Dear colleagues, This is a simplified version of the keynote that I plan to use as a presentation conduit for my AR project. Professional media education is facing two major challenges: 1) how can education best meet both student and teacher needs for rich media assessments, and 2) how can teachers help students prepare to enter the media profession after graduation? Affordable media production tools are enabling educators to assign audio, music, 2D image, 3D, animation and video based projects. But, do...

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My Revealed Peer Grading [RPG] project is both a process and a product. The product is the actual mechanism embodying the process. For now, I have employed Concept Share software. Publication of my project is plausible with many journals and conferences. I prefer to present my ideas in front of an audience and provide workshops to experience it rather than simply present a paper. My hope is that ConceptShare, a Canadian company which has supported my research by providing me with workspaces to...

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You are right about the finish line - the steps through it are much harder than from the starting line. And our mistakes - they are teachers, aren't they? I'm guessing you resonate nicely with Zander's ideas. I see it in your "About Me" ( I am a change maker & making a difference in education is my life... mother of 2 and living a life of purpose...) - a lovely, strong declaration. Thank you Stacey!_________________________week 3 readingDoes It Gotta Be or...

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Debate is such a useful skillset - and I don't doubt that you have helped shaped many young men and women's abilities to expertly communicate their views. I don't recall reading anywhere that the Zanders ever referred to status quo, or to it's opposites, however in "The Art of Possibility". Debate employs a combination of logic and theater:  logic is an 'in the box' construction and theater can inspire. Isn't it best when both are there? Possibility and spark emerges from...

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Benjamin Zander discusses "The Way Things Are" in Chapter 7 and "Giving Way to Passion" in The Art of Possibility. This is the core of Buddhist teachings as well, as well as a large body of counseling/psychiatric practices. After working lots a factory line and retail jobs through my early 20s, getting paid to do things that I really loved was such a joy. I became one of those people who find themselves on an upward trajectory for many decades. I...

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Here's a cool idea: According to an article posted on Fast Company, Google has acquired a little company called Metaweb which is going to change how Google works. First, entities are derived out of the many references to them. An entity is simply a single thing that many words on the net now refer to. The entities are built and stored in an open database called Freebase. These entities are smart, rather than boxes of associations to allow real usability in...

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Ms. Stacey, I see that you are a very valuable contribution to your students, your community and all who come in contact with you (me, too)! Your declaration is like a beautiful brass fanfare, brilliant and buoyant.  Thank you for sharing your Transformation with us!------------------------------------------- Stacey's original blog entry below. Retrieved from http://scrblog2.blogspot.com/2010/07/transformers-more-than-meets-eye.html?showComment=1279486647691_AIe9_BHMBT593NnuR44DcQX8VJ_FwldqPyPooUizWecmR4G4H87v9lKuONT-lcfFwyaLmKT-wZKKmZPdA0K5MQcSa7sBSbwrFVE-6mouhs99t08ByYHzdy0evFLONYlhy1uQJe6ekW2O-AkCTjyJr0GSae-_h_14fjQC7zbSaJfkadA6E91S7Hlth3u25wcBXm4PjFQGEfNGKTpVi6onfxkF3l-SbnIzQkFiQwH2CTwcERx4mZ6Lec2MEAT6mMlILvVzpKwXGd4brQJYQVuPQ5d_XC85oN9B9dzDGYH78qNSL054YMF9JLs4CTqUo-zlM65TUv503hjHxu69Dl_VUAxKmxbO6nqe_cQTwVFsBLD8kZ0CJQBEEypsPEkQaXhN0KVzZ7IBUkry5N0Qj90QNiLUSt9EKqFOjAZtr-fJ22qLjyM-jevTjW3fi4JNABOVUQJGVz-m9G8sAL5WrHKZzTjKdSRVxmbpCPUBnW-e40fnqosxq9dEoQsUU43azcPwMKXZ22RKavU06VObRE-HtCkxhfhSl6AZxhS5979AyqTtWHqEMNn0fQU9CHD9x9nje0rRPPU2JftIU0y4BqzUGhkSDjVZSmFeJMpPkuoHB9Ev96LybbZYjO7wsIyFsEsLEV8U_jKktxid#c3084390836187985949transformers... more than meets the eye!Declare yourself to be a contribution.Throw yourself into life as someone who makes a difference, accepting that you may not understand how or why.I declare...

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Michael, Sounds like you're world view has been really challenged in recent years with a trial by fire. So has mine. We could continue to struggle as valiant heroes against the forces of ignorance. OR, we could turn on Rule Number Six and move on to where our central self (heart) leads us. That's what our families want for us. I still struggle with it - being taught that I need to stand up and fight for myself. But, which self am...

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To contribute is human; whatever we do affects the communities to which we belong - whether consciously or not. Even a smile is a contribution. When we deliberately contribute to a chosen community in a positive way: that is, to give time, energy and attention to it - it is a valuable gift. However, this only works if the contribution is done out of pure generosity  - or as Zander puts it - from the 'central self'. This part of...

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That is a sad story, Karen! It is too bad that the awful teacher who used grades as a carrot/stick motivator did not understand his students. Music students KNOW where they stand in their crowd regarding performance better than their teachers and don't need a prof trying to play god.  Why did that teacher feel he needed to curve your small group to itself instead of to the assigned learning goals - because he probably never really saw your talents....

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Wk One Reading: The Art of Possibilities Chapter 1-3Thursday, July 1, 2010 Oh! "The box" described as a universal guide to restricting one's own rationales that limits new actions in creating inventive logical choices. It is all invented, "Arts after all, is about rearranging us, creating surprising juxtapositions, emotional openings, startling presences, flight paths to the eternal." (Zander, B., & Zander-Stone, R., 2000)In full awake fullness, we produce reasons for our actions that are rational, plausible, and guided by the logic...

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The first three chapters of the Zander's book, The Art of Possibility (2000), restate an idea that is resonant in recent psychology, neurology, social science, spiritualism, physics and education which is: We have constructed a left brained world, and our health and survival depends on our learning how to integrate the right side, and body as well. In psychology, it emerges as techniques to integrate our many intelligences with our experience. In Neurology it is the discovery of the true...

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The roles that teachers and technology play will certainly change; but they are too intertwined for one to take over the other.How? The basis of constructivism is that knowledge is built/fabricated/realized through relationships that exist in our environment. This is quite different than the classical point of view that knowledge is a mostly a function of computation - and that is the way we build computers - in that image of our brains. That image is more left brained now because...

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http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launcheval/14599/Course37076/Launch.html  Kimberly Coast created a beginning Spanish verbs language course on udutu at the above address. The course used media often, lending a freshness to the experience. The pace was fast, and might be a good refresher for someone who has learned the basics of the language in past. Verb conjugations are probably the trickiest but most important thing to understand in spanish (and every other language). This lesson is quite useful in that way.After each test, the user had...

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Hey all Florida Composers!Just in case you weren't aware - The Florida Division of Arts and Culture has and Individual Artist Fellowship grant of $5000 for Contemporary Classical and Jazz composers. Find the application info here:http://www.florida-arts.org/grants/fellowship/Good luck to you all!...

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UDUTU is a free course design, implementation and delivery tool at www.udutu.com. I have no plans to use udutu as a professional educator, but might employ this excellent system for other endeavors. I chose the topic "How to Meditate" because I wanted to see how the system could deliver a no-fail course that had specific instructions. I also enjoy the practice and learned a few things along the way I didn't know.I chose the "Best Practice Path" model because of these...

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My udutu is a lesson on "How to Meditate" it is located at http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launcheval/20431/Course36265/Launch.html It can be seen without a watermark at my Facebook...

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Wk3 Reading Activity 9 - Content ToolsOne would need an awfully large toolbox to keep all the tools available to develop, design, and assemble the desired and complete e-learning environment if these tools weren't e-tools. Learning content development tools vary from authoring tools that help build courses in e-learning to the management tools that help track and manage the learning and training. There are also the element tools, webcasting tools, and virtual classroom tools.  The tools one will need, depends...

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New Directions for CMS, Current Research Areas, and The Future of eLearningDiscuss the issues that indicate learning platforms will change,Using the resources and contemporary online resources students should be able to conceptualize a new e-learning developmentThere are several important trends that are clearly evident nowTrend 1. Web 2.0 .Trend 2. The true application of advanced media technology, Trend 3. Mobile - m-Learning Trend 4. Distance education Trend 5. Embedded Learning Trend 6. Cloud computing, web services and online applications  read the rest of Tom Kowalewski's blog at http://web.me.com/tjk00/10blog/10Blog/Entries/2010/6/16_11._Wk3_reading_Activity_11_-_New_CMS_Directions.html#, Good...

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Gilbert and Gale's (2005) learning transaction model is a reduction of the basic interactions between learner and teacher that is posed in Laurillard's Conversational Framework into a something more useable for the e-learning environment. This new model suggests that each conversation that is guided by a shared learning goal and contains five conversational  states: Teacher tells, Teacher shows, Teacher Asks, Student Responds, Teacher Feeds back. This model represents both the Lecture state of direct learning (Teacher tells) and the...

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Michael, Good writing.The standardization of all things data and the hierarchies of metadata and metametadata is certainly a move towards economy. Some would go so far as calling it digi-holism because in a totally standardized informational world, the opacity between information silos would become much more transparent and porous, allowing one bit to possibly affect the universe of bits. This economy would certainly lend itself economically and convenience. We certainly have a ways to go in achieving more standards in all...

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Karen, your discernment between learning management and content management is really key. Nicely simply put.  And your analogy to the letter soup we're trying to untangle with the scale soup for beginning music theory is apropos. If only the education/corporate/military worlds could standardize their acronyms as well as Guido d'Arezzio!When one begins reading all the letters, as done last week, it can be confusing.  When one continues to work through the letters, reading the articles, it can be very good in...

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The DoD has to take its training efforts seriously because they are a matter of life and death. Beginning in WWI, the armed forces, dealing with 'shell shocked' thousands of veterans began researching for ways to do its job better without sending soldiers needlessly to death or injury. Today, all of the armed forces work with experts in learning science, training, and leader education to develop and integrate its learning approaches. In the words of Major General Robert Scales, "The...

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1. Lay, Keith2. Prior Project Selected: Meditation. A short course on how to, the benefits of, and how to assess your progress in. 3. Originally created for EDM573 in November 2009. The web page never worked properly, and will not. But, there are enough elements done that can provide a start to the udutu CMS. Created with Dreamweaver and Flash. 4. Initial Appraisal of Udutu Scenario: Simple Conditional. Teaching meditation is extremely easy. Teaching how to meditate effectively can be very difficult. I...

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There's no way that even the best and fastest research could ever keep up with how we use technology in the classroom. Carson here, at 18 months old is proof of how interactive learning works. This is the first time he's ever seen an iPad. It doesn't take long for him to use it....... Where will this kid be by the time he hits kindergarden? Where will tech be?  Read the full article by Mike Henry from Advertising Age MagazineOK,...

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Our eloquent friend, Sir Ken Robinson at TED this February. I agree with his major points, especially that  1) the global warming is more than an external issue: it is an 'internal' issue, as well. Desire and consumption are at the root of global warming - not fossil fuels. This same spiritual sickness we suffer as our culture progresses also contributes to our willingness to squander our authentic lives away for a decent paycheck.2) A key to global warming as well...

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@ Mark West: "Faculty Use of CMSEducation Media and Technology Masters Degree! What a title and one that each of the students in this course has signed up for and desire to have and to earn but what or where does that take us?I agree with you that learning management software companies are not making things easy enough for us, the end-users. Too often, I see my colleagues flustered by time constraints and are pressured to use cookie cutter templates when...

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As miraculous as they are, our brains are poorly designed for learning. In fact it is not at all designed for efficiency or order and, instead, develops best through selection and survival (Jensen, 2008). The direct teaching approaches that the West inherited from church and state sanctioned universities were the norm up through the mid twentieth century. Throughout history, communication technology, especially those of the written word and image media, challenged their claimed authority. In the early twentieth century,...

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To: Tom KowaeskiI'd like to comment on the Michael Wesch video that you have posted "The Machine is Us(ing) Us" Tracing the evolution of the written word to digital text to hypertext to Web 2.0 mash-ups, this video presents a rhetorical question as to what could come next. Each evolution provided a quantum leap in connectivity - beginning with from one to many and ending with from many to many. As our understanding of human neuroscience evolves, the comparison of...

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Google is upsetting the online software community, as is their norm, by creating a free course management system. This is one for the history wiki! It is called "Cloudcourse". Cloudcourse is being developed with Google's "App Engine", cloud computing technology that they developed in 2008. Like other Google applications, cloudcourse will run on any browser, and is free up to a certain level of required resources (space, bandwidth). Cloudcourse is currently in its early open source code stages. Anyone with knowledge of...

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Clark Aldrich is brimming with ideas and loves to present them for free. I think Alrich's willingness to put his ideas out for free is because he has so many of them; and knows that his ideas will sell him better than being associated with a blog or two (or twenty). He seems to be quite the pioneer. His scope is both macro and micro - his knowledge stemming from his experiences in trying out his ideas and his willingness...

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Jaron Lanier spoke at Rollins College in nearby WInter Park to, at least partly, promote his new book You Are Not a Gadget. I had not been aware of Mr. Lanier until I received an email from Chip Warren which included Lanier's biography. The fact that the gentleman had a personal history with the beginnings of virtual reality, computer manufacturing, and was a composer was intriguing to me. Especially since his latest commission is from the Winter Park Bach Festival,...

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I've just finished a new work for the Benoit Glazer family (of White House/timucua.com fame) to take to France. Scored for each family member: Trumpet, Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello. It is called "Three Lessons". The first movement is an exploration of time, called "Lesson On Time and Space". Built upon a motionless rich sonority, the piece unfolds exploring texture, dynamics and how sonorities interact. Inspired by the work of Morton Feldman. The second movement is an adaption of an older work...

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Last night, the Orlando Philharmonic performed a concert of four works under the title of "Color Cathedral". Featured were:Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture, op. 36 Respighi:Church WindowsDebussy:Sunken Cathedral Sung:The Circle ClosesThe fact that the evening would be unique was evident at entering the Bob Carr: two semicircular trusses hung from the ceiling, one at the proscenium and the other at the back of the orchestra: each fitted with a half dozen or so moving lights and LED sets, as well as color cans. The...

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On Monday, February 15th, Sir Tamas Kocsis and the Orlando Philharmonic under Christopher Wilkins performed "On the Playground" for Violin Solo and String Orchestra at the Margeson Theater in the Orlando Shakespeare complex. This was the third public performance of this work, the others being the Saturday and Sunday beforehand.Tamas is a truly excellent performer. A difficult and challenging work, Tamas' bold toned personality glided through the first movement, sang gorgeously through the arching second movement, and nimbly jumped with...

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Today, at 4pm, Tamas Kocsis and the Orlando Philharmonic presented the first movement of "On the Playground" to an outdoor audience at Avalon Park as the closing event of ArtsFest 2010.A busy day! Especially for my wife, Joy, who started the day early with her church job. Brendon, my youngest, needed to be at the UCF music building by noon so he could warm up for a piano competition there. He had prepared seven difficult pieces, two solos, some piano...

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Last night, the superb violinist Tamas Kocsis presented "On the Playground" with the Orlando Philharmonic orchestra under the deft baton of Maestro Christopher Wilkins. Last night was one of the highlights of my life as a composer. So many aspects 'lined up' for yesterday evening: my wife Joy was there, my daughter Emily, my youngest son Brendon (we couldn't manage to get down to pick up my oldest son Chris), many of my friends, a warm and appreciative audience at...

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This Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Feb 11th evenings have been filled with the lively activities of a healthy arts community of Orlando, Florida. While the Shakespeare Society offers Hamlet on the stages in the north side of the building, the Orlando Opera Chorus rehearse Carmen on the south. One floor above them, the Orlando Philharmonic strings rehearse this weekend's concerts - "A String Romance".There, Percy Grainger, Vaughan-Williams, Holst, Debussy and Elgar are heard and polished. But most of all, they...

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Itzhak Perlman: a magnificent human being.Though Bob Carr is a terrible hall for soloists, Mr. Perlman's large, personal sound was never overpowered by the orchestra. Credit for that, of course, also goes to Maestro Wilkins. The acoustic problem stems from the hall's lack of a ceiling: the soloist is placed past the transition from theater stage to audience area and left sonically naked.  Perlman's Beethoven was both joyous and stern. Eyes closed, his expressive face ever changing from grave to beaming...

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I just learned that the Orlando Philharmonic will perform the first movement of "On the Playground" at this year's ArtsFest! ArtsFest is United Arts of Central Florida's (the funding organization for all of the major to mid arts organizations this part of the state) annual weeklong festival of everything from touring major orchestras to clowns and face-painting in the parks. I'm honored to be featured on their Valentine's Day festivities! Sunday, Feb 14th (Valentine's Day)4PMAvalon Park3873 Avalon Park E. BlvdOrlando, FL...

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I can't know what is important to you about music because music is an internal experience. And, as an internal experience - it is your very own. Oliver Sacks, the psychologist portrayed by Robin Williams in the feature film Awakenings has written about the neurology of music. In his recent book, Musicophilia, Sacks summarizes his research into how our brains perceive music. Unlike brain models of old which theorized that music and sound perception was localized in specific portions of the...

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Friday, December 4th, 2009First United Methodist Church142 East Jackson StreetOrlando, FL "If Ye Would Hear" sounded bright and beautiful last night! Greg LeFils, Assistant Music Director, expertly led the 20 voice Orlando Chamber Singers through my new arrangement of this ancient Dutch carol. Thank you Greg, for your dedication to my work, and thank you Gregory Ruffer, for being open to this and later work! The talented singers who put their hearts and attention to my and all of...

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The Orlando Chorale will perform my new arrangement of "If Ye Would Hear". They'll do the original arrangement in F. I have just returned from the last rehearsal of the concert - they sound wonderful! Say hi if you attend! TICKETS$15 general admission (advanced purchase only; $20 at the door)$10 senior citizen<$5 studentfree for under 12Purchase tickets online: RedChairProject.comPhone orders: 407-786-8624 First United Methodist Church142 E. Jackson St.Orlando, Florida 32801Directions...

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Bartok's 4th String Quartet and the Stradivari Quartet The Stradivari Quartet visited Orlando (Winter Park) Florida on a lengthy US mid city tour this November 6th as a part of Rollins College's Visiting Artist Series. There was likely a number of folks in the audience that were drawn to the fact that all four instruments were made by the Italian master Stradivarius; a fact that was emphasized by Dr. Sinclair's introductory joking about the audience combined not having enough insurance...

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Again, the OPO provided an excellent evening performance of concert faves:Rachmaninoff "Vocalise"Rachmaninoff "Piano Concerto No. 2" with William WoflramShostakovich "Symphony No. 5"William Wolfram's piano playing was almost too perfect. This may have been because the Steinway grand couldn't deliver the bottom resonances in the hall. Perhaps it was because the orchestra had precious little time to rehearse with him and therefore required a metronomic approach to ensure locking parts. Or, perhaps it was the way Mr. Wolfram plays. I'd guess...

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The Atlantic Center for the Arts is a Master Artist residency about 45 minutes east of Orlando in the coastal town of New Smyrna Beach. Elliot Sharp was one of the three master artists presiding over this residency. Lucky for Orlando, ACA provides a free outreach concert by the master artists, this one landing at the White House on Monday October 26th. Benoit Glazer's (the owner of the home) children were joined by several other musicians onstage and several off playing a fun,...

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I've practiced meditation for many years on and off. It is only in the last decade that I have come to have a more regular sitting practice thanks to Peter Carlson who leads retreats, local meditation classes and leads the Orlando Insight Meditation Group. This last weekend I attended a 3 day retreat (actually a day + two half days) in Gotha, Florida (West Orlando). My intention was to reboot my mental turbulence, which has been growing since I've changed positions...

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I've heard from the Orlando Chorale that "If Ye Would Hear" rehearsals are going well, and that I am invited to hear a rehearsal in November. A few changes to the score that were encouraged by Greg Ruffer, the director,  were:1. Tenors and Basses tessitura is on the high side, and the highest notes called for in those parts may be beyond a good church choir2. The Tenors prefer reading in the G clefSo, I've prepared a new version of...

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I've been attending Benoit Glazer's Timucua concerts for quite a while, and it's about time I share them on my blog! Why?Because they are one of the most wonderful things one can experience - anywhere: a paragon of community, family and music. This Sunday evening, Larry Och's Sax and Drumming Core stopped in between their tour stops at the Dali Museum in St. Pete and their next stop in Buffalo, NY. This kind of audacious programming is not unusual for these concerts!...

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Central Florida just hasn't gotten the news from the rest of the country that the classical music business is having a hard time. The Orlando Philharmonic is alive and doing well, thanks to great leadership. Music Director Christopher Wilkins seems to have a gift at knowing his audience - as well as knowing just what will delight them in surprise. The seasoning opening concert is a perfect example: who doesn't want to hear Beethoven's Ninth? The pairing with Brahm's light and...

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 Dan Goleman describes the "Social Brain" in Appendix B of his well known book,  Social Intelligence: The Revolutionary New Science of Human Relationships (Goleman, D., 2006, p.332) this way "All primates live among others who can help meet the demands of life, thus multiplying the resources available to any single member of the group - and putting a premium on smooth social interactions. The social brain seems to be among Nature's adaptive mechanisms for meeting the challenge of survival as...

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In "Wiring a Web for Global Good", UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivers a strong point that empathy is alive and well on Earth and a Global Society is in reach thanks to current technology. In general, we are too busy with our daily concerns to worry too much about events beyond our personal horizon - that is, until an image is placed before us that we simply cannot ignore. Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden believed that a global ethic supporting...

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Play the Finale realization with score"If Ye Would Hear", the work to be premiered this December 4th at 8PM by the Orlando Chorale, is only one step from delivery to Gregory Ruffer. I need to 'sit' on the work for a few days and see it with a fresh ear, as I spent most of Saturday working towards its completion. As always, there are likely many details that I will catch yet: unclear accidentals, missing dynamics, crowded page spacings, etc., that...

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Meditation Practice, Learning Practice and Art Practice Self understanding is important in media literacy  In this 2009 "Media Literacies" presentation at the Reboot Britain conference, Howard Rheingold told of catching his best student answering email during his lecture via a hidden camera in the back of the room. This led him to consider that some students can multitask efficiently while others cannot and banishing open laptops would be counterproductive. The computers were not the problem, but the students' lack of judgement about...

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Music Literacy and the Brain Dr. John Medina states in Brain Rules that the brain is a sequential processor and that multitasking is a myth. He suggests that what we think multitasking may be is actually simply task-switching. He produces research results to support this theory: that forcing the mind to do multitasking invites stress, that multitasking usually invites four times more errors than uninterrupted single task activities. Dr. Medina believes that driving and talking on a cell phone is an...

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If Ye Would Hear is coming along. Didn't have much time to get to it this week until yesterday. I'm now calibrating the ending (not down yet). As you can hear in this realization - this is a middle of the road Christmas cheer setting - with some tasty chords. In these cases, simpler is better (without getting too simple for fun). I hope this setting finds lots of willing voices. Flash version QuickTIme movie version (15MB)...

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I've decided to share several collections: CDs, SACDs, books, etc. and other things that I LOVE. Better than (!) actually coming over and looking through my CD collection and bookshelves. I hope you take a look and say to yourself "hey! I love that CD too, or that book, too! - I think I've gotta send him a message and share my thoughts on it".  I hope that is the case. The software to make this all happen is called...

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Web 2.0 in EducationThe Jonassen Triangles (Jonassen, Rohrer-Murphy, 1999) beautifully relates relationships of technology, society, teaching and learning in this image model. Transformation (learning) is a result of action (Production) from subject through object. Learning by producing. Tools and signs (symbols) are the fulcrum on which the production provides leverage facilitating production from subject to object (think of a tool as a band-saw in shop class, or the result of research like a term paper). The brilliance of this model is...

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"If Ye Would Hear" for the Orlando Chorale is progressing nicely. Listen to it here. I've decided to move away from the original melody. Verses 1,2,4 and 6 are beaming with the joy of Christmas at home: food, merriment and warmth. But Dora Greenwell contrasts this kind of Christmas in these odd verses to the kind of Christmas that many people experience that is rarely sung about: barren, hungry, cold and weary. The last verse, Dora sings "See ye let each door...

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To where should creative educators look to find the keys to successfully preparing students for the 21st century? Probably not in education literature - but by watching how 2.0 transforms business. Clay Shirky has been focusing quite a bit in the first chapters of Here Comes Everybody on how 2.0 has already changed societies and how business world. Creativity is a key word to the new models. He suggests that creativity has been squashed dormant in our larger corporate systems...

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Being a judge of compositions for Steve Goldman and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra's  Young Composers Challenge has been a wonderful experience through the years - and this year was no exception. Fellow composers Steve Goldman, Stella Sung, and Dan Crozier and I judged 44 works from about 3PM to 1AM this morning. First, we each received a score, and a MIDI realization of the work was played. The whole while, we made notes on the scores themselves, on a...

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Since June, I have been earning another Master's Degree, this one in Education. It is my first online degree program. Our fourth month class, called Emergent Technologies In A Collaborative Culture, requires us to develop over 40 connections to blogs relating to education. I have received permission from our teacher, Dr. Seigel, to employ this journal as my site. My reasons for doing so are to 1) create traffic on my own website, and 2) to begin to weave my...

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Finding a Christmas song is not easy for me! I originally though of setting "Welcome Christmas" carol from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", and I might do so someday. That song still makes me believe in the good of all people just as it did when it first aired in 1966 and I was 8 years old. Remember how all the town held hands in a circle around the bare tree and sang their hearts out? I'm still waiting to...

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   Jonassen, D.H., Rohrer-Murphy, L (1999). Activity theory as a framework for     designing constructivist learning environments.  Educational Technology Research and Development,47,(pp. 61-79).   •  Timothy Leary's The interpersonal, interactive, interdimensional interface •  TED Talks presentation by Howard Rheingold "Way New Collaboration" Dr. Leary and Rheingold are examples of thinkers who can recognize paradigm change on a large scale while it is just beginning to occur. Such changes are invisible to most people, but highly profitable to those who listen. Both men were explorers of the mind...

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Gregory Ruffer, the Director and Co-founder of the fine Orlando Chorale has asked that I submit a new Christmas work for this year's December 4th concert under the auspices of their Emerging Composer's Initiative program. Though I am further along in my career as a composer than the ideal candidate would be, I am grateful for his offer - and, especially a performance.  So, what to write? Not an easy choice. Christmas is a holiday season that connects us with so...

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Gregory Ruffer, the Director and Co-founder of Orlando Chorale, took some time out of his crazy schedule (he's working on his Doctorate in NYC) to give me a call to discuss the a capella work "Over the North Jetty". After looking at the score and hearing the realization of the work, he decided not to publicly perform Over the North Jetty. Though he liked many aspects of this piece, he was not comfortable with asking his choir to perform the hand against...

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Happy Crazy, for Bb Clarinet and Piano is being revised AGAIN - the third time! The first version was written for Keith Koons in 1999, who helped me with Earth Caoine back in 1995. The second version was written in 2005. Third time's a charm! I'll attempt to make the work more memorable by 'staying in one place' a little longer. I'll also thin out the piano part - too thick and difficult. When the revision is done, you'll see...

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Joyful Play is the first movement of the On the Playground violin concerto for strings that played at Lincoln Center. I began the task of transcribing the work for piano in the spring of 2005. I quickly realized that the work could not be translated by a single pianist. I also realized that it would not get performed very often as a work for two pianos, so I set it for one piano, two players (referred to as 'piano and...

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"Come Fly With Me"  Though a few months have passed, the March 14th Saturday evening concert by the Orlando Chorale hasn't left me. Gregory Ruffer again prepared a really enjoyable evening that really pushed the ensemble. Ten pieces were performed, all of them from modern times - and TWO of them were world premieres. Mr. Ruffer - may the universe shine upon you and make you happy! How many ensembles are willing to do two world premieres in a single...

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The unearthing of Starboy continues with Starboy Meets the King. This work employed a processed Bill Bruford 11/8 loop with and upon which I built a frightening driving array of sounds, the most interesting 3 tracks of a woman's voice. The words of the woman are unintelligable, being reduced to short bursts of sound gated from the drums. I have also agreed to remix my brother Kevin's new recording "Water". What a joy it is to be working on music with...

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Last month, my trusty Mac G5 computer was mortally wounded by a falling 7 lb. agate ball, quickly followed by Tannoy powered speaker. My son was not hurt (by the falling objects, or by me). VOT Engineering, owned by Brent Hughes, had just wired the room for surround, and I had just purchased a used Apogee Ensemble - all to get back into creating surround sound electronic music, too. Darn. After a couple of MacDoctor bills and numerous new drives over several...

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This is my first blog entry in my life.So, why not start with what's going on?Joy and I have just returned from a concert by the Orlando Philharmonic. Tomight's concert was titled "Lincoln's Year": Bacon: Ford's Theatre; A Few Glimpses of Easter week, 1865Beethoven:Symphony No. 5- intermission-Ungar: Ashokan Farewell Sung:Lincoln's BattleTapsGlass: CIVIL WarSCopland: Lincoln PortraitVery interesting programming by Maestro Christopher Wilkins to open a concert almost entirely filled with modern American composers with Ernst Bacon. "Ford's Theater" is a set...

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