Category: TI:ME

TI:ME

Attention Minnesota Residents!

This coming Tuesday night (9/30), at 7pm, we are going to hold an organization on-line meeting for a Minnesota Chapter of TI:ME. We will be using Google Hangouts as a platform, which only supports 10 participants. Chances are that the leadership group for the state chapter won't be larger than that; but what we can do is broadcast the meeting and then also offer a Today's Meet for anyone watching the meeting to provide feedback and interact with the video hangout.

If anyone knows a mass online meeting tool that would work better, please let me know.

What we have to determine is: who will be the ten voices in the room. I have received a few e-mails from teachers interested in forming a state chapter (this doesn't mean that anyone is particularly interested in leadership, but simply being involved). I will be contacting them directly. Some people may not be able to meet on Tuesday night but may still want to be involved. Incidentally, a Google Hangout can be published for later viewing as well.

The agenda for the meeting will be:

  1. Reviewing the National TI:ME Guidelines for forming a Chapter
  2. Discussion of Chapter boundaries (MN only? North Central?)
  3. Officially starting a Chapter
  4. Election of Officers, even if temporary
  5. Discussion of next steps (events, meetings, schedule, etc.)

For the record, I don't need to be an officer. I do have some things that I would like to see a state chapter do:

 

  • Create a blog that would post offerings from state members. We would ask all state members to post at least one blog on a topic of their choice at least once a year.
  • Offer Saturday training sessions at various locations across the state. The Perpich Center used to host and organize these. I would like to see both EdCamp versions (teachers teach teacher) and focused training versions (which would require a registration fee and paying presenters)
  • Work with the MMEA to help them with any technology needs–from helping find or filter MMEA Mid-Winter Conference sessions to any other needs they might have. One of the challenges is that TI:ME's National Conference has been linked to TMEA, which is the same weekend as MMEA every year.
  • Ultimately, become a state community of like-minded, technology-using music teachers that have a way to interact with each other.
Some may wonder why a TI:ME group makes sense for the state. Simply put, we have a lot of other organizations in the state. Those other organizations, by nature, all use technology and technology resources, and they support the use of technology in music education. At the same time, those existing groups have broader purposes and simply cannot focus directly on technology.

TI:ME was originally organized by members of NAMM with the purpose of encouraging teachers to develop programs where students could be trained for the skills that are needed in non-Classical music. In other words, they wanted an organization that would foster the skills needed for contemportary music and music production. As TI:ME has grown, it has also become a place where music teachers who use technology in more “traditional” settings can connect and support each other.

 

I am hoping that you will consider joining us in our efforts to form a state chapter! I hope that you will either be able to join us in the Google Hangout, or watch the Google Hangout and interact via Today's Meet. I will post connection information here (techinmusiced.com) on Tuesday night at 6:45pm.

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TI:ME and Minnesota

This post is primarily aimed at my colleagues in and near Minnesota, but the overall message applies to anyone interested in technology in music education.

Today the Minnesota Music Education Association Mid-Winter Conference begins, and at the same time, TI:ME had its national conference sessions yesterday, and additional TI:ME involvement continues as part of the Texas Music Education Association convention today. I am heading to MMEA today, but believe me when I say that I wish I was with my music technology colleagues in warm San Antonio, too.

If you haven't heard about TI:ME, it was begun as an institute through which to determine technology standards for music education, as well as to offer training and certification in music technology, and to serve as a place for music education technologists to interact with each other. This happened in 1995, as part of NAMM (NAMM originally provided funding). You can learn all about TI:ME at their website, ti-me.org.

Many things have changed since 1995, and technology has evolved from being a specialty to an area where every music teacher uses (or needs to use) technology-based tools in education. Although many national and state professional organizations discuss technology in music education, and even have sessions at their conferences on the subject, TI:ME has grown to become the primary professional organization for technology in music education. Put another way, for the existing organizations in our nation and state, technology is a concern but not a primary reason for their existence.

Although TI:ME has members across the world, including Minnesota, its most active members reside on the East Coast and in the Ohio area. At present, it can be difficult to justify a membership in TI:ME in Minnesota because there are no resources at the state level–we have no state chapter.

My proposal, on this first day of MMEA, is that we try to form a state chapter for TI:ME in Minnesota. I can see a number of reasons to do so:

  1. We can develop a nucelus of technology experts who support each other in our state
  2. We can begin a Minnesota music technology newsletter or blog, encouraging new posts or posting member's existing posts (with permission).
  3. We can act as an advisory team to MMEA if they have technology questions (all of us will be members of MMEA anyway)
  4. Perhaps a state chapter of TI:ME could organize or provide feedback about the tech offerings at the MMEA convention (this could be outside the sphere of influece)
  5. We can organize additional training sessions and ed camps in our state to teach both TI:ME materials as well as to address emerging technologies, such as 1:1 integration and applications
  6. The state chapter could collaborate with other state organizations such the Perpich Center of the Arts to help with their technology offerings as well
  7. We can bring some of the wonderful things going on in Minnesota back to the national level of TI:ME

What I would like to ask of my Minnesota colleagues is this: consider joining TI:ME, and join me in my quest to begin a Minnesota chapter of TI:ME. The annual membership is $50, and my hope is that the combined national and (proposed) state resources would make that $50 a worthwhile annual investment.

I will be floating around the MMEA convention the next few days; I invite you to stop by and say hello and let me know if you are interested in helping bring a TI:ME chapter to Minnesota.