online learning

Using Google Hangouts to Conduct Class

Posted by Nazli

On July 11, 2014

In this post, I interviewed Enrique Gonzalez Müller, Assistant Professor in the Music Production and Engineering Department at Berklee. He taught MP-P305 Record Production for Producers, the capstone class for the MP&E Minor, last semester. Enrique holds a dual degree from Berklee in MP&E and Music Synthesis. He is a producer, recording engineer, and arranger who has worked with many independent, national and international artists. He is a Latin Grammy-winning producer for Los Amigos Invisibles, a member of the education committee of the San Francisco chapter of the Grammys, and volunteer faculty for the Prison University Project at San Quentin Prison. In this discussion, we talk about how web conferencing benefited his MP-P305 class during this past winter, when snowstorms were plentiful.

Nazli: What did you use Google Hangouts for?

Enrique: Using Google Hangouts came out of necessity since we had so many snow dates at the beginning of this semester! The very first Wednesday, we had to cancel class due to a storm and I had a production course where students needed to jump in right away, find an artist, get a bunch of songs to be considered for their productions and send those back to me for approval. If we had missed one week, it would have been really tough for my students to get caught up. So I thought on my feet and decided to use Google Hangouts, since it can do video conferencing with up to fifteen people meeting at once [ed. note: ten is the maximum number of users, fifteen is the maximum for the version that Berklee is using.] Just hours before class, when it was snowing and we knew we couldn’t make it to campus, I sent everyone an email and gave them instructions on how to use Google Hangouts to conduct our class. In a few minutes, we were all up and going and didn’t miss a beat! We went through the syllabus, the assignments, and went through introductions with everyone. I got a chance to get serious with the students too and set the tone for responsibility (as well as have a laugh!). The thing that I found pretty cool was not only that we did class, but we also were all operating on the same platform. I’d have the list of questions and materials on different parts of my screen so that I could easily maneuver and share with my students. In our back and forth, I could have everybody do the same thing by just saying something like, “Ok, so lets all go to our course page and go to assignment 3 tab on this,” and it was just super practical and fun. I wound up doing it for every snow date that we had…which ended up being two or three!

Teaching an Advanced Conducting Course Using Google Hangouts

Posted by Nazli

On July 2, 2014

In Digital Learning, Faculty

This post was written by Julius Williams, Professor of Composition and Conducting at Berklee, Artistic Director of the Berklee International Composers Institute, and Music Director of the Trilogy Opera Company. He is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning composer and conductor. He has conducted countless orchestras around the globe, and his compositions have been written for and performed by major symphonies, opera companies, film, and musical theater. He is also a recording artist, educator, author, and pianist. His career has taken him from his native New York to musical venues around the globe, and he has been involved in virtually every musical genre.

I started using Google Hangouts for the first time this semester as a way to teach conducting class COND-212-W001 Conducting 2 to students who were not on campus. It has been an interesting learning experience to use a web conferencing tool to teach an art form that always has seemed to require the physical touch of the teacher and student. To learn the art form of conducting, students need to look at and mimic movements. They need to learn how to listen to breathing, and also understand the sense of collaboration and energy of the music that is being made. Learning to conduct with a teacher is a sometimes an intimate experience. Conducting students have to learn leadership: they have to simultaneously find that inner sense of being connected to the music and have an understanding of what they need to do to conduct an ensemble.

Blended Learning: Clear Communication, Proactive Email, Realistic Goals, and Impactful In-Person Class Time

Posted by Nazli

On April 4, 2014

In Digital Learning, Faculty

This post was written by Jay Rinaldi, Assistant Professor in the Electronic Production and Design Department. Jay also teaches classes at The New England Institute of Art in the Graphic & Web Design Department. In addition to teaching, he has worked as a computer game musician and sound engineer and as a freelance audio professional for TV (advertising) and in multimedia. Jay has conducted over 250 live video webcasts and designs and develops websites.

Since Fall 2013, we have run a subset of MTEC-111 Introduction to Music Technology sections in a blended format. In the blended format, each week we spend one class session together in person and then students spend an additional three or more hours working with learning materials online at ol.berklee.edu. Rather than lecturing in class, now half of my teaching time is devoted to helping students structure and manage their own learning.

How to Organize Digital Learning Material

Posted by Nazli

On February 28, 2014

In Digital Learning, Faculty

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This post was written by Susan Gedutis Lindsay, Associate Director of Instructional Design in the Digital Learning Department.

There are many—dare I say “innumerable”—ways to organize digital learning materials to support student learning. The structure you choose should be driven by the learning goals that you set for the student. As a result, your course design will vary, depending on whether you are teaching a performance topic, a technical topic, or a historical topic. Right now, we are working with liberal arts professor Kate Dacey to create an online Rock History course for Fall 2014 and she has chosen a great lesson structure worth sharing.

The Evolution of a Basic Keyboarding Class: from classroom to blended learning

Posted by Nazli

On February 24, 2014

In Digital Learning, Faculty

ST-Keyboard-blog
This post was written by Stephany Tiernan, chair of the Piano department at Berklee. She teaches private piano lessons.

Learning a new instrument is always difficult and challenging, particularly in the beginning. Developing good technique and practice habits is really important, as it lays the foundation for everything to come. Doing all this in a class of 15 is and will always be a less than optimum learning experience for students for a number of reasons:

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First-hand accounts of the Berklee experience

Tag: online learning (Page 1 of 2)

Using Google Hangouts to Conduct Class

Teaching an Advanced Conducting Course Using Google Hangouts

Blended Learning: Clear Communication, Proactive Email, Realistic Goals, and Impactful In-Person Class Time

How to Organize Digital Learning Material

The Evolution of a Basic Keyboarding Class: from classroom to blended learning

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