MAC Blog Post 2 week 4 - Response to Marty Denson

Marty Denson wrote:

The practice of enrollment, in many regards, sounds similar to what I have been doing for the past several months but didn’t actually realize that I was doing it. Perhaps many of us have been demonstrating this practice unknowingly. I have always believed that when you discover what truly interests individuals, you not only add that ‘spark’ within them, but within yourself as well.

Many of my students seem to enjoy music immensely, however, I have noticed that when it was time to incorporate music technology as a learning tool, they seemed to think that everything was going to be extremely technical. They initially viewed it as all technology jargon and intense engineering protocol, leaving no room for fun and enjoyment. It wasn’t until I spoke with them and probed to find out what their musical tastes were and suggested to them that they could learn, experiment, and discover with the musical styles of their choice. Many were surprised that I did not suggest that it had to be classical music, which they had been accustomed to hearing in all of their other courses. What I was most interested in accomplishing was allowing each of them to reach their full potential in performance techniques and how to use music technology to help achieve that goal. This approach, rather simple in my opinion, lit a fire in all of them. They became eager to get started and began to invoke a sense of creativity even I didn’t expect.

Once it was understood that they could use any style of music to engage in the learning process, they started working even harder and longer to perfect their original works, which was beneficial to the overall goals. I was completely overwhelmed with the shift in attitude by simply appealing to their interests. It was if those ‘steps to the practice’ of enrollment were evident in what was a natural process at that particular time. When you are passionate about what you do, I believe you can find ways to give individuals that spark that allows them to become much more engaged in whatever they are participating in.

My Response to Marty:

I totally agree with you Marty in that if you are able to discover the interests of an individual it can spark both the individual and you.  It definitely sounds as though you bring the best out in your students and you do it very naturally.  Allowing them to use the technology, which was the objective, on any type of music made them not only more comfortable, but also more interested since it centered around something they could relate to.  Engagement is the key to getting students to learn as much as possible.  You really have them engaged so they are learning much more. 

 Image courtesy of copyright free Microsoft images.