week 3 reply to Rebecca Stuart

I’m not sure that I believe that we are all leaders. I do think we have the ability to make a difference in people.  We can easily do this just by being nice and being opened minded to the fact that we don’t know all the hardships that we all have in our lives.  We listen to people by opening our ears and really paying attention to what each one of us is telling each other. Sometimes we get so carried away in ourselves that we have a hard time stepping out and really paying attention to the people around us.

Rule number 6, I think is going to become my saying to myself. Sometimes at work I get so absorb in the task at hand or what needs to be discussed, that in a meeting I get upset when the meeting gets side tracked and people start telling jokes. I need to obey rule number 6. After reading this chapter I promised myself that when these types of situation pop up during my meetings to laugh with my team instead of look annoyed. We can all use a good deep belly laugh everyday and I need to start taking advantage of all the ones that are presented in front of my. So Rule number 6 welcome to my life!

I do a good job of being content with the way things are and also knowing when it’s time to push to make things better.  I have a very positive outlook on life so it’s very hard for me to focus on the negative.  Sometimes after watching documentaries about food and the earth I can sometimes feel “ well I can’t make a difference” but my positive attitude always speaks to my brain and reminds that sometimes one person can make a difference.  Sometimes we have to settle because we can’t change the situation and that doesn’t mean lowering expectations to me. To me that means just stepping back and focusing my energy on something that I can make better.

I express my passions by talking, breathing, and being a walking example of them.  I think it’s great not to care about some things and to just let go and let the universe do it’s job. I find that when I give something up to the universe it always does the right thing for that situation.

 

Rebecca,

Good post.  It is sometimes very difficult to have a positive attitude about the situations that life deals you.  When bad things happen it is so much easier to sulk and question.  It is important to remember that everything happens for a reason, and though we may never understand why some things happen, we have to appreciate the lesson that will come from the experience.  Stay positive and good luck in life!

 

Wk2 reply2

 

 The statement which Benjamin Zander states at the beginning of The Art of Possibility he talks about two salesmen going off to sell shoes in Africa, this is a fantastic example of how teachers should think of their teaching opportunities. You see, in his story he states that one of the salesmen sent word back home that the idea of shoes is hopeless because no one there wears shoes, but the other salesman sent a more optimistic letter back full of hope stating that he has the opportunity to get people to start wearing shoes. In the classroom we have to think the same way about our students. We should not focus on the fact that we have a large group of students who do not want to learn; rather we should focus on the possibility of finding new ways to get the students more excited about learning. This is what the EMDT program has taught me over the past 11 months. We have been given the tools to sell shoes to the shoeless, an amazing opportunity to teach those who have not yet discovered the joy of learning. 

In the book a statement is made that eluding to the idea that it’s (everything is) all invented. This idea details how humans perceive thoughts and ideas and relate them to the world in which they know around them. Some people take the world for what it is and say that everything is invented so let just make what we know better. Others see the world differently and use new facts and ideas to build new and exciting constructs in the world around us. We should be reminded that humanity is continuously working to become greater than the previous generation, and that no human in this history of the world has though that everything that can be invented has already been invented. It has evidently come to our attention that the quote most commonly used to test our willingness to invent comes from (but actually never did come from) the 1899 patent office clerk Charles H. Duell stating that "Everything that can be invented has been invented." It has been proven that this is one of those myths that’s gets passed around as fact from generation to generation, eventually being passed off as truth along the way.  It can be clearly seen that all aspect of the world can be improved upon by thinking outside the normal realm of logic and incorporating the new and exciting truths learned in your generation. By exploring the new and exciting ideas brought about by the EMDT program I know I create a classroom environment full of new and exciting ideas and learning styles.

Mechanix Illustrated, December 1958, Pg82

Joe, I did not have a chance to complete this weeks reading due to a bad link that was sent to me by the publishing company. After reading your post I feel like I have a good understanding of what I have missed. The story about the two shoe salesmen and how you related it back to education was great. I know several teachers that never see the positive opportunities right in front of them. Thanks for giviing me an idea of what the reading this week was about.

Week 2 wimba

I got a clear understanding of copyright more specifically the narrow road of “ Fair Use”. I understand not that if I use a song in the background but I am not teaching specifically about that song I will be in copyright violation.  I was driven home that Fair Use is not a right but a legal defense. I enjoyed the holiday music that was being play, even though it was out of season.

wk 2 Where Do I Want To Share My Project

I believe that educations digital transformation must be a "grass routes" effort. More specifically in music educations digital transformation must take place one classroom at a time. By giving my presentation at the Georgia Music Educators Association(GMEA) conference I could share my ideas about how technology can be used to motivate and engage chorus students to learn the fundamentals of music with other music teachers. The conference will be held in Savannah Georgia in January of 1213.

Week 2 reading eBook Error

I have been directing my school musical and I had my final performance last night. We did excerpts from "The WIZ" it went very well. Last night after the production I came home to do my post I was going to read and watch sports center on mute. Well I went to look for my book and it was on my Adobe book shelf. Weird ,because  I thought I downloaded it when I got the email. Well I went back to the email to download it and I got the error above. I contacted their tec support and I am waiting for them to resend the link for a download. Apparently they had problems with a lot of their last eBook shipment.  I have heard that this book is a good read so I am looking forward to catching up on my weekly reading.

Present or Publish 2

I would like to share my AR project with GMEA (Georgia Muisc Educator Assocation). I think this would be a perfect venue to share how effective technology can be in teaching the fundamentals of music. I will have to get on the ball because the deadline for next year is May 12.

wk 1 comment: 2

 Joe's Blog

Wk 1 Reading: We Can Copy, Right?

I graduated High School in 1999 and was starting my freshmen year of college when the mp3 boom began. I had just moved out of my parents house and moved into my first apartment with my friend Mike. We were the type of guys who loved to be on the forefront of everything especially the internet. My buddy Mike got a Job working for the cable company, who at the time were rolling out lightning fast (slow by today's comparison) cable modems. These modems were to replace the old dial-up connection that many of us first encountered in the old AOL days of the internet. Little did we know that this modem would open up a whole new world to us and put us on a path to total local celebrity status. We first entered a chat room in using a little known program called My Internet Relay Chat or Mirc for short. Here we found a whole community of collectors of a small music file known as an mp3. The first songs that we downloaded were the classics like The Beastie Boys Fight for your right (to party), or Ozzy Osborn's Crazy Train. Soon we discovered a new program making its way around the channels known as Napster. This was a revolution in the Person to Person, or P2P file transfer protocol that we were using in Mirc. The only difference was that you did not need to ask people if they had the file, here all you had to do was type in the name in their search engine and you were shown multiple hits of the file, and which location had the fastest connection to retrieve it. It was an amazing concept that me and my friend Mike wished we had come up with.

Soon we were having people come over challenging them to find the most rare songs they could think of, like Bob Marley's Guava Jelly or Slick Rick's original Ladi Dodi. With all these fiends coming over to complete their searches we amassed a large library of songs, and soon became the go to apartment for parties and music lounging sessions. Many people would ask where the music was coming from and I would reply "From my computer." No one believed me so I would always give them a tour and show them my setup and my playlist on the original mp3 computer program WinAmp. They were amazed, but many of my friends believed this was a fad and would soon go away like 8-tracks. I was so sure this was not a fad that I used the topic of mp3s and the future of music as my final persuasive argument in my public speaking class.It was a great time of my life broadening my love for music and making my first few year of college completely worth while.

Why did I start this blog off with this story? Because even though I believe an artist has the right to protect his work, I also believe that the trading of mp3's is not the nail in the coffin that record industry makes it out to be. I remember when I was about 4 or 5 years old hearing how the VCR was going to kill movies and ruin the art of cinema being seen on the big screen. The industry soon found out that the proliferation of home media not only helped the industry, but added on a whole new consumer base that they had never thought possible. I believe the same can be said for the mp3's. The proliferation of the mp3 only adds to the appreciation of music thus raising music to a new and higher standard than ever before. Before mp3's I lead a sheltered life, only buying the occasional CD for bands that the radio told me were popular. After I started downloading mp3's my musical education grew, exposing me to the rich sounds of reggae, the unique rhymes of rappers like Biggie and Tupac, and the eclectic sounds like radiohead. Mp3's forced me to broaden my horizons, listen to new bands on a whim, and go to more live shows and concerts than ever before. The mp3 was a game changer for many young people back in the early 2000's and I believe it still is for many youths today. The fact is, I spent more money on music after the mp3 age than I did before.

Sure there are those that abuse the system and take take take, but don't forget about those how give back. Today we see a plethora of  musicians trying to make a mark in today's industry who may not have ever had a chance before. Take Justin Bieber (no really take him, haha), he got his start by posting videos of his talents on YouTube, a video site with its roots stemming from the mp3 sub-culture of the early 2000's. With this new medium many more artist can fill the world with their talents, or lack there of, allowing the American culture to determine who is worthy of praise and who is not. This I believe is what the recording industry is afraid of, we the people now have the power to determine who is popular, not the gigantic spin machine that we call the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA now in today's world seems insignificant, the power is now placed into the peoples internet. Artists now see that they can produce and market their art on their own with only a simple $1000 computer and an internet connection. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame found this out when he released his own album off the internet all on his own and asked for donations instead of a set price. It are these situations that the big corporate giants hate because there is no need for a middle man any more.

The creation of the Creative Commons is the next evolutionary step of the P2P transfer protocol, that was so famously smashed with the demise of napster, bearshare, and limewire. This new P2P system places artist right directly on the property the individuals wish to use or listen to from their own computer. By placing the option of fair use back into the hands of the creator we limit the corporate stranglehold our ideas and though have been suffocating from for so long. Creative commons is a breath of fresh air for the little man who normal stands beneath the shadows of the corporate giants.
Joe,

Great post. I am a true music lover I find pleasure in every genre. I agree the Internet enhanced my musical taste by allowing me to hear more artist before buying the album. I also agree that some people take advantage and never give back. As an artist my self it is hard to download music and not compensate the creator for their intellectual property. Musical ideas have been recycled for hundreds of years now but the new laws pose a huge hurtle for this cycle of recycling musical ideas and motifs. Before the sampling era musicians would draw influence from other artist and recreate that sound to fit the idea floating in their head. Now sampling takes the exact idea and reuses it to create a new sound. I think there should be a standard rate to sample or reuse some ones material and if the new creations sales a certain amount then a lager portion should be given to the original artist. I know that wont stop the illegal use of creative ideas but it might start building a bridge.