Category: Weekly Reflections

Yo we in the future, AI in Education!!

I had an absolute blast experimenting with BandLab in order to create our AI in Education song. I think for me, it’s obviously a software that I could incorporate in an exploratory music or composition/production class. Though it definitely has its limits (tracks, memory), I think for students to be able to easily access royalty-free samples and beats is a big benefit. It’s also quite easy to learn to work with, as there’s a tutorial built into it. The samples also automatically pitch to the key you’re working in and adjust to the tempo as well, so it’s very easy to create something quickly and build on it. The collaborative element is also a huge pro and allows for students to easily create and work on musical projects together. It was very easy for our group to add things and work on this together. Nathan and I recorded most of the song, whereas the rest of the group added adlibs, recorded footage for the video, and created the slides. Overall, I’d say there was a fairly even team effort to it, and I would love for my future students to be able to create a song and perhaps even their own music video as well! The image I used for this post features a short glimpse at our project, though you can’t see all of the tracks we used; hopefully though, it’s easy to see that a lot of it just lines up pretty neatly and the UI is pretty user-friendly. I’ve linked the music video we created in the end below!

How can we avoid plagiarism and use AI in education ethically? I do believe that this is a question we’ll be asking for a while, and pretty much all the time moving forward. The easy answer is “incorporate it into the learning process”, but how? I think if we simply ask students to write and respond to something, it will be too easy for them to ask ChatGPT to write for them. Alternatively, if we ask them to cite the sources that ChatGPT uses, and use it as a learning resource; or we use it as a tool that supports the process rather than does all the work, that’s where it can be most useful. For example, in our EdTech Group Project, we’re working on something that incorporates a rap written by ChatGPT, but we still have to do the majority of the work in creating and using a beat that works, and perhaps creating a video to go along with it. In this way, we are using AI as a tool to supplement and speed up the process, but aren’t using it in a way that constitutes the bulk of the work and still gets across the aspects of creative thinking and collaboration that you would want in a classroom setting. This is definitely I’m still thinking about but hopefully I will be able to implement AI as a tool for learning in my own classrooms.

I gave ChatGPT a prompt in order to write a reflection for this week, and I believe it articulated my thoughts using my parameters pretty well. The prompt was as follows:

“Write a reflection on my position on AI in Education: I believe AI can be used, but we need to integrate AI in a way that encourages learning, and just ask students to make it clear if they used AI to help them. I think that AI can be used legitimately as long as it isn’t being used to write entire assignments; I also think students can use it as a resource to find sources.“

I’ll admit, I feel that there is a bit of irony using it in this way. But I also would argue that it saves me a significant amount of time when I just have to simply go through and make any edits that don’t align with my thoughts. I find it really interesting that it brought up points about critical thinking, creativity, and other things that I initially didn’t bring up in my short prompt, but were indeed some of my reasons for using AI in classrooms carefully.

This week, we looked at gamification in the classroom. As a gamer myself, I’m a big fan of the idea and I do think it has its merits. I absolutely believe that it provides a fun incentive to learning that kids enjoy; and it can add a competitive element that kids also tend to connect with, both on an individual and team-based level. However, I do think it has its limitations as well. It works really well for younger students who see it as a fun game, and at times may need an extra push in order to get them to practice or engage in class topics on their own. However, it’s not something I would consider using at the upper levels of high school (probably not past grade 8 or 9 at the latest). I think at a certain point, kids may grow tired of the system or might just not take it all that seriously (older kids in particular, who may see it as something for younger kids and not all that “cool”). In addition, as a high school music teacher, I would really have to evaluate whether it would be a system I would use. I would particularly be worried though, if the system is somewhat successful, if it would detract from the intrinsic value of learning music and how to play an instrument for the sake of learning those things and instead be conditioned to learn for a reward; I wouldn’t want kids to lose that spark for music. As a music educator, one of my goals would not just be getting certain keeners to go on to music school, but to foster that connection with music in all my students. I would want them to continue playing in community bands, or make beats on their own time, or continue singing and making their own music, even beyond high school. A lifelong love and appreciation for music is what I would want my students to take away from music class the most, I think. I’m not saying I wouldn’t use gamification at all – but I’m not sure “you’ll receive x reward for learning these aspects of this piece” is the message I want to be sending either. I would want my students to connect with each piece on a much deeper level than that.

Okay so this week’s topic was on accessibility and Universal Design for Learning. this entire blog post will be speech to text, so I’m doing this initially through Google Docs as a means of using speech to text, but then I’ll copy and paste all of this to my blog. I think it’s really funny that we mentioned accessibility on a day we had a zoom class in particular, because though I was wanting to attend class, I was on campus and the Wi-Fi across campus shut down almost as soon as this class started. Accessibility in the music classroom in particular is a bit challenging, I think mainly because music classes tend to be so hands-on. I think the question becomes how do we accommodate those students who may not be able to play certain instruments, and there are definitely solutions.  just one example, I volunteered at a high school 2 years ago and there was a blind student in the guitar class. the student had an EA and a specialized guitar just for them where they would have frets that they could feel On the back of the guitar. though it was obviously difficult for them to be able to read melody lines that were written out in tabs, This small accommodation allowed them to still participate in the class by being able to play the baseline or the chords. if the melody was repetitive enough, I think they would also have gotten the opportunity to learn and play that part as well. For other students there might be other accommodations, such as a student with a breathing problem or lung problems might be able to just play percussion or bass or an instrument that doesn’t require them to use too much air. It’s something that I definitely still have to think more about, and I think it’s something that I will actively be finding the solutions for as accessibility problems arise.

Until next week!

Overall, I don’t have a super negative opinion on online learning, but I think I do prefer learning in person. A hybrid system would be ideal for me – our music ed class this morning was actually held over Zoom, and it was really nice to be able to sleep in a bit and eat breakfast while attending class at the same time. In particular, I really loved my theory class during the year everything was online. My prof really made it work, and made it overall interactive and engaging; something most classes weren’t able to be. Particularly in classes with older profs who weren’t great with technology, we ran into a lot more issues with even getting the class running and using class time efficiently. Ultimately, a hybrid method would be best for all different types of learners. I think it’s impossible to engage in ensemble work effectively online, but there are aspects of musical learning that still can happen online.

I think the main two activities I would have in my back pocket in the event of an online learning emergency would be:

a) something theory-related. This stuff is like the math of music; it’s useful to be able to apply it in context (i.e. ensemble rehearsal) but it can be taught without that too.

b) something music history/inquiry project based. This would allow students some freedom of choice in what they’re learning and how they present it but still relate to music and important aspects of music.

Today in class we covered more graphic design stuff and I got introduced to Microsoft Designer – which I used in part to create title page above for my wind band piece, Journey’s End. This is a piece that I’m currently in the process of getting published but it doesn’t have a title image yet – so I think something like this could be really useful. I also realize that AI-art can’t be copyrighted though, so I’m wondering if that might be an issue (even if I did edit the title page a bit myself). There’s also just the ethics of using AI art for my title page – as a composer, there’s a part of me that just feels a bit guilty about not buying an image or commissioning a piece of art for the title page. But at the same time, this title page DOES look decent. I’ve sent a quick email to one of my favourite wind band composers, Cait Nishimura, in the hopes that maybe she can share her perspective on such a topic.

I’m not quite sure how I would use a tool like this in a class just yet. Though I think it could be a great source of inspiration, I believe that AI art takes some human creative element away from the process of creating artwork. I think it’s a good tool to supplement one’s work (like creating a title page for a score or a novel, or an illustration to go along with a poem), or to inspire students (i.e. here’s what AI thinks this musical work would look like based on the title and context), but ultimately I’m not yet sure if it’s a tool that can be used to demonstrate student learning, which is the key thing for me when it comes to using any tool.

PS: If anyone would like to listen to Journey’s End, here it is!

This week we covered making interactive videos with H5P. I think this could be a fairly useful tool for some classes, particularly if you’re assigning students specific videos to watch and it also allows for them to stay engaged rather than watch just passively.

In the particular case of an assignment, I think this would be most useful in the science setting, but I suppose I could also use it in the context of music theory. There are tons of videos out there detailing basic music theory, i.e. how to read notes/clefs/rhythms, but I think it could be particularly interesting once you get into more advanced theory as well. At that point you could link excerpts of orchestras playing symphonies and ask questions like “What did the orchestra just play? A: a period, or B: a sentence”, or questions like “Which of the seven common western modes was just used in that piece?” and things like that.

We are SO back this week and podding up like peas in a pod. Got our groups this week and it’s seeming like our pod is going to focus on something music-related for our group inquiry. For fairly obvious reasons, I am very excited about this. There are lots of music and music education tools out there and I’m excited to explore all the possibilities that we could get into.

We went over lots of learning theories and concepts today as well, such as multimedia principles that we can apply in the classroom as future teachers. One particular thing that really resonated with me was SAMR. I feel like I’ve just grown up and evolved around technology, so I don’t often stop to think about how much further technology has come and how it can be used in such transformative ways to how we used to do things. I was thinking about this in the context of score-writing; often first-year composition students are made to write out their scores by hand here. Writing scores by hand on manuscript paper used to be the norm for composers, but now we have so many different notation softwares. I suppose a substitution would just be using the software instead of writing it out. Augmentation would be using the software to play back your music and hear it – you no longer need to go to a piano or another instrument to hear what it sounds like. Modification would be using different midi sounds to inform one how particular timbres might sound together (although it might not always be the most accurate, but it IS getting better). And finally, redefinition would be now using this software to not just compose, but to share, edit, and make suggestions on ideas/compositions – something that can be done through apps like MuseScore (if you’re interested in using it, it is open-source!! You can try it out at https://musescore.org/en) . I’m looking forward to seeing how I can apply this to other technologies in my future classrooms to see how I can make the most of them!

Just wanted to leave off with one thing that Matt said earlier last week that has stuck with me, both as a joke but also kind of not right now:

“The We Are SO back within me burns so much brighter than the It’s So Over all around me.” All fax, no cap, frfr.

“‘Musical score’ (Detail) – ‘Portraits of the Little Princes Marescotti di Parrano [‘The five sense-organs’] (1745) by Sebastiano Ceccarini (Fano 1703-1783) – ‘The hidden art treasures: 150 Italian masterpieces’ – Exhibition up to May 28, 2017 in Naples” by Carlo Raso is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.

Here’s a fun artsy image I found on openverse depicting a musical score! I found today’s class about copyright and FIPPA in particular, really interesting. As a music educator, seeing the ways technology is evolving in classroom settings is important to me – how do I incorporate new tech into my classes?

In terms of copyright, I know that most teachers photocopy scores and parts without much regard for copyright (as sometimes there aren’t enough parts for everyone or kids lose parts). However, I’m really intrigued by FIPPA; in the past I’ve seen most teachers use Google Classrooms or FreshGrade (and more rarely, Edmodo). Knowing how data is stored and knowing that Microsoft has local Canadian servers definitely shifts my thought process a bit and I may consider using Microsoft software more extensively when I become a teacher as opposed to Google.