Month: November 2020

EDCI 336 Inquiry Project Post 6

After experiencing a discouraging level of difficulty last session, I decided I was in need of some inspiration to renew my enthusiasm for this project. Fortunately, I knew exactly whom to look to: Daryl Davis. Daryl is a very accomplished, veteran piano player who has played with legends like Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bruce Hornsby. Here is a little sample of his work:

However, his piano skills are only a small fraction of what makes Davis an incredible human being. The main reason I am a big fan of his, and the main reason I find him so inspiring, is that he has befriended hundreds of Ku Klux Klan members over the past 30 years. That’s right, KKK members.

It started at a gig, when a man approached Davis and told him he had never seen a black man play like Jerry Lee Lewis before. The irony of this statement struck Davis immediately, as many of Lewis’ important influences were black blues and boogie woogie piano players. He and the man struck up a conversation, during which Davis found out that this man had never held a conversation with a black person before and was a card-carrying member of the KKK. The man was intrigued enough by Davis to keep returning to his gigs, eventually befriending him and leaving the KKK. After that experience, Davis started seeking out Klan members, even attending rallies to talk to them. To date, over 200 KKK members have left the organization after their interactions with Davis:

 

EDI 336 Inquiry Project Post 5

OK, now I have definitely hit a difficult patch one session earlier than I though I would. What I thought would be really difficult for me was putting together the left hand part and right hand part of “Juanita”. As it turns out, the right hand part was a bit challenging on its own. There is a bit of jumping around that I found counterintuitive:

Piano 4

I am starting to experience some concern that playing the two parts simultaneously is going to be one of those skills one needs to develop from a young age or not at all. Given the fact that I am old enough to be past what the global average life expectancy was when my still living (albeit almost 104) grandmother was born, I am starting to think thoughts along the lines of old dogs and there ineptitude with regard to new tricks.

I am not going to lie; it took a lot of practice and several takes to make that video.  The only way I can This experience has me feeling pretty apprehensive about piecing them together tomorrow. Rather than just immerse myself in an overwhelming pool of frustration, however, I think I will find some inspiration and look up Youtube Videos specifically about learning to play left and right hand parts together.

EDCI 336 Inquiry Project Post 4

Moving on to the next phase of my learning, I am now starting to learn an actual song. In this case, it is a simple Spanish song called “Juanita” from the piano self-teaching book I picked up at the thrift store. Employing the Constructivist principle of mediated learning (scaffolding), I am focusing my efforts this time around on learning the left hand part first:

Piano 3

Unlike my experience with learning ukulele, in which I found that my guitar skills were highly, immediately transferable in spite of the fact that the chords, string notes and string order are all very different, playing the piano is too dissimilar to have the same effect. I wonder, if I were to take up a brass instrument, if my old tuba experience from elementary school band would resurface, or if it’s lost forever to the ravages of time? I suppose there’s only one way to find out (perhaps the subject of another inquiry  in the future?)

I am finding the aspect of playing separately with each hand a bit daunting, because most of my experience with musical instruments has been playing stringed instruments (guitar, ukulele, violin) on which the hands coordinate to play the same notes. Having to play two different sets of notes may very well confuse my brain…we’ll have to find out next time!

ADCI 336 A02 Week 10: Inquiry-Based Learning

For our second to last class, we had Trevor McKenzie as a guest speaker, talking about his experiences with inquiry-based teaching. Contrary to stereotypes about inquiry-based learning, He told us that it can include content-based learning and direct teaching, and that it was adaptable to subjects one might normally consider suitable for that approach.

In my own experience this semester, inquiry projects were initially a great source of stress. I felt very unclear and uncertain about what would qualify as an acceptable project, what would be an appropriate scope and size, and how to go about starting it. However, especially for my EDCI 780 Inquiry project, I really “got into a groove” as I progressed, and started to learn to have more faith in my own judgement and creativity. My project combined elements from my pre-PDP background: my experience with acting and film editing, as well as my history working at Craigdarroch castle playing the Dunsmuir family’s butler for school tours Christmas time. Here’s a sample:

This is one element of an interactive historical video tour of Craigdarroch that ties into the topics of the coal industry, politics and indigenous displacement in the late nineteenth century. This project has been increasingly enjoyable as I have progressed through it, and I have learned some interesting facts along the way!

EDCI 336 Inquiry Project Post 3

Rather than trying to learn completely on my own or spend even more time than I already do staring at a computer scree, I thought it would be nice to see if I could find some print resources for improving my piano skills. This time, I went to a thrift store near my house and purchased a piano book for $1.25. As you can see by the price tag, I got quite a deal! Although the description “Older beginner” rubbed me the wrong way a bit (I’m a bit sensitive because I am more than a decade older than most of my PDP colleagues), I do appreciate that it is not designed for young children and that it is the “Level 2” book, as I would suspect the Level 1 book to be insufficiently challenging, given my existing background.

As I tried learning the first exercise, I certainly developed the impression that having a musical background and being proficient in other instruments was largely a transferable skill. I felt as though I had made very good progress in a very short time:

Piano 2

My ultimate goal for this endeavour is to be able to actually play songs to accompany myself while I sing, and after this practice session I am definitely feeling quite optimistic about that!

EDCI 336 A02 Week 8: Educational Games

This week, we explored whether educational games could be an effective tool for learning. We started by evaluating the criteria for what makes a good educational game, which included that its level of difficulty should be challenging but not overwhelming, which is very similar in principle to Lev Vygostky’s concept of the zone of proximal development, which states that students learn best when exposed to material or skills at a level that is just beyond their current knowledge or ability. This theory component is very much in line with my own thoughts on game development as I developed activities during my career in child care and writing my book of original games for kids.

Today we tried out two educational game activities. The first was a game entitled “Bad News” from getbadnews.com, and the second was a virtual escape room using Google Classroom, in which the puzzle we needed to solve in order to escape was based on questions about Bad News and other educational game resources, such as Minecraft.

Bad News was very interesting, fun, and creatively put together with a lot of great humour, and therefore really seemed like an excellent means of getting students interested in learning about the fake news industry and keeping them engaged as they develop online media literacy and critical thinking skills. The game pokes fun at Twitter, Partisan News networks, bloggers, President Trump, and conspiracy theories and anti-science rhetoric in  a way that is both educational and funny. I think I would like to try having students play this game, others, or maybe even similar games I make myself!

 

EDCI 336 Inquiry Project Post 2

I am conservatory-trained as an opera singer, and I am proficient in playing guitar, harmonica and ukulele. I can read music and have a moderate knowledge of musical theory. However, proficiency in playing the piano has long been a glaring gap in my musical skill and knowledge. Through my participation in musical theatre, I have spent a great deal of time around people who play piano very well, and I have often thought that becoming at least competent myself would be a very worthwhile endeavour. In addition to being one of the best ways to accompany myself singing and an excellent mode of songwriting, playing the piano at least a little bit would allow me as a TOC to fill in for the occasional music class when they absolutely can’t find anyone better qualified.

Fortunately, I already have a keyboard right in my bedroom, which I have previously used only for finding my notes when practicing songs. I will also have no trouble finding a mentor, as many people in my life, including my dad and one of my best friends, are quite skilled on the keys.

I have opted for a mixed approach, with some written resources, some online resources, and some autodidactic techniques. To start out, I printed myself a piano chords chart and learned the basic major chords:

Piano Chords Major

 

EDCI 336 Inquiry Project Post 1

Upon hearing about this inquiry project, my first instinct was to pursue a personal weightlifting goal: to break the Olympic world records. By that I don’t mean the men’s 96 kg (212 lb.) records; although I fall into that category I am too tall, (relatively) thin, old and inexperienced to have a chance. Rather, I would want to achieve the far more attainable goal of breaking the world record for the smallest weight class of women. Unfortunately, access to gyms at which I could train for my goal has been severely restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic, so I decided not to get into a project I might be unable to complete due to factors beyond my control. You and your tiny but surprisingly powerful frame win this round, Chen XieXia!

Chen Xiexia of China competes in the women’s 48kg weightlifting event during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Gymnasium in Beijing on August 9, 2008. She won ahead of Sibel Ozkan of Turkey (silver) and Wei-Ling Chen of Taiwan (bronze). AFP PHOTO/JUNG YEON-JE

SO, what could I do that was under my own control? I’ve had a practice three section staff (pictured below) in my closet for a year or two, and always thought it would be cool to be able to do some fancy martial arts tricks with it. However, it is about 7 feet long and, combined with the length of my arm, requires more room to swing around safely than I have in any room of my house. Going into a project that could be derailed by terrible weather was not a great prospect either.

So, what could I do that would be a passion project for me, and that is not contingent on factors beyond my control that could derail the whole thing? Learning Piano!

EDCI 336 A02 Week 7: Google Science Journal

This week’s featured technology platform was Google Science Journal (soon to be Arduino Science Journal as of Dec 11, 2020).  I tried the “Getting Started with Science Journal” and “Getting Started with Light” tutorials. It looks like a very interesting setup, although the light sensor on my phone did not react as expected to moving my hand close or even covering the sensor altogether…probably because it can’t handle how pale I am #gingerproblems

In principle, I am very excited about the possibilities that this platform creates for students exploring how science works. I have often thought about how science is taught to kids in public schools, particularly as it relates to their adulthood needs. Unless they grow up to be a scientist specializing in a relevant area, they really don’t need to know how glucose is created in the Calvin Cycle, how far Saturn is from the sun, or the atomic mass of Cesium. However, being a good citizen of our society will require of them that they understand the principles of scientific experimentation and analysis enough to see through fraudulent pseudoscience claims and not buy into false theories based on faulty “evidence” they find online.

I am intrigued enough to continue experimenting with the Science Journal platform, and perhaps even trying out an experiment or two with my daughter, who is eight and a half but very precocious about this sort of thing.