MUE6696 - Week 5 - The Week of Program Evaluations

Week 5 Blog

 is an online program used to edit online videos.  This week’s project had us create a tour of a video, to include four interactions.  My tour took me and my students down memory lane, as we are preparing the “Theme from “Love Story”” which is foreign to my students.  None of them have ever heard the theme before, nor saw the movie. However, we are preparing for a concert that features music from television shows and movies, so this assignment will be used in the very near future.

The music software evaluation project had us explore programs on PC, MAC, Android or other tablet devices.  Music Theory Helper is the Android program that was used for my evaluation.  It will remain on my mobile device, thanks to this assignment, for quick reference in the future.  My students will be encouraged to download it as well.

Our discussion this week was centered on “Responding to Music with Technology.”  How do you use technology to develop your students’ response to music?  My students are greeted with music playing, so that they are put in a place of contemplation before class starts.  As they are beginners, every effort is made to make sure they do not become mechanical musicians. 

We also listened to our classmates’ fun remixes in Audacity, of a popular tune from the Madasgascar movie.  It’s interesting how everyone came up with different versions while using the same files and program.  Our different approaches show how creative we can be.

This week was a rough one.  Learning music software in order to evaluate it presented challenges and highlights.  One challenge was time.  Juggling time for evaluation while completing other coursework was a bit rough, but most of the work was completed on time.