showcase day

Technology and Teaching

In case you haven't realized by now, let me make it blatantly obvious. We are big believers in the power of technology! That is why I jumped at the chance to connect with Scott Ashby via WebEx and be part of an online discussion with teachers from around the world.

Scott is an independent music educator from Ontario, Canada and is owner of Ashby Musical Enterprises (that's music to our ears!). His venture provides music products and services with an emphasis on Canadian traditional church music and general music education. Scott has also created an online Theory Course designed specifically to support the Royal Conservatory of Music certificate program.

I think our paths first crossed through a blog or blog post and from there, Scott was kind enough to invite me to join the discussion at the Music Teacher Cafe. The first 'meeting' took place on Wednesday afternoon November 16th with the general topic being 'the value of collaboration between disciplines in the music education profession'. That's like asking a roomful of people what 'jazz' is.

Even though there were just a few of us chatting for about an hour, the dialogue managed to cover a wide array of topics including El Sistema, the value of group lessons, and even teachers being too narrow minded in their approach. It was a hearty conversation and it was particularly interesting to hear the views of other educators who are working outside of the traditional classroom.

I encourage you to check out the Music Teacher Cafe and join our next conversation. I believe Scott has scheduled the 2nd 'meeting' to take place on Wednesday, December 16th. Logging in is a snap, and the few technological issues we all had did not limit anyone's ability to participate. Hope to see you there!

Leading, Teaching, Being 'Plugged-In'

This should inspire us to reevaluate our roles (and goals) as educators, whether we are working individually or in a group setting.

Groovin' to the Tunes

A new study demonstrates the power of music to alter our emotional perceptions of other people.

'In the experiment, 30 subjects were presented with a series of happy or sad musical excerpts. After listening to the snippets, the subjects were shown a photograph of a face. Some people were shown a happy face – the person was smiling - while others were exposed to a sad or neutral facial expression. The participants were then asked to rate the emotional content of the face on a 7-point scale, where 1 mean extremely sad and 7 extremely happy. '

'The researchers found that music powerfully influenced the emotional ratings of the faces. Happy music made happy faces seem even happier while sad music exaggerated the melancholy of a frown. A similar effect was also observed with neutral faces. The simple moral is that the emotions of music are “cross-modal,” and can easily spread from sensory system to another. Now I never sit down to my wife’s meals without first putting on a jolly Sousa march.'

Read the full article here.

I Get It...

I just came across Jim Plamondon's blog and found it quite interesting. I wonder what he would think of MusickEd.com and DSM? I may get the chance to find out very soon. It turns out that Jim currently lives in Austin and is relocating to Dallas soon and I have invited him to take a tour of our facility. We'll keep you posted! In the mean time - enjoy his blog entry about instrument selection. Cheers !