Digitized Collections and Dementors

The first reading, Scholars Perspective: Impact of Digitized Collections on Learning and Teaching, intrigued me much more than I thought it would based on the title. While this presentation addressed the issues in higher education informational literacy, I wondered what I could be doing to teach my middle schoolers informational literacy. When I taught Honors Literature to a select group of eighth graders, this would've clearly been a necessity. Now as the director of bands and orchestras, I'm unsure about the necessity or the application to middle school music. What would teaching informational literacy look like in the middle school chamber group? I have no idea, but wonder if I have a responsibility to address this with my students.

My second concern was the disadvantage that smaller universities face. For this reason, I contemplated attending the University of Michigan, an extremely large, comprehensive university, instead of IC. I certainly don't regret my decision to attend IC, and feel that I have access to everything that I would need at the master's level. I am thinking ahead, though, and plan to begin a Ph.D program in the next few years. Due to geographic limitations, it's likely that I will find myself at a university lacking resources like the Yale, Harvard, Berkeley, or Michigan. Will this affect my experience and opportunities? I was less concerned with the size of the university, as the few I'm considering in our next potential location (this is not set in stone, as my boyfriend is in the military) all contain wonderful, reputable music education programs. I do see now how I should consider the quality of the resource collections as well, especially since I'll be performing original research.

Regarding my presentation on Wednesday, I don't think that the John Cage digitized collection threatens the physical collection. It addresses an entirely different need, which is the opportunity for performers to submit their interpretations of how Cage's music continues to impact performance. It is not a comprehensive digitization of the related physical collection, but a niche collection that aligns with Cage's philosophy I also don't think that this digitized collection would serve anyone at a smaller university, lacking access to primary sources of Cage. While there are some pictures of manuscripts, the collection is extremely limited and constantly evolving. This digitization is an innovative resource, but does not help to bridge the gap between the offerings of large, wealthy universities, and smaller, less-endowed ones as Watt hoped.

On a completely unrelated note, I don't think I've ever given thought to music in video games. While I enjoy kicking some major behind in Mario Kart 64, I'm not exactly a gamer. I assumed that the music in video games is all produced by synth and lacks much thought or coordination. I was very surprised to see a phenomenally talented orchestra recording music to be mixed by professionals who understand pivotal moments and sequencing of the game. While watching, I thought that it would be impossible to line up music and major events, but it was quickly explained that some events are predictable, and others are not, so they loop the music. I was also impressed by the efforts to make the music less jerky and more gradual in battle scenes. I have to admit that the EA facilities were pretty neat! I also agree with the musicians - perhaps I avoid video games because of my addictive personality. Watching the game and the music in action, it was very cool to see how an increase in enemies led to a different musical event. The variety employed to keep a limited amour of music interesting in a potentially limitless game impressed and intrigued me. I had no idea that video game music was such a thoughtful process!