Can Barbie save Classical Music?

With a wardrobe for any occasion, it’s easy to picture Barbie as a fashion icon for the public school set. But American conductor and music producer Arnie Roth also wants us to try to picture Barbie as a young cultural ambassador, introducing her friends to the magical worlds of ballet and classical music.
For the past nine years, Roth has worked with Barbie’s corporate parents at Mattel to create a series of 10 straight-to-DVD movies based on timeless stories and ballets. All of them feature classical music on the soundtracks.
Released in more than 30 languages, these DVDs have sold in the hundreds of thousands around the world.

Barbie™ at the Symphony is a groundbreaking children's animated classical music experience, combining film projection of the best Barbie™ “ Princess” movies with the world’s most loved classical music scores performed LIVE by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.
This series of CGI animated films features Barbie™ singing and dancing to ballet sequences choreographed by Peter Martins of the renowned New York City Ballet. Released in over 30 languages, these popular films have introduced millions of children to ballets such as The Nutcracker and Swan Lake and the timeless music to which they are set. Young audience members will be introduced to the arts through this thrilling new production written especially for them.
Popular scenes from the movies including Barbie™ as Rapunzel, Barbie™ in The 12 Dancing Princesses, Barbie™ as The Princess and the Pauper, Barbie™ and The Magic of Pegasus, and interactive conversations with Barbie™ captivate audience members of all ages.

The Good news here is that another generation of young people is being introduced to classical music.
Bravo!

from the Toronto Star - read the article here
quote above from press release - find it here

tech tools for teachers

Thanks to Dan Roberts for putting together this great list of tools for classroom teaching. It seems we may still be in the infant stage of exploring how the net can serve as a giant communication tool, these sites below give us even more creative ways we can have our students interact and work with each other. Bring it on!

These tools are all free, easy to use, easy to access and can be used in any subject at any age to enhance the learning experience.

1. Wallwisher http://www.wallwisher.com/
Is a great little Web 2.0 tool principally for collaboration. You have a virtual wall where you can post little post it notes on to it although these are not like the normal yellow sticky notes you get as because they are online instead of just writing text you can add links to websites, images, music, audio podcasts and even videos. You can visit the example of the wallwisher one of my classes used here as a starter activity to a new topic: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/jameshutton

2. Photopeach http://www.photopeach.com/
Photopeach is basically a really easy, free to use tool to produce slide shows a bit like photostory apart from you can chose music from the library that is has so in some ways also like animoto but less fancy transitions. The best bit that I love about photopeach is the two added little extras that they have at the end. The first is that at the end of your show you can add a quiz section where you write questions and then the audience get to select multiple choice answers and see if they are right. I think that this is a great way to get students to test other students knowledge which could also be really useful for revision not only for the student creating the show who has to come up with suitable questions but also for the ones watching it making them think of the answers. The second is that at the end of watching you then have the option of leaving a comment like you can on most of the video/show type sites however this is different as when you leave a comment it stays on the video itself as if you were watching the credits. I think this has great potential for peer assessment and peer feedback and think it is just awesome. Here is an example of one students work. http://photopeach.com/album/blo8nv 

Read more »

Tuba Christmas in Vancouver

Saturday December 18th 11am - 1pm
Vancouver Christmas Market (Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza)

ATTENTION ALL TUBA AND EUPHONIUM PLAYERS:

You are invited to participate in one of the many TUBACHRISTMAS concerts/events presented throughout the world...

Read more »

Changing Education Paradigms

Another fascinating short from Sir Ken Robinson. This short video explores the epidemic of ADHD, how it may be caused the use of irrelevant outdated educational models, how standardization and standardized tests may play a part in this, and what effects the large scale medication of ADHD diagnosed students negatively impacts our students is having, especially in Arts education. Also how the current education system disrupts divergent thinking and rewards standardized responses, "10 years in school learning that there is only one right answer, and it is at the back of the book"..

If you watch this pay attention to the segment beginning around 5:35 - how Arts Education can  possibly be victim of the over diagnosis and medication of ADHD, and old educational paradigms.

Spending on the arts in Canada - musical instrument purchases down 16%

Looking at this report from Hill Research over my morning coffee, I am struck by a couple of items that kind of leap off the page at me that seem to be of great importance, especially those of us in the business of music education.

Between 1997 and 2008, consumer spending on art works and events grew by 59%, more than any other category of cultural spending. Some individual cultural items saw a substantial increase in spending between 1997 and 2008 (all figures adjusted for inflation):

• Televisions, DVD players, digital video recorders, and other TV or video components: 124% increase.

• Works of art, carvings and other decorative ware: 107% increase.

• Live performing arts: 50% increase.

•  Books (excluding school books): 24% increase.

• Admissions to museums and heritage-related activities: 21% increase.

• Movie theatre admissions: 21% increase.

Spending on newspapers, magazines and periodicals decreased between 1997 and 2008, after adjusting for inflation: newspapers saw a 26% decrease, while magazines and periodicals saw a 28% decline.

Ok, so they are including TV, DVD and other electronic toys in this study, and no surprise that tech spending has seen an increase of 124%.

Live performing arts: 50% increase (Yes!!), and theatre admissions are up.
Print media is in serious decline, but I don't think that is a big surprise to anyone .

But let's look at spending on Arts education, and musical instruments and lessons: (bold and italic markings are mine)

• Spending on reading material declined by 1%. Spending on reading material was at its lowest level in 2008 ($4.8 billion). Spending on reading material was highest in 2002, 2004 and 2005 ($5.1 billion in each of these years) but subsequently decreased to reach $4.8 billion in 2008.

• Spending on art supplies and musical instruments decreased by 1%. Spending on art supplies and musical instruments decreased in the late 1990s and experienced its lowest spending level in 1999 ($980 million). Spending increased slightly in subsequent years to peak at $1.3 billion in 2004, and spending reached this level again in 2006. Spending on art supplies and musical instruments subsequently declined, reaching $1.1 billion in 2008.

• Spending on photographic equipment and services decreased by 2%. Spending on photographic equipment and services peaked at $2.4 billion in 2004 but subsequently decreased to reach $1.8 billion in 2008.

If we look further in the report  we see:

Many cultural categories saw a decrease in consumer spending between 2006 and 2008, possibly due to consumers reining in discretionary spending during the recent recession in Canada. Consumer spending on culture decreased by 4% between 2006 and 2008, while overall consumer spending increased by 4%. Among the cultural categories:

• Consumer spending on home entertainment increased by 1%.

•  Spending on reading material decreased by 5%.

• Consumer spending on movie theatre admissions decreased by 6%.

• Spending on art works and events decreased by 8%.

• Consumer spending on art supplies and musical instruments decreased by 16%.

• Spending on photographic equipment and services decreased by 23%.

A 16% decline in musical instrument purchase needless to say is huge.  So am I correct to perceive that money once being spent on the arts on things like books, art supplies, musical instruments - items necessary for artistic creation;  are now being spent on consumer products, mainly electronic gadgets, flat screen TV's and video consoles?

Is "Guitar Hero" replacing purchasing and  learning the real instrument?

Thoughts and comments?

 Report from Hill Institute for the Arts

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — On the eve of a pivotal academic year in Vishal Singh’s life, he faces a stark choice on his bedroom desk: book or computer?

By all rights, Vishal, a bright 17-year-old, should already have finished the book, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle,” his summer reading assignment. But he has managed 43 pages in two months.

He typically favors Facebook, YouTube and making digital videos. That is the case this August afternoon. Bypassing Vonnegut, he clicks over to YouTube, meaning that tomorrow he will enter his senior year of high school hoping to see an improvement in his grades, but without having completed his only summer homework.

On YouTube, “you can get a whole story in six minutes,” he explains. “A book takes so long. I prefer the immediate gratification.”

Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.

Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks — and less able to sustain attention.

“Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently.”

But even as some parents and educators express unease about students’ digital diets, they are intensifying efforts to use technology in the classroom, seeing it as a way to connect with students and give them essential skills. Across the country, schools are equipping themselves with computers, Internet access and mobile devices so they can teach on the students’ technological territory.

It is a tension on vivid display at Vishal’s school, Woodside High School, on a sprawling campus set against the forested hills of Silicon Valley. Here, as elsewhere, it is not uncommon for students to send hundreds of text messages a day or spend hours playing video games, and virtually everyone is on Facebook.

Read the article:

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction - NYTimes.com

British Columbians spend nearly $4 billion on cultural goods and services, over 4 times higher than government spending on culture in the province

Consumer Spending on Culture in Canada, the Provinces and 12 Metropolitan Areas in 2008, the 32nd report in the Statistical Insights on the Arts series from Hill Strategies Research, shows that BC residents spent $3.8 billion on cultural goods and services in 2008, or 2.9% of total consumer spending in the province. The $3.8 billion in consumer spending on culture is more than four times larger than the $920 million spent on culture in British Columbia by all levels of government in 2007/08.

At $869 per resident, British Columbia consumers’ cultural spending is the fourth highest of all provinces. Cultural spending per capita is highest in Alberta ($963) and Saskatchewan ($905). Per capita consumer spending on culture is highest in the five western-most provinces, led by Alberta ($963), Saskatchewan ($905) and Ontario ($880).

Across the country, Canadian consumers spent $27.4 billion on cultural goods and services in 2008, or $841 per capita. Consumer spending on culture is three times larger than the $9.2 billion spent on culture by all levels of government in 2007/08.

The report examines spending on cultural goods and services, including art supplies and musical instruments, art works and events, home entertainment, movie theatre admissions, photographic equipment and services, and reading material. The data is drawn from Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending, a yearly questionnaire on Canadians’ spending habits.

British Columbians spend twice as much on live performing arts as on live sports 

British Columbians spent twice as much on live performing arts ($200 million) than on live sports events ($100 million) in 2008. In addition, more than twice as many BC households spent at least some money on live performing arts (41% of households) as on live sports events (19%).

British Columbia is also highly ranked in other per capita rankings

The report also provides comparisons of consumer spending on four key arts-related items in 2008: live performing arts; admissions to museums and heritage-related activities; works of art, carvings and other decorative ware; and books. British Columbia is highly ranked on all four of these arts-related items. For per capita spending on admissions to museums and heritage-related activities, Alberta ranks first ($21), followed by Ontario ($17) and British Columbia ($16). Per capita spending on works of art, carvings and other decorative ware is highest in Alberta ($43), followed by British Columbia ($38) and Ontario ($33). Regarding per capita spending on books, Alberta ranks first ($52), followed by British Columbia ($47) and Manitoba ($42). Per capita spending on live performing arts is second in B.C. ($47), behind Saskatchewan ($51) and tied with Manitoba and Ontario (also $47).

21% growth in cultural spending between 1997 and 2008

After adjusting for inflation, BC residents’ spending on cultural goods and services grew by 21% between 1997 and 2008, which is lower than the 35% rise in spending on all goods and services during the same period. The highest increase among the cultural categories was art works and events, which rose by 54% between 1997 and 2008. In the country as a whole, cultural spending increased by 28% between 1997 and 2008 after adjusting for inflation.

Vancouver 11th among 12 metropolitan areas
On a per capita basis, Vancouverites’ cultural spending ($795 per person) ranks 11th among 12 metropolitan areas in Canada. Total cultural spending was $1.8 billion in Vancouver in 2008, representing 49% of the provincial total.

From Hill Strategies Research

Consumer spending on culture: 3 times larger than government spending on culture

 Consumer Spending on Culture in Canada, the Provinces and 12 Metropolitan Areas in 2008,the 32^nd report in the Statistical Insights on the Arts series from Hill Strategies Research, shows that Canadian consumers spent over $27 billion on cultural goods and services in 2008. Some key findings of the report include:

 

• The $27.4 billion in consumer spending on culture in Canada represents $841 for every Canadian resident.
• Consumer spending on culture is three times larger than the $9.2 billion spent on culture by all levels of government in 2007/08.
• Consumer spending on culture is three times larger than consumer spending on hotels, motels and other travel accommodations ($9.2 billion).
• Canadians’ spending on live performing arts ($1.4 billion) is more than double their spending on live sports events ($650 million).
• After adjusting for inflation, cultural spending increased by 28% between 1997 and 2008, double the growth in the Canadian population.
• The 28% increase in cultural spending is lower than the 37% increase in spending on all goods and services between 1997 and 2008.
• Between 1997 and 2008, consumer spending on art works and events grew by 59%, more than any other category of cultural spending.
• Cultural spending per capita varies significantly between the provinces and is highest in Alberta ($963) and Saskatchewan ($905). The five western-most provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario) have per capita levels of cultural spending that are above the Canadian average ($841).
• Among the provinces, Alberta had the highest growth in consumer spending between 1997 and 2008, both on cultural goods and services (40%) and on all goods and services (69%), after adjusting for inflation.
• Among 12 metropolitan areas, Calgary and Saskatoon have the highest per capita consumer spending on cultural goods and services.

The report examines the spending of Canadians on cultural goods and services, including art supplies and musical instruments, art works and events, home entertainment, movie theatre admissions, photographic equipment and services, and reading material. The data is drawn from Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending, a yearly questionnaire on Canadians’ spending habits.

 

From Hill Strategies Research

 

Changing face of education: Clickers in the Classroom

The way we conduct the processes of classroom education is changing. Technology is finding its way into classrooms in new and more interactive ways. Here is another example: from the New York Times:

If any of the 70 undergraduates in Prof. Bill White’s “Organizational Behavior” course here at Northwestern University are late for class, or not paying attention, he will know without having to scan the lecture hall.

Their “clickers” will tell him.

Every student in Mr. White’s class has been assigned a palm-size, wireless device that looks like a TV remote but has a far less entertaining purpose. With their clickers in hand, the students in Mr. White’s class automatically clock in as “present” as they walk into class.

They then use the numbered buttons on the devices to answer multiple-choice quizzes that count for nearly 20 percent of their grade, and that always begin precisely one minute into class. Later, with a click, they can signal to their teacher without raising a hand that they are confused by the day’s lesson.

But the greatest impact of such devices — which more than a half-million students are using this fall on several thousand college campuses — may be cultural: they have altered, perhaps irrevocably, the nap schedules of anyone who might have hoped to catch a few winks in the back row, and made it harder for them to respond to text messages, e-mail and other distractions.

In Professor White’s 90-minute class, as in similar classes at Harvard, the University of Arizona and Vanderbilt, barely 15 minutes pass without his asking students to “grab your clickers” to provide feedback

Read the article - New York Times, November 15, 2010

Do Podcasts Help Students Learn?

Before George Washington University renewed its iTunes U contract, the administration wanted to know how the podcasts impacted student learning and engagement.

In fall 2009, the university's Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning studied a world history class of 262 students to find the answer.

But the answer isn't yes or no — the answer depends on the student's learning style, gender and motivation.

“If your goal is to find a magic bullet that makes all students better, this isn’t it," said Hugh Agnew, a professor from the Elliott School of International Affairs who taught the course. "But If your goal is to reach some students better that maybe you aren’t reaching so terribly well, then I think this is worth trying.”

6 interesting results

He created 10-minute podcasts with graphics and audio, as well as a text transcript of the podcasts with visuals to supplement his lecture class. In the first research run, half of the class used the podcasts, and the other half used the text. In the second run, they switched.

Overall, the study found no statistical difference between the performance of students who used the text and the ones who used the podcasts. But in subgroups, the podcasts did make a difference, said Yianna Vovides, director of instructional design at the center who conducted the research.

Three results that Vovides found interesting include the following:

1. Podcasts grab attention and maintain it.
2. Students conceptually understood the content, not just remembered it, and the scale of understanding seemed to tip toward the podcasts.
3. The students who said they weren't that motivated at the beginning of the class scored higher on the test when they listened to the podcasts.

And Agnew found these three results fascinating:

1. Guys improved their results from the pre-test to the post-test more with the podcasts. But the women's results showed no difference.
2. From the beginning of the research to the end, the number of students who preferred podcasts nearly tripled, jumping from 21 to 62.
3. In general, no one saw a dramatic uptick in results with the text or the podcasts. If they did the work, they did better on the test, he said.


Do Podcasts Help Students Learn?

Select Standing Committee on Finance recommends increase in arts funding

The province’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services has recommended that arts funding be made a high priority in the 2011/12 budget. The bipartisan committee, which has been conducting hearings throughout the province since September 15, released its recommendations today.

For the second year in a row, the committee called on the province to return arts funding to 2008/09 levels. It also recommended that eligibility criteria for community gaming grants be revisited, and that the government reinstate gaming grants for three years to provide stability.

The Alliance for Arts and Culture’s executive director Amir Ali Alibhai said that while he welcomed the recommendations, a return to the 2008/09 B.C. Arts Council budget of $19 million would still leave the province in last place when it comes to arts funding. (In fact, in 2008, the committee had recommended increasing the B.C. Arts Council’s budget to $32 million.)

“Although they’re high compared to what we have now, they’re still the lowest in the country,” he pointed out. He was more enthusiastic about the recommendations regarding gaming grant eligibility. “That’s the more significant,” he said. “Those eligibility criteria have prolonged the hard times for the sector.” He also noted that the committee made “really strong recommendations last year, and they weren’t followed, so I don’t know what the outcome will be.”


Select Standing Committee on Finance recommends increase in arts funding | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com

The importance of a good education in our knowledge based society

More evidence (as if we really needed any, but perhaps we do) that your level of education has a profound effect on the quality of your life. This article deals with Europe, not North America, but perhaps similar conclusions can be drawn for life on this continent.

Having a low level of education in Europe: an at-risk situation  European Journal

Wi-Fi snooping tool drills gaping holes in security

This story is quite a bit off topic, but should of interest to anyone roaming around out there using laptops or other wireless devices at coffee shops, airports, or anywhere else where you are using an open wireless access point.

There is a new app out there that can turn any firefox browser into a hacking device.  So when you are using a wireless connection in a coffee shop, this is what the experts tell us to do:

Five tips to safeguard against Wi-Fi snoops

1. Don't use open Wi-Fi networks. If you must, when signing into Facebook, Twitter, your e-mail or other websites that require user authentication, make sure the Web address starts with https. Some sites, like your bank or gmail, automatically default to https. Others like Facebook and Twitter don't, but you can choose that option.
   
2. To switch to a secure connection, you can go to the address bar and add an "s" to http; for example, if you do that with Facebook, you'll find yourself at https://www.facebook.com. When you bookmark sites, make sure you bookmark the ones starting with https.
   
3. Use the Firefox plug-in Force-TLS to force sites to use https, a move that makes any data transferred between your computer and the website it is reaching unreadable to snoops. You can search for Force-TLS at https://addons.mozilla.org. There's a similar one on Firefox called HTTPS Everywhere, still in beta. Once Force-TLS is added, you'll get an option in the drop-down Tools menu to "ForceTLS Configuration." You have to add in all the networks you want to sign into only with https. If the website doesn't have the option of a secure connection, it won't work.
   
4. When you're signing into any networks that require authentication in a new wireless location -say you've gone out for coffee and taken your netbook along without signing out -make sure you have closed any online accounts before you log onto the network. Then sign in again, making sure it's over a https connection.
   
5. Use your company VPN (Virtual Private Network) or set up your own VPN, although that is an option more complicated than the casual computer user would want to undertake.

Wi-Fi snooping tool drills gaping holes in security    from the Vancouver Sun