Genuinely interactive technology in instrumental tuition is more than elearning – it is Real Learning!

“All children should have the chance to learn an instrument” — Michael Gove


Nobody would disagree with Mr Gove’s aspiration; especially parents and pupils.

The scale of the challenge set by Mr Gove must not be underestimated though, and we have long argued that we need to utilise technology to support our workforce deal with the issues of scale and reach.

Teaching with technology (interactive technologies)

However, those of us involved in teaching with technology must be clear of what we mean by interactive technology. We must also convince traditionalists that technology produces real outcomes, is not a gimmick and is designed to be used in addition to, not instead of, high quality teachers and teaching.

The purpose of using technology in musical instrument tuition in formal education must be about being part of a system that creates more instrumental opportunities than is currently possible.

So let’s start by being clear and demanding of our vision of elearning in instrumental tuition - it must be real learning.

Real eLearning – Good teaching and learning

For elearning to be real learning, it needs to;

•incorporate good teaching and learning,
•use a mix of learning models to support learners of many styles,
•blend activities to enable skills development to support academic development and musical literacy.
Musical instrument tuition needs to be even more demanding of technology for it to be meaningful and it must be genuinely interactive, so that it can provide formative feedback to the learner and, an opportunity for the teacher to provide personalised assessment to support the learner’s progress.

We, of course, believe that Gigajam is unique in its offer and well placed, not only, to meet the current demands, but to evolve its services and meet the continual improvement that we demand from our technology in helping raise standards.

Let’s interogate the basis upon which Gigajam was created.

http://news.gigajam.com/?p=500

Brian Greene
http://schools.gigajam.com

Gigajam launch Arts Award Programme

Gigajam have today launched their Programme of Study for Bronze Arts Award.

Pupils will now be able to receive a Level One qualification for learning to play a musical instrument with Gigajam.

Employers, universities and colleges know that Arts Award is a qualification that shows your level of commitment and progress in the arts, and in developing new skills. Doing a Bronze Award with Gigajam means learning to play an instrument, going to a music event, and finding music heroes or heroines, researching their stories, and discovering how they got to where they are today. Students will also share skills by helping to run a workshop or by giving a demonstration to others. Students build a portfolio of ideas and activities on Gigajam’s Online Music School, http://gigajamvle.com/ .

The Bronze Award will usually take students about 40 hours to complete.

There is a quick video providing an overview of the Arts Award programme of Study here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xk_NC4rbZ0

Brian Greene, MD of Gigajam said, “It is an exciting development for us and our client schools, as their pupils can now receive a nationally recognised qualification for learning to play an instrument with Gigajam. There are plenty of pupils out there studying with Gigajam who can demonstrate their hard work and commitment and I am delighted that they will be able to work with their teachers/advisors to be properly recognised.

I am sure that most parents and pupils would expect that a music curriculum would include the chance to learn a musical instrument and with Gigajam it is possible to bring instrumental tuition into the classroom, as well as for extended school activities. Learning an instrument takes a good deal of time and I would like to see the hard work of the pupils and the determination of the teachers rewarded.

In addition to providing pupils with tangible and transferable skills, receiving accreditation for pupils work in KS3 maybe a very helpful additional tool for music departments to leverage more support from senior leaders. I am sure it will drive innovation within the curriculum and support new ways of engaging and, incentivising pupils.”

There is lots of information on the Arts Award website ( http://artsaward.org.uk/ )

•Getting Started
http://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=1970
•Running Arts Award
http://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=71

For more information on implementing Arts Awards in your school please contact

Brian Greene

brian.greene@gigajam.com
http://schools.gigajam.com/

0800 055 6797

Henley Review – Exploring and understanding musical instrument tuition through eLearning

In responding to the Henley Review on Music education, we sought to present the case for technology, as part of a solution, for a music education system that delivers excellence, in the practice of opportunity and, in higher levels of attainment.

We, as a private sector contributor to music in the state sector, are encouraged by our partners, which include: Yamaha, Steinberg, ilearn2play and Pure Solo, to state that the opportunities presented by digital learning need to be better understood. We hope that the review will acknowledge that our curriculum for music could do more to deliver the aspiration, that every child should have the chance to learn a musical instrument, if we integrate technology in support of our skilled music workforces.

In the same way that we explored how Gigajam provides some of the solutions to the problems, in music education, identified by Ofsted’s Making More of Music report, we have looked carefully at how Gigajam contributes to harnessing technology in education.

Our mapped table of contributions to technology priority targetss for education can be viewed here:

http://news.gigajam.com/?p=453

For more information on Gigajam and teaching with technology, then please feel free to contact us at:

Brian Greene

brian.greene@gigajam.com

0800 055 6797

http://schools.gigajam.com

Henley Review of Music Education - Explore the role of technology in increasing instrumental skills in the curriculum

At this years British Education Teaching with Technology conference, Ian Wright presented a 30 minute seminar on his use of technology for music. He wanted to help students' engage more fully with the music curriculum, learn a musical instrument and succeed at music.

You can view the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfe5Bguwwrc

Wwe have transcribed the contents below.


Ian says, "Let's imagine that you are bit nervous and you are; in a big class and you have been to primary school and sung in assemblies and then you come along in year 7 and start at your high school. You have one hour a week and you are expecting, as a music teacher, for your students to take an option of going on to Key Stage 4 in music. So what skill have you given them? What confidence have you given them, to enable them to make that decision and take that choice?

So, I was looking at package that would help the students; follow their progress, help them develop a sense of their independence, in their learning, give them responsibility for their progress, as well as give them the skills they would need to go on to KS4 and succeed.

Most childrens' experiences are limited to, perhaps, not always, but perhaps, a bit of keyboard work, or, a bit of samba drumming. I wanted something more than that though, which would give them skills to step outside of the classroom and keep going.

Students don't use Gigajam all the time, please do not misunderstand me, we do, do; the Samba, we do the singing, the composition, all these other great things. This is one part of the curriculum that we offer within Key Stage 3. But, what's different about this is we are pushing them to develop instrumental skills that they might not otherwise have. Giving them an opportunity to perform with their friends as a band, not just in the classroom, but breaktime, lunch time, after school, in the youth centre and so on."


"I am Ian Wright, Head of Music at Tiverton High School in Devon. Its a high school of 1300 pupils 11-16 and we started using Gigajam around 4-5 years ago. At that time we had very few children learning a musical instrument and I was very aware that there was a large number of children that were not engaging with the curriclum. They weren't really succeeding in music and I wanted to find a way to support every child in the classroom, find a way that we could help these children engage with the curriculum and help these children learn a musical instrument, so we looked to technology and found Gigajam and started to embrace Gigajam.

To know more about how Gigajam integrates with Ian's approach at Tiverton High School, please watch this video of Gigajam in Action

http://schools.gigajam.com/introducinggigajam.aspx

Read Futurelab's case study with Ian Wright - 'Music for all at Tiverton" Merlin John


http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications_reports_articles/web_articles/Web_Article930




Tiverton students perform a rearranged version of Gigajam's "The First Time", now called Valentine Rock. (This is a Level One piece = Grade 3 - Level One NQF)

http://schools.gigajam.com/CaseStudyTiverton.aspx

For more information contact:

Brian Greene
brian.greene@gigajam.com
http://schools.gigajam.com

Gigajam extended in Buckinghamshire Schools

All Buckinghamshire schools, connected to the Bucks Grid for Learning, can continue to learn: guitar, bass, keyboard and drums with Gigajam online.


The licence to the Bucks Grid for Learning, which started in 2005, has been extended until 30th June 2011 so that students can continue to study in school and at home simply by logging onto www.bucksgfl.org.uk and searching for Gigajam.


Brian Greene MD of Gigajam said, “Bucks have been a terrific partner for us over the last 5 years and we are delighted to continue to provide great quailty digital curriculum and interactive software for all of their students. The Bucks Grid is one of the most effectively deployed VLE’s in the UK and makes access to our content, in and out of school, very simple and safe for the county’s teachers and pupils. We hope that we can upgrade the service to our flagship GigajamVLE in the new year, with the additional student ePortfolio and teacher and parent reporting functionality and will be working with Mike Woods and his team to integrate with the Bucks Learning Gateway.”


Gigajam’s agreement with Bucks includes supprt to schools, so if any Buckinghamshire School needs any further information on how to get the most from Gigajam the please do not hesitate to contact us:
Brian Greene

brian.greene@gigajam.com

0800 055 6797

07976 208859

Gigajam upgraded on London Grid for Learning

Gigajam upgraded on London Grid for Learning

Schools connected to the London Grid for Learning can now experience the first level of GigajamVLE on the LGFL platform.

Gigajam have increased the functionality to include the much acclaimed assessment for learning functionality that provides pupils with an ePortfolio for students and automatic marking and online reporting for teachers. Pupils can learn to play guitar, bass, keyboard, drums and follow the new theory lessons.


Teachers and pupils can access the content by logging into the LGFL http://www.lgfl.org.uk/ and visiting the Gigajam content pages at:


http://www.lgfl.info/learningresources/curriculum/music/Gigajam/Pages/Gigajam.aspx


Access to the content is restricted to LGFL users and can be accessed by users using their LGFL shibboleth username and passsword.


For more information and to access Gigajam’s Level 2 and 3 content, then please contact us:

brian.greene@gigajam.com

Tel 0800 055 6797

http://schools.gigajam.com/

Creating More Musicians for Less

Affordable instrumental tuition in the curriculum

If you feel that your students would benefit more from the music curriculum, if they had more instrumental skills, then perhaps this is a good time to consider how using Gigajam could help you to support more students learn to play a musical instrument.

Gigajam’s award winning Essential Skills Courses for guitar, bass, keyboard and drums can now be delivered online to students at school and at home and provides each pupil with an e-Portfolio to store their work and online classroom reporting for teachers.

With funding under the spotlight you may be interested to know that Gigajam is just £1 per pupil per annum and can be purchased for just one key stage, making it affordable for the smallest music department budget.

We also offer discounts for longer licencing, providing security and legacy for your programmes of study.


Example

Secondary School KS3 Licence for 4 form entry 360 pupils

A 2 year licence will save £72 at £648 (£720) and is charged at 90p

per pupil.

A 3 year licence will save £162 at £918 (£1080) and is charged at 85p

per pupil.

A 4 year licence will save £288 at £1152 (£1440) and is carged at 80p

per pupil.

A 5 year licence will save £440 at £1350 (£1880) and is charged at 75p

per pupil.

For our full list of options See our Products & Pricing


Benefits of Gigajam

•individual, small group and whole class instrumental tuition
•personalised and collaborative learning
•independent and skills based learning
•continual, formative and summative assessment
•progressive pathways of study (equivalent to debut-grade 5)
•embeds ICT in music
•affordable, with flexible licencing options
•student individual ePortfolio
•online reporting for teachers
•Arts Award programme of study for Level One Bronze Award – NEW *Contact us for details*





For more information about Gigajam please contact us:
brian.greene@gigajam.com

0800 0556797

07976 208859