Reflection

Now it's time to say goodbye...

Well folks, it's been real, but, like steam engines and Apple II, my time in my Digital Civilization class is history. This long beauty of a post is a "what we have learned today" type of post, and while it is largely for the benefit of the grading system of my Digital Civilization class, it can also be a useful source for those interested in seeing how a class like this can be structured, or for those who just want to hear my thoughts on my blog in general.

1. History

Throughout this course, while the class itself addressed the historical periods very little, I learned a lot through the personal study I conducted before each historical class session so I could discourse intelligently on the subject during class discussion time. Since I was assigned to the 19th century, the majority of my attention was focused there, but I also blogged and commented on Google+ about the other periods. Here are some historical blog posts I wrote:

16th and 17th Centuries:

Greensleeves, Facebook and Humanism.

18th Century:

Pinhead Efficiency.

Classical With a Capital C.

19th Century:

Arts Education in the 19th Century.

Don't Forget the Chopin Liszt.

I don't know anything!

20th Century:

Cell Phones and Star Trek: 20th Century Reality Inspired by Sci Fi.

Standardization - Is a Ballerina Less Intelligent Than a Biochemical Engineer?

Since we're still at the beginning of the 21st century, I didn't write a big over-arching blog post for this century, but most of the posts I wrote had to do with current issues from this century. In the Arts chapter of the e-book that we worked on as a class, I worked on editing all the historical period sections, and wrote the one for the 19th century. I also wrote part of the chapter's section on the 21st century, which you can read here.

2. Core Concepts

We focused on a few specialized concepts as we studied digital civilization. You can hopefully see examples of these core concepts reflected in many of the historical posts, as I tried to mix the concepts and the history and the other course goals throughout all of my work, but I also wrote some more specialized content as I focused on one or another of the aspects of control, information, openness and participation.

Control

Because of SOPA and current piracy issues, I discussed the control concepts of identity, security, disruption and law a lot in class and researched them quite a bit out of class. In my blog post Identity Theft: Your Very Own Evil Twin, I explore the concept of identity theft and share some suggestions to improve identity security.

Information

The informational concepts of computing, connectivity and disruptive innovation are ones that I discussed in class quite a bit. I also explored these concepts in my blog, especially disruptive innovation, in such posts as Not Quite the Same..., How digitally civilized am I?, Is It Written in the Stars? and PowerPoint Power: Taking That First Step, and I particularly address the subject of the digital divide in Sorry, Promethius. I also explore the power of internet information as a weapon in the form of music videos on YouTube in my post Music as a Weapon.

Openness

This class taught me to think about openness principles such as open software, copyright and standardization, which were some things I had not really seen as big issues before. In Standardization - Is a Ballerina Less Intelligent Than a Biochemical Engineer?, I discuss Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which separates human intelligence into different domains and illustrates why standardized testing may not always be the most effective tool.

Participation

I learned a lot about collaboration in this class through multiple group projects and situations where the need was great for everyone to work together and share content in order to get massive projects done. Social networking was a huge part of my class experience, as I have used it to promote things, communicate with others, and make arrangements for projects to be done. I never missed a class session - I wouldn't have dared to, since it seemed like there was always a new assignment being given out at each class session that wasn't written down anywhere. I wrote about finding ways to participate in an event I couldn't attend in my post The Event I Wasn't At... You can see I learned the process of agile development - the process of making releases of a product - by comparing two editions of a piece of the ebook chapter that I posted on my blog: Do You Sing in the Shower? and Integrating Music in a Technological Culture.

3. Digital Literacy

The points of digital literacy, consuming, creating and connecting, were the story of my life this past semester. I was constantly doing these things both in class and in my private work outside of class. I was introduced to many new sources, created all sorts of content, and got many online accounts as a result of this class.

Consume

I learned about consuming many new sources through this class, and learned how to seek innovative ways to find quality information. While I still used Google and Wikipedia to gain basic information about some things, I also tried many other sources. Some of the sources that I explored for this class to gain information include the books I was assigned to read for this class (which I rated on Goodreads), other books that I was not assigned, databases such as JSTOR, open informational websites such as Prezi, informational video websites such as YouTube, library websites, and the personal websites of professionals. You can see an example of a few of the many sources I consulted in my post Arts: An Annotated Bibliography.

Create

Throughout this class, I have definitely put the "create" principle to the test. Over the course of the semester, I have posted regularly on Google+ and my blog, I wrote two sections for the Arts e-book chapter, and I edited both the Arts and the Business chapters. I participated in three class presentations. I filmed each Arts group member talking about the arts. I was filmed for the promotional video for the Arts chapter. Not counting e-mails and Google+ posts, I estimate that for this class I have created somewhere between 70 and 80 pages of content. I wrote about how failure is a part of learning to create effectively in my post Nothing Ventured: Burned-Out Light Bulbs, Missed Baskets, and a Bombed F Harmonic Minor Scale.

Connect

Learning new ways to connect has been a big part of my learning experience in this class. As part of this class, I interacted with others through Google Docs, Google+, Goodreads, Twitter, Gmail, Facebook, Dropbox, Flickr, Blogger, Google Chat, and Prezi, and perhaps a few others that I can't remember the names of at the moment. I have spread fliers and advertised events in a method of connection quite new to me. You can read about those efforts in my post Becoming a Flier Hawker: A Quest for Social Proof. I discussed the book and its content with friends and teachers, and I even went so far as to question the head of my department, who was interviewing me at the time to decide if I would be accepted to my major. You can read about that crazy experience in my post Crazy? Me? Well... Maybe a Little....

4. Self-Directed Learning

Self-directed learning is something that has fascinated me for a long time, and I agree that students learn better when they are passionate about the subject and spend lots of time independently researching it. This is a difficult concept to utilize fully when one is very wrapped up in a full schedule of other classes that follow traditional learning methods, and I find that self-directed learning usually works best for me in the summer. Despite that, I still learned almost everything I learned from this class through my own exploration. You can read some of my thoughts about self-directed learning in my posts Cannibalistic Chickens and the Classroom Cage: Think Outside the Coop and You Tweet, I Whistle.

5. Collaboration

Collaboration was one of the biggest parts of my experience in this class, with me coming to know most of the students in the class by the end of the semester. Collaboration requires a great deal of trust that others will fulfill their responsibilities, which, since I was a group leader, could be quite scary, especially when others didn't do their parts and I was left trying to pull the pieces together. At the same time, however, hidden talents came out of the woodwork from people that I would never have guessed were talented in those directions, and together we were able to create something greater than any one of us could have created on our own. I recorded some of my thoughts about group projects in my post What Do You Think of Group Projects?.

That's All, Folks!

Well, since my focus was largely on the arts and music side of digital civilization, I think it's quite fitting for me to quote Michael Buble when I say that "it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me, and I'm feelin' good"! I've learned lots in this class, I've worked lots in this class, I've grown lots in this class, and I will certainly never look at digital civilization the same way, ever again.

Integrating Music in a Technological Culture

As arts have been transformed by technology, a longstanding domain of music has begun to rapidly disappear – that of making music in daily life. As a result of the increasing relationship between the arts and technology, especially in the United States, it has become far more acceptable for one to enjoy music on headphones than to make music out loud in most social situations. Even those who sing in the privacy of their own showers are often laughed at. While people often view shower-singers as a laughable trope, the scrub-and-sing population represent a rapidly disappearing demographic of US society – that of people who integrate music into their daily lives.

Interestingly enough, other cultures do not have the same perspective on daily music that Americans do, likely in part because they do not have the same technological influences affecting their arts as there are affecting arts in the United States. In Liberia and other parts of West Africa, for example, the arts are a part of daily life because all young men and women go through special training as part of their coming-of-age, which includes training in music and dance. Everyone is expected to be at least somewhat musically proficient, and they mix music into everything they do. When they are working in the rice fields, they sing a song and beat on drums so they can work in time to the music.34 In Ghana, even the postal workers, when cancelling stamps, devised a song that they whistle while creating an intricate rhythm with the stamps.35

This presents a stark contrast to post offices in the United States, which are generally silent, or have quiet, piped music. In the United States, it seems like it is often the case that unless music is the focal point of an event, then live performance, especially in an official capacity, is viewed as less dignified than digitally produced music or silence.

In Brazil, music is also enmeshed in daily life. In the past, Brazilian slaves who were trying to escape invented Capoeira, a sort of martial arts that they disguised with music to make it look like they were dancing.36 Although the need for slaves to escape has disappeared, the tradition is carried on in the form of modern street performers. Those who go to Brazil now report that there are always some kind of street performers out on the streets playing music and dancing. This is considered perfectly acceptable in the Brazilian culture, and those walking by understand what is going on, and would likely feel fine joining in the performance.

Yet if someone in the United States were to sing at the top of their lungs and dance in the center of a public square, in most instances it is unlikely they would have an appreciative audience who felt free to join in. More likely, they would receive a few stares by uncomfortable people walking by. A 2007 performance by Joshua Bell, a world-renowned violinist who decided to perform in a New York subway, went entirely unnoticed by those passing by, and made it into the news simply for the fact that it went unappreciated by everyone else.37

In South India, people are taught the principles of music, but then when they get together, they improvise what they play. Because they have learned the rules, they can play whatever they like. This enables them to combine with others who know the rules and be able to play with them, because they have all learned basic music.38

In the US, Americans have a similar tradition in the form of jazz music, but the openness of jazz is not the same as Carnatic music. The basic principles of jazz are not commonly taught, and while the jazz tradition stemmed from street performers, jazz has been largely boxed up in concert halls and distributed through recordings. As an essentially American type of music, jazz has the potential to be a great source of music in daily life, were it to be more publicly taught and re-opened to public, spontaneous performance.

In Finland, music is considered to be a core part of a child’s learning development, and is seen as making them more able to be calm and concentrate in daily life. Children attend music play groups starting at very young ages, often going with their parents, and integrating the music they learn into their family lives. Music is an active part of the Finnish school and home lifestyle.39

In the US, schools are increasingly underfunding music programs and phasing them out to leave room for other technological pursuits. Those pursuing careers in American music education know they will experience little career respect and cannot expect a wealthy lifestyle from their choice.

In Bali, the Balinese people learn from the time they are children how to play instruments in a Balinese gamelan musical group, and everyone in society knows how to play. Grandparents teach grandchildren, older members of society teach younger members, and the tradition continues as an integrated part of society where everyone knows how to create music, and a strong sense of community is created through music and passed down from generation to generation.40

In the US, those children who choose to learn music are generally taught by a formal music teacher who teaches the child in a setting detached from the child’s regular life, or the children are taught by musical computer programs, which, while having the potential to be very helpful, are at the same time very impersonal.

Certainly different cultures value different things, such as Canada's interest in hockey and Brazil's passion for soccer, but it seems that musical expression is a universal language that transcends the boundaries of nations. While not everyone can kick a soccer goal or skate on ice, pretty much anyone can listen to music. Yet it takes a bit of effort to learn to produce the music itself, and that brings a whole new experience. This experience can be especially rewarding when the learning experience is mixed into normal life along with the musical knowledge being taught. It seems that American culture, by becoming a society focused on the convenience of vicarious participation, is missing the joy of integrating music into everyday life.

Since technology has made American society different from many of these other cultures, it is unlikely that integration of music will occur in the same settings. Most Americans do not find themselves harvesting in the rice fields or planning to escape from slave-drivers, but there are many other instances in which the creation of music could become more acceptable, even in a technology-driven society. A wait in the DMV would be transformed into a much more enjoyable experience if the grim officials were to pull out keyboard and sax and drums and start jamming. A daily bus ride would be far more entertaining if the bus driver sang show tunes. The wait at a doctor's office could be much more tolerable if the receptionists started typing in rhythm and tapping their pencils and singing scat syllables. Waiting in a long line at a ticket office would be much easier if everyone in line started clapping and singing while they waited. While digital music is a great advantage in many situations, and technology can be very helpful in sharing music and other arts, there are instances where modern life could be much improved if more people were to take out their earbuds and join in the creation and sharing of music in daily life, becoming participators and not just consumers.

The USA has a great musical heritage, but in some ways it is beginning to fall behind other cultures in terms of arts participation in daily life. Ironically enough, while technology has enabled Americans to remove music from concert halls and traditional educational settings so they can enjoy it anywhere, the technological forms of music have caused Americans to focus on enjoying music through listening for personal enjoyment only, and they have largely forgotten the value of open education and joint participation in the production of music for enjoyment in the average American lifestyle.

The Event I Wasn't At...

I know sometimes it's hard to get involved in events that you're at. But... how do you get involved if you're simply not there? Well, here are some things I came up with that I did for the recent class event that I couldn't go to:

1. Invite people.

As mentioned before, I tried my hand at handing out flyers. I also invited my family, told a few other people about the event, and put an invite on Twitter.

2. Participate in the planning process.

I attended class every class period and went to every practice run-through to plan the event with my group, even after I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to the actual event. I brainstormed, helped edit the poem chosen as narration, timed practices, gave feedback, shared ideas on social media, played piano live in run-through sessions of the event for timing purposes, and made a recorded version of my piano part to be used in the actual event.

3. Participate through media.

I am still working on this one. I was in a performance at the time of the event so I couldn't watch the live stream of the event, but I am actively searching for a recorded version of the event to watch.

4. Respond to feedback.

The evening of the event, after I was finally back from my performance, I went on Twitter and responded to various questions that had been asked during the event.

There you have it! Even though I was sad to miss an event that I had poured many hours of preparation into, I still felt connected because I did these four things to keep involved.

Becoming a Flier Hawker: A Quest for Social Proof

Part of obtaining social proof is first getting an audience to look at what you've got and review it. For a recent class event that needed social proofing, I went around soliciting people to attend even though I wouldn't be able to participate in the event myself. It didn't make sense for me to invite my own friends, because I couldn't think of any friends in my admittedly limited social sphere who would be particularly interested, and I didn't think it made much sense for me to invite them when I wasn't even going to be there myself. However, the event needed social proof, so I decided to look for it among those who might be interested.

Although I have in the past been largely indifferent to people who go around handing out flyers, I decided to give it a try. I took 29 flyers and set out to place them.

I started with the Kimball Tower. I figured there would be some nursing students and SFL students, and also all sorts of students taking American Heritage, among which diversity I thought I might be able to find some people who would be interested in the event. I distributed about five flyers there.

Next, I went to the HFAC and passed out flyers to everyone at the slab, where lots of artsy students congregate to study, since I figured people were more likely to be receptive to a flyer if they weren't rushing off to class and sticking the note in a back pocket because they didn't have time to read it. I distributed the majority of my flyers there.

Then, I headed over to the Wilk and passed out the remainder of my flyers where I figured a very broad range of students were to be found. While not everyone there would be interested, I figured that if one person didn't want a flyer and put it down somewhere, there was a chance that someone else who was more involved in the topics discussed at the event would find the flyer and be interested.

With 29 flyers passed out and one "thank you" received from a student at the slab, I went away sticking my new experience as a flyer hawker in my own back pocket. I'm not sure I would choose to hawk flyers again, but soliciting social proof from a broad audience was certainly an experience to be had at least once.