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#IVTchat More than Notes

This week my class did their first official Twitter ‘listen-n-chat’ and it was great fun! It’s funny how using technology for a purpose can be sort of like having roadworks – it is there to improve the situation, but if you aren’t aware of it and don’t navigate it carefully, you can get stuck in traffic instead of flowing smoothly to your destination. Fortunately my group work very well together and we were able to navigate things and to come out with an enjoyable and productive outcome.

Some of the group had never used Twitter before, and others quickly buddied up… we sat and listened and tweeted. It is interesting that in Jonathan Worth’s instructions (beside being a great teaching method, this particular session was part of a larger research project called Connecting Classes) he asked us to map the room. Well… we don’t really do seating and people create their seating plans. I was on the floor, but that’s just me 🙂 Some people were on sofas, some on bean bag chairs, some on normal chairs, others perched… but we were all concentrically gathered – as a natural circle – and interestingly nobody was in the middle – not me, not anyone. We were an expanded huddle. We came together to reach out. I love it.

So the experience – I put together this storify, which is made through an app that gathers tweets by a hashtag. We were using #IVTchat (Instrumental / Vocal Teaching chat) and then I rearranged them to make a semi-coherent story – the rearranging was because not everyone was listening exactly at the same time or pace and so chronology doesn’t always make exact sense. I also had to manually pull in a couple of tweets that used both the hashtags together, without a space… like this: ‘#IVTchat#CClasses’ as the Storify app didn’t recognise those without the space between them, but if that was the biggest niggle, then I think we did ok! (see below for the full Storify)

There were themes that came out:

  1. ‘Things’ get in the way – in particular this was about a music stand, but as Simon Thompson (not a student, but a lecturer at Leeds-Beckett) said, this is parallel to a speaker and a lectern…

  2. The importance of listening. YES. need I say more?

  3. A sort-of craving to understand and the importance of this – whether it is from the teacher’s point of view or the learners.

There were other themes – group vs. individual learning, the importance (or not) of reading notation, the list could go on. It was great to see other people who were not in the class joining in and I’m curious what people got out of it.

Did it make you think?

Any comments on the themes?

Anything particularly meaningful to you?

Can you point us to any links that might extend the conversation further?

Please do join in and comment….

Next week we’ll be hearing from parents, all about their experiences of music lessons. It will be a unique look into the other side of learning, the side the teacher normally doesn’t get to see.

That will be Thursday 28 April at 10:15 am. BST and I’ll send out that link closer to the time!

Featured image CC BY-NC-ND by Alison Lait

4 thoughts on “#IVTchat More than Notes”

  1. Hi Laura

    Just a quick follow-up to my comment above… having had a little time at last to review your Storify I’m heartened to note the appearance of words like “reward”, “encourage” and “celebrate” with reference to student work/ performance. All too often the focus of staff feedback is squarely on the weaknesses and areas that need improvement, rather than on what has been successful. Having looked in detail at strengths-based learning a few years back I’m now a firm advocate of encouraging and ‘building-up’ students to increase their confidence and therefore self-efficacy.

    This is not to say that constructive criticism isn’t necessary or appropriate – of course it is –
    but in some quarters the strategy of giving tough and (over?-)critical feedback is favoured as a way of making learners pull their metaphorical socks up. How much more effective words of praise and encouragement can be! This is especially true of sensitive or introverted students, or those with personal difficulties to deal with about which staff may know little.

    I wish I were as good at the tech side of Connecting Classes as you, Grant and Sarah are… it feels as if I’m running to catch up all the time … next step: my blog. (Hope the ‘SoSimple’ template lives up to its name!!) Thanks again for your support – best, Celia

    1. I agree completely about the feedback- and there is no sense in being tough for the sake of it. When a child falls down we comfort, reassure, and show that person how to do it again – and why should we be any different? There is often a false sense of ‘well you should know better/ know it already’ and sometimes that’s true, but often students are learning too… as are we ! I think it’s important to point out faults & weakness in a supportive way that shows a path forward.

      As for Connecting Classes, I’m learning from you too! Everyone has their own flavour and perspective and the different ways of sharing things are really valuable. My repertoire is expanding with every class I connect with and visit. It’s a privilege to have the metaphorical door opened so I can have a look inside and join with you. Thank you for taking the time to share!

  2. Hi Laura,

    I agree with Celia – to my mind the points covered were very relevant to teaching in a range of disciplines – and it was easy to decontextualise the information given – a key point here that I have to reflect on.

    One of Richard’s comments that interested me most was his point about ‘knowing the right note’ – for me, this seemed to cross over with ideas of tacit knowledge and emphasise the importance of tacit knowledge as well as explicit knowledge. I also loved that in this teaching model tacit knowledge it therefore recognised as relevant. – Fab class – thank you so much — S

  3. Hi Laura!

    I very much enjoyed your interview with Richard Crozier – even though I am not a musician, a lot of the ground you both covered was relevant to other disciplines too, which is great (hope my classes manage to do this!).

    The main ‘takeaway’ for me was the Richard’s comment about differentiating between ‘attainment’ and ‘achievement’. This is really valuable and something I can begin to apply pretty much straightaway 🙂

    all best – Celia

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