Music video production:Problem Based Learning

On the subject of project based learning (or problem based learning if you prefer) the following is my recent personal experience. I am a musician and composer and have believed for many years that simply posting mp3's of my songs on social media such as sound cloud wasn't enough. Video is the new medium by which one can attract and engage viewers more effectively by providing a full multi-media experience. I am not alone in this assessment; other bloggers have put out the fact that folks often turn to video first when trying to find answers to questions. YouTube is the new Google. Several years ago I learned this when I was trying to repair my lawnmower. I googled the problem and found many documents and knowledge-bases that tried to provide the information I needed to resolve the problem but they were either inaccurate or very complex PDFs which as we all know aren't the easiest thing to read on the web. The solution to my lawnmower problem was found in a YouTube video which clearly gave me the steps to fix it (and I am most definitely NOT a mechanic in any sense of the word!).

My latest experience with using YouTube videos to help me started a month or so ago when I decided I needed to up my game as it relates to recording of music I've written. I invested in a more powerful desktop computer and software for music production (an iMac and Logic Pro). At the same time I came across a copy of Final Cut for video production so naturally I got that as well. Previous to this upgrade I was using an iPad with N-Track Studio and iMovie.

After several hours configuring my musical hardware interface to work with the computer (that's another story!) I was ready to begin.

For those of you familiar with professional music and video production software, you know these tools are not simple, but I have been doing this sort of thing for many years so I figured I would just jump in with both feet and get started. Not so much!  These programs are not intuitive and what I found was that despite my experience using similar software over the years, I was literally quite stuck.

I entered search terms in YouTube "how do I (fill in the blank with any number of functions required to proceed). I started with "how do I use Logic"!  I found more than enough videos to allow me to complete my music recording project and to make a long story shorter, applied the same steps to figuring out how to use Final Cut. In the end, I learned a lot and am continuing to learn, thankful for the huge community of people who love to share their knowledge on YouTube. An interesting point of fact- some of the better videos were produced by young people apparently high school aged students. Their common story was one of discovery guided by a teacher who led them on a path of project/problem based learning.

So here is a link to my music video, admittedly not perfect, but it is my piece of art and I am passionately in love with the process and product. Enjoy, and thanks in advance for any commentary.

~Chuck

Shadow IT: the consumerization of technology

Another way in which IT management is being transformed by the consumerization of IT:  In the past IT leaders would often mandate what tools were used in an organization; now they need to be sensitive to and aware of what tools may already be in  use by staff- often to great effect and benefit to the business - and then figure out how to ensure they are being used appropriately and can be integrated into the IT infrastructure,  allowing enterprise systems level management and security. Grassroots adoption of apps can work if you pay attention to what's happening in your business and collaborate with staff to find the balance between the plethora of constantly evolving tools they might want to use and what is reasonable to manage while maintaining tight security, software application and endpoint management.  IT can provide the tools to allow innovation and improved business performance.  Shine the light on shadow IT and leverage it to benefit your business.
FWIW-cd