Mr. B's Blog

Towards the end of the conference I was able to present at the Queensland University of Technology's music education curriculum class.  Here I shared projects that we worked on in our Music Production I course as Pentucket.  One of the students has since e-mailed me to see if we can set up a collaborative performance when his concert band comes to the states next year.  Apparently he saw the "Riverdance" performance from Pentucket's concert band on the webpage and that is a piece he actually conducted the semester before.  I hope it offered them some ideas for great group projects.  

Last Friday Dr. Alex Ruthmann of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and myself presented the Jam2Jam projects that we have witnessed at Pentucket Regional High School at the 2009 JamSkolan Showcase at the Queensland Academy of Creative Industries.  This event included guests from the general public, Queenland University of Technology, and students from QACI.  Also presenting were Jam2Jam showcases from Illinois, Sweden, and Australia.   Our findings from Pentucket explored Jam2Jam as a small ensemble tool where non-instrumentalists could interact musically with traditional instrumentalists.  

Today was lots of fun for me as I got to explore Jam2Jam on an OLPC computer (One Laptop Per Child) . I was intrigued by OLPC and its mission when I first found out about it a few years ago. Basically you have to purchase two laptops at a low cost and one of the two gets donated to a poor child. The idea is that the usage of technology as an educational and motivational tool should not be denied to those that are unable to afford it. I read an exciting article a few months ago about the new version of the OLPC. This XO 2.0 version looks very cool! I wonder when it will come out? Playing with Jam2Jam on the OLPC reminded me of the importance of networking jamming and the benefits it has for students, especially those that do not play instruments.

I don't mean the temperature!  Today's JamSkolan was filled with an exciting agenda!  We started the day out with a Skype communication with Professor Bert Bongers who is setting up a new lab for research and design of interactived environments at the Faculty of Design, Architecture, and Building, University of Technology, Sydney.  Professor Bongers showed us his current research using gestural wireless devices that pick up on body movements and thus control the Jam2Jam program without using a mouse and keyboard.  A music therapists that was with us at the Symposium noted how this is a particularly impressive idea for those who are disabled and can only make little movements with the hands and arms.   Later in the day we tested out the latest Jam2Jam controllers.  You can watch the video below which shows myself and other conference members testing out the controls!   After this we had a frank discussion about the user interface for Jam2Jam.  It seems as though most of the teac...

Today was a huge learning experience for me.  Melanie, Per and myself took a train ride to Nyanda State High School in Brisbane in order to observe music teacher Nathan Ryan.  I found many differences in the layout of their high school when compared to Pentucket Regional High School.  Firstly, they had many different buildings, each one with its own discipline.  Pentucket has one big building and I attribute this to the fact that our winters are cold and thus it is cheaper to heat one building than multiple buildings and it cuts down the amount of time the students need to be outside in the cold.   Another big difference was the like a university situation, teachers have offices that cluster them together with computers and desks.  Teachers rotate throughout the classroom space and therefore their "home" for correcting and planning is in the offices assigned to their discipline.  Though I think this makes a great situation for teachers as far as breaking down barriers for com...

On the second evening of the conference, we were invited to Kelvin Grove State High School in Brisbane to watch a students' performance using Jam2Jam.  The event was meant to highlight high student achievement throughout all of the disciplines.  The following video is a student using Jam2Jam to rap about anti-bullying.  I will post the video as soon as I can get my Flip camera to start working on my computer!

Today was a very interesting day.  It started out with our presentations of Jam2Jam from our test sights.  Dr. Eva Saether and Per talked about their experiences with the software in Sweden and showed us video clips of the students actively engaged and even fighting over usage of the program.  Dr. Alex Ruthmann and myself presented Pentucket's findings and video clips.  It seemed that the more ownership our students could put into the program, the more successful they thought it was.  The students uploaded photos of the marching band and jammed with them using the software.  They also particularly enjoyed performing real instruments in conjunction with the software being performed.  Lastly, Dr. Matthew Thibeault and Melanie took us through a jam using an arrangement of a John Philip Sousa March and visuals.  This was a very innovative idea that will help us think of more ways we can incorporate Jam2Jam in to the classroom.  We ended the afternoon with a frank discussion of where we...

Today was our first day of the JamSkolan and was focused on getting to know each other and talk about our initial experiences with the software program Jam2Jam.  Each delegation then spent time preparing a ten-minute PowerPoint to be presented to the full group the next day.  Dr. Alex Ruthmann from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and myself spent time looking at old and new video bits of the Pentucket Regional High School students who tested out the software.  That night the group of music teachers and post graduate students had dinner with Nathan Rye, the director of music at Nyanda State High School in Brisbane, Australia.  We learned much about the music education system in the state of Queensland.  Also, he noted that he wanted to start a drumline next year so I hope to share some expertise with him to help him out with such an endeavor.  

We arrived this morning in Brisbane at around 6:00am.   At LAX, Dr. Alex Ruthmann and I met up with Dr. Matthew Thibeault from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.   The flight from LAX to Brisbane was about 13 hours.   Luckily no one was sitting in the seat next to me so it ended up being quite comfortable. This morning we walked around Brisbane and checked out some local shops.   I purchased a mini didgeridoo.   A few minutes later we actually passed by a real person playing a legit didgeridoo on the side of the road.   We had a very relaxed yet intense lunch session at an amazing steak restaurant.   We talked about private, charter, and public schools along with their music curriculums in the US, UK, Sweden, and Australia.   I will talk more about the teachers and professors who were at the lunch later on.   I can already tell that this symposium is going to be a terrific opportunity for all involved!  Tomorrow we begin getting to work!