All right. If you're reading this and you aren't in my technology class (you know who you are) this will probably be a complete and total waste of your time (not to mention the confusion you'll suffer since I'm not outlining the assignment here). That being said. Hello world.
I want to talk about the aspects of tech 107/8 that I like/dislike. We'll start with what I liked since that's easier and if I think of anything I disliked I'll just jump right in with it. For starters I think the class has some really cool things it covers, specifically I really like finale and photoshop (and yes, I love how we get to learn photoshop in a MUSIC technology course, and yes, the logic has been explained, and yes, I still think it's ironic, so there. my blog. my rules.) Some of the other tools we went over I had used before (like excel) but I was able to take away some new interesting ideas away from them. So we come to dislike number one. I really liked some of the things we went over, particularly with some of the more interactive programs, but I feel that others were more recaps(such as the excel) and could have been learned elsewhere. I would have been happier with more time spent fooling around with finale and garage band and photoshop (and yes I know there's only so much you can do with these, but that's the same for the other programs, right?) I can understand the need for diversity, but I really feel that some of the more interesting things we learned about for some of the "recap programs" could have been much more compressed so we could spend more time working on the more "music related" programs.
One thing I really liked towards the end of 108 was the idea of a group project. If I had to make some changes in the class I think I'd work to find a way to add in more group projects, or I should say, more interactive group projects. I know this can be hard with the class missing at times, but I think it's more incentive to hang around and get a better experience out of the class. Personally I had a few people in tech 107 that I would have competitions with and I think that sense of relationship with some of my other classmates really helped me to not only retain the information better, but also to have a more enjoyable time of it. I know that in 108 I'm consistently plotting to rule the world with one of my classmates and that's just fun. I suppose what I'm really getting at is, I think music tech could stand for more of a sense of community within the classroom.
Another thing I liked about the tech class is the laid back feel the class has. It doesn't require too much or too little, it's just right, there's just the right amount of stimulus in the opening lectures of the class to really get a person thinking about the different ways they can approach a problem. The class isn't so much about the assignments themselves, but more about what we can take into the real world from them. Isn't that the whole point of college in the first place? To prepare you for the real world? Because as a music major, working with spreadsheets you whole life will only happen if something goes horribly wrong. The ways you can approach the problems the spreadsheets offer (yes, I know I'm using excel a lot) can apply to a multitude of things that actually are music related. I think overall this is the best thing this class has done for me: help get me ready to jump right in and go with it.
