Call it whatever you want. Our Provincial Government has been advocating changes to the Ontario Education System by insisting that four on-line courses would be completed by our secondary school students - this was the original plan proposed way back in 2019 when negotiations began for a new central contract. Then, the number was reduced to 2 on-line courses. Now, with the Covid-19 situation, all students are experiencing on-line learning from home. Teachers are scrambling to learn and develop learning activities.
I have always viewed new technology as a way to enhance curriculum delivery, and not replace the classroom experience. I have been a strong supporter of including new technology in my teaching. I can remember using new technology way back in the mid-1980’s when I was teaching at St. Joseph CHS, in Barrie Ontario. I remember purchasing a midi sound card to place in a slot on an Apple 2E computer, which allowed me to record midi sequences to a 4-track program available. At the time, I had a keyboard synthesizer. It allowed me to play up to 6 note polyphony. I was so impressed with the possibilities. I used this technology in my first year of teaching! I was exposed to this technology at Teachers’ College. At St. Joseph CHS, I would record the midi information to play the accompaniment while I conducted the choir at school liturgies. I had to purchase the sound card using personal money funds, and I brought my own keyboard synthesizer and stereo system speakers to teach in a portable and perform the music. As teachers, we would often invest our money to support our ideas, and deliver educational activities that we truly believed in. I spend two years at St. Joseph CHS and managed to convenience the school administration to invest in a portable sound system for the gymnasium, with Bose speakers and microphones, and power mixer, and cordless microphone! I remember using the computer technology and keyboards to accompaniments and sound effects for the musical presentation shows we created at the end of the year. This experience with technology and music applications helped me to obtain my next teaching assignment at Father Bressani CHS, Woodbridge Ontario.
I continued to explore technology applications at Father Bressani CHS. I remember on my interview day, where I was invited to one of the music classrooms to meet another music teacher, whom I knew, to answer a question about the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and MIDI messages (send and receive) on all 16 channels. At the time, I was a bit familiar with this keyboard, a real important standard keyboard in the performing industry at the time. Every keyboard player played the DX7 because of the main few sounds it produced, of a high level of standard. At the time, I could not solve the problem that these two music teachers were experiencing. Basically, the DX7 was incapable of transmitting and receiving MIDI messages on all 16 channels. You had to use channel 1.
The Roland JX8P keyboard synthesizer I purchased could transmit and receive on all 16 channels, which made it a good master keyboard. The Yamaha was a digital synthesizer; the Roland was an analog synthesizer. The two together would make for a great keyboard player in a wedding band.
At any rate, Father Bressani was looking for a music teacher that would be interested in helping the school develop a Music & Computers program, offering additional musical experience course offerings, expanding on the traditional concert band and choir offerings already available at the school. So, I was considered a good investment. So, I got the job and did help to develop a really good lab of ten computers and keyboards, with the support of the music department head, and school administration. My work in technology continued year after year. I continued to advance my skills and knowledge in this area. I remember being one of the first to get a modem at the school in the early 1990’s and sharing original MIDI compositions with York University (a pilot project). I remember getting involved with school board new initiatives, that helped me to learn about HyperCard, and creating multimedia projects, combining music with screen images. I was doing presentations for the school board and beyond, exposing my students to cutting-edge stuff available in music / technology. But, I always saw this as an enhancement to the band / choral programs, and not to replace the traditional classroom experience. In fact, I still expected my students to compose melodies on music manuscript paper, using a pencil - right up to my last days of teaching! I believe in the effects of writing as being fundamental to brain development. I remember a colleague sharing a story with me about how the brain works differently when watching a film presented on an old projector, displaying the images on a white screen versus viewing the same film presented on a computer screen. The Brain interprets differently and the learning experience is different!
I carried with me, this interest and experience, and wisdom in technology to my continued teaching career when I moved from Father Bressani to Saint Elizabeth CHS, in Thornhill Ontario. In my last few years of teaching, I was exposing my students to on line learning with SoundTrap. And, just a few days ago, I was speaking to a friend about the expectations on teachers now under this new directive to teach on-line due to the Covid-19, and he is using a few different applications, including SoundTrap!
If I was teaching today, under the current situation, I do not think I would be as effective a teacher as I was when I was in the classroom. My charm came with my use of space, and delivery of lessons in the classroom. The magic took place in the classroom, where we gathered in this space, and appreciated the opportunity to experience the transformative power of learning together; sharing ideas, together; witnessing the unexpected energy that came from listening, observing, thinking, creating and manipulating, together; having an impact in the moment that peaked our curiosity and challenged everyone to become something more than we could become, only in the classroom - and I believe that this something “special” cannot be created with on-line learning.
I remember watching an episode of: Everybody Loves Raymond”. This particular episode concerned Raymond replacing all his father’s old LP records with CD recordings. The father didn’t like the sound of the CD’s and wanted all his records back. Raymond tried to convince the father, throughout the episode, that the old recordings had scratches and the sound was old fashioned; the CD’s were way better sound quality, in his view. Raymond kept trying, and kept trying to change his father’s thinking; to enter the new technology offered, and accept the future! By the end of the episode, the father had his old records back, and was listening to a recording. The father’s ear was used to the fullness of sound available in the old technology. Put simply, the new CD technology could not create the same, full experience of sound; the same fullness of experience that the old, scratched LP’s could. I think some new technology simply cannot effectively replace some old traditional ways. Will AI ever be able to express a phrase of music, with a subtle nuance that is so powerful, that it moves the listener to tears?
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