Another very full day in the great State of Louisiana. The breakfast plenary by Dave and Don Megill ("Teaching Blue") was the highlight of the conference so far. Dave and Don are identical twins but the keynote speaker was announced as Dave Megill who started the morning address talking about the impact of technology on music...both the good and the bad. The whole room could relate to the only slide in his "Apple Keynote" deck that had more than three or four words on it; the first one that had three bullet points on it:
Dave went on to discuss the evolution of music from a technology perspective...how, like literature, the Gutenberg Press also revolutionalized the distribution of music; how music recording (Dead Music) resulted in live perfromance taking a hit; how the MIDI evolution democratized composition; and how musical ownership has taken a hit from the development of the internet.
What's next? In keeping with the purpose of MERLOT (re-usable learning objects), he talked about what the Ultimate Musical Learning Object (UMLO) might be, and introduced his twin brother (who was hidden up until then) as his UMLO - "another me"! the two Megills went on to totally change how we thought about teaching of abstract notions, and things that defy teachable competencies; like the inner ear, the tonal centre, musical time, and musical abstraction. A good music instructor can recognize, comment on, grade and even fail a student on those things; yet there is little proof. Try proving the someone gets the notion "blue" - does the blue in your mind look the same as the blue in mine? OK, prove it.
Developing a useful ultimate musical learning object will be a challenge if we are to make it as powerful as the notions that are floating about the MERLOT and educational technology world. My favorite part of the address was when he spoke about how he teaches...he says he is such a nut about teaching that all you have to do is come near him and the teaching switch goes on and he just starts teaching...that's why a lot of his students try their best to avoid him....they're usually too busy learning. In fact his approach to teaching is to let the students know where he is going to be and they come to him when they're stuck. He says that getting a student un-stuck (which ought to be the essence of all teaching) usually takes about five minutes..."so what the heck did I used to do with the other 55 minutes of a period?"
After breakfast, I joined a group examining the eFolio Minnesota Initiative. In Minnesota they have decided that every state citizen and resident can have an eFolio, and the State offers a service/application that they can go onto to create their electronic portfolio (is this a vision for Canada's Portfolio College?). The application is quite neat and there are currently 70,000 people who have active portfolios on the statewide system. We got the chance to try it out in a hands-on workshop, and the application interfaces looked pretty good, and with decent enough presentation and security capabilities. When I asked about standards and interoperability it became obvious that they had not really adopted any standards and this was another locked-in eportfolio that might have some intrinsic value for an individual, but from the point of view of transferability, interoperability and deep integration with other systems (like PLAR, articulation engines, HRMIS and other important transitions), Minnesota's eFolio project has taken a page from e-learning before standards and may very well suffer the same early fate.
During the demonstration, I also popped out for a short presentation on rich multimedia objects from Xavier University and met Dr. Marion Carroll from Xavier. That inspired me to join two other short presentations by Dr. Carroll - one called My Office Hours, which is a podcast of conversations between students and Dr. Carroll (upon approval of the student), and another called Dr. Carroll's Notebook - which is a way to use a wiki to present lecture notes and multimedia demonstrations (mostly narrated screen captures using Camtasia) to facilitate his blended classroom.
My learning experience took a different path after lunch as Mary Elizabeth and I took on a Paddle Steamer tour of the Mississippi from Jackson Square (which includes the Cabilda where the Louisiana Purchase was signed). We finally got to see the levees that protect New Orleans from the Mississippi - which at the levees is 14 feet higher than the landmass that is the city. We saw where the levees failed (took my chevy to the levee?) and some of the tremendous damage that collased docks and homes closest to the river. We watched the amazing trade that happens in this part of the Missisippi; barges loaded with gas, sugar, grain, and asphalt constantly traveling the river and its many tributaries and locks. It was hot as heck, but mercifully the central dining room was an air conditioned refuge we could jump into from time to time.
After the tour we got back to the conference and took in a couple of late sessions, then joined the conference for "A Taste of Merlot" - and other wines - for a jazz reception. Lots of fun and Mary Elizabeth won one of the major vendor prizes to top off our day. We invited two colleagues to join us at supper at Olivier's on Decatur (amazing Creole food) and we got to taste Creole Lapin and filé gumbo.
The week has been going so fast...and I wish we could take more time to see the city, but another time!
- It's the info between the bullets that matters
- If you are reading this you are probably missing something
- If I'm reading this, please shoot me!
Dave went on to discuss the evolution of music from a technology perspective...how, like literature, the Gutenberg Press also revolutionalized the distribution of music; how music recording (Dead Music) resulted in live perfromance taking a hit; how the MIDI evolution democratized composition; and how musical ownership has taken a hit from the development of the internet.
What's next? In keeping with the purpose of MERLOT (re-usable learning objects), he talked about what the Ultimate Musical Learning Object (UMLO) might be, and introduced his twin brother (who was hidden up until then) as his UMLO - "another me"! the two Megills went on to totally change how we thought about teaching of abstract notions, and things that defy teachable competencies; like the inner ear, the tonal centre, musical time, and musical abstraction. A good music instructor can recognize, comment on, grade and even fail a student on those things; yet there is little proof. Try proving the someone gets the notion "blue" - does the blue in your mind look the same as the blue in mine? OK, prove it.
Developing a useful ultimate musical learning object will be a challenge if we are to make it as powerful as the notions that are floating about the MERLOT and educational technology world. My favorite part of the address was when he spoke about how he teaches...he says he is such a nut about teaching that all you have to do is come near him and the teaching switch goes on and he just starts teaching...that's why a lot of his students try their best to avoid him....they're usually too busy learning. In fact his approach to teaching is to let the students know where he is going to be and they come to him when they're stuck. He says that getting a student un-stuck (which ought to be the essence of all teaching) usually takes about five minutes..."so what the heck did I used to do with the other 55 minutes of a period?"
After breakfast, I joined a group examining the eFolio Minnesota Initiative. In Minnesota they have decided that every state citizen and resident can have an eFolio, and the State offers a service/application that they can go onto to create their electronic portfolio (is this a vision for Canada's Portfolio College?). The application is quite neat and there are currently 70,000 people who have active portfolios on the statewide system. We got the chance to try it out in a hands-on workshop, and the application interfaces looked pretty good, and with decent enough presentation and security capabilities. When I asked about standards and interoperability it became obvious that they had not really adopted any standards and this was another locked-in eportfolio that might have some intrinsic value for an individual, but from the point of view of transferability, interoperability and deep integration with other systems (like PLAR, articulation engines, HRMIS and other important transitions), Minnesota's eFolio project has taken a page from e-learning before standards and may very well suffer the same early fate.
During the demonstration, I also popped out for a short presentation on rich multimedia objects from Xavier University and met Dr. Marion Carroll from Xavier. That inspired me to join two other short presentations by Dr. Carroll - one called My Office Hours, which is a podcast of conversations between students and Dr. Carroll (upon approval of the student), and another called Dr. Carroll's Notebook - which is a way to use a wiki to present lecture notes and multimedia demonstrations (mostly narrated screen captures using Camtasia) to facilitate his blended classroom.
My learning experience took a different path after lunch as Mary Elizabeth and I took on a Paddle Steamer tour of the Mississippi from Jackson Square (which includes the Cabilda where the Louisiana Purchase was signed). We finally got to see the levees that protect New Orleans from the Mississippi - which at the levees is 14 feet higher than the landmass that is the city. We saw where the levees failed (took my chevy to the levee?) and some of the tremendous damage that collased docks and homes closest to the river. We watched the amazing trade that happens in this part of the Missisippi; barges loaded with gas, sugar, grain, and asphalt constantly traveling the river and its many tributaries and locks. It was hot as heck, but mercifully the central dining room was an air conditioned refuge we could jump into from time to time.
After the tour we got back to the conference and took in a couple of late sessions, then joined the conference for "A Taste of Merlot" - and other wines - for a jazz reception. Lots of fun and Mary Elizabeth won one of the major vendor prizes to top off our day. We invited two colleagues to join us at supper at Olivier's on Decatur (amazing Creole food) and we got to taste Creole Lapin and filé gumbo.
The week has been going so fast...and I wish we could take more time to see the city, but another time!
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