Ann Clements 2010 ETS Faculty Fellowship Background

TLT Fellowship 2010 By: Ann C. Clements, Ph.D. The Pennsylvania State University Presentation at TLT Fellowship Meeting May 20, 2010

Music Participation….Why do people do music?
understand the nature of musical creation in terms of performance, consumption, and preference,
explore how music is transmitted, or taught and learned, within the confines of culture, and
seek the underlying meanings of musical practices and musicianship within the context of culture through ‘everyday’ musical interactions.
What is of interest to me…?

My research journey… The World My Community My Basement

Defining games in education…
Gaming
Social Interaction Theory (Vygotsky, 1978)
Social Learning or Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1977)
Constructivism (Bruner, 1966; Jonassen, 2006; Papert, 1998)
Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991)
Games in music and music Education are nothing new!
The presentation and genre of games has changed.
Fun games AND Serious games
MMPO -CoTS -Created L and S

How games are studied… Kurt Squire Constance Steinkuehler Jim Gee

Guitar Hero Research

Gaming’s Effect on Music Education Imagined and Virtual Musical Communities (Clements, Cody, and Gibbs, 2008)
We believe this is due, in part, to the success of guitar based video games. Video 1
Musical gaming may be influencing students’ perceptions of their personal musical ability and may even be changing what it means to be musical. Video 2
Across the country there has been a surge of enrollment in middle and high school level guitar classes.

Musical Notation Demonstration Video Transcribed from Guitar Hero World Tour

Musical Notation Transcribed from Guitar Hero 3 Project 1 – Nonmusical Element Inability to create new music sounds/tunes within game play.

Guitar Hero - World Tour Music Studio
Additional Instrumentation in Game Play
Lead Guitar, Bass, Drums and Vocals
Music Studio
The ability to input original
compositions
Lead guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass,
Keyboard, and Drums
The creation of Guitar Hero based
notation for playback by others
GH Tunes
The ability to share original
compositions with others via the
Guitar Hero platform

Virtual to Actual: The Use of Gaming as a Means to Broaden Pre-service Music Educator’s Perspective on Music Education Clements, Cody, and Stubbs (2009)
Purpose:
An action research study to introduce undergraduate music education majors to the video game Guitar Hero - World Tour © in order to:
expand students knowledge and perception of video game use in the music classroom and
to create sound pedagogical musical arrangements within game play to assist their future students in transitioning from virtual guitar playing into actual guitar playing.
Guiding Questions:
Will use of musical video games alter pre-service music educators’ perspectives about the validity of gaming as a means for musical engagement?
Is it possible for pre-service music educators to create simple musical arrangements within game play to guide their future students toward actual guitar playing?

Project Parameters
Subjects:
two intact 7-week long beginning level guitar classes for music education majors (N=31)
the instructor of these courses (Ann Clements),
a member of the Penn State Educational Gaming Commons who was on hand to assist with the technology and to take reflective field notes on the process (Chris Stubbs), and
a music theory instructor with musical gaming experience and professional level guitar playing skills who served as an outside observer (Tom Cody).
Traditional/Folk
B asic guitar pedagogy and playing including I, IV, and V chords in the keys of G, D, A, and various strumming patterns .
Rock
The formation of rock bands, including the arrangement of popular music using informal learning techniques.
Virtual
The Guitar Hero © Project .
Traditional Virtual Rock

Procedure s
A pre-experience questionnaire to determine their familiarity with video game use and to explore their perspectives of musical gaming uses in educational settings.
Two in-class training modules on the use of Guitar Hero – World Tour © on a PlayStation 3 TM with special focus on the Music Studio component.
A two-hour evening programming session in which the students were divided into small groups and given the task to choose a simple 2-3 chord song they can play on guitar and to arrange and input their selected song into the Music Studio. Each group was asked to create a:
Lead line (melody)
Rhythm line (chords)
Bass line (root), and
Drum line
An hour long performance of traditional materials, their individual rock band arrangements, and demonstration of the Guitar Hero © projects.
A post-experience questionnaire to determine their perspectives of musical gaming use in education.

Students
It was discovered that these particular groups of students played video games fairly infrequently.
5 students had never played any games in the Guitar Hero © series.
Their initial perspectives about the use of gaming in the music classroom, or any classroom setting, were mixed.
less than 20% of students indicating a possible use for gaming in education
only 2 students reporting having ever used games as part of any class
After their experiences playing and creating within the game structure, perspectives appear to have changed
94% of students reported that it is important for future teachers to understand games and the ways in which youth interact with them.
97% ranked the Guitar Hero © assignment as highly motivational in terms of guitar learning.
87% of the reported a desire to use musical games in their future teaching.

Conclusions
Will use of musical video games alter pre-service music educators’ perspectives about the validity of gaming as a means for musical engagement?
As evident by the data collected, it appears that even the most simple uses of gaming in educational practice can have a positive effect on the perceptions of pre-service music educators.
2. Is it possible for pre-service music educators to create simple musical arrangements within game play to guide their future students toward actual guitar playing?
Due to the technological difficulties within Music Studio , it does not appear to be practical at this time to create meaningful lessons within the program.
This is not to say that pedagogical ties between virtual and actual guitar playing are not present, simply that the technology has yet to be developed within the game to allow for the precision needed to make arranging meaningful and consistent.

Educational Music Gaming: Pre-service and Middle School Perceptions Clements & Stubbs (2010)
Project 3
What are the perceptions of preservice music educators and middle school general music students to a musical gaming project?
Is it possible to create meaningful music and guitar lessons for middle school level students using Guitar Hero?
Intermediate level guitar preservice teachers created a new song in GH World Tour
Lesson plans combining virtual playing and real playing were developed
Preservice students taught the lesson over a two-week period in a local seventh grade general music classroom.
Preliminary results
The preservice teachers interest in using Guitar Hero as a teaching tool lowered from second study, with only 68% responding that the game enhanced their teaching.
94% of middle school students ranked this activity as one of the most “enjoyable” they had experienced in music class.
A strange dichotomy between the perceptions of the preservice and middle school students regarding the worth of video game use in the classroom.
Project 4 (in the works!)
Nintendo DS Rhythm Study, Spring 2010
Quantitative study to determine if the use of rhythm games on the Nintendo DS can result in gains is students rhythmic production

TLT Fellowship Ideas…
Project 1 –
Contributions to a EGC Gaming Research Warehouse/Archive
Database for abstracts, audio, and video footage
Samples: http://www.eviada.org/default.cfm
Gather preexisting resources, archive creation, recruitment of materials, advertising
Project 2 – Modern musical play
Traditional musical play
What is modern musical play?
Participants (N=10 Children/Youth and their Guardians)
Guardian Pre-Interview
2 “in home” play visits with participants w/ interviews through play
Modern - video games , Traditional, playground equipment and instruments
2 lab visits with large group participants w/ group interviews through play
Modern - video games , Traditional, playground equipment and instruments
Guardian Post-Interview
Data collected becomes the first materials entered into the archive.

Ann Clements 2010 ETS Faculty Fellowship Background

by Brett Bixler on May 20, 2010

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Ann Clements 2010 ETS Faculty Fellowship Background — Presentation Transcript