This week we had a look at the maker movement and the implications it has on activities in the classroom. We experimented with different pieces of equipment and quite literally went back to school and just played with all the different gadgets and gizmos our wonderful lecturer and mentor Dr Humberstone had brought in for us. This lesson was so much fun, being able to learn about each piece of software by fiddling around with it, experimenting with each part and discovering what each button or dial did.
The first thing I experimented with during the lesson was a make-shift synthesiser. This piece of equipment had been expanded so that each different aspect of a synthesiser e.g. gate, oscillator etc. was expanded so that it was easier to understand what the role of each was.
Another piece of equipment which I was lucky enough to experiment with was the Makey Makey. This fancy piece of educational apparatus is very interesting and very fun to use. The Makey Makey gives you the ability to assign sounds to different objects. The option which I spent the most time on was the Banana Bongo feature where you attach wires from two bananas to a metal plate which then attaches to the USB port of a computer and then assigns each banana to a different key on the keyboard.
https://apps.makeymakey.com/bongos/
I really enjoyed this lesson and the maker movement. The main thing I got out of it pedagogically is that as teachers we should ensure that we give students time to experiment and let them control their own learning by being facilitators rather than directors. Of course we need to be there to assist the students if they require it however we also need to be able to take a step back.
LJS Music Education 