PE6_Flash Action Script 3.0_Drag and Drop Demo

So here is my try at the drag and drop.
So I successfully got the dragging down. But need to work on the drop! Will continue that, but ran out of time :-(
Here is a screenflow of what I got so far.
Thanks for watching.

FV_AR Pitch_Be Smartmusic

PE5_Flash Action Script 3.0

Here's my progress with Flash's Action Scipting:

Wow!  This is definitely not for the faint of heart!
It's been extremely tough getting through this tutorial!  Todd is getting into the nitty gritty functions of Action Script and it's been tough to follow!  Chapter's 3, 4 and 5 were a bear!  But I'm trying to hang on!
So far I've learned about variables, arrays, vectors, functions, events and event listeners, parent, child and grandchild objects, classes and packages.  It's all vaguely familiar back from my computer science 1 class in my undergraduate degree, which I wonder what grade I got for that class?  Todd does a pretty good job at explaining things but sometimes I get lost in the language and have to rewind (Not that it's him).  It would be helpful to me if sometimes he would demonstrate the results first and then go back and explain how he got there.  That way I could recognize why each step is used instead of trying to imagine what each one is for and then getting lost.  I do like how he intentionally makes mistakes in his coding so that he can go back and correct it so that you can avoid doing the same thing.

Anyway, chapter 6 was finally one that had real practical results and thus to me was more enjoyable to watch.  Chapter 6 dealt with creating a simple drag and drop educational game.  It appears that it's something that I might be able to handle? In fact, I think I may stop the tutorial process here and see if I can create something similar.  Wish me luck! :-)

PE4_Flash Action Script 3.0

I am fairly versed in basic animation and simple button and menu operations for building websites in flash, but I decided to be brave and explore flash's greater power and functionality in its Action Script 3.0.  I would like to have the skill to develop games and greater interactivity within flash.
I'll be watching the Flash Action Script 3.0 Essentials Tutorial with Todd Perkins on Lynda.

So far I've gotten through chapter 3 of the video tutorials. (About an hour and half of videos)
My impressions so far is now I remember why I didn't finish the computer science minor in my under graduate degree!  Yikes it's been pretty difficult to follow, even though Todd Perkins does a pretty good job at explaining some difficult concepts in simple language.

RSS feed results and redirecting week 4 PE to Flash Action Script

I've decided to redirect my practical learning experience to learn about Flash action script 3.0 instead of the rss feed from Full Sail's discussion board.  I'm going to rename that post so as not to lose credit but if you are interested in my results from the rss attempt, here it is.  I tried to setup a manual feed of a url through page2rss.com.  While it was easy to just copy and paste the discussion post url to page2rss and then link it to google reader, the service apparently is not working or there is some element that I missed in setting up the manual feed.  Although it is listed in my google reader feed list, it has not updated properly because I know that new posts have been made but that has not reflected in the rss feed.  Not sure if there are settings I need to change in page2rss.com, but I haven't found any.

Thanks for reading.

RSS feed from Full Sail Discussion Board

There was some discussion in our section regarding forgetting about discussion boards because it gets moved out of the dash board as soon as you post to it and put into the activities page which you then would need to search for it.  I wondered if there is a way to create an RSS feed from the discussion board page.  I tried to initially add it into Google Reader without luck.  I know there are aggregators out there that can produce feeds by analyzing a website's content and then publishing site changes to the feeder.  I'm wondering if they would work with Fullsail's discussion board.  I may be barking down a dead end here as FSO IT may have certain security restrictions in place that may limit the ability to do this.  But I'll research it and try.

PE3_Google Forms

My 3rd practical learning experience has to do directly with my ARP.

This is a google form for an initial survey for my students before they have started with the Smartmusic software.

The form is located here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFlBLXJSVkd5VFN6MTFKbUthVUF6UEE6MQ

Here's a screenshot

PB12_OMM_5min.com

My one minute message for week 3
Not my best work but it was a long week!

PE2_GoAnimate

My second practical learning experience is to use GoAnimate to create my 1 minute message.
Here is a screenshot of my progress.

BP11_Comment to Marty Denson

Please follow this link to see my comment to Marty Denson's OMM on Funnel Brain.

BP10_Comment to Karl Peterson

Please follow this link to see my comments to Karl Peterson's Blog.

PE1_Photoshop CS5_New Blog Title Header

I needed to update my blog with a more visual blog title so I decided to use my first practical experience project to create a header in photoshop.  Below is the example.

BP9_5min.com

http://www.5min.com/

5min.com bills itself as a “5 minute videopedia.”  The basic concept of the site is that they offer a wide variety of “How to’s” or “Do-it-yourself” (DIY) videos all within the context of 5 minutes lessons in easy to find categories.  Although as I browsed through there were some videos that were greater than 10 minutes and many videos around the 6 and 7 minute mark.  There are a lot of educational videos on the site but what really attracted me to the site was the fact that they had a substantial category and library of videos dedicated to music.  So my post will mainly concentrate on that.  In fact within the main topic of music they had 10 subtopics of music DIY videos; Bass Guitar, Beat Box, DJ, Drums, Guitar, Piano, Sound (Audio and Computer software), Wind and Brass, World music and “other” music videos.  Scanning through some of the videos I got a pretty good sense that there were a wide variety in the type and quality of videos.  Some videos weren’t the greatest quality but still contained good content.  Many videos also appeared to be taken from instructional DVDs and some contained visual support for learners such as an overlay of a guitar or bass fret board and piano keyboard that indicated where to place your fingers.  If I were a beginner I would find these videos very helpful.

I’m excited to find this site because this will provide my students, especially my beginning students, with an extra resource that they can use to help clarify concepts that we talk about in class.   Particularly in starting out on an instrument.  My time with my beginning 6^th graders is only 30 minutes for 1 day a week.  Having students reference these videos will help them to get started on their instrument, allow them to learn some of the important basics of cleaning and caring for their instruments yet will allow me to move on from those concepts and to get them to play their instrument. 

This is a great web 2.0 tool because they allow users to customize their video feeds.  Users can also comment and vote on their favorite videos.  Users can also upload their own DIY.  They promote a feed system or embedding tool that allows you to post a seed to your website or blog. 

Some cons regarding the site are that the videos are preloaded with commercials, I found the site to be a little sluggish and I’m pretty sure it’s not my connection and there was a wide variety of video quality.  Overall I would consider it to be an extremely effective tool and a good resource for students and teachers alike.

Here's an example of a video seed from the site that you can embed into your blog and/or website:

W2_Readings

Yun Dai, D., & Schader, R. (2001). Parent's reasons and motivations for supporting their child's music training. Roeper Review, 24(1), 23. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

AR Subtopic: Motivation

This article reviews parents primary reason for enrolling their child into music programs and keeping them enrolled.  The study found that most parents cited intrinsic values more than extrinsic as reasons to keep their children in music classes.  The thought that “music training nurtures many desirable characteristics in their children including discipline, diligence, academic performance, and intelligence” The report also stated that the success of a music student and major factor for a student to continue studying music was the amount of support the child received at home.

Williams, D. (2007). What are music educators doing and how well are we doing it? Traditional large-group performance may not be the best goal of music education when the way society experiences music is changing. Music Educators Journal, 94(1), 18. Retrieved from ERIC database.

AR subtopic: CAI and Current Practices

This article suggests that our current method of teaching music and current offerings of music classes and courses is being missed by a new generation of students.  The author points out that while enrollment in public schools are up, enrollment in music classes have in the last decade have been declining.  Williams suggests that our current music offerings of mostly large group ensembles, band, orchestra and choruses are to blame which is sparked by the current education system that is in place.   He cited that this current system may be the very thing that will cause programs to die.  As educators we missing a vast population of students that would enjoy to be exposed and involved with music but not under the current system.  He suggested that we offer courses that involve more technology which may reach and engage more students.

de Bezenac, C., & Swindells, R. (2009). No Pain, No Gain? Motivation and Self-Regulation in Music Learning. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 10(16), Retrieved from ERIC database.

AR subtopic: Motivation

This article takes a look at individuals who have learned to play music under 3 musical genres systems; Jazz, Folk and Classical.  The study found that individuals who learned under the first two systems found more pleasure in their learning experiences than did the latter.  The authors point out that learners are motivated more intrinsically by Jazz and Folk music whereas Classical students are influenced by parents and teachers.  The study focused on the quality of musicians’ motivation, genre-specific learning practices, and the competencies demanded by particular music systems.

Zhukov, K. (2009). Effective practising: A research perspective. Australian Journal of Music Education, (1), 3-12. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

AR Subtopic: Practice

This article talked about research done in the area of effective practice in learning a musical instrument.  It found that greater achievement for students happened when teachers provided clear structured practice instructions than unstructured practice.  The use of modeling, mental rehearsing and chunking strategies contributed to the success of the student in their practicing.  The article also mentioned that interesting and engaging repertoire as well as parental support at home were also key components.

uTutti Commercial

So I submitted my commercial to the uTutti company and they really liked it that they posted it to their blog!

BP8_OMM_Do uTutti?

A Great Site for Band, Orchestra and Choir Directors

BP7_Comment to JeVaughn Jones

JeVaughn has found a great web-based music production site similar to Garageband, called Soundation.
Please follow this link to my comments on her Blog.

BP 6_Comment to Cherie Hellenbrand's Post

      Click on this link to see my comments on Cherie Hellenbrand's post on Goanimate

BP5_Songsterr

http://www.songsterr.com

Songsterr is a website dedicated to guitar music and notation.  TAB is a unique music notation system developed solely for guitar and bass guitar.  There are hundreds of TAB sites online.  Songsterr is unique because of it’s interactivity and breadth of TAB for popular guitar songs available.   As a music teacher who has a few sections of guitar, this site has been a great engagement tool for my students who want to learn the latest guitar songs and classics of the past.  Thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band many popular musicians of old are still popular today.

As I demonstrate Songsterr in the Screenflow above, the features that make Songsterr so great are the mixing capabilities, printing function, and half speed capability.  It’s neat to have the ability to hear all the parts to a particular song along with the part that you are working on.  You can then mute that part and play along with the rest of tracks.  Also as the tracks play you can choose to play the metronome to help you stay steady, a built in tuner and a scrubber tool so you can see where you are suppose to be in the song!

Features about this website which makes it a great Web2.0 Tool is the fact that you can leave comments and feedback about the TAB that you are you playing.  You can flag TABS for incorrectness or other things, you can submit corrections to TABS and you can submit your own TABS.  In order to fix or submit tabs you do need to purchase additional software called Guitar Pro.  Some cons that I’ve noticed about the site is that to get all the features such as the mixing capabilities and printing, you need to pay for a subscription.  The TABS are not always correct.  The TAB doesn’t teach you about technique. (Although that’s my job as a teacher :-) ) It would be nice to be able to have more control on the tempo.  Not just half speed and full speed.  The sounds are MIDI based and not super realistic.

I need to give Annie Woodle thanks for introducing this site to me.  It’s really been great and I’ve been able to implement it into the program that I teach.

BP4_Simple Diagrams_WEB20Tool

Simple Diagrams

http://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=SimpleDiagrams

Simple Diagrams is a great program to communicate and convey your ideas in a simple and fun way.  As an educator this can be an effective tool to help students learn complicated skills and concepts that normally would take a long explanation in shorter amount of time.  By the time a verbal or written explanation is used you may lose half your students.  Because Simple diagrams uses symbols and pictures along with text you are reaching linguistic, spatial and logic learners.  The above example simplifies and possibly conveys in a clearer manner what I am writing here in 250 words.  This is a much more effective means of communication while the playful graphics helps to create a more memorable and enjoyable learning experience.  In my classroom I could see using this software to create concept maps and brainstorm sessions.  This would also be beneficial in creating detailed steps for concepts and lessons that may be difficult in a simplified manner.  Often times in band we have many detailed steps and things we need to know in preparation for concerts and performances.  Using this software will help communicate complex messages to parents and students.  Some cons from using this software so far is that the free version does not allow to save and an annoying popup appears about every 5 minutes.  You can only export to a PNG file and you can’t print which may reduce flexibility of output.  However there are easy ways around this, it may just add more time and steps.  Overall I was impressed with the simplicity of the application, ease of use and effectiveness in which it can be used to communicate messages.

W1_Reading

Garageband Screenshot

My AR research is going to center around the implementation of a practice software called Smartmusic by Makemusic.  Smartmusic will allow me to create assignments by using music from any number of popular band method books that are available on the market today.  I can also create assignments from music that we are preparing as an ensemble and I can create assignments using the music notation software, Finale.  As I gather my research materials I will be focusing on the following 3 subtopics:

1. Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) in music and Current practices
2. Development of sound musical practice habits
3. Motivation and engagement in music

Dunnigan, P. (1993). The computer in instrumental music. Music Educators Journal, 80(1), 32. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

This article will serve as a resource for my CAI and current practices subtopic.  As this article is seriously out of date it will not serve well from a data stand-point.  However the author made several points that are still relevant even in today’s upgraded computer systems.  What strikes me as funny is that Dunnigan cited 3 most common computers in use (at that time); Apple II, IBM and Macintosh! The article looked at a study of Michigan band and orchestra directors and their use of computers.  While it found that nearly half of the directors used computers, most of them used it for the sole purpose of clerical work.  There was very little done regarding instruction and pedagogy.   This depicts exactly what I have hypothesized that is still happening in today’s world of band and orchestra instruction.  Dunnigan also pointed out my same reasons as to why computers are not used which is that most schools lacked equipment available for serious instruction and in many school systems, budgets were getting tighter and tax dollars were dwindling, thus making the acquisition of computer equipment a real challenge.  Even after nearly a decade ago these things still seem to be true.

McDowall, J. (2009). Making Music Multimodally: Young Children Learning with Music Technology. International Journal of Learning, 16(10), 303-315. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

This articles focus will be part of my CAI and current practices subtopic.  This study was conducted on Australian elementary music students’ engagement and comprehension in music concepts.  A series of lessons designed around computer based music software was implemented in 2 classes.  The software involved was a loop based composition software called Super Duper Music Looper and a midipad software synthesizer.  The teachers used the software and hardware to explore music concepts and also had students create music and sounds with the software.  The study found significant improvement in engagement and proficiencies at learning some of the musical concepts.  Additionally the study showed that the learning processes and activities would not have been able to be duplicated using traditional school music resources.

Crawford, R. (2009). Secondary school music education: A case study in adapting to ICT resource limitations. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(4), 471-488. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

This article would also fall under CAI and current practices.   The paper was a study of Australian Music teachers’ use of computers in their music programs.  Even though Australian music teachers on average have a lot of technology available to them, the study focused on one particular individual and their perception of technology.  She taught in a particular area and school that had serious limitations in technology.  It showed that technology was severely missing in her class and subsequent interviews indicated why.  She stated that inferior quality technology and lack of adequate amounts of technology hampered her efforts to use technology.  While the article is more recent it is still missing relevance in my research since it reports only what is currently happening in Australia.

Walker, D. (1995). Connecting Right and Left Brain: Increasing Academic Performance of African American Students through the Arts. Retrieved from ERIC database.

This article will help support my subtopic Motivation and engagement in music.  The article studied the effect of an after school fine arts program for at-risk students in the Lansing, Michigan area.  The premise of the study purported that the study of fine arts not only improved on scholastic achievement but also improved on student self confidence and social responsibility because fine arts incorporated whole brain learning.  The author believed that it is this factor that at-risk students should participate in such activities.  The study included about 68 students 54 of whom were identified as at-risk, who participated in an afterschool fine arts program.  The study found that the afterschool program did have a positive affect in both increasing student achievement in school and increasing student confidence and social responsibility.

BP3_Diigo Group

So I am new to Diigo, but so far it looks to be a very cool and an effective tool in my research.  Looking forward to seeing how well the collaboration portion works.

If you would like to join the group please feel free to click on the link below.  It's free!  Well it'll cost you some of your time! :-)

http://groups.diigo.com/group/tkbachAR


Here are the much anticipated screenshots for my A+ Grade

I'm part of the Ripples Group!

My Group page

BP2_iGoogle Screen Shots

Home TAB

FSO TAB

AR TAB

ETC TAB

BP1_Google Reader

The feeds I have chosen all have to do with music education and technology.  This is an obvious interest of mine as my personal interests and Action Research will be focussed on this.

Feed 1: Musictech.net  http://musicedtech.wordpress.com/

This site delivers rich content regarding articles within the Music Tech education field, links to other blogs and news feeds within the field.  The site featured articles on teaching music and using technology, information on running a music program and outside resources to help you in your teaching.  I definitely would be able to learn from this site as well as use the site to find out what is being done in my field.  This site appears to be maintained by a music educator still in practice.  The last post was published in July 2010.

Feed 2: Musicedmagic http://www.musicedmagic.com/

This site also contains a wide variety of resources available for the music education teacher.  Article contributions appear to be by a few different people.  They also provided a twitter feed allowing you to access information outside of the website.  I found this particular site a little easier to navigate and it contained a great deal more resources.  Although it wasn't strictly music technology it contained a lot resources dealing with it.

Feed 3: Musictech.net  http://mustech.net/

This website, although it appears to be maintained by just one person has a great deal of information and resources.  It also contains many tools to access the site outside of visiting and sharing the website such as twitter, facebook, linkedin, google buzz and rss feeds.  I found the site to be easy to navigate and better organized than the last two sites.  I also found the content to have greater detail and more useful.  Although music technology is the main theme for the site, there are also many other sources and information regarding music education itself.  I will definitely use this site in my AR research.

Feed 4: Musicians Way Blog http://musiciansway.com/blog/

While this site did not contain as many resources as the last 3, the site is geared more towards the practice and performance of music.  The main website states that the webpage is a companion to the book, The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness by Gerald Klickstein (2009).  I found the site to be really informative and as I am in the business of educating students in music performance the site is very useful to me.


Feed 5: Finale Blog http://www.finalemusic.com/blog/

I picked this last site because I have the software Finale, which is a notation creation and editing software for composers, musicians and teachers.  But also my Action Research is centered around another software, Smartmusic, which is by the same company.  It only made sense for me to include this in my feeds.  I found the site to be somewhat informative, however at first glance it appears to be just an extension of their help guide.  Although I haven't delved into the entire site, of the articles I previewed, I didn't really find anything intriguing.