Students at EJ Martinez Elementary school , where I teach in Santa Fe, New Mexico, are exploring the world of music by creating, recording, arranging and performing music for a variety of purposes. We are using technology to help us in every aspect of our projects. We are also using the Big6 Information Problem Solving Skills to guide us through the challenges we find along the way. This means we are learning how technology contributes to developing Contemporary Information Literacy Skills (Big6), as well as learning how technology (hardware and software) can help us to create better musical performances.

Until you think about it, you may not see the connection between a process for solving any information based problem and the act of creating music. Musicians, however, recognize that almost every step along the way presents challenging problems that can benefit from a reliable, flexible process, especially one that provides us with a set of tools for approaching these problems. Additionally, musical artists seek to combine music with words and images, using technology to create a combined live/multimedia performance. We will use music we create ourselves, if it is of high enough quality (otherwise, we’ll seek permission to use recorded music within the Fair Use copyright guidelines

The Big6 provides us with tools to meet both the Contemporary Literacy and Music Performance challenges. See how each skill reinforces the other.

First, it helps to know what the Big6 skills are:

Big6 Skills	Contemporary Literacy Big6 #1 – Task Definition: What’s our goal, and what information do we need to accomplish this goal?Our goal is to create a multimedia presentation that combines music, words and images. We need to know how to digitize and create such a presentation.	Music Performance Big6 #1 – Task Definition: What’s our goal, and what information do we need to accomplish this goal?Our goal is to create a good recording of a good performance of a good original composition. We need to know how to record, how to play well and what to play (and not to play).
	Contemporary Literacy Big6 #2 – Information Seeking Strategies: Determine all possible sources, and select the best source.We searched in the library, record stores, the Internet, personal CD collections, original artwork, and student performances to find appropriate music, words, and images for our multimedia project. We read the software manual and tested a sample program to learn how to create a multimedia presentation.	Music Performance Big6 #2 – Information Seeking Strategies: Determine all possible sources, and select the best source. We searched equipment manuals, the Internet, music stores, and interviewed our music teacher. We decided that our music teacher, Mr. Serim, would be the best musical artist and Mr. Serim would be the most available expert with experience to help us record music for our project.
	Contemporary Literacy Big6 #3 – Location and Access: Locate the sources and find the information within the sources. We digitized original artwork from Mr. Towle’s third grade class, and selected music that complemented the moods of the abstract art.	Music Performance Big6 #3 – Location and Access: Locate the sources and find the information within the sources. The multitrack digital recorder is a realtime database of musical “information” represented in the performances on each sound track. We need to learn how to navigate the hardware and software to store and retrieve our performances (find information within the source).
	Contemporary Literacy Big6 #4 – Use of Information: Engage (read, hear, view) and extract relevant information. We decided to focus on specific areas of the artwork, and have the images change with the music.	Music Performance Big6 #4 – Use of Information: Engage (read, hear, view) and extract relevant information. Since we save every “take” (recording attempt) we need to know which musical “information” is the best for this project, and which musical “information” was not up to our standards, or not relevant for this project.
	Contemporary Literacy Big6 #5 – Synthesis:Organize the information from multiple sources, and present the result. We selected iMovie as the medium for organizing and presenting our creations. We used a soundtrack from Mr. Serim’s “Mirrors, Echoes, Bridges” CD, and used the “Ken Burns” effect to zoom in and out on each student’s artwork as the music played.	Music Performance Big6 #5 – Synthesis: Organize the information from multiple sources, and present the result. Here we combine literacy, artistic and technology skills. We must defend our choices about which performances are best by using music vocabulary, and we must use computers to publish our work on the Web as well as store on videos and CDs.
	Contemporary Literacy Big6 #6 – Evaluation: Judge the result and the process. We were pleased with the results, which included an iMovie of Mr. Towle’s third grade students’ original artwork, as well as a multimedia accompaniment for Mr. Padilla’s fourth grade students’ performance of his original story “Orchard Bees” that was read by students, while digitized original artwork was projected as they played an original score.	Music Performance Big6 #6 – Evaluation: Judge the result and the process. Evaluation is constant – we always must decide whether to try again, or keep the current “take” as our best effort. Students evaluate each others’ performance and ultimately decided which compositions would be performed at our Spring Arts Fling on May 2. We are noting along the way tips and traps to make our work easier the next time.

To see how it all fits together, click on this link to see the EJ Studio Lessons Flowchart.

For more information and context, view the EJ Studio Lessons webpage