The experience as a designer and a facilitator was very unique for me.

Because this was

a group project, there was a lot of teamwork involved. With some of the students who played the
game, they were at first confused on the way the game was working. My initial views of how the
game would turn out were very different than the actual outcome. My imagination of it was that
there would be enough people to get a big game going on. Because there werent as many
people at the event as I had anticipated, we had to improvise. I ended up playing the game with
the participants at certain points. Even with myself being involved in the game with the
participants, I didnt feel that it inhibited their own personal experience. I was also able to assess
them even more because I was directly involved. It was also extremely interesting seeing how
they interpreted their own versions of feelings through the Emotones game. My way of doing
angry was very different than one persons way of expressing angry. For a certain participant,
he ended up hitting several notes at the same time and was able to easily express the emotion.
As for others, they had a more difficult time expressing the emotions on the cards. I found the
ones who succeeded were the ones who made references to other music. For example, one
person played the jaws theme song to express fear. Another student played extremely loud
(forte) to express anger.
There were so many different ideas and aspects to consider while designing this
experience. Probably the greatest learning experience I had from this was figuring out how to
make the design as inclusive as possible. At first we had it set up to where people would figure
out how to express a word/song with the emotone. Then, we realized that this might not be
inclusive for students who might not know the song or for students who might have difficulty
replicating the notes on the game itself. Our solution ended up being emotions that the students
could interpret themselves. That way, people could take whatever prior knowledge they have
and bring it to the surface. Applying this to my future teaching, Ive learned that there is always
going to be something to improve on. We set up so many different scenarios on how this
program should run to be extremely inclusive, but the only way to truly find out was through
experience.
This class has taught me to be more open-minded. I have always enjoyed using
technology to further my education, but I was at times skeptical when it came to comparing
musicians who use technology (like the chainsmokers) to musicians who hand play their
acoustical instruments (like Billy Joel) to create music. In one of my earlier twitter posts I said
Today, there's music tech that can mimic the sound of someone playing instruments. Does this
make that music any less authentic? When I initially tweeted this, I was skeptical that musicians
who use music technology are at the same level to those who use acoustical instruments. But, this
was my close-minded mind thinking. I tweeted this because I wanted to hear the thoughts of others.
This has been my number one debate with myself this entire semester. Peoples talents and
strengths are spread out among many different areas. It is amazing that Music technology has been
able to open a completely new door into the world of music for those who might not be as interested
in learning acoustical instruments. Music technology also has the ability to be extremely inclusive to
those who might not have the ability to play a hand held instrument. When our group did the
assignment by finding out a way to include a student with disabilities in a music class using music
technology, I saw how important and influential music technology can be on one persons life. The
main aspect of this year that helped me to be a better learner and technology user was to have a
more open and creative mind. If I had remained close-minded, I wouldnt have been able to see all of
the positives in music technology and how it can help to include people as well as have a positive
impact on peoples music making skills.