A Night at the Movies

After a stressful week, I finally sat down yesterday evening and relaxed by watching the live telecast of the Academy Awards. There's just something nice about getting all my work done for the upcoming week and sitting down and watching some TV. I'm definitely a big movie fan so I (usually) try to keep up to date on the nominated movies and actors. In the past, I used to get crazy during Oscar time. I would feel a strong need to see as many of the movies on the Oscars list as possible. (Soon I found out that this was way too overwhelming so I stopped).

While critics are predicting winners of the major categories (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress) or even which film will take home the Best Picture Oscar, I think there's an often overlooked, musically oriented category that deserves our undivided attention. I'm of course talking about the "Best Original Score" category. You know, the award for the best music specifically written for film. Without music, movies would have no atmosphere. There would be no transition and the mood would be extremely difficult to establish. Thank goodness the Academy Awards honor the best score and the best song!

This year's field of Oscar-nominated musical scores are an interesting mix of styles and genres. We have music drawing from a variety of cultures (Gustavo Santaolalla's Babel), a tender and dramatic, orchestral/choral score for a dark fantasy (Javier Navarrete's Pan's Labyrinth), the light, animated, and even mischievous score for Alexandre Desplat's The Queen, the powerful, ominous, and masterfully orchestrated score for Philip Glass's Notes on a Scandal, and the classically melodramatic epic score for Thomas Newman's The Good German.

Apple has a very cool site where you can watch trailers, listen to clips/podcasts of all the nominated movies. See you next year at the 80th Annual Academy Awards! I'll leave you with a meaningful quote from the Oscar-nominated compose Alexandre Desplat.

“The main goal is to be able to write music which is dedicated to the movie but still stands by itself. I don’t want to be a machine that writes notes. When I go to a concert, I don’t like a soloist who plays notes, I want to hear a soloist who plays music. It’s about moving you, about making your emotions tremble. If I can achieve that, then I have succeeded.”
--Alexandre Desplat

Thoughts on Distance Learning Technology

Today, teaching and learning are no longer confined to the classroom or the school day. There are many technologies that can offer a great deal of flexibility in when, where, and how education is distributed. Distance learning applications, especially in higher education, are growing at a rapid pace. It is hard to believe, but it is now possible to obtain a college degree without physically attending a traditional class! I know that Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis offers an online Music Technology degree.

I really didn't know too much about distance learning until I read up on it. I now realize there are many many benefits to distance learning technologies (DLT). First of all, it is very convenient for both the students and instructors. Many of the technologies, (internet, videotape, telephone) are easily accessed at home. Others (desktop video-conferencing) can be distributed from a single point to multiple remote sites. DLT also provides flexibility in that students have the option to participate whenever they want to. They aren't required to do things at a certain time and they don't have a time limit. For example, some students may want to review a video in the early morning while another student may want to do so in the evening, and they have all the time to do so.

There is a wide variety of distance learning technologies. Because of this, it can meet everyone's learning preferences (well, at least part of the time). For example, some students learn from visual stimuli, such as video, and others learn best by interacting with a computer program. If distance learning courses are well designed, they will likely offer learners a wide range of choices, thereby providing the optimal combinations of interaction and media.

I remember during my undergraduate studies when one of my professors was out of town. Rather than hire a substitute or have his TA's teach, we watched a prerecorded video of our instructor on a large projector screen, teaching us the day's lesson. Not only was it an efficient way of delivering to us the materials we needed to know, but it was also very flexible. We could pause the videotape when we needed to or rewind the tape if we wanted to review the lesson again. If any of the students had questions, all we needed to do was send an e-mail to our instructor and he would provide us with feedback. I remember thinking to myself, wow, our teacher had become a "virtual professor!"

Happy Chinese New Year!

新年快樂!

February 18, 2007 marks the beginning of Chinese New Year, year of the Pig (or Boar, depending on who you ask). This year is very special in that it is the "Year of the Golden Pig" which falls once every 60 years. Definitely lots to celebrate :) Chinese New Year also means the beginning of an exciting two-week festival filled with lots of delicious chinese food, red envelopes (filled with $$$), fireworks, celebrations (Lantern Festival), and wearing lots of red!

Just an interesting tidbit, famous people born in the Year of the Pig include: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Humphrey Bogart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ernest Hemingway, Alfred Hitchcock, David Letterman, and Arnold Schwarnenegger.

Here is a clip of the 2007 Chinese New Year Spectacular, which was performed here in NYC at Radio City Music Hall just last week. (Is there anything that YouTube doesn't have)?


To celebrate the new year, Skype has a special promotion that allows people to receive 24 minutes of free calling to people in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. For those of you who aren't familiar with Skype, it is a program that lets you make free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has the service. It's free and easy to use, and it works with most computers. The audio quality is pretty good so is the webcam. As far as I know, Skype can even replace a standard phone or cell phone. Because Chinese New Year is one of the world's biggest celebrations of family and friends, Skype allows people to stay connected during this time and provides Skype users to send New Year's greetings to family and friends. Skype is definitely the most advanced voice communications tool available today. What would we do without the internet :) Hats off to Skype!

Speaking of Skype, I found an interesting blog on celebrating Chinese New Year with Skype and Flickr, two very popular and useful programs out there on the internet today.

Wishing everyone a Healthy, Prosperous and Happy Lunar New Year!

Thoughts on E-learning

Happy Valentine's Day! I love what Google does with its logo on holidays! They're so very creative!

With that said, back to business...

What is E-learning? "E-learning is to classroom learning as cell phones are to a pay phone at the bus station." I thought this was a pretty clever way to put it. (It's on this website if you want to read more). The article goes on to explain that as long as you have a computer, you'll be able to learn anywhere, similar to a cell phone. With a cell phone, you'll be able to communicate anywhere.

Web technologies are definitely shaping education. One example is podcasting, which has become a popular technology in education. I just read about how Stanford University has teamed up with Apple to create the Stanford iTunes University! Rather than being a large collection of student/faculty playlists, this iTunes is quite unique in that it provides a range of digital content (although some are restricted to Stanford users). Talk about creative! There are also a lot of student-produced podcasts out there today.

The photo-sharing site Flickr is another great example of web technology (not to mention it's considered an early example of a Web 2.0 application) being used in education. I find that it's one of the better photo-sharing sites out there, you can easily share, manage, organize, and store all your photos. Plus users can comment on pictures and search for them based on "tags." All in all, a very nicely designed (free!) application. My favorite web-based Flickr toy is the postcard browser, which offers a really cool, fun way to browse through images with a specific tag. I won't try to describe it, just go try it for yourself and I think you'll see what I mean!

In education, Flickr provides a valuable resource for students and educators looking for images for use in presentations, learning materials or coursework. Students can also use Flickr to publish their digital photography to a larger audience and with the commenting function they can get critical feedback. Another handy feature on Flickr are the "notes." Notes allow users to add hot-spot annotations to an image. This is a great learning tool as it allows students to annotate and discuss the images in more detail.

These are just a couple of web technologies used in education. E-learning is still developing today (and everyday) and it'll be interesting to see how it changes in the future!

Music

Music is my life. I have to admit it. If there was no such thing as music, I don’t know how I would cope with certain things in my life.

When I workout, the music that I listen to, gives me motivation to train harder and longer. If it weren’t for my iPod, I don’t think that I would have finished some of my exercises. When it comes to stress, nothing clears my head like a favorite song. Its incredible how words blended in with tunes can produce such an impact on someone. It's as if you get lost in your own world. Nothing matters and everything is better if you have that right music to relate to. For entertainment purposes, I am also a music fanatic. When I have friends over before a night out, we hang out with a good playlist on iTunes while we sit and shoot the breeze. It changes the whole atmosphere and feeling in the air.

I started playing the violin at the age of six and a half. As I learned to play more difficult and challenging pieces, my appreciation for music deepened. And now I can definitely say that...

Music is amazing to me. I wouldn’t give it up for the world. It changes every aspect of my life and is a part of me in every precise way.

Thoughts on Music Education Technology

Technology is changing the way music is taught and performed in schools throughout the country. Today, more and more schools are integrating computers and technology into music education. And they are doing this for a reason.

Technology is an extremely powerful and flexible tool for creativity. It's not all about the cool gadgets and advanced software programs, (although that is definitely a plus) but more about how it enhances the creative process. With technology we are able to do things we were unable to do prior to computer technology. For example we can now compose a piece using a computer music software then hear our composition played back immediately. We can even make changes very easily and efficiently. In the past, we had to write our compositions with pencil and paper, have musicians play it, edit it, have musicians play it again, etc. All in all it was a long and time-consuming process. With the computer, there is instant gratification. Compose, playback, edit, and —voilà! —a complete musical composition! Technology really does enhance what students are able to do.

"Music to Our Ears" is an interesting article about technology in music education. I think it's very interesting to see the changes in music education and how much it has changed since I was an elementary school student. Not to mention, it is very impressive to know that children as young as fifth-grade are already composing their own pieces! The next generation of Mozarts :)

I think using interactive media, multimedia presentations/software, and other music technologies that combine aural and visual approaches, are definitely effective ways for educators to apply technology to music education. With the advances in music technology today, not only can we create compelling interactive media content, but bring the world of music to our fingertips.

Last but not least, I stumbled upon this online metronome while browsing the web. The metronome is complete with tempo selections and the standard "A" (440 Hz) for note tuning. It's a great tool for students to use while practicing.

The Power of Flash

I love Flash. It's such a powerful multimedia authoring tool for creating interactive content rich in video, graphics, sound, and text. With Flash, one can create powerful applications including presentations, games, animations, interactive web sites, and if done correctly, the results are absolutely amazing. According to Adobe, Flash is "the industry's most advanced authoring environment for creating interactive websites, digital experiences and mobile content." In my own words, flash is simply fun!

Even before I was introduced to Flash, I was already amazed at all the things that one can do with it. Having a great interest in Flash I decided to take a couple of multimedia authoring classes during college (eventually I majored in my music and multimedia production). Someone once asked me what I would study if I were given a second chance at college and I told them I would study the same thing as I have no regrets and love what I majored in. Flash was definitely a big part of my multimedia classes. I can clearly remember all those late nights/early mornings (and all those cups of Starbucks coffee) where I would be tweaking and perfecting my flash projects. That's the thing about multimedia assignments. It's hard to procrastinate and do them at the last minute. You never know how long it'll take to complete them and there is always the chance your computer will crash (in my case, this usually happens when I am close to being finished with my projects).

I found a blog online devoted entirely to Flash! Check it out when you get a chance. It showcases some pretty neat things that you can do with Flash and it even gives some of the ActionScript that was used.

I am definitely a big fan of Flash and was more than excited when I found out there was a class that would be covering Flash among the many topics. I hope to learn even more things about Flash and become more skilled in it.