ETC_Final_Project

Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario (RILS) Plan

Overview

This Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario will be used as a culmination of concepts and ideas learned throughout the school year as well as a means to expose the learners to web 2.0 tools. In a collaborative environment, they will have to be creative as well as skilled enough to create harmonies or counterpoint.

1) Target Audience - My Target audience will be high school aged chorus students (13 to 18)

2) Materials–

• 1.     Computer – for recording or video
• 2.     Computer – for web 2.0 tool
• 3.     Musical instruments
• 4       Board and marker for concept mapping

3) Objectives– At the end of this scenario the learner will be able to:

• 1.      evaluate what makes a hook effective
• 2.      discuss and analyze components of a catchy commercial or hook
• 3.      identify hooks or commercials that were effective to them
• 4.      create a jingle or commercial for an established product or business that includes a melody and harmony or counterpoint that a classmate would remember at a later period

4) Procedure–

• 1.     The entire class will have a discussion to evaluate what makes a hook effective
• 2.     The teacher will lead a discussion on creating a definition of what is meant by effective
• 3.     Discuss and analyze (concept map) components of commercials that are catchy to them
• 4.     The class will Identify hooks or commercials that meet the definitions of effective that they created
• 5.     The class will be divided into groups of four or five members to create a jingle or commercial for an established product or business that has a melody and a portion in harmony or counterpoint
• 6.   Go to ujam.com and create an account.
• 7.   Follow the directions and sing the jingle into the program.
• 8.   Follow the directions on the site to correct the timing and the tempo
• 9.   Chose accompaniment styles
• 10. Make any other necessary editions and save the file to be played for others  

5) Web 2.0 Tool– ujam is a tool that creates accompaniments for melodies that are sung or played into the tool via the computer. Included are choices of accompaniment styles and many other editable features. 

6 ) Social Participation/Social Learning– Students will be divided into groups of about four or five in order to create the jingles. They will collaborate on deciding which product or business to advertise, making the jingle itself and creating the harmonies or counterpoint.

7) Making Connections– The learners will connect with previous knowledge because they will identify jingles that were effective for them and they will use that model to make their own. Also in the chorus class the learners learn to sing melodies as well as harmonies and counterpoint. The jingles must have a melodic component to it as well as either portions of harmony or counterpoint. Their learning will be deeper as they will have to create the harmonies or counterpoints as opposed to them being taught them. It will be relevant as commercials are something they hear everyday though sometimes little thought is put into the purpose of them. To many jingles are just entertaining and listeners don't even realize that they are being sold something. This is an opportunity for my audience to explore being a creator rather than just a consumer.

8) Create/Produce – The learners must create a 30 second jingle for a known product or business. It must include melody and harmony or counterpoint.

9) Assessment Rubric

	Excellent 95-100	Good 70-94	Unacceptable 50-70
Melody	There was melody		There was no melody
Harmony/counterpoint	3 or more part harmony/ 3 or more simultaneous melodic lines	2 part harmony/2 simultaneous melodic lines	There was no harmony or counterpoint
Memorable	Others remembered the whole jingle	Others remembered a portion of the jingle	No one remembered the jingle
Intonation	Harmonies and melodies were in tune	Harmonies and melodies were close
Time	30 seconds	Plus or minus 1-5 seconds off	Plus or minus 6 or more seconds off

10)Reflection 

      1.     The students will reflect on the experience by attempting to remembers other groups’ jingles on another day and then they will decide on which was the best or most effective

      2.     As this is a slight revision of a scenario that I’ve used before I’ve already taken steps to improve this process by including the discussions about effectiveness. I will also do what is referred to in the military as an after action review or report (AAR) to note triumphs and failures for tweaking in similar future activities. This will be written down as soon as possible to account for deterioration of memory.

Documentary on a high school jazz choir's use of the web 2.0 tool ujam.

PE5-uJam

The assignment that will require the use of this tool requires that the students create something that includes harmony or counterpoint. However, my issue of concern is that uJam recommends that only one voice be recorded. 

Because the program recommends this, I experimented with adding a second voice afterwards, but if it is possible, I couldn’t figure out how to do it. 

However, there is a level control for the recorded instrument (voice) and it can be turned all the way down. 

The solution to this particular issue is that the students will not be able to record the finished product to uJam. Instead they will have to make their jingle with only one voice, create the instrumental track in uJam, turn the vocal track all the way down and then use the ujam track as an instrumental track for a live performance that will include the required harmony or counterpoint.

This program requires absolutely no expertise in anything musical so essentially it removes all barriers to creativity. Though I am very far from a great singer, I made up my jingle and uJam recognized everything about it including melody, tempo and harmony. I chose a style and I had a jingle resembling what is required for my relevant and innovative learning scenario in no time. Once I saved it, it became listed in the “My Songs” section of my account. 

My learners will definitely have a lot of fun with this tool far beyond the given assignment. Thanks for discovering and sharing this tool Joe!

This is my creation...

PE4_ujam

I saw Joe’s post about ujam but I decided to go and look for something different. I found an interesting looking tool named soundation but unless you get a paid subscription you wouldn’t be able to save anything plus it required some kind of a facility on an instrument so ended up looking at ujam. There was a tutorial there and I was quite impressed with all that it said it could do. Because of the fact that no musical skills were required to be able to use this tool, I could see how this tool could be of great use in my relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario.

 I started by making up my own little jingle and recording it right into cyber space. It miraculously found the correct tempo and I added effects to my voice.

I added a style but it was too fast so I was able to set it to half the speed. It added the chords for me and It even added some nice chords that I would have never added. I went to change a chord and I ended up finding out just how easy it was to do. I went to test out the instrument feature by changing my voice to an electric guitar. Some of the notes weren’t accurate but in the display I was easily able to move the notes around to what I wanted.

There was virtually no waiting for the application to process changes. As I pressed play I was able to hear the product even while it was processing.

BP6

Follow this link to my comments on Joe's blog as he demonstrates how easy it is to create music with the ujam tool.

BP5

Follow this link to my comments on Cassie's blog. She adds her own personal touch to her blog site by including conundrums (whatever they are).

BP7 - One minute video

This is my one minute commercial (infomercial) for schoology.com. Hope you enjoy!

BP4

I read a review of schoology from a peer and I decided to take a closer look at it for myself. One appeal of this tool is that it promises to be administrator friendly. It is set up in a format like facebook so it will also be real familiar to students. With this tool a teacher or an administrator can manage many aspects of their classes or student population, such as grades, assignments or attendance. Groups can be formed with this tool that can aide in collaborations. Unheard of in traditional education is the fact that students and teachers can now participate in online discussions. This tool also comes with an app for the iPhone as well as one for the iPad so that communication can continue on the go. 

It’s very simple to set up. All you need to do is chose a user name and a password. They will ask you to create a course and a section for it and then you’ll be in business. 

Once you are logged in you will see the familiar set up that resembles an older version of facebook. From there you can set up your profile, check your inbox, view or post to your calendar, view or add documents and assignments or just have a discussion. This tool can be viewed as a middle of the road tool because administrators can feel better about endorsing a product that they have a certain amount of control over while at the same time its familiar to students. I don’t know if it would be advisable to store personal and sensitive information on this site but it can be a great organizational tool.