I was the Music Specialist at Kedgley Intermediate from 1996-2000. Previously Kedgley had been without a Music Specialist. The Principal Paul Murphy observed me taking a music lesson with my class in 1996 and thought it would be a good idea to have me taking the whole school for music. The rest as they say was history. From there I moved to Howick Intermediate in 2001 and started to integrate IT and Multimedia into the programme. We made use of Cubase recording software as well as Sibelius composing software. We also made good use of some open source freeware like Goldwave and Audacity.
We produced full scale musicals, developed a recording studio and produced music videos. Below are some examples of the recording and video clips produced.
RECORDING MUSIC
Dancing with my Father is a recording featuring James Ru a year 7 student at the time. For this recording we used Cubase Recording Software which allows multi track recording. Students did all the recording and dubbing and editing to produce this quality recording. Click on the link to listen to it.
IMPOSSIBLE MISSION
The school band rehearsed the piece until it was up to recording standard. It was recorded live in one hit using a piece of Freeware software called Goldwave. With no overdubbing the performance needed to be perfect. A talented group of students pulled this off. Another group of students devised the video clip. Based on the premise that no matter how much litter is picked up there is always more. The clip shows two students chasing a piece of rubbish around the school. The paper is determined to stay free of any rubbish bin. The students storyboarded, blocked and filmed the sequences then edited into the clip you see using the band and its music to produce the finished music video. All of this was done with the bare minimum of IT equipment proving that IT Integration into learning is not about the Bells and Whistles but the processes and key competencies involved.
INTEGRATING ICT
Integrating IT into a music programme or any programme for that matter is not as difficult as you would think. The students we are teaching are the ‘Playstation Generation’ and as such take to idea easily. The scope that it provides for the students to develop and produce their ideas and then present them to an audience is stunning. Below is a clip devised by a group of students to show the IT integration in the Music programme.
MUSICALS
Producing a full scale musical is always a challenge for any school . We were fortunate at Howick Intermediate in that we had a full Performing and Visual Arts Department. The drama teacher took care of the acting, the dance teacher the choreography and the art teacher the set and of course the music was done by me and the school band. The Technology Department also played their part with costume design/making and set construction. With such a great team the scope of these productions was always huge. Below is some still images combined with the soundtrack of JUNGLE FANTASY.
ANIMATION
Give some students some lumps of coloured clay, a webcam and access to a computer and there is no end to what they can produce.
SOCIAL COMMENT
Are students aware of the world around them? The internet ensures that they are. This group of students from Elim Christian College who came for multimedia lessons every week produced this clip chosing a piece of music then blending some well chosen images with them playing and excellent choice of music to make a very salient point.
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