Way to use modern technology to expand cultural awareness
I’ve been trying to find organizations that use interactive websites and/or modern technology to promote work towards bridging the boundaries of cultural misconception and instill a better appreciation and understanding of the world in which we live. I’ve come across several, but one in particular is called the Global Nomads Group. This non-profit organization uses video conferencing to allow students in one class an opportunity to get to know students in another class in a different country. Check out their site at
www.gng.org
man, that browser made me look fat.
I was showing a friend of mine the work that I’ve done on my new website and she opened the site up on her own computer using Internet Explorer instead of Safari or Firefox, which are the two browsers that I use on my own computer. The website showed my picture stretched across the screen like I was a bug flattened against a windshield. Everything looked just a little bit distorted and I was sort of… bummed out. There must be a way to prepare the site so that it looks basically the same on all the various browsers.
So I asked my favorite internet buddy….Google.
I came across an article at www.coffeecup.com that had a few suggestions for me.
Then I found another site that had a lot more suggestions!
www.absolutepositioning.com
There seems to be a lot more for me to learn. Fortunately, someone down the street was trying to throw out about 20 huge books on web design, Dreamweaver, html code and a bunch of other things related to create a cool website. I took them all inside before the garbage folks could get anywhere near them. So hopefully, I’ll be able to learn a few tricks that will keep my site from looking so distorted that my mom gives me a call asking, “honey, when was the last time you exercised. It looks like you’ve put on about 40 pounds!”
Ah, the world WIDE web.
Train song
Below is link to a choir performing a song that is supposed to sound like a train moving faster and faster along its track. I thought this was a very creative piece and wanted to share it with you…
Making music with whatever you got…
This is a link to a video that I really enjoyed watching. It shows a musician using some random stuff in the kitchen to make music. He uses a looping pedal to create an entire piece to perform along with.
I’ve heard that he uses a loop pedal often for his live shows. I love when people do that, and he’s inspires me to give it a try!
the power of the blog
I think I’ve been underestimating the power of the blog. I just learned that you can make money through advertisements when blogging. I also heard about the blog “Stuff White People Like”
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/
and how it got him a book deal! Pretty impressive that someone just started with writing a few blurbs everyday and now has a book coming out with Random House Publishing. Although I read through some of the hundreds of comments that folks wrote about his blog and it was pretty disturbing to come across some horribly anti-semitic and racist comments. The blog itself is really funny and light hearted though.
I also came across a blog that I love called Measure for measure.
http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/
This blog has some well-known songwriters talking about the songwriting process. It’s a great way to get into the heads of these creative people while they’re revising and reworking their pieces of music. In one entry, Andrew Bird writes about how he always leaves room for improvisation in his songs. Since he knows he’ll be performing the song for a few years after the album comes out, he doesn’t want to get bored. I hadn’t thought of this before, but it’s a really good point and something worth thinking about as a songwriter!
Direct Note Access…
Check out this link to information on Direct Note Access technology which makes it possible to identify and edit individual notes within “polyphonic audio material”. It’s pretty amazing at what will soon be possible in terms of fixing recordings and making changes to already recorded material. http://assets.celemony.com/mac/Preview_DNA_mac_low.mov http://assets.celemony.com/mac/Preview_DNA_mac_low.mov
Creating our piece of the web…
I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s work for the midterm. I loved Sunmin Kim’s animation page with the pictures that she drew using flash. Also, her action script page was very impressive. It made me realize that I could use the drawing tool in flash to create some simple shapes that I could then use as buttons, animation, or games. Moonkyung Lee’s “create a face” page was a lot of fun. It was a very creative idea and I enjoyed moving the different pieces around to create a face! These projects highlighted the different capabilities of flash and gave me some ideas for my own projects for the future.
Learning shortcuts
Since I spend a lot more time on the computer these days than I did ten years ago, I find myself slowly but surely learning the necessary shortcuts so I can use my time more efficiently. Just yesterday I learned that if I hold the Apple button and press the tap key, I can go easily find another open window, rather than shuffling through the various open pages on my laptop. I’ve also started using all those F11, F12 keys up top to make my life a little easier. These little shortcuts save me a lot of time and frustration in the end, so I’m trying to learn and remember as many as possible. You can learn some Mac keyboard shortcuts by going to: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459
Music technology classes for kids
Susan spoke a little bit about the use of music technology in schools. I’d also love to learn more about the benefits of music technology for kids, especially the use of GarageBand. I’m currently working to develop a music technology program for middle schoolers where the students will learn to write a song and record and produce their own song using GarageBand. It’s just getting started, but it seems that any school with a mac lab could offer this type of program. There are obvious benefits in that the kids love to record their own work and then get to keep a CD of their final project, but I wonder if there are any studies done which show other benefits such as improved skills in music or math. The program is called SoundBites and we are still developing the website, but the current link is www.manhatpro.com/soundbites
Getting famous through utube!
I recently came across a video of a little kid singing some Beatles songs. It seems that I’m far from the first one to see this video. Over 2 million people have viewed this video and there are 73 other videos of this same little boy singing and performing other Beatles tunes. If you haven’t seen it yet, it really is adorable. He’s a really good singer and he carries a guitar (not playing it yet!) all the while wearing a diaper and standing on a couch between two oversized toy cars. It’s amazing how anyone can become famous these days by just putting a home video up on the internet. I’m not sure how I feel about his parents putting him out there like that at such a young age, but utube certainly does give everyone a chance to be seen.
