Tech creation. AKA I have too much time on my hands.

While it isn't exactly something that I could use with my students, I created an infographic about how to start listening to the monstrous discography of the band Swans. I make a lot of music-based infographics mainly because I have a lot of time on my hands. I also make them as a way to lend a helping hand to someone who wants to start listening to some artist but doesn't know where to start.

Here's a link to a higher resolution picture.

The Good, The Bad and The Country

10:37 AM
On a Sunday
Orlando, FL

     I was in Washington DC a few months ago and I took an Uber to get me from one part of town to another. As I was riding with my driver, I noticed that he had the Spotify service in his car where riders could play their own music in his car. I asked my driver what he thought about this relatively new feature and he said that he absolutely loved it since it exposed him to music he would normally never listen to.

     I was intrigued by his statement and asked him what was some of the music he was exposed to through this new feature.

He was exposed to traditional video game soundtracks (scores). [Shimomura]

He was exposed to non-traditional video game soundtracks. [Meguro]

He was exposed to complex and abstract hip hop. [Bavitz]

He was even exposed to 90s emo. [Kinsella]

There was no shortage of music that my Uber driver was exposed to. But I was curious. There had to have been something that he didn't like. He told me he's been using this feature ever since it was implemented and he's appreciated just about every single piece of music he's been exposed to.

So I told him "There just has to be something you don't like. One of your riders has to have put on something terrible that you just couldn't stand."

And he replies with "There's no such things as terrible music. Except country music. No one wants to listen to country music."

Sadly, before we could continue this conversation, I arrived at my destination and I said good-bye to my Uber driver. (Thanks Trevor! I hope I can run into you again sometime!)

That experience will always stick with me. And I don't know if it's because my Uber driver was incredibly social or because DC traffic was awful and we filled it with conversation but that ride is easily one of the most vivid memories I've ever had.

And it got me to thinking...

Why do we hate country music?

Country music is always cited as one of two genres people tend to avoid when talking about their musical interests (the other being hip-hop). But why? Statistically speaking, it's still one of the most successful genres of music in America.

I've been a classical pianist for over twenty years and I've been an avid consumer of music for about that long as well. I've been exposed to all types of music from interning at NPR and I've stumbled across some really interesting fringe genres of music that traverse the furthest ends of the spectrum of what is considered "music". For the sheer volume of music I listen to (as in two dedicated 1TB hard drives just for music) I actually don't mind country music. I own quite a few country music albums as well. To say that I enjoy country music isn't that far of a stretch.

But I'm very particular about the country music I listen to. Simply put, I'm not a fan of modern country music. Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, and Jake Owen aren't for me but I know that other people enjoy them.

In recent times, I've come to realize that I'm a bigger fan of bluegrass and alternative country than I am modern country. It's not the question of authenticity but rather it just feels more natural. It's just genuinely feels more country.

One of the biggest country songs of the past few years was Luke Bryan's "That's My Kind of Night."

Despite the song's success on country radio and crossover radio, it was panned by critics for it's generic lyrics and mountain of cliches. It relies on typical country cliches such as beer, trucks and catfish so that it can still be marketed to country radio. The faint banjo also means that on a technical level, this is still country music.

On the end where the bluegrass grows is "Wait So Long" by Trampled By Turtles.

And here is where the differences start to show.

The biggest difference here is the complete lack of electric instruments and it lends itself to my personal belief that country music became what it is when electric instrumentation became common. Or to be less kind, electric instrumentation ruined country music.

One of the most well-received country music albums in (somewhat) recent times was the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers' film "O Brother Where Art Thou". Critics mainly praised the authenticity, production and adherence to traditional country. And it's a damn good album.

And there we are again with the complete lack of electric instrumentation.

I don't know where country music will be ten years or twenty years from now. But all I know is that the moment the average listener hears a banjo, their first instinct will be to pedal faster.

Using Technology to Amplify Student Instruction

1. I would definitely consider myself a tech native. I've always been a tech-y sort of person and it's definitely reflected in my personal life. I've worked as a network manager for an online education platform where I would manage the server racks and maintain the network. I've also worked as a Genius at Apple. My brother was an electrical engineer as well and I think that's just about enough evidence to call myself a tech native. Technology has always been around my house and in my life and even today, I schedule almost everything through my phone. My phone's calendar is my bread and butter and I don't know where I would be with out it. Email is incredibly important to me as it's where I also discuss a lot of important events coming up as well as schedule meetings (which are then put into my phone).
2. I've used Padlet and Kahoot quite a bit in both my internship and my actual classes. With Padlet, I've found it's a great way to do the whole "post-it note exit slip" thing. Having done those a lot in my internship, I've realized that it not only chews through post-it notes (which are incredibly expensive) but that organizing the notes might not be all that easy (especially with students who have some not too great handwriting). Padlet is a great remedy for all of those issues. Kahoot might very well be the most used method of formative assessment in the classroom and it's definitely my personal favorite. There's the competitive aspect that gets students excited about the material and then there's the objective information right there to see what they do know and what they don't know about what they just learned.
3. Virtual writing is important mainly because it gets students to write in a way that isn't just the traditional pen and paper method. There are other ways to go about it and writing virtually is one way to do it. With that carries it's fair amount of risks. To me, the biggest issue is that of anonymity. It's a great thing but in a classroom, it's far from ideal. It's important to know who's writing what so that they can receive the right kind of feed back. The risk of plagiarism is also something worth paying attention to since it's possible that students could copy and paste their writing from another student and pass it off as their own. But with virtual writing, it's also a great tool in having student write in different styles. For example, Fodey has a great tool to make something you write look like a newspaper. So if a student was working on an assignment for something like The Crucible, they could write a newspaper article on the trials that ensued or have a sort of mock interview with one of the characters.
4. With this presentation, I've noticed that there are a lot of tools out there for teachers to use that aren't just Kahoot, Edmodo and other sites. There's a huge multitude of tools out there to use to the point where there's probably an app or a site for just about everything. A significant amount of these I haven't even heard of before and those that I have heard of, there might have been a new way to use it that I hadn't even thought of. There's the way how I've always used something and then the way the teachers could use it.
5. I think with the digital tool version of Bloom's Taxonomy, it's important to know that not every tool can be used on every level. Likewise, I think it's important that teachers use certain tools for certain things. They can't really use something like Kahoot for analyzing but it can be used for something like remembering. Something like Edmodo could be used for applying and evaluating but I don't think it could be used for creating. Each digital tool has one level of the taxonomy that it's best suited for and it's definitely up to the teacher to determine which level it could be used at and whether or not it'll be effective at that level.
6. Having done an almost mind-numbing amount of assignments about technology in the classroom, I honestly didn't think I would actually get any new information from this. But in this case, I was happy to be wrong. The Slideshare on the different kinds of tools available is definitely something I'll keep handy but the one thing I'll definitely take to heart is actually the Bloom's Taxonomy of digital tools. I've learned that certain tools do certain things and it all correlates to something on that taxonomy. So if I do plan on having a very tech-friendly classroom, I need to find out what level of Bloom's this certain tool relates to and use it to it's full potential.