Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Feedback. Hendrix lives?

I completed my assignments and posted them to the course site and the sound files to Soundcloud but then completely forgot that I had to grade 5 other students; until about half an hour before the deadline. I also hadn't quite twigged that we were supposed to write as much for the feedback as we had for the written assignment, as each was an analysis of a solo. I thought the written assignment was hard but this was even harder, especially for beginners. I’m not sure a I really have the knowledge or vocabulary to do this. I think this is a really interesting and powerful way of learning, with the critical analysis of each other’s work being a major part of learning, but in this context I think it is a bit in at the deep end, especially as the next assignment is to play around with some scales rather than a full blown solo and analysis.

Initially some students thought that the first assignment was an audition piece and that Gary Burton would listen to them all and put us in groups according to our ability, much like a Jazz summer school. It is slowly dawning on some people that the man himself is likely to only listen to a few if any of the thousands of assignments and that it is up to each of us to listen, critique and encourage each other. In the end I went thought the assignments and graded (sorry that should be marked – I've gone native!) them the best I could in the time I had. I must have missed something though as I was marked down 20% for not completing the full grading. I’m not sure what I did or didn't do but it took my mark down to just below the pass mark and there is no comeback. In Coursera world a fail is a fail so suck it up. I’m not really interested in the mark but if I was, I wouldn't be a very happy trumpet player.

Something else I've noticed is how good some of the musicians are. Some are good musicians but new to Jazz but several are experienced jazzers and even Berklee graduates. The might be useful for marking other students but are pretty daunting for newbies that feel their work is up against them. This seems to follow from reports that a high proportion of the students in Coursera and the like are already graduates. You have to be a pretty confident, independent learner in Coursera world. Not quite opening up education to the masses eh Dr Koller? Only two days until I have to submit the next assignment and the week 3 videos are already out. I’ll try not to collect another penalty this week.

Thursday, May 09, 2013

My first Jazz MOOC assignment

This first assignment was in two parts -

Part one was a "solo analysis" of of a solo played by the tutor.

For part two we had to download an MP3 play-along track for a set of harmonies and a chord chart PDF and "Do your best to improvise a solo on the song."

I found the solo analysis quite a hard thing to do as I'm not sure I really have the vocabulary or experience to do this. I don't think I made much of job of it either.

The playing part really daunted some of the other students, some of whom have never improvised before. It wasn't a particularity easy piece either with some quite complex chord changes. We all had to record our efforts and post them to Soundcloud.Quite a tough first assignment.

Week Two is looking at chords and scales, which might have helped some people with Week One but might have put them of before they started. I'll trust the tutors judgement. He is the best in the world at what he does after all.

Interestingly, after my comments about the constructive nature of the dialogue on the course site there has been a bit of change. There is now a fair bit of negativity towards the Tutor and Coursera. Some people haven't quite grasped that this is a free course and also that learning is not all a bed of roses. Learning is a disruptive process. If learning is successful, it changes you and change is never an easy process. However, there seems to be an attitude of I want it as I want it, I want it now and I want it for for free. Hmmm... not very healthy for the future of learning.

Anyway, here's my effort

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

A MOOC for International JAZZ Day


I've been involved in a few MOOCs before and have been exploring them from the point of view of my day job. So far I've not managed to complete one but it hasn’t been the reason I’ve been following them. Some, especially the ones on the subject of learning technology itself have had bewildering amounts of information. It seems as though some of the learning technologists on them are spending a good portion of their waking hours reading, posting and tweeting to the echo chamber. However, this one is different. I’m taking the course because I want to take it for itself. It’s entitled ‘Introduction to Improvisation’ and is being run on Coursera by Gary Burton. Not only is Gary a Professor at Berkeley, counts Chick Corea and Pat Metheny among his former pupils and is known to be a great improviser, he is also generally considered to be the best vibes player that has ever lived. Quite a CV eh? It was interesting that in a recent MOOC seminar one of the Professors present said, when looking at a Berkeley MOOC, “Who are these people?” and then argued that the people running the courses might as well just be actors. Well, the teacher being the best person in his field who has ever lived is good enough for me. He has even managed to get Learning Technology into the latest issue of Jazzwise magazine.
One very interesting element of this course is that Gary Burton has long been involved in Berkeley distance education and their online programme. This shows in the opening videos for the course. In fact he spends the first four videos talking about the course, what’s expected and the challenges of learning online. Peer review is a key element of the course and he carefully points out that comments should be supportive helpful and constructive. There should be no ridicule and that in a course of this nature “a lot of respect is called for”. Although there has not been any peer review yet the early comments on the forums seems to be following that advice. Sadly this has not always been the case in other MOOCs I have been on. He also points out that the course will not lead to success overnight or even during the duration of the course. Improvements and success will be seen in the weeks and months to come after the course has been completed. This is something that is true with all learning but that is not always acknowledged in an employability driven, satisfaction survey obsessed and learning outcomes focused world.
There are not as many short quizzes in this course so far. In previous courses there were lots of multiple choice quizzes where by watching the videos you could get the answers correct without actually having to learn anything. Not that I’m against multiple choice questions but using them just as a way of demonstrating you have remembered what you have just watched doesn't seem to be the learning revolution trumpeted by Daphne Koller et al. Instead the assignment for week one is to analyse as short improvisation by Mr Burton himself and then to record your own improvisation of the same tune using the backing track provided. These will then be peer reviewed. Some people are pretty daunted by the second part of the assignment as they are either new to Jazz, improvisation or both. (There seem to be quite a lot of prog rockers on the course. Down with Edupunk. Eduprog lives!) However, others seem to have been inspired by the culture of ‘a lot of respect’ and have already started posting their improvisations. The respect culture seems to be there in the comments as well – these are general comments rather than peer review. Some people are clearly early in their musical careers but the comments have been really supportive and constructive. None of the YouTube style ‘you suck man’ comments.
I plan to blog throughout the course and I plant to complete this one!