Teaching with Technology

Teddy’s CTCH603 Peer Teaching Self Assessment

For class session 03.24.2010

The introductory peer teaching session “Using Midi Technology Across Disciplines” was a great experience for my peers. Students displayed lots of enthusiasm and participated the entire time. The session opened with a huge on screen playback of a midi file and the defining segment as to what is midi. Midi stands for (musical instrument digital interface). As students looked over the study material, I pointed out key features of the handouts. This was very essential in getting them engaged immediately and intrigued about the topic.

Second, the session directed students to downloadable midi files online using the computers in the lab. Students were able to access the midi database of the Broadway Musical “Once Upon A Mattress” and download files from that particular website. Later students were asked to save the files and then transport the data into sequencing software. In this particular case, the sequencing environment selected was Cakewalk 3.0.1. The program was user-friendly and proposed very few problems. I wish I could say the same for my memory!

Third, students learned to upload the midi data to the Cakewalk Sequencing Software. It was so exciting to see my students so thoroughly enthralled and anticipating a very fruitful learning experience. After the first uploading of midi data, some of them exercised a bit of independent learning as they began to playback the midi files on their laptops. The download and upload experience gave them confidence. Several students displayed confidence so strong that two groups of them went on to manipulate the files.

The final demonstration taught students the power of the cut and paste features, volume settings as well as voice/patch settings. Once students learned to manipulate the data in this way, they could easily create and re-create new music based on current information. Some students investigated and learned other features beyond the scope of the one-time thirty-minute peer teaching class session. It is my hope that next time I will have more time and a midi lab. Also, I would prefer more time to spend with individuals in the class and a little less group focus!

In summary, students of all walks can use midi as ringtones, mp3, wave and other formats. The use of new media devices has made it necessary to create midi collections, redesigns, transformations, transmissions, and conversions of such digitized information. Depending on the need, midi data of various kinds may be utilized to enhance assignments in history, math, social studies or ESL second language course. Students can engage in the creation of storybooks or study manuals using audio to support learning in and out of the classroom.  Some may find it profitable to gather this database collective for future projects in film, recording studios, iPods, karaoke, creation of performance tracks or just for playback and self-enjoyment. Music is an essential component in our daily lives and using midi to aesthetically bring to life our classrooms is a monumental task of inquiry and discovery.