ePortfolio Chunk 6

Nikos Theodosakis: "And then we go beyond the technology issue of making movies and explore how we can use this powerful tool to engage students, to enhance curriculum, and to transform education." http://www.thedirectorintheclassroom.com/profile4.php

The idea of enhancing curriculum through a movie making medium in the classroom is an interesting proposition.  This intrigues me because I think I have viewed curriculum as static, somewhat of a fixture in the classroom.  To enhance curriculum would mean this medium would somehow transcend the page and give it life.

A colleague of mine once said, "I prefer the approach of uncovering curriculum as opposed to covering curriculum."  I believe Theodosakis navigates this terrain to inspire engagement.  Curriculum should be considered as a verb rather than a noun.  It serves to inspire constructing meaningful learning experiences.

Garageband '11: http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/
"With 22 new genre-based lessons (40 in all), you can pick up the basics of piano, guitar, or even both. Video demonstrations, synchronized notation, and instrument animations make lessons fun and easy to follow."


This is an absolutely brilliant addition to Garageband.  It is completely in line with what Neilsen has to say on animation (as quoted in ePortfolio Chunk 3) involving two or more states.  In terms of the addition of video demonstrations, it will be interesting to see how Apple approaches this.  How much information will be addressed in each segment and how long will each segment be?  Nielsen (2005) argues for video to "keep it short, less than one minute."  It is also important to limit the amount of information provided in each segment. Czerwinski & Horvitz (2002) recommend we "let a previous task item fade from memory before introducing a new one."  I will be interested to see Apple's tutorials in light of this research.