Innovation Showcases
Asynchronous Session
Musical Performance - The Synergy of Practice and Technique: The Universality of Music Instruction View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Sondra Tammam
Musical performance allows people of all backgrounds to speak the same language. Musicians know that practice makes perfect. The intention to work at perfection is innate, but the essential necessity is to understand technique. Too often, performers endure physical training that leads to pain and often injury. Pedagogy today should offer students answers as to how to promote corrective movement and ease at their instrument. Healthy habits are essential to enable instrumentalists to have boundless potential in music making. The lack of awareness of how to play technically and often musically, is the absence of concentration during practicing. If the mind tends to wander and the ear is not listening, then practicing can lead to sloppy playing. When it comes to instrumental technique, solutions involve visual display of movement and motion. In the last two centuries instruction was often a hearsay tradition. The lack of explanations in practice and technique present challenging situations. Two pioneers, Tobias Mathay (1858-1945) of England and Dorothy Taubman, (1917-2013) an American, were leading recognized piano pedagogues known for their perceptive and innovative approach to technique. I was fortunate to work with Dorothy Taubman and instruct pianists and other instrumentalists with her approach. Her effective ideas combine technique and coordinate motion that lay the groundwork for success. My session demonstrates skills that are also useful for those with computer related issues. The results are remarkable and easy to facilitate. The collaboration of skills and proper practice enable musicians to achieve their potential.
Early Head Start Classroom Quality and Child Emotional Development View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Stephanie Kathan
Well-known within the United States, Early Head Start (EHS) is a multigenerational early childhood intervention program with multiple program types, including a home-visiting program and a classroom program. This program intends to assist families with pregnant people and children under three years old in a wide variety of different needs, including employment, education, and child development. Within the classroom intervention, some classrooms may be more effective at improving childhood socio-emotional development based on classroom-level factors, such as the parent-staff relationship quality, the physical classroom space, classroom structure, teacher sensitivity, and the facilitation of learning and development. The effectiveness of the classroom-style intervention regarding children’s socio-emotional development is examined using linear regression analysis with clustering at the child level. Independent variables include results on the Parent-Caregiver Relationship Scale and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System – Toddlers, whereas the dependent variable includes the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. By utilizing regression analysis, potential effects across time of children’s involvement within the classroom can be considered. Implications and policy considerations are discussed.
Beyond the Academy: Students Find their Voice in Planning for Life and Citizenship after College View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Leonard Shedletsky, David Bantz, Jeanette Andonian, Dennis Gilbert
Financial hardship, social isolation, stress about transitioning to adulthood and the workplace, and the rapid pace of change in work environments are some examples of the challenges for college students as they prepare for graduation. The modern discourse on the post-college transition commonly emphasizes the economic and practical hurdles, such as educational loan debt, student employability, skill transferability, career networking, and job interviewing. Receiving far less attention are the psychosocial and developmental dimensions that color the student experience of the graduation transition, yet these factors have far-reaching implications for students at the end of their college careers. A team of college faculty at a public university in the United States, from social work, media studies, computer science, and communication, are tackling the conundrums facing students through an interdisciplinary, credit-bearing seminar titled, Launching into Life After College (LILAC). At the heart of the course are the concepts of agency and voice. The success of the course is evidenced in reduced anxiety and increased self-confidence to embark on a path forward toward a successful life and career. The course originators are currently engaged in a project to make LILAC available as an Open Educational Resource (OER). We share data and findings from LILAC as well as the process of creating a LILAC OER as we work to make the course accessible to a wider user base. We also provide a toolkit to participants, to allow for the replication or adaptation of LILAC in other educational settings.
Unveiling the Universal Theory of Everything: Bridging the Gap Between Natural, Social, and Applied Sciences Through the Physics of Communication View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Farhan Mashraqi
The quest for a unifying theory that encompasses not only natural sciences but also social, biological, behavioral, and neurological sciences has long remained elusive. This paper presents a novel approach to formulating a universal theory of everything, drawing on the author's extensive background in data architecture and a decade of research into the architecture of the universe as the largest data processing architecture in existence. Central to this theory is the concept of Comhysics – the physics of communication – which proposes a paradigm shift from the conventional focus on the components of the universe to identifying a universally common activity performed by those components. This workshop article examines the reasons behind the historical failure to develop a comprehensive unifying theory, including Einstein's struggles, and argues that the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe lies in bridging the gaps between natural, social, and communication sciences. The paper highlights the importance of integrating subjective perceptions and measurements alongside traditional objective observations to form a more complete understanding of our universe. The theory presented in this session aims to spark a collaborative dialogue among researchers, leading to a more coherent and unified understanding of the cosmos and its underlying architecture.
The Church - a Social Representative Medium for Positive Communication, Interbeing, and Shared Cultural Meaning View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Jesse Eugene Herriott
Representation and communication are integral elements in human meaning making, with the former referring to the way individuals or groups are depicted or reflected in various forms of communication, media, or culture, and the latter referring to the process of exchanging information, ideas, and emotions through language, symbols, signs, gestures, or other modes of expression. The way representation and communication are employed can either promote neutral, shared, or oppositional understanding among people, and these represent different communicative approaches that shape meaning making. Neutral communication is a method of communication that promotes a shared understanding without imposing any pre-established beliefs or values on the audience. It is a form of communication that emphasizes the usage of words and symbols that have a clear and agreed-upon meaning across different cultures. In this approach, communication is considered to be a tool for conveying information and establishing common points of reference. The purpose of neutral communication is to facilitate meaning making without causing confusion or promoting misunderstandings. The Church as an institution has long been viewed as a center for social interaction, where individuals of different backgrounds and beliefs come together to share their faith and traditions, resulting in a shared communication that can be used within the context of the church setting and in the larger society. Experiences within the church setting creates a social capital, which serves as a container for belonging, neutral communication, inter being, and shared representation of positive traits applicable in society outside of the four-walls of the church.
