by Author simonsteptoe

Published on

You are here:

Digital Learning Across Boundaries Symposium Day

In October last year (2016), we ran one of our Musical Inclusion Conferences as part of our Northamptonshire Music Hub's Fund B project, Music Forge.

Whilst we have run several of these in the past, this one was special in that it built our exisiting relationship with colleagues from Goldsmith's College in London, but also initiated a new partnership with the University of Northampton as part of their Erasmus funded project: "Digital Learning Across Boundaries". Not only was this chance to share our work with our Hub partners but also brought in 50 arts education researchers and academics from universities across Europe. The day also ran in parallel with the Fun Palaces initiative.

Although it's been a few months since the conference, whilst my colleague, Louise Tyrrell, and I have been preparing our Second Interim Report for Youth Music, we thought the information we compiled at the time about the presenters was worthy of disseminating more widely..... so here it it!

If anyone is interested in the work and research of the presenters, do get in touch and we'll pass your contact details on. 

The conference was generously supported by funding from Youth Music, The Paul Hamyln Foundation, iTeach, and run in partnership with The University of Northampton, iTeach Fun Palaces and Fermynwoods Contemporary Arts. 

=================================

Digital Learning Across Boundaries – Sunday 2nd October 2016

Exploring inclusive approaches to learning across the boundaries of physical spaces, across curriculum subjects and across languages and culture

(Photo: setup for Pedro Kirk’s equipment)

A) Matt Andasun: “Mr Mangle’s Magical Music Factory – Giving Children A Voice”

'Mr Mangle’s Magical Music Factory’ is a software programme designed for independent use in Early Years, Key Stages 1 & 2 (primary education) and Special Education Needs and Disability (SEN) sectors that enables them to record their voice (or anything else) and turn it into something else.  Using just a few simple icons, you can quickly capture a sound, play it back on a giant on-screen keyboard and change it in all sorts of fun ways

A pilot study across the East Midlands in 2014 year showed that when used in creative music making it can improve young people’s communication, language and literacy development and their personal, social and emotional development.  This presentation will demonstrate the software and present some of the findings of the pilot.

Biography: Matt is a multi-instrumental performer and composer who writes music for TV and film.  He has been a community musician since 1993 and continues to maintain an active presence as a music practitioner in Early Years music and music for SEN.  He uses music technology in all his work and has recently launched “Mr Mangle’s Magical Music Factory”. The software is central to Mat’s idea that music and sound creation can be used in educational contexts to transform children’s lives.

 

B) Dr Rebecca Fiebrink: “Sound Control” Sound Control is an exciting project run in partnership between the Computing Department of Goldsmiths University of London and the Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust. The project is exploring new ways of using computers and digital input devices (e.g. game controllers, sensors, and webcams) and to create bespoke digital musical instruments to enable people with disabilities and special education needs to make music.... and have fun! At Fun Palaces, Dr Rebecca Fiebrink from Goldsmiths, the researcher and musician behind the project, will be explaining how the technology works, how it can benefit everyone's music-making, as well as giving participants a chance to try out the technologies for them. In the afternoon she will present this to the conference delegates.

Biography: Rebecca is a faculty member in Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is a member of the Embodied AudioVisual Interaction (EAVI) group, along with a number of amazing faculty, researchers, and students. Rebecca’s research covers a variety of projects developing new technologies to enable new forms of human expression and creativity. Much of my current research combines techniques from human-computer interaction, machine learning, and signal processing to allow people to apply machine learning more effectively to new problems, such as the design of new digital musical instruments and gestural interfaces for gaming and health. She is also involved in projects developing rich interactive technologies for digital humanities scholarship, and using digital music creation to engage youth in learning computer programming and computational thinking.

 

C) Pedro Kirk: “Sounds Within Reach: Enriched Environments for Physical Rehabilitation” Digital approaches to physical rehabilitation are becoming increasingly common and embedding these new technologies within a musical framework may be particularly motivating. Stroke survivors often receive little formal support to help with physical or psychosocial problems and are at considerable risk of incurring a secondary stroke. The challenge, therefore, is to offer stroke survivors a motivating framework for initiating and repeating specific physical exercises, in the home environment.

Biography: Pedro Kirk is just starting a PhD researching musical aids for stroke rehabilitation and recently completed the MSc in Music Mind and Brain at Goldsmiths University of London. He has worked within a highly interdisciplinary group between the Psychology and Computing Departments at Goldsmiths developing and evaluating digital musical instruments (DMIs) for stroke rehabilitation. The project received international recognition by being awarded first prize in the student research competition at the CHI 2015 human computer interaction conference in Seoul, Korea.

 

D) Phoenix Perry: “Technology and Disadvantaged Groups” Empowering women, non-binary and femme identify people in computing is a multi-layered problem. Not only does it require a deep rethink of the kinds of skills valued in computer science education but it also requires creating a supportive community for learners. In this talk, Phoenix Perry will discuss her experience developing Code Liberation Foundation over the past 4 years to support thousands of women in game development from many backgrounds and ages. She will also share some unpublished findings on her latest research into community development.

Biography: Phoenix Perry creates physical games and user experiences. Her work looks for opportunities to bring people together to raise awareness of our collective interconnectivity. A consummate advocate for women in game development, she founded Code Liberation Foundation. This organization teaches women to program games for free. Since starting in 2012, this project has reached over 2000 women in the New York area between the ages of 16 to 60. Fostering professional growth and mentoring new leaders in the field, she strives to infuse the industry with new voices. As principal founder in Dozen Eyes Games, a company producing works for social change and interactive installations, she also is an entrepreneur. Currently, she is a Lecturer in Physical Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her speaking engagements include A MAZE, GDC, Games for Change, The Open Hardware Summit, Indiecade, Comic Con, Internet Week, Create Tech, IBM Dev Pulse, Montreal International Games Summit and NYU Game Center among others. Perry's creative work spans a large range of disciplines including drawing, generative art, video, games, interfaces and sound. Her projects have been seen worldwide at venues and festivals including the GDC, E3, Come out and Play, Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science, Lincoln Center, Transmediale, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, LAMCA, Harvest Works, Babycastles, European Media Arts Festival, GenArt, Seoul Film Festival and Harvestworks. In 2011 she co-authored the book, Meet the Kinect with Sean Kean and Johnathan Hall. Finally, she has curated since 1996 in a range of cultural venues, the most recent of which is her own gallery, Devotion Gallery until 2014. Devotion was a Williamsburg gallery focused on the intersection of art, science, new media, and design.

 

E) James Steventon: “Technology Outdoors” [Delegates may find it useful to download the free audioBoom app to their phone or tablet: https://audioboom.com/about/apps]

On Sunday afternoon, James will share some examples of the use of technology outdoors from Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, exploring their approach to education led by artistic practice.

(NB: For delegates attending session on Tuesday 11th October, James will be leading a workshop using artist Kathy Hinde’s participatory online and offline artwork, Echo Location, which combines walking, listening, audio ecology, social networking and graphic scores. Participants will be able to explore the landscape of Abington Park using iPads and microphones, where the resulting online map can be used as a means of generating music and representing their locations sonically.)

Biography: James Steventon is an artist, writer and runner based in Northamptonshire, Education Officer for Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, lecturer at The Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University, and the forthcoming Digital Special Interest Representative for the National Association for Gallery Education (engage). As an early adopter of new technology who can remember a time before the Internet, James is part “Digital Native” and part “Digital Immigrant”, able to identify with both groups and advocate for the value of the digital in arts education, particularly taking place outdoors.

 

F) Helen Caldwell, Neil Smith and Sway Grantham: “Robot Play” This is a hands-on workshop with a chance to explore aspects of physical computing such as programmable robots and music-making with Raspberry Pis.

Biographies: Sway Grantham is a primary school teacher and a Specialist Leader in Education (SLE) for the Milton Keynes area. She is a Google Certified Teacher and a Raspberry Pi Certified Teacher. Neil Smith is a Senior Lecturer in the Computing and Communications department of The Open University and leads the department’s school outreach activity. Helen Caldwell is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Humanities at the University of Northampton, where she is curriculum lead for Primary Computing and programme lead for the Postgraduate Certificate in Primary Computing.

 

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE – SUNDAY 2nd October 2016:

MORNING PROGRAMME – “Fun Palaces”

VENUE: The Royal and Derngate Theatre

0930-1000 Meet at the cafe in the R&D for a welcome meeting including overview of project and visit itinerary

1000-1030 Attend “Fun Palaces” drop-in sessions (activities including: puppetry, drawing, origami)

1030-1130 Attend performance of "The Adventure Begins"

1140-1220 Split into two groups and attend the "Fuel Creative Writing" and "Imagine a Day" workshops

1220-1300 Groups swap over

Note: "Robot Play" workshop will be running from 10:00-11:00; "Sound Control" workshops with Dr Rebecca Fiebrink - 2 half-hour workshops – will be running from 1200-1300

1300 Transfer to afternoon venue (University Avenue Campus)

1330-1400 LUNCH

AFTERNOON PROGRAMME

VENUE: University Avenue Campus

1400-1415 Introductions

1415-1700 Reflection and workshops

6 workshops are available.

Delegates to choose three

Session 1: 1415-1445 Session 2: 1450-1520 Session 3: 1525-1555

SPEAKERS/SESSIONS TOPICS Rebecca Fiebrink: "Sound Control" Room: MR33 James Steventon: "Technology Outdoors" Room: MR34 Phoenix Perry: "Technology and Disadvantaged Groups" Room: MR10 Mat Andasun: " Mr Mangle’s Magical Music Factory – Giving Children A Voice" Room: MR36 Pedro Kirk: " Sounds Within Reach: Enriched Environments for Physical Rehabilitation " Room: MY35 Helen Caldwell and colleagues: "Robot Play" Room: MY120

1600-1615 Panel Discussion 1615-1700 Group Reflection and Feedback