Just a short blog post today.
Earlier this year in my ICT class we looked at some videos of digitally created music (using iPads and iPod Touches).
This video came up on my news feed and I wanted to share it with you all:
Neat, eh? Now, of course this could never replace traditional music making in the band room, but it is certainly a great way to incorporate technology into music. I like this particular video because the music is more authentic. The sounds are not too fake sounding (apart from the little robot man...but everyone loves him!). I think it would be super neat to do an iBand with my classroom sometime in the future (provided that kind of funding/technology is available). This kind of musiking opens up a whole new world of instrumentation and sounds to the students that they would otherwise not experience in the traditional band set-up.
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
School Kills Creativity
I just finished a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson about how "schools kill creativity". Watch it below!
One of Robinson's main points was one which I've discussed before on this blog. This idea being that our education system needs to be preparing students for the future...a future which we have no idea as to what it might look like. He suggests that our current education system is based on a perhaps outdated concept of preparing students for employment in industrialism work-force. However, the face of our work-force and its needs are rapidly changing as our technology advances, meaning that we are no longer preparing students for the careers that are available to them.
The idea from this TED Talk that stuck with me the most is the idea that we squander creativity in students by creating an atmosphere in which students are afraid to be wrong. We teach students to be afraid to be wrong by encouraging the idea that being wrong is the worst thing you can do. In order for creativity to occur ("original ideas with value") one must be prepared to take a chance. If students fear that they might be "incorrect" why would they bother taking this leap into uncertain territory in which they might not be "right".
If we allow our classrooms to be built on a system in which being wrong is a negative thing, we are encouraging habits of thoughts in our students that it is not okay to make mistakes and therefore that it is a bad idea to venture into things we are uncertain about. If the future for which we are preparing our students for is a mystery for us, how can we expect them to be the new creators for our world. If nothing new is being creative, then is there really a new future? Education can no longer function as preparation for the work force. We must be preparing students to be our future...a future which we cannot predict. To do this, the arts (i.e. creativity) must be raised from the bottom of the educational hierarchy and as Robinson suggests, be given the same importance as literacy.
One of Robinson's main points was one which I've discussed before on this blog. This idea being that our education system needs to be preparing students for the future...a future which we have no idea as to what it might look like. He suggests that our current education system is based on a perhaps outdated concept of preparing students for employment in industrialism work-force. However, the face of our work-force and its needs are rapidly changing as our technology advances, meaning that we are no longer preparing students for the careers that are available to them.
The idea from this TED Talk that stuck with me the most is the idea that we squander creativity in students by creating an atmosphere in which students are afraid to be wrong. We teach students to be afraid to be wrong by encouraging the idea that being wrong is the worst thing you can do. In order for creativity to occur ("original ideas with value") one must be prepared to take a chance. If students fear that they might be "incorrect" why would they bother taking this leap into uncertain territory in which they might not be "right".
If we allow our classrooms to be built on a system in which being wrong is a negative thing, we are encouraging habits of thoughts in our students that it is not okay to make mistakes and therefore that it is a bad idea to venture into things we are uncertain about. If the future for which we are preparing our students for is a mystery for us, how can we expect them to be the new creators for our world. If nothing new is being creative, then is there really a new future? Education can no longer function as preparation for the work force. We must be preparing students to be our future...a future which we cannot predict. To do this, the arts (i.e. creativity) must be raised from the bottom of the educational hierarchy and as Robinson suggests, be given the same importance as literacy.
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Twitter Test Drive Continues
As I wrote last week, I am giving Twitter another try. I'm still not sold, but I'm giving it a shot.
As part of the test-drive, I was instructed to follow a particular "list" of people. I found the list easily enough and clicked subscribe. However, apparently that does not mean those people will all show up in your regular newsfeed. Lame. If I want to see updates from that list, I have to add a few more clicks to my Twitter visit to do so. (First-World Problems...I know.) This irritates me.
This problem led me to HootSuite - a website allowing you to create a dashboard of sorts to organize what Twitter has to offer. You can create lists of things - your basic newsfeed, particular hashtags, lists of people, and post in which you've be mentioned. As well, you can import feeds from a variety of other social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, Foursquare, and MySpace (who uses that anymore?).
I like HootSuite because it allows me to see all my Twitter "stuff" all at once, with one click. However, it is unfortunate that I couldn't just do this on Twitter itself instead of creating yet another online account. I can definitely see the value of a service like this though for avid Twitter users who follow a lot of people and are interested to see how their own Tweets are being received/shared with others. All in all, HootSuite is a worthwhile website and does the job well, I just wish it wasn't necessary.
As part of the test-drive, I was instructed to follow a particular "list" of people. I found the list easily enough and clicked subscribe. However, apparently that does not mean those people will all show up in your regular newsfeed. Lame. If I want to see updates from that list, I have to add a few more clicks to my Twitter visit to do so. (First-World Problems...I know.) This irritates me.
This problem led me to HootSuite - a website allowing you to create a dashboard of sorts to organize what Twitter has to offer. You can create lists of things - your basic newsfeed, particular hashtags, lists of people, and post in which you've be mentioned. As well, you can import feeds from a variety of other social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, Foursquare, and MySpace (who uses that anymore?).
I like HootSuite because it allows me to see all my Twitter "stuff" all at once, with one click. However, it is unfortunate that I couldn't just do this on Twitter itself instead of creating yet another online account. I can definitely see the value of a service like this though for avid Twitter users who follow a lot of people and are interested to see how their own Tweets are being received/shared with others. All in all, HootSuite is a worthwhile website and does the job well, I just wish it wasn't necessary.
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