by John Anthony Martinez ’87
Recently, I had the honor of conducting a masterclass, along with keyboard synth pioneer and Johns Hopkins University Professor Thomas Dolby, on the rhythm section at Oxford University. My lecture examined questions such as: What is time? What is rhythm? How do we define a rhythm section and what are the roles or functions that the individual members play in it? What does it mean to groove?
Recently, Edison prize-winner and Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter Christian Scott visited his alma mater for a clinic, a concert, and an interview with Berklee’s new site Berkleejazz.org, an outgrowth of the Berklee High School Jazz Festival.
Christian accomplished an impressive feat of academics at Berklee, completing two degrees in just two years, largely due to his intensive high school education at New Orleans Center of Creative Arts (NOCCA).
Every year thousands of musicians, industry folk & fans roll into Austin for SXSW music – including a bunch of us from Berklee. Before the music portion starts, thousands of nerds roll in first for SXSW interactive & film.
Of course I mean nerds in the most awesome sense – designers, programmers, educators, social media gurus, and general Internet enthusiasts – and as Berklee PULSE’s Senior UI Designer, I certainly fit the bill.
You might wonder why Berklee would be at interactive at all, as a college of music? That’s just it – first and foremost we’re a school. The way we think about education has shifted drastically with the advancements of technology – gaming, social media, online courses & the availability of information through the web.
As a group of musicians, teachers, multimedia producers, designers, programmers and writers working on an online music curriculum, the PULSE team embraces the idea that learning should be an interactive experience. PULSE isn’t an online course, but rather what we think the textbook of the future should be: full of games, storytelling, multimedia & fun!
I arrived in Austin last friday, excited to learn about the latest and greatest in interactivity, discuss games and web interfaces, and hopefully meet some great people. My expectations were blown out of the water!
One of the biggest themes of SXSWi was how games are revolutionizing education! In fact, the Seth Priebatsch keynote on the first day dove right into that topic! I attended panels on casual educational games, game design as an educational gateway, designing stuff for kids, the future of education and game usability design (to name a few.)
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