Computer Science in Music (CSTA Wyoming interview)

In this episode I'm a guest on CSTA Wyoming's podcast for computer science educators and I answer some questions about the intersections of music and computer science.

Welcome back to another episode of the
csk8 podcast my name is Jared O'Leary
each week of this podcast is usually an
interview with a guest or multiple
guests or a solo episode where unpacks
some scholarship in relation to Computer
Science Education this week's episode is
a little bit different I'm actually a
guest on somebody else's show the csta
Wyoming podcast so this is actually from
episode 2 computer science and music
with Jared O'Leary that's me so I'm
going to talk about some questions that
some teachers in Wyoming had and kind of
answer them and provide some examples of
the intersections of music and computer
science now if you like that
intersection and you want to hear myself
talk about it a little bit more I
actually have a few episodes on this and
I'll include some links in the show
notes to those if you want to take a
listen to them but I also recommend
subscribing to csta Wyoming on Spotify
so you can listen to them and I'll
include a link to their podcast in the
show notes at Jared o'leary.com and just
go up to the computer science or coding
Tab and then go down to the podcast
foreign
hello and welcome to the csta Wyoming
podcast the show for all things computer
science and the Wyo I'm Megan garnhardt
csta Wyoming president and a Wyoming
high school computer science teacher in
today's episode we will be answering
questions from Wyoming computer science
Educators with Jared O'Leary we'll
discuss the intersection of computer
science and music education hi Jared
thanks for being here today yeah happy
to be here uh would can you introduce
yourself for us and tell us a little bit
about what you're up to these days
yeah so I've had kind of a weird career
I've worked in both music education and
computer science education positions
every grade kindergarten through
doctoral student and currently I'm
working for myself creating content from
a website for gamers drummers and
computer science educators
awesome that's so fun this is exactly
what you were perfect for today so we
have asked our fellow Wyoming computer
science Educators and the music
educators throughout the state what
questions they had about computer
science and music education and we're
hoping you can help us answer those
because you're for sure the expert in
this
so let's get started cool so our first
question is I am an Elementary music
teacher and my principal has asked that
I bring computer science into my lessons
help
where do music and computer science
principles align
yeah so I really like this question and
I'm going to spend more time answering
this and kind of diving deeper than some
of the other questions just to kind of
set the the grounds here so
the
so my dissertation had a lot of themes
and sub themes that blurred these
boundaries between music making and
computer science education so my PhD is
in music education but the dissertation
itself talked a lot about people making
music with retro video game hardware and
like old computers so it's a music
called chiptunes so people who made this
music
were discussing it in a discussion form
there were like 10 000 members in there
and they had like 11 million words of
data that I looked at and kind of like
came up with these different themes and
whatnot so the themes primarily talked
about composition practices performance
practices this is like music composition
and performance and then something I'm
calling maker practices coding practices
entrepreneurial practices visual art
practices and Community practices so
with on all of these it like really
blurred these boundaries and kind of
made me question well when is this a
computer science practice or principle
or concept and when is this a music one
and there wasn't really a clear answer
and when the members of the discussion
forum actually spoke about it they said
that it was Inseparable so when it came
to coding some types of music they said
you cannot do this without engaging in
both code and music so what I'd
recommend is trying to find spaces or
ways of engaging that kind of have
similar alignment whether it is
chiptunes or whatever so
to more directly kind of answer your
question however and by the way if you
want to the dissertation is available
for free it's called Uh Corpus assisted
discourse analysis of Music related
practices discussed within shitmusic.org
is a mouthful it's for free on my
website under the publication section
but let's actually like dive into this a
little bit so
a lot of the engagement that you'll find
and I'll kind of talk about this a
little bit more in some of the other
questions like if you were to create
music in scratch it's pretty obvious
when to be able to align the algorithms
and programming standards that Wyoming
has however it's a little harder for
some people especially music educators
no offense to figure out how to align
the music standards with computer
science standards so I actually kind of
want to go through those for a moment
just to kind of talk about it so if we
look at this is just for the grades 9
through 11. but you can do this with K
through 4 and through five through eight
but in the music standards in standard
one we have the very first like
substandard that's talking about
refining musicianship through individual
practice and it's great the people who
were performing in this discussion forum
were doing so and so that would address
that standard however they built their
instruments so these electronic
instruments were often built by
themselves for the purpose of making
music and because these are electronic
instruments they often had to engage in
all sorts of Hardware manipulation even
like literally designing Hardware like
chips and being able to make it so that
you can interface with these old devices
and then turn like an Atari into a
guitar and then you have a guitari like
there's a lot of really cool things that
people are doing so cool that addressed
the standard one so standard two is to
be able to perform independently and
with others so a lot of these people
were doing so not only with the
electronic instruments but they built
but they also had like groups with like
a tuba and a banjo a Game Boy Advance
and then like a vocalist like they were
doing this in clubs they were doing this
online Etc awesome we've dressed that
standard the next one is to be able to
improvise rhythms and Melodies Etc
to be able to like create music in a
different style now this was the number
one thing that they talked about was
composing and improvising Etc and doing
all these things that are listed under
standard three and that's out of 11
million words of data so they discussed
this quite a bit
um and that also addresses standard
number four which is the composing and
arranging music now we also have music
literacy through notating music now this
one for some music educators when they
look at it they might see the ways that
people engage in this intersection
between music and computer science and
go but that's not Western uh
standardized notation you're right they
might not be using that instead they
might be using midi or they might also
use some of the staff notation or they
just might use code they might use a
language called ABC notation where
you're literally just writing out the
letters and then it performs it for you
if we actually zoom out a little bit and
look at well what do you mean by music
literacy there are so many ways that you
can engage in music making and computer
science if you just broaden your
definition of what does it mean to be
musically literate
so the next set of Standards that's on
the music we have standard number two
which is aesthetic perception so this
first substandard under here is talking
about analyzing compositional devices
and techniques they frequently talked
about comparing algorithms as well as
comparing albums and songs Etc
so we've got that one and the next
substandard is responding to RL examples
by evaluating musical elements so they
asked for critique there is in fact a
sub form specific to critique on music
where people would submit their Works in
progress and say hey can I get some
feedback on this so we've got that one
as well they also evaluated their own
and other people's performances they did
this not only with their code or
compositions but also like live
performances and again got some feedback
on there and then the last substandard
under or this particular one is about
forming and defending preferences for
musicians there's a lot of discussions
on well which chip musicians do you like
or is this type of chiptune actually
chiptune or is it something called fake
bit which was this really interesting
argument about if you used the wrong
type of hardware for this was it then
actually legitimate music which gets
into some historical and cultural
context which is the third main standard
for musicians or for music in Wyoming
so this one uh again I just mentioned
the very first standard in there so the
second one is talking about analyzing
characteristics that cause work to be
considered historically or culturally
significant so creating requires an
understanding of that style or period so
a lot of people when they engage in this
music they would actually create like
jazz or
um hip-hop or progressive rock in this
particular style of electronic music
making that required a lot of computer
science background to do so I'd argue
that you actually are engaging in that
one and the next one is students
evaluating the various purposes of music
and selecting music for a specific
purpose so this is often done the they
would do for the live performances they
also created chiptunes for like
commercials or for movie scores or Video
Games Etc so so far we've hit every
single standard on here we can do the
exact same thing for the artistic
Connections in the very last standard
four that's on here we could talk about
digital citizenship how it's not just
about the music but the actual musical
tools and instruments that are being
designed manufactured built Etc and then
we could even talk about the
entrepreneurship so long story short
every single one of the music standards
can relate to just this one sub-genre of
music making that happens to blur these
intersections of computer science and
music but the thing that it requires for
a lot of music educators is to think of
how these two fit and really kind of
evaluating
um not only like what students will know
and understand about how they can
actually do that so the how can be up to
the communities the districts the
individual Educators or even students to
figure this out so if you look at the
standards it doesn't say that you're
going to do all of these things in band
class or in Orchestra class or general
music which is often the case in
elementary school and also happens to be
the most broad of the like main
categories of music education so if we
look at the standards and my argument is
what we typically see is standard
substandard one and two that's about 99
of what you see in most large ensembles
is performing alone or with others and
refining that performance that's it none
of the other stuff so if you're looking
at some of the like music and CS stuff
that's discussed in my dissertation and
then here's a link that hopefully you
can include in the show notes of some
podcasts where I kind of unpack some
Publications that explore this more
examples in some Publications that I've
done
um I would argue that a lot of what is
being talked about in those podcast
episodes in those Publications can very
easily be done in music classes and
actually address the remainder of those
standards that likely are not actually
discussed in music education contexts
I don't know did that answer that
question for you absolutely I think
that's fantastic I love how in depth you
went there and I will make sure that
that link that you sent is in those are
show notes as well because I think this
is just so powerful and I think you hit
it right on you know sometimes it's just
under
understanding to dig a little bit deeper
than the obvious of the standards which
we all fall into that of this kind of
like blanket level of the standards so
yeah I think the in depth of that was
perfect for what we want and you're
right it sets the stage for the rest of
what we're going to talk about
so question two was I have students who
love music but aren't very interested in
my computer science course how can I get
them excited about computer science do
you have resources to help me
yeah that's an excellent question so for
context when I switched over from music
education and started teaching coding
classes at the K-8 level
the the we're using one platform as
co.org and students after a while got
pretty bored with this so they had this
technology special class that they
rotated to and so I'd see them for three
weeks every single day for three weeks
straight and then I'd see them again
next quarter and so we were able to dive
deep into things and the students got
bored with just doing the same thing
over and over and so very quickly I was
like okay how about we actually do more
Arts based and music-based like creation
through code and so the next semester I
added in scratch and so students were
able to explore stories games animations
even music there are some limitations
and I talk about that in that one of the
podcast episodes that is going to be in
the show notes but the
students kept coming to me and saying
yeah this is great but I'd really like
to be able to make more music like dive
deeper into this cool so the following
semester I added in Sonic pie which
allows you to dive deeper using a
programming language Ruby and allows you
to like literally live perform by typing
out lines of code or you could compose
stuff or you can create all courses
types of like aliatoric chance based
music making or soundscapes or whatever
you want to do and then the following
semester I added in Swift which was like
professional app development because
students were like well I want to be
able to make stuff for my iPad or my my
um whatever device and so I kept adding
a new thing each semester so the reason
why I'm saying this is because to answer
your question more directly is whenever
a student came to me with a question of
hey how do I explore this thing through
CS I found a language or a platform that
allowed them to do that whether it was
like Khan Academy JavaScript more art
and animation or scratch or sonic Pi or
Swift or co.org whatever ever there are
many different options in there so if
you want to get kids interested in CS
and they love music find a way to
explore that now how do you do that well
there are platforms and this will kind
of answer another question but some easy
ones to compose or perform are scratch
that's block based you could use tune
pad which is python I believe you could
use ear sketch with a which I think is
both Python and JavaScript you could use
Sonic Pi which is Ruby and there's like
many more that you could do now this is
not just composing which is a really
cool thing that you can do but you can
also perform or algorithmically
improvise so there's a sub-genre of
music making called algorave where it's
combining Rave culture with algorithms
and so somebody will literally go up
onto a stage they'll display their
screen behind them and all the screen
shows is code and it's just this blank
screen and you start typing in lines of
code and you hit run and it execute
something here and then okay cool we got
our like four on the floor going and
then we add in the melody and then a
Baseline and then you see all the lines
of code as they're going and they're
literally performing music and you can
see everything that they're doing to
actually create that music
the other side of things of
algorithmically improvising one of the
things that I like to kind of experiment
with was this like exploration of music
and CS in ways that you cannot do
without this the the connection of the
two and so one of them is looking at how
you can have randomization in a program
so you use like a random seed or like a
number generator or something to just
randomly select within some kind of a
frame so I created an infinite drum set
so I gave it a single um seed any kind
of number and then it would just
algorithmically improvise a beat with
fills and grooves and all sorts of
really cool stuff and you get a
different seed and then it will allow
you to infinitely create a new different
set of different rhythms and whatnot and
I could actually change how good or bad
the performer was and so I made it so
that like it would either be perfectly
in time or I could scale it back so it
sounded like some of the elementary kids
that I worked with when they're first
figuring out how to play on the drums so
there's some really cool things that you
can do and explore if you kind of think
outside of the box but it doesn't have
to just be music making
so some people are like the
percussionists like myself are really
just interested in like sound it might
not necessarily need to focus on
Melodies harmonies rhythms Etc so you
could also explore like randomized
soundscapes so I made one like back when
I was doing my residency in School of
Music there was like a vocal professor
in the office next door to me and just
bangling on the piano at somebody be
like singing and so I wanted to be able
to like drown that out no offense to
them so I created a randomized
soundscape that would like make it sound
like I was walking through a forest and
so every time I would turn that on it'd
be a random walk it'd be like oh there's
a river on my right there's birds flying
overhead there's crickets Etc and so I
created this without making any kind of
music but it was all through code that I
was using to be able to create this
soundscape so that are those are some
like many different ways that you can
explore Music and Sound in CS for those
who happen to be interested in it
I really like how you phrase that and
how you kind of Drew that scope and
sequence out and how that worked with
your students because I I agree
completely what I find with students
especially when they're getting to that
High School level is sometimes they've
seen so much of the same that they're
even our kids who really love computer
science our Board of computer science
and I think that what you hit on there
was a lot of that interest-based
computer science doing computer science
work and learning a language for the
purpose of meeting an interest that you
have specifically in this case with
music and I love that idea because it's
okay if I have three different kids in a
room learning three different languages
or programs if that's going to lead them
to what they want to get from their
computer science education particularly
if it's interest-based for their music
and I like that because I think I I'm
guilty of it myself I pigeonhole myself
into this group's gonna learn this
coding language with this program at
this pace but we know that that doesn't
work for all our students and even our
students who love computer science get
bored with the same stuff so that
interest based and letting them come to
you and say this is what I want to do
how do I do that I feel like that's such
a good bridge for everything we do
computer science music all of those
pieces that interest is so huge so
that's fantastic yeah and so for context
like the K8 coding classes were
mandatory so having taught classes that
are mandatory and classes that are like
people elect to the take them or pay to
attend Etc it's very different when
everybody is like required to be there
and they're like I don't want to learn
this
okay so if I came in with this really
awesome pre-scripted thing that I find
really interesting and the kids who want
to be there find interesting the kids
who don't care are gonna be like so what
and then what they're not gonna learn
anything so if you start with the
interest then it draws them into the
field at least in in my opinion
sometimes I had some middle schoolers
who were just like well I don't want to
do this and I was like well do you play
video games and like yeah well how about
you modify a video game or make your own
like that was the way to like kind of
get them into it and then it drew them
into more things down the road they were
like well how do I do this thing oh well
here's something for you it's it's hard
to facilitate to be honest because like
if I walk up to a computer like it might
be JavaScript the next computer scratch
the next computers Ruby and then like
Swift like it's very hard you have to be
able to debug very fast and it kind of
set up a lot of practices to encourage
peer collaboration facilitation and
question asking Etc but in the long run
it was totally worth all the efforts and
all the languages that I ended up using
or not using but still learning and
going nah we won't do that one
yeah see I think as you're saying that
you're such it's such a good point that
the the younger kiddos where it's not an
elective that they're choosing
necessarily in Wyoming we know this is
now part of our state requirements from
K-12 and so our elementary and Junior
Highs are going to start to see kids who
are required to do this just like you
said are like I'm not interested at all
and I think you're right some of those
pure editing skills and those peer
helper skills that you can set up early
on it's it's so worth it in the long run
for you to be able to reach their
interests I'm just going to say having
taught for quite a while
it's worth teaching to their interests
even though it's a little bit harder
because really bad behaviors with kids
who are bored is also really hard
so kind of picking our level of
difficult there it's hard for me to
maybe know and manage all of the
different resources that they're using
or languages that they're using it's
also hard to deal with half a class of
board students so I like how you say
that like this interest-based driven I
mean Choose Your Heart Right
yeah cool that's fantastic uh our next
question was for teachers and students
that want to try computer science music
out what are some good introductory
programs that are free and readily
available that you would suggest now I
know you've touched on this a couple
times and it sounds like in our show
notes that link that you have is going
to take us to some podcasts that give us
some good resources as well yeah so
here's another page that you can include
in this channel so on my website there's
a coding and music page for a music
encoding page and it uses like the two
ampersands because I'm a nerd
um it's a programming thing it is so
um yeah on there there are links to
multiple uh platforms that are great for
this but scratch is good for Block based
there are problems with it in terms of
you can't really get granular with the
music making like you can't really
refine it make it sound as great as you
want you can with Sonic Pi but it is a
syntax axolite language so as a Ruby
it's made for being able to perform live
so you don't want to have to worry about
semicolons and stuff like breaking
things but I do Wonder for the like I
started that with fourth graders
um I wonder if they'd down the road were
to go to a more syntax heavy language if
they would be like why do I need to add
in all of these braces Etc and if it's
gonna like cause some confusion down the
road but I don't know uh another one is
tune pad and then
um they kind of are in collaboration
with Georgia Tech which also created ear
sketch so that's like a full range that
can be used
um from mid Elementary and on up but
there are some other things that like I
did with scratch Junior which is great
for like early and pre-readers and you
can make some like fun music programs in
there where like you can create a like
drum set so when you press on the
different like Sprites and it will like
do the different sounds for the drum set
you can make a beat like things like
that
I really like that you started with
scratch just because that's generally
where I start and I'm pretty intentional
with that because it does offer so much
but it has limitations which to go back
into this interest driven I like that
there's limitations because suddenly
they're wanting to do something that
they can't do and so they're willing to
learn a bit more once they call me over
and they can't do what they want they
want to know how to fix it then so I
like starting there and then moving them
for like you said there are some
limitations but I think that kind of
encourages them to learn a bit more
awesome okay so I'm gonna put you on the
spot a little bit with this one and I
actually wrote this question so
specifically I'm putting you on the spot
so but I'm constantly looking to plant
the seed for specific computer science
careers for students what areas of
current professional music production do
you believe rely on computer science
most and what would those job titles be
yeah so depending on how you look at the
like the phrasing of that question like
anything that's involving any type of
electronic music is going to require
software Hardware you're you're going to
be able to know need to know computer
science to be able to create the stuff
that people use for those tools but to
actually give you some more like careers
that specifically you have to know both
or be good at both like that's where I
think is really interesting if we look
at a lot of live performances nowadays
there's so much going on like it's not
just when I'm speaking of like if you go
to a concert
um so if you to attend it it's not just
going to be somebody on stage singing
and million instruments Etc there's all
sorts of Lights like LEDs imagery that
sync with the music the sound or even
dance like people will wear outfits that
will light up depending on what kind of
dance move they are using Etc like
there's a lot of really fascinating
things going on live that kind of blur
the intersection of the Arts broadly
speaking in computer science that's
really cool and there's even the same
organizations that specifically explore
those connections but if if we go back
to like some of the software like
digital audio workstations or Daws they
often use something called a virtual
Studio technology or vsts and so these
are plugins that make it so that you can
make your music software do something
you could not do so let's say you had it
like an analog synthesizer that you
really like but it's like dying on you
and you wanted to be able to create one
that you can use in your virtual program
your software cool you can make a VST
that will be that analog synthesizer Etc
in order to create stuff like that I
argue you have to have an understanding
of not just computer science but also
music making and so there are entire
careers that like are specifically
looking for programmers with a strong
background in some kind of music making
Etc because you don't want to just hire
somebody who doesn't know how to make
music because they know how to program
because then you're going to be like
having to teach them well here's this
very basic concept Etc like you have to
be able to understand both but now I
want to give you an example that's like
probably more catered toward high school
students that might really be interested
in this so video game sound design is a
whole new thing it's no longer just
about like composing music like a here's
a score and it will play
if you think of a movie when you're
composing music the movie you know
exactly how long that scene is going to
be and the composers like giving
parameters like hey I wanted to be
action oriented it needs to be exactly
on the like the three second and the
Eight Second marker I don't know stuff
like that but in video games what if I'm
really good at video games and I can
finish that sequence in five seconds or
what if I'm really bad at video games
and it takes me like an hour just to get
through this thing that most people can
do in a minute well at some point in
there you're going to need to be able to
program maybe even some hints audibly
speaking there's this game that um I
played called flower and it kind of like
guides you audibly and Visually to be
able to figure out what your objectives
are it doesn't like tell you hey collect
the flower petals and like all this
stuff it's just like you kind of float
around you explore and then it kind of
like nudges you into Direction by like
pushing some wind over here the same
thing can be done with audio so you can
literally program a video game to help
somebody out with just the audio cues of
like oh I think I hear something over in
that direction maybe I should go over
there but if we really want to get extra
nerdy I have a friend named Julian who
works at gearbox Studios which is like a
really big game development company and
one of the things that he was talking
about is like the the things you have to
consider with virtual reality and sound
design so if you're playing in a video
game there are certain like ways that
you can interact by like pressing a
button and it'll do something but if I'm
in virtual reality like let's say I'm in
this room that I'm in right here and I
pick up my cell phone if I'm able to
hold my cell phone now where I throw it
is going to make a different sound if I
throw it into the room far away it's
going to make a different sound if like
that room is all made out of metal what
if I throw it into a room that's made
out of wood what if I drop it on my
keyboard or tap it on the mouse what if
I move it in different directions Etc
and I just start like hitting it on
every single object in this room you
could go in and record every single
combination of sound in every single
acoustic environment Etc or you could
record maybe one sound or not record a
sound at all but instead actually design
the sound algorithmically and take into
all kinds of different factors and
mathematical equations and algorithms to
be able to go okay when it is touching
metal on plastic inside of a wooden room
it will sound like this and if it is
being bonked on my head inside of I
don't know a room that is full of padded
walls it's going to sound completely
different so that kind of intersection
is what's really coming in the future of
like game design for not only music but
also for sound and I find that
fascinating you're really gonna need to
have some people who have a firm
understanding of programming and just
sound in general and who like to nerd
out with algorithms and math to be able
to make it sound like this cell phone
would sound in an actual environment in
a virtual environment
that's wild that is so fantastic I've
never I've never put thought to that I
guess I'm not a huge gamer I've played
some games but I'd never put thought to
those pieces but that's so in intriguing
and I think we have a huge population of
kids who are going to be really
interested in that piece you we see a
lot of kids in computer science who are
like oh game development for sure but
it's cool to look at all those other
pieces of game develop development that
are included
interesting yeah this blew my mind a
little bit it's so cool and most music
educators like don't really think about
sound broadly speaking they think about
music and the music side is really cool
because like you can layer in like 20
different sound variations like if
there's five enemies in the room only
play four of them but if there's a
hundred enemies play like 20 of them
like there's so many cool things you can
do but like the sound and virtual
reality like the the intersections of
computer science is just it's
fascinating
wow that is fascinating I'm really
excited to tell my students about this
tomorrow truly they're gonna nerd out
with me and we'll have so much fun
uh those were all of our questions thank
you for joining us and helping uh
Wyoming music and computer science
teachers begin to join forces together
where can our listeners find and follow
you online you've talked about it quite
a bit so where can we find you
so I talk quite a bit on the csk8
podcast you can search for that anywhere
on any podcast platform or if you just
go to my name charity leary.com you can
find me on various social media outlets
on there
wonderful and I know personally I've
spent quite a bit of time on your
website
folks you should absolutely check it out
music computer science whatever you're
looking for it's on there and it's a
fantastic website so dig in and then a
quick reminder to our listeners before
we sign off for today to go visit our
csta Wyoming website to register for the
Summer Conference also follow us on
Twitter Instagram and Facebook to stay
up to date with all things computer
science
thank you
thank you
now I don't know about you but that very
last question that was asked when I was
talking about like VR and whatnot like
that is so cool the fact that you can
save so much memory so much time so much
like the processing power and whatnot
just by having stuff run algorithmically
rather than having to record hundreds
and hundreds of samples of what if I
bang this object on this other surface
in this new environment like it just
makes it so you can adapt things on the
fly so much faster than having to record
stuff and get like a high quality or
high resolution audio file for every
single possible sound effect so the
future of like Sound and Music and
programming that intersection is pretty
neat when it comes to video games and
the VR space in particular so if you
want to learn more about that I'll
include some links in the show notes to
some other intersections of music and
computer science that you can explore on
some other podcasts or Publications that
I've done on this particular topic thank
you so much for listening to myself be a
guest on somebody else's podcast again
check out csta Wyoming whether it be
either podcast on Spotify Linked In the
show notes or you know their conferences
like the one that's coming up this
summer so if you haven't done so I
highly recommend attending I attended
this past year and I really loved it
when I was out there at the conference
so check it out if you enjoyed this
episode consider leaving a review or
sharing it with somebody else and make
sure you also do the same thing for csta
Wyoming's podcast and stay tuned next
week for another episode of the cska
podcast until then hope you're all
staying safe and are having a wonderful
week

Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode

Other podcast episodes that were mentioned or are relevant to this episode
- How to Get Started with Computer Science Education
  - In this episode I provide a framework for how districts and educators can get started with computer science education for free.
- Intersections of Popular Musicianship and Computer Science Practices
  - In this episode I unpack my (2020) publication titled “Intersections of popular musicianship and computer science practices,” which discusses potential implications of hardware and software practices that blur the boundaries between music making and computer science.
- Music Making in Scratch: High Floors, Low Ceilings, and Narrow Walls?
  - In this episode I unpack Payne and Ruthmann’s (2019) publication titled “Music making in Scratch: High floors, low ceilings, and narrow walls,” which problematizes the limitations of making music with Scratch.
- Programming Music with Sonic Pi Promotes Positive Attitudes for Beginners
  - In this episode I unpack Petrie’s (2021) publication titled “Programming music with Sonic Pi promotes positive attitudes for beginners,” which investigates student attitudes around enjoyment, importance, and anxiety when coding music through Sonic Pi.
- Reconceptualizing “Music Making:” Music Technology and Freedom in the Age of Neoliberalism
  - In this episode I unpack Benedict and O’Leary’s (2019) publication titled “Reconceptualizing “music making:” Music technology and freedom in the age of Neoliberalism,” which explores the use of computer science practices to counter neoliberal influence on education.
- The Subservient, Co-equal, Affective, and Social Integration Styles and Their Implications for [Computer Science]
  - In this episode I unpack Bresler’s (1995) publication titled “The subservient, co-equal, affective, and social integration styles and their implications for the arts,” which “examines the different manifestations of arts integration in the operational, day-to-day curriculum in ordinary schools, focusing on the how, the what, and the toward what” (p. 33).
- More episodes related to integration
- More episodes related to music
- All other episodes
Check out my dissertation
More resources on this topic
Wyoming’s music standards
Wyoming’s CS standards
Subscribe to CSTA Wyoming’s podcast
- Check out their Twitter profile
Find other CS educators and resources by using the #CSK8 hashtag on Twitter