control of sustain and release. These four elements (ADSR) are a bit part of how we control our sounds as acoustic musicians, and it is interesting to me seeing how the same things are controlled electronically.

The sounds we were working with were a single frequency, based on a certain shape of wave (we could swap between square and saw waves). An acoustic instrument creates a whole range of frequencies based on the harmonic series, which ultimately control the tone of the note. The ‘pitch’ we hear is the fundamental note.

We then went on to explore building a synth from smaller pieces, actually connecting all the wires into a board ourselves. It still fascinates me how a battery, when connected with the appropriate wires and into a speaker can create sound!

This lesson was inspired by the maker movement, an idea where people get together sharing resources, knowledge and ideas to make stuff. Initially this seemed to primarily suit STEM fields, however the role of the artist is becoming increasingly important in the design and creativity of what is to be made.