Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong

In a moving and madly viral video last year, composer Eric Whitacre led a virtual choir of singers from around the world. He talks through the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube, and unveils the first 2 minutes of his new work, "Sleep," with a video choir of 2,052. The full piece premieres April 7 (yes, on YouTube!).

ATS Picks 11/18/10

1) How the US Engages the World with Social Media

An interesting article about the ways the US government is using blogging, Facebook and Twitter to improve our image in the world.

2) Preceden: The easiest way to make a timeline

This free site makes it easy to create your own timelines. They aren't fancy, but they are quick and you can print them out or embed them on another website.

3) Facebook's Zuckerberg Says The Age of Privacy is Over

This ReadWriteWeb blog post summarizes some of the recent comments made by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, regarding Facebooks new privacy settings.

4) Edutopia Digital Youth Portrait: Cameron, 11 years old

Discussion Questions

1. Is Cameron typical of kids in your community? Why, or why not?2. How would you describe the attitude of Cameron's parents toward technology and Cameron's interest in digital media?

3. How would you describe the attitude of Cameron's teachers toward technology and Cameron's interest in digital media?

4. What did you think of Cameron's Rewind video? Was this a good use of multimedia for learning? Why, or why not?

5. What would it take to support kids like Cameron at your school? What are the potential challenges?

Kara Oehler - Mapping Main Street USA Project

KNBC club at the Middle School, had a pleasure to welcome Kara Oehler, an independent audio producer at Mapping Main Street USA Project. Mapping Main Street is a collaborative documentary media project that creates a new map of the country through stories, photos and videos recorded on actual Main Streets. Kara told the kids how in May, 2009 the Mapping Main Street team packed into a 1996 Suburu station wagon and started a 12,000 mile journey across the country to visit USA Main Streets. In the process, they took photos, shot videos, and interviewed people. They have talked with farm laborers and business owners, people out on their porches and people on park benches.

Since then 700 Main Streets have documented. Anyone can contribute to this project. The goal is to document all of the more than 10,000 streets named Main in the United States.

We are looking forward to documenting our own Main Street here in Cambridge and organizing a KNBC field trip in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for our updates!

ATS Picks 10/22/10

1) New iLife features

See the new features available in iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand. The new lessons for guitar and piano, and the new guitar amps and effects look pretty cool. And if you purchased a Mac recently, but don't have iLife '11, you can get iLife '11 for just the cost of shipping and handling instead of the full price (details are on the webpage).

2) CNN: Will physical books be gone in 5 years?

Washington (CNN) -- As e-book readers and tablet computers become more common, one prominent tech mogul says that physical books could disappear sooner than expected. In an interview with CNN's Howard Kurtz on "Reliable Sources," author Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child, said the physical book's days are numbered.

3) Copyright-Friendly and Copyleft (mostly!) images and sound for use in media projects and web pages, blogs, wikis, etc.

Most of the media in these collections are attached to generous copyright licensing. Though you may not need to ask permission to use them when publishing on the Web for educational purposes, you should cite or attribute these images to their creators unless otherwise notified!



4) Michael Wesch BLC10 Keynote Speech

Dubbed "the explainer" by Wired magazine, Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture. After two years studying the implications of writing on a remote indigenous culture in the rain forest of Papua New Guinea, he has turned his attention to the effects of social media and digital technology on global society.

5) The "In B Flat" website is a compilation of YouTube videos all embedded on one page. Each one is a musical (or spoken word) performance. You can start playing several of the videos to have an interesting effect. It would be interesting to replicate this as a lesson for music class.  ~Demetri