EdTech Link Fellow Tamirate Aklog is currently leading an after school club teaching Baltimore City public school students the art and science of digital audio production.
Audio is quite the growth industry, with applications in film, video, television, live sound, radio and documentary sound, studio recording, and of course in music production.
The researchers over at O-Net have documented the academic and work-related knowledge and skills necessary for a career in audio production, and — perhaps not surprisingly — many of the findings align the sorts of goals we strive for in classrooms everyday: active learning, critical thinking, complex problem solving, and decision making to name a few.
Further into the report, O-Net notes the subjects and the content knowledge required by an audio engineer. The range is significant, and should be carefully considered by those who might otherwise advocate for reducing the availability of the arts in school; from computing to engineering to fine arts to psychology, the professional audio production manager has a skill set that in some circles might be called Renaissance-esque.
When I look through the descriptions of these skills — from developing systems, ideas, and relationships; to writing for an appropriate audience; to evaluating options and implementing solutions, I hear echoes of Common Core. And in those echoes, I see the opportunity to truly revolutionize the way we measure applied learning in a maker space.
Seems that extracurriculars aren’t actually so “extra”.
We’re excited to announce that student audio compositions from our after school program will soon be available here on the DHF site; and we’re especially excited to announce that two of the students in the club have just scored their first jobs as DJs! You’ll be able to catch them spinning and live mixing at high school basketball games throughout the season.
