Slow Jams: Familiar Tools, Innovative Ideas

Estimated time according to Read-O-Meter: 2m42s

© David Lenker

All, or at least nearly all, acts of creativity that stand out as culturally or personally esteemed forms of expression are a result of an artist using familiar tools in innovative ways.  This seems to be particularly true of computer/tablet/electronic creations.  Regarding media on the web or that you might see at a conference, typically it is far too easy to pick out the tools used to create the media.  An iMovie title, a Keynote transition, a Powerpoint template (ack!), an Animoto slideshow, an After Effects effect… When you see commonly used tools being used in familiar ways, the result is almost always formulaic.

The memorable standout creations are the ones where you have to stop and say, “Wow, how’d they do that?”

This very same thing happens with my students of all ages, from 5 to 14 years old.  It could be a 2nd grader discovering a new font, an 8th grader creating a painting with a new combination of brushes and effects in Photoshop, or a 3rd grader creating a complex animated story in Stykz - - news of an innovative creation travels incredibly quick around the classroom and inspires all who are witness.

GarageBand for Mac OS

Recently I had a wonderful occurrence of this sort of innovative discovery spread amongst one of my 4th grade classes while using GarageBand.  A student used a Loops project to create a song and slow the entire thing down by drastically reducing the tempo in the Project menu (see image below).  It is a very simple change to make, but this one minor change had a drastic effect on the end result.  She was incredibly excited with it when it was complete and invited me over to listen.  Being someone who has heard hundreds, probably thousands, of student-created renditions with the same batch of 300-400 loops, I too became incredibly excited by an entirely new sound.

She exported the song and I copied it to my desktop (with speakers and sub-woofer), and as students were straightening up before leaving I put the song on – without introduction.  One student asked, “Who is this?” as if it was a song from the radio or iPod while most of the rest of the room broke out into dance.  If you’ve never seen a room of 10 year-olds dancing in a computer lab to a GarageBand tune titled “Slow Beat Rock”, you are definitely missing out.

Changing the tempo in GarageBand

As the song finished and they really wanted to know where it came from, I informed them of the artist behind the creation, and instantly the reaction directed at the student was, “Wow, how’d you do that?!”  For the subsequent technology class with that group of 4th graders, I had the student-artist behind the creation teach the class how to slow down, or speed up, their songs in GarageBand.  One of the most valuable things I’ve learned over a few years of teaching is that the most effective teachers in the room are the students themselves.  This occurrence strongly re-enforced that idea for me personally.  Below I’ve shared a few slow jams from that class, of course preceded at the top with the original slow jam that inspired the whole group.  Enjoy!

The original innovation, "Slow Beat Rock"


Slow Beat Rock Inspired #1


Slow Beat Rock Inspired #2

Students and their Evolving Search for Information

Estimated time according to Read-O-Meter: 2m22s

Recently I introduced first grade students to the online Encyclopedia Britannica as a way to locate information using the computer.  One part of starting this introduction, before ever mentioning the computer, is me asking the group, "Imagine that your teacher asked you find some information about dinosaurs, where would you look to find that information?"

The four individual responses from the group were:

• "I'd search on the computer."
• "I would type in 'dinosaurs' in the corner of the Safari."
• "I'd Google it."
• "I'd look it up on the iPad."

This was a first in my time as a tech teacher, that six and seven year-olds' first inclination to locate information at school was to simply Google the topic.  In the past, students have always first suggested books as the place to go, but clearly that has changed.  This is certainly not too surprising, as each new year our students are coming in more and more 'connected' via a slew of mobile devices at home, and that change is reflected in their school experience since they have been using iPads and having tech instruction since the first week of Kindergarten.

Search results for 'dinosaurs' on Britannica

After some demonstration of Britannica and a lot of exploration by the students, one student said to me, "I like these pictures and that it will read to me, but I think it's easier to just Google it."  I told the student that easier does not always mean better, but of course the answer is not that simple.  As my students continue to grow with their investigations and inquiries throughout this school year and the years to come, it will be a great benefit to know a variety of online sources of information - Google and Britannica included.

Part of me wants to immediately meet the students with their habits they have already formed in their personal lives, but I know it’s not entirely about that, but instead guiding them towards practices that fit the need and that provide the highest quality results.  In the perfect situation, the information literacy instruction would be powerful and valuable enough to resonate with students when they are outside of the classroom.  For that to happen, they have to see an authentic benefit during their classroom experience and not just think, “at school we have to suffer through Britannica research, but at home I can just Google it.”

Search results for 'dinosaurs' on Google

In this information literacy lesson with first graders concerning Britannica, I don't think I achieved the sort of resonation that will spill into their personal lives just yet.  But now the door is open to a conversation where we can consider together the differences between sources, authors, websites and other online resources.  It will no doubt be a lengthy and continually changing journey, luckily I have always found my primary grade students to be incredibly curious and enthralled with investigation and discovery.