There is a lot of talk these days on the Interwebs, and I suppose for many days before now, about the new ways in which people are communicating, collaborating, connecting, and creating online. Eager teachers are promoting the use of the web in almost zealot evangelical ways, trying to convince everyone that the world will fall apart if their students are not creating Glogsters instead of posters, or having Skype calls with a class in India or Indiana.
I agree, for the most part, with the passion exhibited by these wide-eyed teachers. It is clear that we are in the midst of a monumental shift in the way human beings not only communicate and share reality, but more importantly in the ways we create and share stories. I am always asking myself, what does this all look like? Always the eager student (much more fun than being a teacher) I am always trying to push the ways I use my network. I want more form my PLN, Personal Learning Network ( I shudder at using those three letters, but can’t think of a better word yet.) than to troll through links to blog posts extolling the virtues of Web 2.0. I want my network to be a living breathing part of everything I do. I want to allow you into my spirit and see what comes out. I want to enter your reality and make a mess. I want to make you think. I want to rearrange your mental furniture. I want you to do the same for me. Nothing will be learned as long as we stay behind walls and peak out from the edges. If you really want to know what this web can do, come on out at play.
I don’t think this level of connection is possible without letting down my guard and being open to any and all opportunities to make as many connections as possible. This philosophy has opened so many strange doors for me in the last three years, that I can’t help but want to explore it further. Sure, I want to help expose my students to what it looks like to connect with people worldwide, but I am in the process of seeing what this looks like for myself.
These networks, this web has to be more than what we say it is. If there is more to the web, than what we have seen so far, how powerful could it be? How far can we push this idea of connectedness? Ultimately, I want to make authentic, lasting, powerful connections with the people I interact with online, but all that is theoretical mumbo jumbo. Let’s see what this looks like:
A few months ago I attended the Learning 2.010 conference in Shanghai where I met several people I had known quite well for a some time. These are people I have worked with and met in “real” life. I mention this only because apparently face-to-face meetings make relationships more authentic. The real reason I went to this conference, however, was to meet the other people, the ones who I had never met. This post is meant to be about a song, so let me try and stay on course. Long story short, I met several people and we found ourselves sitting at a bar talking about life, the Internet, teaching, music, freedom, revolution etc…
Leslie was one of those random, (I mean random in the best use of the word), connections who had joined our newly formed cohort. For the sake of brevity, I will let her tell you the story from her point of view. She does a great job of writing about it here.
I think that brings us up to the song. Here is that story: @onepercentyello, @klbeasley and I used Indaba to record a cover of Pearl Jam’s Nothingman. It was pretty simple really, I had known Keri Lee for almost a year through Twitter and our blogs. We hit it off really well when we finally met. That night in Shanghai @klbeasley gravitated toward @onepercentyello’s Ukulele and voice. I can’t remember exactly how we reconnected after we returned home, but there was surge in Tweets and someone mentioned that we should record a song together. I sent out the Indaba link and within days, @onepercentyello had laid a simple track with voice and Uke. I added my part a few days later and with a few gentle nudges @klbeasley added an amazing track with her voice.
The song could have been a bit more polished, and next time it just might be, but for our initial attempt it turned out pretty well. Once it was done, I couldn’t help but think that it had a soul but no body. I wanted a way to get more people involved and find a way to present it back to the webs. I am trying to drive this web 2.0 as fast I can get it to go. So I wrote this quick post and waited:
Over the next few weeks I sent constant reminders and watched the photos come trickling in. Interesting that no one from my “real” friends on Facebook even acknowledged the project, but the following people from Twitter sent images:
@cogdog
@klbeasley
@marklukach
@onepercentyello
@MaryAnnReilly
@b_sheridan
@fceblog
@Cayusa
@moominsean
This is by no means a @zefrank project, but I feel it is special in it’s own way. Three people living in three different countries who had never met a few months ago made music together. Then another group of unrelated people felt a strong enough need to send images to a song many of them may have never even heard. I can write all night about the implications of a project like this, but I will let you do that in the comments. The important thing is the art we created. Without further adieu, nothing man:
So am I wrong? Is this not a big deal? What does a project like this mean to you and your classroom? What have we learned about ourselves, art, our new reality? I will wait to hear from you before I comment further.
But it is not over yet! What can you now do with this post, this song, this video? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. We are already talking about the next song ( I am leaning toward this one.) and maybe a name for the band. What do you think? Do you want to be involved? Leave it all in the comments where it belongs!
I am not sure how this would translate into the classroom, at least not with the way we have it structured now. How do we as teachers facilitate this type of collaboration with students? Maybe this is too personal to be in a classroom to begin with.
I struggle with the idea that school is a place for students to follow their passions as much as I struggle with the idea that school is a place for students to be taught a specific curriculum. There is no way a teacher/facilitator can know enough to individualize every students learning if it is passion based, and yet when I see you so geeked out from doing this project I can’t deny its value.
This idea of student led learning and passion have been on my mind lately. I am not sure how it looks either, but I know this much: Students do not care for what we want to teach them, so we
need to find out what and how they want to learn. This does not fit into the model of school, but that doesn’t make it less important.
Passion drives learning. Period.
The blog keeps telling me it is a duplicate comment. So I’ll try linking you to the original text of my comment.
http://eltnotes.blogspot.com/2010/11/reply-to-rabiz-raisdana.html
Thank you for sharing this Jabiz.
wmchamberlain try reading:
‘The Element – How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything’ by Ken Robinson
and watching RSAnimates – ‘Changing Education Paradigms’ a speech also by Ken Robinson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Hopefully they will change your paradigm because passion certainly drives learning. Full stop!
Jabiz,
Let me start out by noting how awesome the song and video are. Creating music is, for me, a soul quenching experience. I thought very seriously about not leaving the rest of this comment, but I think (based on the first part of your post) that you want to see the holes (if they exist).
There has been a slow erosion of what it means to be a band over many years. At one time a band made their recordings live all in the same room – they HAD to be able to play together. Today, the band members need not be in the same country. While there has been much gain in the quality of music recording in recent decades, what have we lost? I think your example song is a hard example to consider because it is a cover. I wonder to what extent writing an original song would be impacted by separation of distance and time. When creating music with my band nearly 10 years ago song creation was a group effort. Someone might enter with a riff or melody, but because we were all there the process could be interrupted and ideas shared – also, the whole song developed rather than piece by piece. When working on the intro, every instrument was present, a dynamic that is not present in the manner your song was created. There is likely some value in the layered approach you took, but (as with everything) there is something you’ve given up. In my view, you’ve given up the ability to develop a song with the whole of the song in view (if that makes sense).
Also, you mention the “new reality”. I agree and am not afraid of the new reality. However, I do wonder what happens in music “3.0” when live music no longer exists – or is not very good because the musicians have never been in the same room before 🙂 I wonder if this approach to music will further make music about “exactness” rather than feeling and soul. Just some thoughts.
What does this mean for school? I’m not sure. Do teachers start co-creating lesson plans online? Do students co-create projects online? I hope yes, and I hope no. The cloud has benefits, but when we crowdsource we probably end up with an “average” look at things. This means the best of teachers (if choosing to use the crowd sourced materials) are actually becoming worse teachers.
Sorry for the randomness. Just some thoughts your post got me thinking about.
Let me start by saying that I think of live music, the creation of songs by a group of people in real time, on a stage or a recording studio, is the single most important, beautiful, powerful thing that human beings do. I see the creation of music as an almost biological act. I am in constant awe of what a group of people attached to music can do without collective spirit. Nothing means more to me than my musical experiences. I am sure that no amount of technology will ever dilute that experience. The creation of music will outlast all technology. When peak oil hits and we are all living back in the woods, we will grab a stone beat out a rhythm and sing the blues. Trust me.
This experiment was in no way trying to say that this form of collaboration will take the place of, or ever even compare to live music. Having said that, I have never been in a band, though I have been playing for almost 20 years. I am not very good and I am comfortable with that. I know what music does for me, and I see that I cannot do that for others with my music, but this lack of talent does not stop me from trying.
What this experience has done for me is given me the opportunity to connect with others over the spirit of a song, through lyrics, harmonies, ukulele, and images. I am not saying that musicians should use these tools to reshape music. I am saying that educators should be open to connecting on other ideas besides education.
We learn about ourselves through the creation of art. We learn more when we bring others in our space. No? Just thinking out loud? Has there been a bond created through this project? Is there value in that connection? For me the answer is yes. Finally, I see the end of this expereiment as a semi colon not a full stop, what is the next phrase, what will we do next?
hey, as an afterthought. You should check out Jaren Lanier’s book “you are not a gadget”. It talks a lot about how tech is changing the music business (and other aspects of culture) and how these changes are not necessarily for better. He also makes some suggestions on how to improve the situation. I’m not quite done with it, but have liked it so far. Kind of a choppy writing style, but gets the job done.
One main point that might apply to your post is how music is in sort of stale point. Lanier claims that hip-hop was the last truly new kind of music to come out and that was 30-40 years ago. What is happening now is repackaging and remixing rather than revolution or originality. It is an interesting point. All our technology is supposed to be revolutionizing things, but we are just getting more of the same with a new coat of paint – this has clear implication for schools and makes me wonder why this lack of originality exists in the music industry. I think it is partly because of the technology making it easier to find music we like so we don’t “discover” new music. Also, i think there is an industry economic issue. With the technology lowering profit margins for labels, they are less likely to take risks on unknown artists or unfamiliar music.
Pingback: Technology and Ruts « Teaching as a dynamic activity
A lovely video! And a beautiful tribute from you to the people you have connected with. If I take anything from this it’s an expression of the emotional resonance of connecting with others online. I feel that too and I like the idea of making art out of that feeling.
However, I have some questions about the nature of the project – and how you might do it differently next time.
You are a huge Pearl Jam fan. Everybody who reads your stuff know this 🙂 And a lot of the projects you get most excited about seem to be driven by music you like. That’s cool – especially if the participants also share your passion for that music. But it’s still an expression driven by music that is personally meaningful – to you.
One thing I’d love to see with your next project is the creation of an *original* song written by the participants. This is a lovely remix of a song you enjoy – with some images and content from your colleagues (but still a song you pre selected for this). But make sure you give people a LOT of lead time if you want more participants.
As a creative person, I know it is hard to step away from the music that fires your passion. And I know certain music is a BIG part of that for you Jabiz. It is the same for me too! You’ve tweeted enough about different pieces of music over the past few years to tattoo your playlist into our consciousness. But I don’t want to hear your ipod anymore, I would rather hear your own songs and music. Enough Pearl Jam. More Jabiz 🙂
And as that extends to your network, what opportunities or formats can you create to solicit their voices, words, beats? Perhaps creating a sandbox space somewhere for all to contribute and break into different categories: lyrics, instruments, visuals. CC Mixter is
http://ccmixter.org/
great for creative commons licensed musical samples. I used it for my remix unit in my class last year. The idea is not to select a pre-mixed track but use the site to select different elements – a backbeat, vocals, etc and then remix them. Everybody could be asked to select a bit of music that jumps out for them. Then (maybe you?) could do the mixing?
Here is what I’m saying via Emily Dickinson:
WE play at paste,
Till qualified for pearl,
Then drop the paste,
And deem ourself a fool.
The shapes, though, were similar,
And our new hands
Learned gem-tactics
Practising sands.
…
At a certain point we need to use our “new hands” to make new things.
“If I take anything from this it’s an expression of the emotional resonance of connecting with others online. I feel that too and I like the idea of making art out of that feeling. ”
That was the whole point! SO well done. Now onto the other points. I am still stuck in my 14 year old mind where I build identity around the music I listen to. That’s just who I am. It’s like when we used to write the names of our favorite bans on our binders. I still do that, but now it is on my blog and Last FM. 80% of my wardrobe are band shirts. I associate with music and I think people are the music they listen to. Do I have a tendency to “tattoo” my tastes onto others? For sure.
I think this all stems from my lack of talent to be a musician. Remember the story of Amedeus, Scalaraiarie. I feel like him. Why do I have such a strong need to play music, but not the talent to do so?
But I like the idea of trying to write a collaborative original. But we are still new to this and need to play some more. This was a real off the cuff thing. No planning. No thought. Just ideas thrown out into the ether to see what sticks. I was just impressed by what came back.
Now maybe it is time to give it more of an original shape, or maybe not, maybe it was what it was and that is enough.
As for giving people more time, I feel that is when ideas get bogged now. Share when you can and sit out if you can’t.
BTW I did not pick this song. It was Leslie and I will let her tell you why she picked it.
I would love to write my own music, but after twenty years, I still cannot hear that voice. Maybe that is why I broadcast the voices I hear that I connect with so often?
Great! I loved it, all of it. What a fun project and possibly a cool way to keep kids connected once they move to other schools, which is so common in international schools.
Besides that, it’s just what we should be doing. Trying new things, learning, collaborating, changing and evolving. Our technology these days means we have more options to do this and can reach out so much further professionally.
What you said about how to be involved in a PLN and get the most out of it rings so true. I am a newbie in the world of twitter and blogging, but I am there for the same reasons. When I was asked about the purpose of my blog when I joined the #blogalliance, I replied that it was “a cry for help”. The answer wasn’t self mocking. I want to put what I am doing “out there”, because I have never taught a class this way before and feedback is valuable. I have small stats, but the comments, emails and tweets about it have already helped immensely. Also, there are others doing similar things, and why should anyone make it from scratch, if it’s already there. I would freely give all I’ve developed to any educator.
Part of being a blogger or microblogger, when you tweet, is it makes you stop and reflect properly on teaching and learning or whatever it is you need navel gazing in your life for. It helps you grow. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to move forward, whether or not anyone reads it.
I am sure somebody won’t be happy about this anonymosity, but I suppose we will all learn to live with it eventually.
I am impressed by your enthusiasm for the digital world and all it has to offer for teaching. I remember when I was in your class, infected with the same sort of enthusiasm, wondering how different the world will be in ten years or ten months.
But I don’t think the digital world will ever come to replace the world of tangible connections, physical relationships. I think some of the potential of this new medium is being explored by people who are 100% dedicated to it, and this project is wonderful. But ultimately, I think that what the web does is create new avenues of communication and distribution that will always remain shortcuts to, or improvements upon, age-old ideas.
I think also that one of the side-effects of this digital blossoming is a cultural fragmentation that we cannot, but might want to, avoid. Someone said that no new music has been created since Hip-Hop forty years ago. I’d say the opposite – so many new things have been made, and they are so very different, that musicians are no longer content to organize themselves under a single banner. Like ivy branching ever out, catalyzed and accelerated by a medium never before conceived, we have reached a generation where there are so many ‘ends’ – so many types of music, so many textures of prose, so many cultural hubs, that what was once whole is now broken into pieces.
This is a bit of a digression and I’m not sure how I originally conceived it to relate to the topic of teaching and web 2/3.0 (these, I think, are really just advertising flags for a continuous, unrelenting phenomenon), but I think this much is true: schools will eventually (slowly, knowing schools) learn to take advantage of new technologies at their disposal, including students’ blogs and online, cross-national collaboration, and these are amazing stories that need sharing. But I am afraid that without a concept to envelop them, projects like this might not have much meaning. If you include it in your book, connect it to ideas, explicit or not, that is another thing. But otherwise, to me, it sounds a little like the nostalgic fire-circling sort of music, stolen from its natural home. Music, without human contact, ultimately doesn’t mean much – to me, at least.
I don’t know who this is, but I can take a pretty good guess and as always it makes me proud to know you and to fool myself into thinking I had anything to do with your brilliance.
“Music, without human contact, ultimately doesn’t mean much – to me, at least.”
I totally agree. See my comment above. This was not a project about music per se, but about human connections. The music and video were an after thought. Really I wanted to see what these new tools are doing to connect people.
Love it! And I’m looking forward to being involved in round 2!
To Jerrid and “Anonymous” — I don’t think anyone is advocating for or implying that this kind of creative endeavor is going to *replace* face-to-face musical creation. I’ve been in several bands –yes, real, live face-to-face ones, where we collaborated in recording studios, on stage, in people’s living rooms, writing music, lyrics, and re-arranging covers … and often got paid for it (at least one person in this comment thread can testify to this, even…). You’re right when you say that the kind of creativity — and music — that evolves from this kind of situation cannot be replicated through some kind of online interaction. It can’t. And I don’t think we WANT it to be.
That’s not to say, however, that this kind of online interaction can’t sit side-by-side NEXT to it. Does online interaction replace face-to-face interactions in other situations? No. There is a body of research now that indicates that people who are active in online social environments are not less active in f2f social environments — in fact, they are MORE active in f2f social environments. (I can dig up the citations for this if you’re interested — I’ve got ’em in a bibliography.) Online social interaction does not replace f2f — if anything, it enriches it and makes it all the more valuable.
And to those who say, “Oh, this is great but let us know when you write a real song” — I have to wonder if the people saying this are musicians. If you’re a musician, and especially if you’ve ever taught music to learners of any age, you know that one of the first ways a musician learns to create is first imitate others. You play covers. First you play them exactly the way they sound on the “radio version.” Then you start experimenting. You “play” with the different elements of the song you’re covering. And after you’ve done that plenty of times (until you’re bored, basically), you start to think… “hmmm… maybe I could create something like this myself”… and that’s how it begins.
Jabiz, Leslie, and Keri-Lee are just beginning this process… give them time and be patient, y’all. 🙂
I’m hoping I can be involved in the next one… you’re all doing a wonderful job of distracting me from my thesis. I’m in the home stretch now so really can’t deviate from it too much but I’ll be watching from the sidelines and cheering you on. Once January hits, watch out! I’ll have way too much time on my hands… you may wish you hadn’t invited me! 😉
“Online social interaction does not replace f2f — if anything, it enriches it and makes it all the more valuable. ”
I want this tattooed on my body somewhere. It NEVER has to be one or the other. I would much rather have sat on a beach in Thailand around a fire staring up at the stars singing this song, obviously, and seeing that I may see Keri Lee for Chinese New Year in Bali, may just do that, but I am just saying that it was cool to get about 12 different people around one song for some time in the infinite void of existence we stumble through on a daily basis.
“Jabiz, Leslie, and Keri-Lee are just beginning this process… give them time and be patient, y’all”
Thank you!
“And to those who say, “Oh, this is great but let us know when you write a real song” — I have to wonder if the people saying this are musicians.”
Who are “those” who are saying that? Not sure anybody here said that or disparaged the “realness,” beauty, spirit or meaning of the musical project above.
To reiterate my own point (given the apparent misreadings/inferences that seem possible), creating an original collaborative piece based on *shared* selections seems a more holistic approach than pre-selecting a personally meaningful track on behalf of the participants. I’m all for imitation and riffing and remix as meaningful ways into musical learning. But that’s more meaningful when one gets to choose one’s own music as the starting point (versus having somebody else choose that music for you). I feel the same about prescribed curriculum versus building resources out of and from learner’s identities, communities and lived experience. DIY and maker culture is all about that – it’s quite the opposite of top down methodologies.
Coming from a family of musicians, and playing music from an early age, I am, indeed, familiar with the variety of ways people learn about and interact with music. Copying is a great way to learn. Especially when the learner self selects music that has meaning to them. This is also the basis of remix and fan culture – it’s all based on an affinity. You get thousands of remixes of songs that are meaningful to the creators. And its interesting how the top down corporate culture is now trying to co-opt that authentic drive to engage viral cultural production. Some argue that kids are already inscribed to “play” corporate narratives rather than learning to create their own. This, again, is very very different than maker, DIY or remix culture because it is’t informed by any meaningful agency or choice on the part of the participants. It’s inscribed and prescribed – not felt.
I’m not sure that any of us here need to qualify our positions according to expertise or knowledge of music or discredit those who don’t have that since what we’re talking about here is community, networking and collaboration – or at least I thought that’s what this was about. for my part, I was interested in addressing what makes for “authentic” collaboration as it is situated in the participants contributions rather than being driven by the dominant interest or vision of one participant. And this extends to pedagogical approaches as well.
Melanie you make a great point when you say, “creating an original collaborative piece based on *shared* selections seems a more holistic approach than pre-selecting a personally meaningful track on behalf of the participants. I’m all for imitation and riffing and remix as meaningful ways into musical learning. But that’s more meaningful when one gets to choose one’s own music as the starting point (versus having somebody else choose that music for you).”
But that was not the nature of this first piece. I agree that having a say in what you collaborate makes it a more enriching experience for all involved, but there is also something to be said about an off the cuff spontaneous connection. There has to be something said to -Throwing it out there and seeing who connects. Everyone who sent an image must have had some connection to the song or would not have sent the image.
This video and song are not a holistic collaborative project based on shared interests, it is more of a fly paper project to see who comes to it. I understand and appreciate the model of which you spoke and would be interested in participating in such a project. Let me know when one becomes available.
I know it appears that I was masterminding this project to be some kind of Pearl Jam tribute, because i have done that before, but really I didn’t even pick the song. I took what came my way and try to throw it back to the universe and then put the pieces back together. I think another interesting take could have been to give everyone the same pool of images and see how they would have created the video etc….
The options are limitless, as an educator and artists, I simply want to play with the possibilities. This project was meant to me light, fast, and fun. To see what we can do as a first step. I feel that mission was accomplished.
Melanie, I definitely see your point here (thanks for clarifying, btw). I guess I didn’t see this particular example as one where one member (Jabiz) chose a personally meaningful piece on behalf of other participants — there was a lot of discussion on Twitter between all parties as to which piece to choose. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the conversations I saw; Jabiz, Leslie, and Keri-Lee will have to jump in and address that I suppose. It sounded initially to me that you (and Jerrid, too, when he says “I wonder to what extent writing an original song would be impacted by separation of distance and time. … In my view, you’ve given up the ability to develop a song with the whole of the song in view (if that makes sense).”) were saying that the creation of a new piece has more value than doing a cover of an existing one, which is what I was disagreeing with. But thank you for giving your statement more detail; I appear to have misunderstood at least part of what you were saying.
Look at those manners. Modeling good blogging etiquette.
Hey Adrienne,
Thanks for engaging me on this. I agree with you that the end product is what counts and that his peer remix is something special. the greatest learning I’ve had these past few years has come directly from my students – their interests, ideas and opinions. Instead of going in there with ideas about what I think might interest them based on my own interests, I’m leaving my own interests out of it – increasingly working hard to resist.
I have shown RIP a remix manifesto to several classes now and did a remix unit last year that *I* thought was pretty interesting. Like any teacher, I had to prepare this unit on my own – though i tried to get input from the students while structuring it there were quite a few pieces they didn’t have context for (like the copyright stuff, Lessig, CC etc). When I showed RIP, which I think is a pretty cool movie, they were sort of bored. I was like “wow, this is such a cool movie.” then I realised that girl talk is really popular with all my educated bourgeois hipster educator friends but has absolutely zero interest to my students who are listening to very different music.
When Lessig and Doctorow come on screen (two of my heroes) they were yawning at them despite the interesting and intelligent things those guys say. Though I broke the film up and made room for discussion and we did all kinds of other hands on remix the basic thing was this. I went in there with all MY stuff, my stuff I thought was so cool and hip and whatever and they were just so uninterested. And finally when we did the remix and I showed them CC mixter and internet archive they were like “but miss, I don’t want to use any of that stuff. I can’t find Tupac (or any other commercial artists they wanted to work with). This stuff is crap!” … we had to have a big discussion about why we couldn’t use copyrighted stuff for our remix videos and why there was virtue in the “amateur” content on CC mixter site … some of the students enjoyed some tracks they found but most just wanted to work with commercial stuff (and there’ sa whole critique in that – in hte desire only to use commercial work …). Anyway, point I’m trying to make is: the more we go in with all our cool stuff and think hey kids check us out the more alienating it is for them.
I’m wondering if we all need to just leave our treasures aside in order to really go and be open to the cultures that aren’t so familiar to us …
meant to add: my students did incredible remix videos despite limitations and it was a meaningful unit. though also meaningful in teaching me that their context for remix was much richer than mine. ultimately their question, in school is: “where am I in this?”
I think if it was meaningful for you, then the experience is valuable. You don’t need anyone else to tell you otherwise 🙂
Fair enough, but I am still curious if it has been meaningful to anyone else. Viewer or participant. Not as a way to justify or validate the project, but out of curiosity.
In a way, exposing it to this dissection has cheapened the experience for me. Maybe it would have been best to simply share with those who made it and left it alone. I am starting to get what you say about being too exposed. Everything is torn down online, and somethings may just be too fragile.
Maybe.
After reading most of the thread, I see how different the experience of a viewer is from someone involved.
I probably digress, but perhaps when we show or passionately talk to our students about projects we would like them to be part of, their minds wonder in search for reasons and evaluations. Lots of ‘but’ or ‘what if’. Passion is all about doing and letting it happen. Dissection or not, at least they voice what some students will probably keep to themselves.
I never felt it was about music or composing. I felt it was about connecting. In my case, I went from the music, to the lyrics, out to the park and captured a dry leaf with my camera. I wanted to capture a couple of images I couldn’t find around me. To my surprise, someone else sent them!
I love concerts. This month I was lucky enough to see Paul McCartney. There were collective tears in 40,000 faces when Yesterday was sung. Unique meaningful four minutes for a lot of people. Now suppose I had come back home, recorded a cover with the friends I went to the concert with, and ask the world to send me pics to create a video. How many do you think I would have got? (Certainly not as many as if Paul himself had asked) Why would they send me pics if they were not readers of my blog? What makes me so unique about liking a famous song?
I think this is about connecting. It’s personal. Dissections don’t make the journey.
Congratulations on the video! Plus, congratulations on making the huge second step and having part of your PLN actually come to life. This is really what this whole Web 2.0 thing is really about. Exploring. Experimenting. Collaborating. Creating. Sharing. And of course, getting out students to follow the example. Now I feel stupid, because I never sent an image to you to use. I’m usually pretty good with follow through when I state that I will do something, but this time I totally dropped the ball. I could make excuses (I was too busy with everything else I was doing), but the fact is, we are all too busy, the only way these things happen is if we do it and forget being busy for a little while. Great job! I’m glad some people broke through the artificial walls and into the realm of the possible. I’m looking forward to more… I will not miss out again, promise!
Tim
Looking forward to it.
Having been a part of this from the beginning, I can tell you that it was SO powerful to be able to make music with people from 3 different countries. Watching it unfold, track by track completely blew my mind.
Seeing the video was like the icing on the cake, like our mini project was complete.
Reading the comments on your post has left me a little bit ‘meh’. I was so pleased and excited by what it is possible to achieve collaboratively between countries, but can’t help feeling (as Adrienne noted) that people think it isn’t good enough unless you write the music yourself.
It feels a bit like people are saying, “Yes, BUT” rather than “Yes, AND” (I know, cheesy ADE lingo here). The potentially unspoken undercurrent seems to be, “Yes, that’s all very well, BUT it will be cool when you write your own pieces like real musicians.”
I love music. I love singing. My family is completely musical and play many instruments. My Dad was a music teacher and composed a great number of songs. Despite all that musical nurturing, I have no particular interest in composing anything myself.
This is enough for me. I am just happy to have the chance to sing. If Jabiz & Leslie want to write their own music, I will support them in any way I can, but likely it will be putting harmonies to a piece that they have crafted.
@Melanie – I can’t quite remember who decided on Nothingman, but I thought it came from Leslie. I loved the song growing up, but it had been a few years since I had heard it. I didn’t feel pressured into doing it.
Most of Jabiz’s musical suggestions are new to me, which is great, because it’s expanding my world view!
As for one of Jabiz’s original questions – what does this mean for your classroom? – well I want to be creating an environment in which interested students in my classes can have a go at this sort of stuff. I know that I can facilitate this by keeping in touch with other forward-thinking educators like Jabiz, Adrienne, Leslie & Melissa and others in my PLN.
I have tried writing songs but that is not for me. I cannot hear my voice there like I can in prose, but that shouldn’t taint the love of music that guides my life. I will always sing, because I have no choose and it feels great to have such great sings to choose from. Maybe someday I will write original music, but till than I am with you Keri Lee, music does not have to be original to be authentic.
Some of my favorite songs are covers. I even love trolling through Youtube to see ametuers cover my favorite songs. I love the humility of it.
i love it.
i think it is a big deal. i think it’s what we need. everyone’s flavor of this.
not all music. not all ukelele. but whatever the passion is.. whatever the stretching is.. that’s the project. that’s the learning. that’s school. that’s the art. that’s the song.
“There is no way a teacher/facilitator can know enough to individualize every students learning if it is passion based, and yet when I see you so geeked out from doing this project I can’t deny its value.”
2 things..
1) there is no way a teacher/facilitator can know enough to individualize… that’s why we’ve never done it before. but the web.. with it’s endless connections.. does allow for it now.
2) when i see you geeked out… that’s our new grading system.. no? why can’t that be how we define value.. when communities are geeked out about their work..
this says it all… “the important thing is the art we created…”
why are we so bent on a curriculum.. it’s less valid than the true essence of geeking out.
“We learn about ourselves through the creation of art. We learn more when we bring others in our space.”
i
love
this.
i’m asking a couple of my students if they want to join in.
ok?
and about the cheapening by exposing to dissection. i’m wondering if it’s more the dissecting than the exposing..
i’m wondering when we all get better at this.. we’ll just expose and not dissect so much. we all need detox from following rules/curriculum now.. so the dissecting is that.. it’s the detox. after a while..i’m imagining it will be more natural – like it’s meant to be.. and the exposing will only add.. not cheapen.
Funny – my thoughts seem to be meandering off in a slightly different direction. Not about the music at all.
Well, maybe a little bit about the music – in terms of thinking that I don’t understand what the “fuss” about original or not is all about. To me, this piece of work is, indeed, original. A cover, for sure. But it has your fingerprints all over it. It’s different than anything else that has come before – because it’s your (collective) unique mix and interpretation and voices/music. That, in my eyes, makes it original. And, by the way, stirringly beautiful! Thank you for sharing it!
But beyond that, what I think about is the power of sharing and authentic conversations – through twitter and blogs and such – to translate into relationships. Yes – real, live relationships without ever having met face to face before. When we share our real selves, here, out on the interwebs, we open doors – and I have no doubt that if/when you and I meet face to face, we’ll sit and talk as if we’ve known each other for years. Because we HAVE!
The hard part isn’t really about the digital at all – it’s about how we (our true, internal selves) interface with the world. period. Our relatively new ways of interfacing through technology only highlight a struggle that has always been there…
http://tinyurl.com/2bja7zx
Navigating that boundary of being authentic to our selves within the context of a society that doesn’t always support such honesty (or rewards it with derision and ridicule!) is what we can model for our children and students. And supporting them when they struggle to do the same – whether online or off. That’s powerful stuff!
And the other thing I think about here is the power of sharing ideas. This is something that we and our children need to understand! I often look about and think that all we need to know is already out there, being done successfully, somewhere. I just don’t know about it yet…
I hear about an idea, I have different experience/strengths and I change the idea to fit my world then share it out again. Someone else hears about my idea and adds their own dimension to it and it morphs again. This is how innovation has always happened – but now we can do it on a global scale! And goodness knows, our problems are on a global scale, so our solutions better be too!
Sharing. We need to do more of it. We need to model it to our children. And we need to teach them to leverage it as well. Because all the easy problems have already been solved – electricity and cars and central air conditioning were the simple solutions. We’re leaving the next generation all the hard stuff – like how to live in peace, or how to stop polluting our Earth. And they’re going to need the power of “crowd accelerated innovation” in order to learn globally! http://tinyurl.com/27vk7n9
So yay you!! Yay for sharing and innovating and opening our hearts to new ideas through your music! I can’t wait to see what you do next – with music AND with your students!
Thank you for your humbling comment, sir.
I just wanted to add something that I somehow managed to omit from my previous rambling comment, which is that I love your cover. I love how different it sounds with the female voices dominating, I love the ukulele which somehow sounds much less humble in company, and your voice is like the grainy backbone of a faded black-and white image: easy to miss, at times, and yet inseparable from the essence of the photo. Your defense of covers is, of course, wholly true, and I think part of the beauty of covers is that they add something to music to replace what is taken away. In this role covers can be true mediums and works of art, like any good translation inevitably must be.
I too love it.
I’m a High School Principal. I’ve been a High School Math teacher (contain you groans please). I worked with some great math teachers … in the traditional sense. I’ve now been given the role of encouraging teachers to help students follow their passions. Tough task in any school that has exams as the major summative assessment. But I keep trying. I have to. It’s my job.
Anyone who’s questioning that students learn best when they are engaged (which translates to doing something they like, which translates to following their passions) should read Dan Pink’s “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” (I know it came out 11 months ago … ancient history by today’s standards of information transmission). Ken Robinson’s “The Element” (mentioned above) is also a great read.
Powerful. Connecting. Sharing. Passion. All great words to describe the efforts that have gone into this track. Your students are lucky to have you leading them, if you are also making them “Peak Out from the Edges”.
Cheers,
Ted
As interesting and intellectual as it is, I am not going to focus on the dissection, or discussion, or whatever you may call it, because I agree with you when you say it “cheapens”, or distracts from the art. Instead, I am here to say, as a fellow untalented, eager musician, I will embark with you on the next collaborative work of art! That is if you will take me.- My twitter name is guswaneka
http://www.myspace.com/wereallylovetunes
Thanks everyone for a great conversation. I will just say one more thing, unless this discussion go further at a later time. I think how, a lot of what we present online is received, depends on how we frame it. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to present this piece on its own with little explanation on my personal blog (Looking back I wish I had) or as a piece of educational professional material to be examined here.
By posting it as an experiment in educational collaboration I think I inadvertently steered the conversation towards strange directions. At the end of the day is was a fun little experiment using a new tool and connecting through music with some people I am really enjoying getting to know. it involved a small group of people who rally around a song, or more importantly a story. I hope I was able to help us realize what the story was, because at the end of the day it is this shared reality that will ultimately brings us together and this connections is the reason why I am so excited about the future of the web.
It is this collective spirit, this sense of we all “get it” if we stop dissecting and simply lose ourself in art, in music, in the story. And if that didn;t come across this time, Perhaps next time we will do a better job. It could have been something, but it’s nothingman….
Love it! Thanks for putting that final polish on our soapbox song we built in the garage, Jabiz. As Keri-Lee says, this project was certainly about connecting. From that first evening in Shanghai where my ukulele was central in boosting my confidence enough to bridge the digital/analogue divide, I have thought about ways to share making music with friends in absence. Of course there is something different when you are sitting in your room and recording your tracks to the cloud, but different does not always mean less. Just as ‘original’ doesn’t always mean you wrote the words.
The audio track is certainly raw; I had barely been practicing the song for a week, but the opportunity to use a new 2.0 music tool (indabamusic.com) pushed me to put the first practice track out there. While the lead vocals and chord progression belong to those Pearl Jam legends, the lower harmonies are mine and the soprano is all Keri-Lee. Original with a capital O-hYeah and stunningly beautiful, Keri-Lee! This time to interact on our own with the track and to make individual contributions is certainly one of the strengths of this type of ‘conversation’. It left time to listen to the interpretation (and mistakes… oh that ending progression!!) of others and to make our own contributions.
In terms of continued musical musings, as a result of this practice, I’ve been learning to solo along with the most random music. Not only covers of high school classics and the like, but jammin’ along with drum and bass and dubstep electronic tracks with the ukulele. I continue to write my own tracks, and I may just take you all up on contributing to those! Play, play and play!
On a side note, I can play this tune so much better after the past month of playing on the street with all the others I have connected with because I have taken the time to learn this song. This was another great draw of this project for me. I know that the next time I see these fine digital individuals in the analogue world, we will be able to sit down with a common song and look like pros 🙂 And I agree, Monika, perhaps the dissection is because we are so accustomed to the polish of what music should be. I find this time in our culture entirely exciting as the pressure of ‘should’ melts under the exhilarating flash of self-production.
As Monika says, “whatever the stretching is.. that’s the project. that’s the learning. that’s school. that’s the art.” This song is a small sample of the great digital stretching I’ve been doing since Learning 2.010. The most significant lesson to all of this continues to be the power of reaching out to connect, even if it is with undeveloped and fragile parts of ourselves, in the hopes that together we can make something greater than the sum of its parts.
I find this time in our culture entirely exciting as the pressure of ‘should’ melts under the exhilarating flash of self-production.
The most significant lesson to all of this continues to be the power of reaching out to connect, even if it is with undeveloped and fragile parts of ourselves, in the hopes that together we can make something greater than the sum of its parts.
PERFECT! What a great comment. Thank you. Looking forward to where we go with this, I am always open to any ideas you have. I will try anything!
Pingback: Marathon Man | Intrepid Teacher
Pingback: We Are Echoes and Refections | Intrepid Teacher