music

Many students complain that online-based learning doesn’t engage them. Well, check this idea out! [Christian]

On 10/22/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, Adobe, Apple, architecture, art, attention, biology, business side of he, career development, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, drama/theater, economics, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, engineering, entrepreneurship, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future, game-changing environment, geography / geology, global / globalization, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, journalism, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, love of learning, maker movement, mathematics, media/film, Michigan, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, music, online learning, online media, participation, passions, photography, platforms, project-based learning, reinvent, research, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, writing, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

From DSC…by the way, another title for this blog could have been:

WIN-WIN situations all around! The Theatre Departments out there could collaborate with other depts/disciplines to develop highly engaging, digitally-based learning experiences!

The future of drama and the theatre — as well as opera, symphonies, and more — will likely include a significant virtual/digital component to them. While it’s too early to say that theatre needs to completely reinvent itself and move “the stage” completely online, below is an idea that creates a variety of WIN-WIN situations for actors, actresses, stage designers, digital audio/video editors, fine artists, graphic designers, programmers, writers, journalists, web designers, and many others as well — including the relevant faculty members!

A new world of creative, engaging, active learning could open up if those involved with the Theatre Department could work collaboratively with students/faculty members from other disciplines. And in the end, the learning experiences and content developed would be highly engaging — and perhaps even profitable for the institutions themselves!

[DC: I only slightly edited the above image from the Theatre Department at WMU]

Though the integration of acting with online-based learning materials is not a new idea, this post encourages a far more significant interdisciplinary collaboration between the Theatre Department and other departments/disciplines.

Consider a “Dealing with Bias in Journalism” type of topic, per a class in the Digital Media and Journalism Major.

Students from the Theatre Department work collaboratively with the students from the most appropriate class(es?) from the Communications Department to write the script, as per the faculty members’ 30,000-foot instructions (not 1000-foot level/detailed instructions)
Writing the script would entail skills involved with research, collaboration, persuasion, creativity, communication, writing, and more
The Theatre students would ultimately act out the script — backed up by those learning about sound design, stage design, lighting design, costume design, etc.
Example scene: A woman is sitting around the kitchen table, eating breakfast and reading a posting — aloud — from a website that includes some serious bias in it that offends the reader. She threatens to cancel her subscription, contact the editor, and more. She calls out to her partner why she’s so mad about the article.
Perhaps there could be two or more before/after scenes, given some changes in the way the article was written.
Once the scenes were shot, the digital video editors, programmers, web designers, and more could take that material and work with the faculty members to integrate those materials into an engaging, interactive, branching type of learning experience.
From there, the finished product would be deployed by the relevant faculty members.

[DC: Above images from the Theatre Department at WMU]

Colleges and universities could share content with each other and/or charge others for their products/content/learning experiences. In the future, I could easily see a marketplace for buying and selling such engaging content. This could create a needed new source of revenue — especially given that those large auditoriums and theaters are likely not bringing in as much revenue as they typically do.

Colleges and universities could also try to reach out to local acting groups to get them involved and continue to create feeders into the world of work.

Other tags/categories could include:

MOOCs
Learning from the Living[Class]Room
Multimedia / digital literacy — tools from Adobe, Apple, and others.
Passions, participation, engagement, attention.
XR: Creating immersive, Virtual Reality (VR)-based experiences
Learning Experience Design
Interaction Design
Interface Design
…and more

Also see:

What improv taught me about failure: As a teacher and academic — from scholarlyteacher.com by Katharine Hubbard

In improv, the only way to “fail” is to overthink and not have fun, which reframed what failure was on a grand scale and made me start looking at academia through the same lens. What I learned about failure through improv comes back to those same two core concepts: have fun and stop overthinking.
…
Students are more engaged when the professor is having fun with the materials (Keller, Hoy, Goetz, & Frenzel, 2016), and teaching is more enjoyable when we are having fun ourselves.

Creating a split-screen music video – The Dos and Don’ts — from global-edtech.com by Levent Erdogan
Levent Erdogan shares his experience producing split-screen music videos.

Two articles from Donald Clark re: 1) Attention & 2) Transfer

On 10/05/2020, in adult learning, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, higher education, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, memory, motivation, music, UK, universities, by Daniel Christian

Pay attention! Attention is a necessary condition for learning experience design, but poorly understood… — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Excerpts:

Attention is to selectively focus your mind and effort on that which has to be learned. Attention matters as it is what manages new data that has to be processed in working memory. Focused attention narrows down input from sensory memory and your recall knowledge from long-term memory. At any moment in time attention is what determines what is processed. We must always be aware that attention is the bottleneck through which everything must go in learning, first into working memory, then if you successfully learn, into long-term memory. The selective nature of attention is what regulates and limits cognitive overload.

So, over a century of research has shown that attention is not one thing but a very complex phenomena. We select inputs, interpretations of those inputs, then select plans of action and actions themselves. Attention is tied up with motivation, interest, feelings and ultimately action. It is the basecamp for understanding how learning experiences should be designed.

From DSC:
Interest…motivation…this is why I’m a big fan of offering learners more choice. More control.

Transfer – why is it ignored? Here’s how to fix it… — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Excerpt:

You must design with transfer in mind and blends or learning journeys must move learning forward towards action, towards doing, towards practice and performance. No matter how much training you deliver, it can be illusory in the sense of not leading to transfer from cognitive change to actual performance, which in turn has impact on the organisation.

Doing and Practice are experiences. In fact without doing or practice it is unlikely to be retained long-term. Your design must move from experiences that match whatever type of learning you need, cognitive, psychomotor and affective, but practice and application experiences also matter. Your design should provide transfer pathways towards mastery, through actual doing and practice in the formal learning as well as practice and extension activities beyond the initial learning experiences.

“God shall wipe every tear from their eyes” | Our dad sings a song based on Revelation 21.4

On 09/23/2020, in Daniel S. Christian, faith, future, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, ideas, music, surviving, by Daniel Christian

⁴‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death’^[a] or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵He who was seated on the throne said,
“I am making everything new!” Then he said,
“Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

From DSC:
Our dad, in his younger days, used to sing a song with Revelation Verse 21:4 in it. It was a beautiful piece that he had recorded years ago. That recording recently resurfaced, and our family is glad that we located it again. (Our dad sang quite a bit throughout his lifetime, and still likes to recall/sing some tunes. He and our mom met in college, both studying within the School of Music.)

Anyway, that song will likely be played at one or more of the funerals within our family in the near future. Any day now we could get “that call.” Or, if we’re lucky enough, we’ll be able to be present with him when he passes away (though Covid19 is making that very difficult these days).

Add to these experiences the recent loss of a dear, lifelong friend to cancer — and I’ve once again been reminded of the brevity of our lives. These reflections bring a couple more verses to my mind…

From DSC:
If you doubt that last sentiment/lesson, watch a different version of this song, from a present-day recording.

Time flies. So as our mom would say, “Carpe Diem!” (i.e., “Seize the day!”)

DC: For those involved in Theatre, here’s to such innnovation in the future!

On 08/21/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, attention, career development, change, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, drama/theater, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, future, higher education, ideas, innovation, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, media/film, multimedia, music, online learning, participation, platforms, programming, project-based learning, real-world assignments, remote teaching and learning, society, storytelling, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web design and production, web-based collaboration, writing, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

From edsurge.com today:

THOROUGHLY MODERN MEDIA: This spring, a college theater course about women’s voting rights aimed to produce a new play about the suffrage struggle. When the pandemic scuttled those plans, professors devised a new way to share suffragist stories by creating an interactive, online performance set in a virtual Victorian mansion. And their students were not the only ones exploring women’s voting rights as the country marks the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment.

…which linked to:

The Pandemic Made Their Women’s Suffrage Play Impossible. But the Show Went on— Virtually — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpts:

Then the pandemic hit. Students left Radford and Virginia Tech. Live theater was canceled.

But the class wasn’t.

“Neither of us ever said, ‘Forget it,’” Hood says. “Our students, they all wanted to know, ‘What are we doing?’ We came to them with this insane idea.”

They would create an interactive, online production staged in a virtual Victorian mansion.
…
“Stage performance is different than film or audio. If you just have audio, you only have your voice. Clarity, landing sentences, really paying attention to the structure of a sentence, becomes important,” Nelson says. “Students got a broader sense of the skills and approaches to different mediums—a crash course.”

From DSC:
Talk about opportunities for interdisciplinary learning/projects!!! Playwrights, directors, actors/actresses, set designers, graphic designers, fine artists, web designers and developers, interactivity/interface designers, audio designers, video editors, 3D animators, and more!!!

“The Best of Rooms” & “The Road Not Taken” [Randall Thompson]

On 07/30/2020, in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, music, relationships, religion, society, by Daniel Christian

The Best of Rooms — by Randall Thompson

Christ, He requires still, wheresoe’er He comes,
To feed, or lodge, to have the best of rooms:
Give Him the choice; grant Him the nobler part,
Of all the house:, the best of all’s the heart.

This is a beautiful piece as well:

“The Road Not Taken”— by Randall Thompson

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
And that has made all the difference.

Addendum:
My oldest sister posted this beautiful recording today. Good timing sis.

LATIN TEXT:
Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.
Exsultemus, et in ipso jucundemur.
Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Where charity and love are, there God is.
The love of Christ has gathered us into one.
Let us exult, and in Him be joyful.
Let us fear and let us love the living God.
And from a sincere heart let us love each other (and Him).

https://www.facebook.com/JonathanRoumieOfficial/videos/phenomenal-rendition-of-ubi-caritas-latin-hymn/595033917802390/

DC: A fun, great TikTok from Presidents of a dozen Historically Black Colleges & Universities

On 05/02/2020, in adjunct faculty, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, learning, learning ecosystem, multimedia, music, social media, society, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Per EdSurge.com

This week, presidents of a dozen historically black colleges and universities took to social media platform TikTok to participate in the “Don’t Rush” Challenge…The presidents pose in college T-shirts and caps, sorority and fraternity paraphernalia, academic regalia and professional outfits, suggesting a trajectory from joyful campus life to graduation day to success as a college alumnus.

“Our hope was that in addition to showcasing our schools, the TikTok would bring a smile to the faces of our students and showcase HBCU pride and solidarity during this unprecedented pandemic,” said Roslyn Clark Artis, president of Benedict College, in a statement.

Reflections on a section from “How the research on learning can drive change” [Sturgis]

On 05/02/2020, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, biology, blended learning, change, colleges, communications, community colleges, computer science, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, education, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, hybrid learning, ideas, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning theories, mathematics, more voice more choice more control, motivation, music, online learning, participation, pedagogy, programming, psychology, relationships, remote teaching and learning, research, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, vendors, youth, by Daniel Christian

How the research on learning can drive change — from gettingsmart.com by Chris Sturgis

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

#2 Learning results from the interplay of cognition, emotion, and motivation.
The brain does not clearly separate cognitive from emotional functioning so that optimal learning environments will engage both. It’s important that students feel safe if learning is to be optimized. When we are afraid, our amygdala becomes activated making it harder to learn. Do students feel valued? Relationships matter in creating a culture of inclusivity and belonging. Are schools designed so that teachers and professors have the opportunity to build strong relationships with students? Do students feel that the school and teachers want them to be successful? Do they have chances to receive feedback and revise or do grading practices simply judge them?

From DSC:
Two instances — plus a simmering question — instantly stand out in my mind when I read the above paragraph.

First instance:
It was years ago and I was working at a Fortune 500 company outside of Chicago. I was given the chance to learn how to program in one of the divisions of this company. I was in a conference room with my brand new boss. I had asked him a question about a piece of code, which clearly must have let him know I had some serious misunderstandings.

But instead of being patient, he grew increasingly frustrated at my lack of understanding. The madder he got, the worse my learning became. My focus shifted from processing the expected syntax of the code — and the content/instruction overall that he was trying to relay — to almost completely being concerned with his anger. My processing shut down and things deteriorated from there.

Second instance:
My mom was a classical piano teacher for decades. Though she was often loved by her students, she could be very tough, strong, and forceful. (This was true of several of my siblings’ music teachers as well.) Most of the time, she developed wonderful, strong relationships with the vast majority of her students, many of which came back to our house around Christmastime / New Year’s to visit with her (even long after “graduating”).

I mention that as background to a different context…when I observed my mom trying to teach one of my nieces how to do a math problem in the kitchen of our old house. Again, the teacher in this case kept getting increasingly frustrated, while the student kept shrinking back into their shell…trying to deflect the increasingly hot anger coming at them. The cognitive processing stopped. The amount of actual learning taking place quickly declined. I finally intervened to say that they should come back to this topic later on.

(The counselors/therapists out there would probably rightly connect these two scenarios for what was happening in my mind (i.e., not wanting to deal with the other person’s growing anger). But this applies to many more of us than just me, I’m afraid.)

A simmering question involving law schools and a common teaching method:
In law schools, one of the long-standing teaching methods is the Socratic Method.

Depending upon the professor and their teaching style, one student could be under intense pressure to address the facts, rules, the legal principles of a case, and much more. They often have to stand up in front of the class.

In those instances, I wonder how much capacity to actually process information gets instantly reduced within many of the students’ brains when they get the spotlight shown on them? Do the more introverted and/or less confident students start to sweat? Do their fear levels and heart rates increase? With the issue of having other students attempting to learn from this grilling aside, I wonder what happens to the amygdalas of the students that were called upon?

You can probably tell that I’m not a big fan of the Socratic Method IF it begins to involve too much emotion…too much anger or fear. Not good. The amount of learning taking place can be significantly impacted.

A professor, teacher, or trainer can’t know all of the underlying background, psychology, personality differences, emotional makeup, and experiences of each learner. But getting back to the article, I appreciate what the author was saying about the importance of establishing a SAFE learning environment. The more fear, anger, and a sense of being threatened or scared are involved, the less learning/processing can occur.

Healthy looks different on every body...and learning looks different with every mind.

“A group of Nashville studio singers perform an epic cell phone choir.” [London]

On 03/29/2020, in art, collaboration, communications, creativity, digital audio, digital video, multimedia, music, tools, Uncategorized, United States, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

A group of Nashville studio singers perform an epic cell phone choir — from wsmv.com by Derry London; with thanks to a wonderful cousin for this resource

A group of Nashville studio singers perform an epic cell phone choir | “It is well with my soul.”

DC: Wow! Music can happen online. https://t.co/Y2B1c23b0z

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) March 29, 2020

Also see:

Neal Plantinga on His “God Go Before You” Blessing — from worship.calvin.edu by Joan Huyser-Honig & Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.; with thanks to John Witvliet for his post on LinkedIn for this resource

Excerpt:

God go before you to lead you, God go behind you to protect you, God go beneath you to support you, God go beside you to befriend you. Do not be afraid. May the blessing of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be upon you. Do not be afraid.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen.

From DSC:
The song at the bottom of the page is a beautiful song. Check it out as well.

DSC: These items hit home to the world I live in…big time! What a riot!

On 03/19/2020, in adjunct faculty, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, education technology, face-to-face, faculty/staff, higher education, learning, learning ecosystem, multimedia, music, online learning, remote teaching and learning, teaching online, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
With a shout out to a colleague of mine for these resources:

DC: This hits home to the world I live in…big time! What a riot! I appreciate this faculty member’s sense of humor and his love of music too!https://t.co/RXaEkAIlCi

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) March 19, 2020

Also see:

Welcome to your hastily prepared online college course — from mcsweeneys.net by Ryan Weber

This cracks me up too!https://t.co/LvISVTr0EK

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) March 19, 2020

Turn Your Home Into A Mixed Reality Record Store With Spotify On Magic Leap [Melnick]

On 11/18/2019, in digital audio, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, interactivity, interface design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Mixed Reality (MR), multimedia, music, platforms, technologies for your home, tools, vendors, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Turn Your Home Into A Mixed Reality Record Store With Spotify On Magic Leap — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick

“We see a time in the not too distant future when spatial computing will extend into the wider world of podcasts, audiobooks and storytelling,” continues Magic Leap in their post. “And this is just the beginning. The launch of Spotify marks an evolution in the way you can see, hear and experience the bands and artists that you love. It’s an exciting time for music. For musicians. For developers. And for music-lovers the world over.”

My mom, music, memory, and…Alzheimer’s Disease [Christian]

On 05/01/2019, in Daniel S. Christian, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, music, society, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Through the years, my mom was an incredible person — in a variety of ways. She was a wonderful mother to us, as well as a spouse to my dad. But she was also a wonderful daughter, aunt, grandma, friend, teacher, counselor, investor, and more. She was a philosophical, deep thinker and a person of action — often doing several things at a time (from the moment that she woke up until the time that she finally called it quits at the end of a long day). Amongst other things, she was an incredible musician. After graduating from college, my mom taught classical piano (to kindergarten through 12th graders) decade after decade…well into her 70’s.

But then, like her mom, she developed Alzheimer’s Disease and as things go with Alzheimer’s, things got progressively worse. Fast forward to today, and her short-term memory is now completely gone and the person who she once was continues to increasingly leave us. She lives with my dad in a memory care unit. (My dad has also experienced physical and cognitive decline…though not nearly as much as my mom.) My mom will ask you the same question many times over, as she can’t remember asking you the question before and she can’t recall your answer (for but a moment). She still recognizes us — though for how much longer that will be the case, we’re not sure. She doesn’t use our names nearly as much as she used to.

Below is a picture of my mom at her memory care unit…and, by the way, she didn’t recall that the piano that she was playing on was actually the exact same piano that she used for years to teach kids how to play classical piano.

Mom at the piano - 1

All that said — and as you can tell from watching the video below — she can STILL:

Sight read music (i.e., recognize notes, rhythms, dynamics, etc.)
Play songs she remembers from long ago
Sing along to songs/hymns from years ago
Recognize and/or recall many of the lyrics from songs that she once knew

Wow!

The human mind is absolutely incredible to me! Scary and tragic when it stops working as it once did — but incredible nevertheless.

Glory to GOD in the highest!

Also see:

Changing ‘the tragedy narrative’: Why a growing camp is promoting a more joyful approach to Alzheimer’s — from washingtonpost.com by Tara Bahrampour

Cambridge library installation gives readers control of their sensory space [Schoenbaum]

On 03/29/2019, in A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, architecture, attention, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, library / librarians, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, music, neurodivergent/special needs, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), tools, United States, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, XR - extended reality, youth, by Daniel Christian

Cambridge library installation gives readers control of their sensory space — from cambridge.wickedlocal.com by Hannah Schoenbaum

Excerpts:

A luminous igloo-shaped structure in the front room of the Cambridge Public Library beckoned curious library visitors during the snowy first weekend of March, inviting them to explore a space engineered for everyone, yet uniquely their own.

Called “Alterspace” and developed by Harvard’s metaLAB and Library Innovation Lab, this experiment in adaptive architecture granted the individual control over the sensory elements in his or her space. A user enters the LED-illuminated dome to find headphones, chairs and an iPad on a library cart, which displays six modes: Relax, Read, Meditate, Focus, Create and W3!Rd.

From the cool blues and greens of Relax mode to a rainbow overload of excitement in the W3!Rd mode, Alterspace is engineered to transform its lights, sounds and colors into the ideal environment for a particular action.

From DSC:
This brings me back to the question/reflection…in the future, will students using VR headsets be able to study by a brook? An ocean? In a very quiet library (i.e., the headset would come with solid noise cancellation capabilities build into it)? This type of room/capability would really be helpful for our daughter…who is easily distracted and doesn’t like noise.

Smart speakers hit critical mass in 2018 — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

We already know Alexa had a good Christmas — the app shot to the top of the App Store over the holidays, and the Alexa service even briefly crashed from all the new users. But Alexa, along with other smart speaker devices like Google Home, didn’t just have a good holiday — they had a great year, too. The smart speaker market reached critical mass in 2018, with around 41 percent of U.S. consumers now owning a voice-activated speaker, up from 21.5 percent in 2017.

In the U.S., there are now more than 100 million Alexa-enabled devices installed — a key milestone for Alexa to become a “critical mass platform,” the report noted.

Learning Ecosystems

“God shall wipe every tear from their eyes” | Our dad sings a song based on Revelation 21.4

“The Best of Rooms” & “The Road Not Taken” [Randall Thompson]

“A group of Nashville studio singers perform an epic cell phone choir.” [London]

Turn Your Home Into A Mixed Reality Record Store With Spotify On Magic Leap [Melnick]

My mom, music, memory, and…Alzheimer’s Disease [Christian]

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