 I am Carol Broce, a retired music teacher currently working for the Golden Apple Foundation in Chicago. I am talking about becoming a triple threat in tech, the commitment to creating your own artwork and photography, the ability to compose your own music and then produce it in your own movies. This means no more Google images, no more royalty free music and mashups of YouTube. Once you take the plunge to be a triple threat, it is life changing in the way you interact with all of the arts. You begin to create more, learn more and share more. Everything you create is also produced by you so there are no copyright issues. Art is my weakest link. So recently I've surrounded myself with artists such as Trisha Flugastad who is committed to having her students create original artwork and songs. Her flugal fix have become a central part of her curriculum. Original songs are about art created for students by students. Well I'm here with Trisha, I'm really excited. We just presented the conference and we never really get to see each other face to face. So it's sort of neat that we actually are together because we really virtually see each other a lot. Right. We do our podcast. Right, we do our podcast. So I'm so excited to talk about this because you have inspired me so much to draw. That's been my latest focus. I've actually done more art than I've done music in the last one. I am like a little house of fire on this and I think it's because I realized that I want to be a triple threat and that means that I want to be able to draw. I want to be able to take pictures, movies, of course music and video and story telling which we saw today too. So I want to be able to do it all and you are the master. Some of the things that you do is so amazing. So you started out with a lot of drawings and then you went to movies too. How was your story? How did that start when you got into music and all of that? How did that fill me together? Well, actually, I'll just piece this together. When we want to tell a story, it had a stronger impact if we had good visuals and then if we can incorporate a nice soundtrack with it or turn it into a music video, then it was catchier and the words get caught in your mind because the whole concept behind making a movie in my classroom is to learn an art concept. We make Fugle Flex. So they're supposed to be short, entertaining videos that teach you something about art. And back in the day of the Schoolhouse Rock videos, I learned concepts that I didn't even know I was interested in simply because the lyrics would get stuck in my head. So I wanted to try to put that in my art room and it's working. My students are singing and dancing and making movies about art. And see it with me, it was because when we did music, I felt like there was a missing piece if we didn't have a visual. If we only did music, I was robbing the students of a visual reminder, just much like you said. So that's sort of the journey that I took. And like I said, now I'm into drawing and doing all this stuff and this and everything. I think the iPad has really changed all of that. I think that was the big turning point for me, where the kids could put everything together. Well, it's so multifunctional. It's your drawing device, it's your camera, it's your video camera and you can also edit everything together and create the music. So one piece and it's so approachable and you can delete it if it doesn't work. So why not try? And also the kids want to do that. They don't see the arts anymore as a standalone music, standalone art, standalone theater. They see it as a group project. A collaboration. And that's what's happening when we're working together to create one entertaining story or message that makes our field go flex. And I'm just loving that I'm stretching out of my comfort zone. I'm not a music teacher. But the kids can sing and I can sing and we can make sense of it the best we can. Yeah, that's all I feel. I'm not an art teacher, but I can make the sense of it and I can do that. And so I work harder at that. Well, thanks Trish. It's so nice to see you in person. Thank you for this time. Together. Yeah, okay. And you have a presentation too. Yes, we're actually talking about making Fuqua Flex, so go check that out. Yeah, thanks. Thank you. Music might be the hardest to master, but let me tell you a secret. Silence is just as important as sound. If I gave you a box of crayons, would you use the entire box? No, you wouldn't. So when composing music, only use two or three notes. Yes, for the entire song. The songs I created for the opening and closing are only two and three note songs with Apple Loops, lots of rest, lots of silence. When children are first taught to write stories, they write simple sentences. Then the teacher asks them to elaborate, expand, and explain. To a young student, it's all about adding stuff. I can do an entire song with three notes, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Or two notes, da, da, da, da, da, da. Or even one note, da, da, da, da, da, da. Keep the rhythm the same. Each time you repeat something, change it slightly, but not too much. lots of rusts and silence. There you have it. Many classical musicians want to teach music theory in names of notes. Today with technology you don't need to know the names of the notes. Keep it simple and listen. Let your ear tell you what's right or wrong. Design is the key. Linda Keen is into design and she also is a triple threat. Her website next.cc brings an added dimension to art through design. There she has art music and media. I am an architect and I'm also a professor of architecture and environmental design at the school here at the Art Institute of Chicago. I have a practice that works on green initiatives between Milwaukee and Chicago and with my partner started out making animated films and then as chair of this department bought the first computer to teach with. Oh 20 years ago even more and started the first computer lab with our visual communication or a graphic design department and ever since then have between the filmmaking the architecture and the computers have been fascinated about how digital technology can be incorporated in the classroom. Right and what I find so fascinating is that when I start to talk to you about my triple threat. Oh right. You said oh wait a minute. Because you have video music and everything up on your site and you call it something different. I like it. It's really interesting. Well my partner would like the triple threat because it's a sports analogy. It's called digital fluency and it comes out of the UK their organization future lab which was working with their schools in Microsoft to introduce technology in the classroom. And digital fluency means introduction to and access to a broad band of media that is used in the culture. So it doesn't really talk about computers per se. It's using any type of technology that helps you create communicate and collaborate. I love it. It's great. So it's down if you look at the site it says digital fluency and click on it and all the journeys that introduce any type of digital use of tools or interact us will be included. Now I notice all of your videos are music to it. Yes. All of your videos are animated. Some narration as well. Yes because it's animators when you do all those hand drawn drawings and then you photograph them and then you put them in the film strip. The introduction of sound and text or voice and narration is critical to like creating a complete environment. And in architecture we talk about creating complete environments that surround you as a person so that you have that experience in the same as for film. So in 2000 we wrote an article about interactive environments and talking about the difference between film and architecture. So in film we're sitting watching the action. But in architecture the architecture is by and large static and we are actively moving through it. So those two things really fire all your synapses when your work is on it turns out. And so we're very excited about that connection. So ever since we began this is the third rendition of the website and that we want you to be able to look at something to engage in it but then have it take off and move on you. Because you want possibilities. You want to inspire people to do it. And it's a huge portal. Many windows opening to many other places in the world. Because you're really this whole green initiative. That's like the whole basis of it. That's why I find so fascinating. And that's it. It's based because it's kind of balanced all the technology. Right. That's why I find so fascinating is that it's technology but it's really the environment. Right. And I want to say anti-tech but it's like. It is and it's funny beginning to introduce this to teachers and to camps. The educational camps to really teach outdoors didn't really have a lot of interest in it because it's technology. And the technologists were like in a room like we are now. Windows working on the computer. And but actually that blend is essential. And it's key for kids to learn. So when they do things on the computer they know that they can take what they just experienced and learn and apply it on the real world. Or they can go find something in the real world. Come and scan it and manipulate it and use it on the computer to do something new. So it has to be seamless. And I think another thing that was so drawn to me was that you also believe that everything should be created by those. Yes. It's student driven. Student driven. Yeah. And I loved it. I think that comes from being a designer. And part of the initiative of creating this nonprofit was that design is not taught in most of our schools in our country even though it's taught in Canada and the UK. And design is project based learning. It's like well you let's build something. Let's do something and make something and test something. So it is it totally fits into the walls down to steam description. And what it does is it helps the student stimulate a way to be curious and define ways to learn about what they're interested in and then pursuing the whole personalized learning. Define their purpose because if the education is not about our relationship with the environment it is about creating that character and nurturing that purpose or that potential. And of course I have to say you should have seen us. We spent I think we spent 45 minutes. And another 45 minutes trying to get the right place to sit. Right. Which we had to redesign in the school that us design but there's no sound room separate room in this part of the school. And that's why I'm so interested because I'm at the Art Institute and you think okay it's all about pictures and all that. And it is so noisy. Because it's so much going on and it's such a creative place to be. And people are trying all kinds of different things all the time. So anyway I know one of the things that we talked about that I found was really interesting is that with the computer and with access to digital tools so much of it is a steep learning curve. Yes. Particularly as the programs get deeper. And it became our concern early on that we didn't want the program to be the master of the student. And so to do that the student has to be given the freedom to create their own projects and use the technology in new ways that we may not have even imagined. And that's what's happening to kids creating apps and making things on the computer and getting your parents who don't know how to use it is exciting about it. So right it's it's really do your own DIY. Do it yourself. And that's the home. Well then I guess I could we're going to talk more. I just love talking to you. It's just so nice to find you. To find someone who comes from a different avenue. And it's like you're coming in from different doors but we're the same side. It's just really cool. Well you come from music and music is considered the universal language. You don't have to understand it to appreciate it or enjoy it. And in a funny counterpoint I would like to say that architecture is a universal language because we all live in it. Yes. And so we all either take it for granted or appreciate it or really know what we like about it or don't. And so I'm we're trying to elevate that whole understanding that everything around us people have created and everyone in a K-12 classroom can be a creator and contribute to that. Well thank you so much. Thanks. When you decide to become a triple threat you will interact with your environment more. Now you are responsible for all original pictures. You have become a photographer. I am constantly taking pictures for my bank of pictures I will use. As you become more visual now is the time to animate. I love the iPad app Doink and Sketchbook. I can create simple animations in Doink and export them into movies. I can draw layers using Sketchbook. By making two and three second movies they soon morph into longer 15 second creations. I can compose music but sometimes not using the traditional method of chord structure. You can also create music using various apps. All music is is organized sound. Use the same method of one, two or three themes or notes. Repetition is essential. The movie process is the icing. This is where art and music connect to create a final piece. I have the examples of all my movies on my website www.carolbrose.com. It also has the apps associated with the movies. This has been an amazing journey and I hope I've inspired you to become a triple threat by creating your own pictures, composing your own music and by producing your own movies.