music literacy

categories: Digital literacy, technology literacy

The Tragic Decline of Music Literacy (and Quality)

Jon Henschen | August 16, 2018 | 529,478

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/tragic-decline-music-literacy-and-quality

Both jazz and classical art forms require not only music literacy, but for the musician to be at the top of their game in technical proficiency, tonal quality and creativity in the case of the jazz idiom. Jazz masters like John Coltrane would practice six to nine hours a day, often cutting his practice only because his inner lower lip would be bleeding from the friction caused by his mouth piece against his gums and teeth. His ability to compose and create new styles and directions for jazz was legendary. With few exceptions such as Wes Montgomery or Chet Baker, if you couldn’t read music, you couldn’t play jazz.

can you read music?

Besides the decline of music literacy and participation, there has also been a decline in the quality of music which has been proven scientifically by Joan Serra, a postdoctoral scholar at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelona. Joan and his colleagues looked at 500,000 pieces of music between 1955-2010, running songs through a complex set of algorithms examining three aspects of those songs:

1. Timbre- sound color, texture and tone quality

2. Pitch- harmonic content of the piece, including its chords, melody, and tonal arrangements

3. Loudness- volume variance adding richness and depth

In an interview, Billy Joel was asked what has made him a standout. He responded his ability to read and compose music made him unique in the music industry, which as he explained, was troubling for the industry when being musically literate makes you stand out. An astonishing amount of today’s popular music is written by two people: Lukasz Gottwald of the United States and Max Martin from Sweden, who are both responsible for dozens of songs in the top 100 charts. You can credit Max and Dr. Luke for most the hits of these stars:

Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Jessie J., KE$HA, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Taio Cruz, Ellie Goulding, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake, Nick Minaj, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Usher, Adam Lambert, Justin Bieber, Domino, Pink, Pitbull, One Direction, Flo Rida, Paris Hilton, The Veronicas, R. Kelly, Zebrahead

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more on metaliteracies in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=metaliteracies

23
Aug
2018

digital literacy Confucius Institute

categories: Digital literacy, educational technology, media literacy

Plan for Fall 2018

August 23, 2018.

My name is Plamen Miltenoff and I will be assisting in your instruction today: Here is more about me: http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/ and more about the issues we will be discussing today: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/
As well as my email address for further contacts: pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu

Social Media for 2018
1. WeChat and the connection to other social media
  1. building a community on WeChat
2. SCSU Edublog http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ci/
  1. the idea of a blog. the advantages compared to SM such as WeChat / Facebook
3. Reflections
  1. Multimedia
4. Connecting blogs to social media (WeChat and similar)
Digital Literacy instruction
1. what is digital literacy and how does it differ from other literacies? Why is it important?
  What other literacies must be considered when speaking about DL? E.g. media literacy: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=media+literacy
2. Internet Resources
  1. 1. How do we search?
      1. Google and Google Scholar (more focused, peer reviewed, academic content)
      2. Digg http://digg.com/, Reddit https://www.reddit.com/ , Quora https://www.quora.com/
      3. SCSU Library search, Google, Professional organization, (NASSP), Stacks of magazines, csu library info, but need to know what all of the options mean on that page
    2. Custom Search Engine:
      https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/11/17/google-custom-search-engine/
    3. Basic electronic (library) search information and strategies. Library research services
      https://www.semanticscholar.org/
    5. –Strategies for conducting advanced searches (setting up filters and search criteria)Filters
    6. ++++++++++++++++
      Search criteria
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3. citation management software to organize bibliographic information
4. Refworkhttps://www.refworks.com/refworks2/default.aspx?r=authentication::init&groupcode=RWStCloudSU
5. Alternatives to Refworks (currently retired):
  1. Zotero, Mendeley, Endnote
  2. Fast and easy bibliographic tools:
    https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2013/12/06/bibliographic-tools-fast-and-easy/

https://youtu.be/tfB0YUYruVA

31
May
2015

DGBL and digital literacies

categories: Digital literacy, educational technology, gamification, gaming, instructional technology, mobile learning, student-centered learning, technology literacy

Digital game-based learning levels up digital literacies

http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/anotherbyteofknowledge/digital-game-based-learning-levels-up-digital-literacies/

My note: excellent Australian article, which presents a very strong point on digital literacies (metaliteracies, see URL below) from educators (versus library) perspective. Connected with game-based learning, it clearly renders the traditional perspective of information literacy as miniscules and the notion of digital literacy being “information literacy on steroids” as obsolete. It clearly shows that the “xxx-literacies” are clearly not a domain of the librarians and if the librarians do not wised up and allow other faculty who are “not librarians” to equally participate, they might well count with those faculty going on their own (as it is transparent from this article).

connections will be made between digital game-based learning and digital literacies to show that digital game-based learning is a powerful pedagogy that incorporates the elements of digital literacies. Through the adoption of game-based learning, digital literacies can be taught in context. Digital literacies are the skills that connect the learning content (curriculum) and digital games are the platform that these digital literacies can be practised within a meaningful context.

Digital literacies is an umbrella term that includes a combination of literacies – visual literacy, media literacy, collaborative literacy, ICT literacy, information literacy – that are needed to take an active, participatory role in life, now and in the future (Hague & Payton, 2010, p. 2).

Bawden (2008), cites Gilster (1997), who defines digital literacy as “an ability to understand and use information from a variety of digital sources and regard it as literacy in the digital age” (p.18).

Jisc, identify in their Digital Literacy Guide that it is a concept that is contextual and it is not static. Change is imminent as new technologies develop “at breakneck speeds” (Becker, 2011, p. 76), therefore, it can be inferred the digital literacies required to use these new technologies need to be adaptable and flexible to these changes (Haste, 2009).

Cooper, Lockyer & Brown (2013), highlight this plurality by using the term “multiliteracies” which can be understood as synonymous with digital literacies. Cooper et al. (2013), explain multiliteracies is required as a “broader view of literacy” (p. 94), is needed as a result of the diverse range of communications tools, therefore, context is implied. Ng (2012) also highlights this idea that digital literacy is “the multiplicity of literacies associated with the use of digital technologies” (p. 1066). The combination of multiliteracies and technologies would also suggest that multimodality is an important element of digital literacy (McLoughlin, 2011) .

7 elements of digital literacy in their Developing Digital Literacies Guide (2014), which can be seen below.

DGBL and digital literacy

digital games (Pivec & Pivec, 2011), which can also be called computer games (Whitton, 2011), video games (Turkay, Hoffman, Kinzer, Chantes & Vicari, 2014) or serious games (Arnab et al., 2012) rather than gamification.

Digital game-based learning then is using digital games in the learning environment with the purpose of achieving learning aligned with learning theory.

Cognitive constructivism is a learning theory that game-based learning could be aligned (Orr & McGuinness, 2014; St-Pierre, 2011). This learning theory builds upon the theories of Piaget and Bruner, therefore, an important consideration in the digital game-based classroom would be that choosing games needs to fit the age and level of intellectual development the students are at (St-Pierre, 2011).

A major focus of the socio-constructivist learning theory is that of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (St-Pierre, 2011). The learning is designed “just beyond what the learner can do” (Orr & McGuinness, 2014, p. 223) and takes them beyond where their knowledge already exists.