The Recording Industry in the Digital Era

What happened: In the past 15 years, the recording industry reacted in a number of ways to the changes caused by the coming of the Digital Era (also known as the Information Age).

What we’re going to do: We are going to be journalists writing a report about how the recording industry reacted to the way computers, the Internet, and digital devices changed their way of doing business. Did the industry handle the changes well? Did they know what to do? Was is a masterful performance or an epic fail?

How we’re going to do it: We are going to write an article that explains what happened to the recording industry from approximately 1994 until the present, in other words, the recording industry’s reaction to the Digital Era. We’re also going to talk about what effect this had on musicians and performers and the way they make money and conduct their business.

THE PROJECT:

1. RESEARCH AND WRITE AN ARTICLE IN MICROSOFT WORD THAT TELLS THE STORY, SUPPORTED BY CHARTS AND GRAPHS. ONE ARTICLE PER TEAM.
   
2. BUILD THOSE CHARTS AND GRAPHS IN MICROSOFT EXCEL. YOU WILL TURN IN THOSE EXCEL FILES.
   
3. BUILD A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION, GIVEN BY THE WHOLE TEAM, THAT USES THE ARTICLE AND CHARTS AND GRAPHS AS THE BASIS FOR THE PRESENTATION.
4. THE EXCEL CHARTS AND GRAPHS CAN BE IMPORTED INTO WORD AND POWERPOINT.
5. DONE. DUE BY 12/14.

New key points discovered by 1st period:

• Clearly the topic of this presentation is how the Digital has had a huge impact on the recording industry.
• iTunes
• Wal-Mart
• Napster
• File sharing isn’t technically illegal.
• Copyright law.
• How did the recording industry react to illegal file-sharing that cut into its profits?
• Many legal file-sharing ideas were put out into an online and other media discussion when the Internet showed promise for music distribution. The recording industry didn’t react, signing on to nothing for years. Instead, illegal file-sharing grew all over the world.
• “Recording Industry Meets the Internet: What Happened?”

Here are some guiding questions for how to do this project:

What is the best way to present statistics to a group?

What is the best way to combine statistics with the main points of the story you’re trying to tell?

How can we get everyone on the team involved in the project and do their share of the work?

Important: The point of this project is to research the way the recording industry has changed in the Information Age:

What is the recording industry?
What is the Information Age?  (Also known as the Digital Era)
What are the key statistics that might show how the recording industry had changed in the Information Age? (Also known as the Digital Era)
Once we’ve chosen what statistics best show how the recording industry has changed, what is the best way to display those statistics?
After we’ve figured out how to display those statistics, what is the best tool for presenting those statistics, as well as telling the story of how and why these changes occurred to the recording industry?

…meaning you’ll lose work ethic points when I grade an assignment. It also means you need to email me or see me in class to get me to grade a late assignment. So…get the work done, especially if you want to pass my course. Feel free to ask me questions about the assignments, but don’t ask me which assignments you need to turn in. That’s what the grade portal and PeBL are for.

Finally, if you think you turned in the assignment and should have already been given credit, go to the Work Submission area of the Student Journal, click on My Responses, and check if I’ve posted a comment. You might have submitted the wrong assignment, or in the wrong form, or forgot to attach the file, or something. I always leave a comment if you’re did something not according to procedure.

Late work procedures:

1. Put your name and assignments you want graded on a Post-It (I’ve got them at my desk) and hand it to me.
2. OR, Email me a list of the assignments, but don’t attach the files. Turn them in at the correct submission area.

I’ve also set up some things to make it easier to do make-up work:

• My room is available at break and lunch for the rest of the semester.
• I have special work submission areas in the Student Journal called “Getting Rid of Those Zeroes” and “Upgrading Those Grades.” Turn in whatever you’ve got!!
  
• I have set up procedures for turning in late work and have told them three different ways: verbally, written on the white board, and posted on the class blog.
• I am urging all students to print out their assignment list from the grade portal and will print it for them if they need help because of no printing rights.
• I have set aside 40 minutes at the end of each block for make-up work (and postponed one project).
• I have made extra copies of the prompt packets to be available to kids who lost them (thanks Mr. Paisley!).
• I have made charts of each class highlighting  students at-risk for D’s or F’s for personal contact and intervention. Come talk to me if you think you’re on the list so we can talk.
  

I’m publishing the grades for the Basic Geometric Constructions that I assigned two weeks ago when I was out for a sub for four days. It’s time to be done!!!

Monday, the first four were due and ready to publish, along with your Cityscape.

Tuesday, the next three are due and ready to publish.

Wednesday, the next three are due are ready to publish.

Thursday, the last two are due and ready to publish.

Friday, you should have everything in, including the extra-credit back page (four separate illustrations). Extra credit work is, of course, optional.

Monday, November 23, I will introduce three more assignments that will take us through to the end of the semester. Tuesday, November 24, the Six- and Eight-Fold Symmetries are due and ready to publish. Let’s go!

Below, an example of good work!

Until further notice, we’ll start every class period with a lesson from “Adobe Classroom in a Book,” doing first the Photoshop lessons and then at some point moving over to the Illustrator lessons.

Next, we’ll use the middle third of each period to work on Mr. Paisley’s six-fold and eight-fold symmetry shapes created in Geometer’s Sketchpad, either in Mr. Paisley’s room or in mine. Almost all my computers have the Sketchpad on it already, and I’m working to get all of them working soon.

Finally, the last third of the period should be used to catch up on the Cityscape and various Basic Geometric Constructions that were assigned two weeks ago. We’ve got to get them finished and into our Let’s Get Visual presentations.

You’d better get ready!

We’re going to learn so many new terms and how to draw a whole bunch of new shapes and lines in Illustrator. First, here’s a reminder of the procedure:

• Make everything in Illustrator. Save as an .ai and then also save as a .pdf (PDF).
• Import the PDF into your PowerPoint presentation. You can drag and drop the PDF right on a slide.
• When you’re doing the illustrations in Illustrator, don’t hesitate to get artistic. Use color and backgrounds or whatever. Just don’t make the message about the geometry hard to see or read.
• Submit each PDF for your grade.
• The PowerPoint is a big project (plus it’s an archive of all your art).

Now, here is a list of the slides you’re going to make in Illustrator and add to the Let’s Get Visual PowerPoint. They’re from your Basic Geometric Constructions handout from Mr. Paisley:

1. Copied Line Segment
2. Bisection of a Line Segment
3. Construction of a Perpendicular to a Line from a Point off the Line
4. Construction of a Perpendicular to a Line from a Point on the Line
5. Bisection of an Angle
6. Copied Angle
7. To Construct a  Perpendicular to a Line from a Point off the Line (four-in-one slide)
8. To Construct a Perpendicular to a Line from a Point on the Line (four-in-one slide)
9. To Copy a Line Segment (four-in-one slide)
10. To Bisect a Line Segment (four-in-one slide)
11. To Bisect an Angle (four-in-one slide)
12. To Copy an Angle (six-in-one slide)
13. Extra Credit for early finishers: Inscribing Regular Polygons (four separate slides)

Don’t forget to turn each slide in as a PDF to the Student Journal work submission area to get credit. And add each illustration to the Let’s Get Visual (about Geometry, I Mean) PowerPoint presentation.

Update: I have a special extra-credit assignment for anyone who needs to raise their grade!! Go online, search for “Da Vinci painting” in Google and choose the Wikipedia Last Supper entry from the Google results. Save the JPEG of Da Vinci’s Last Supper. Then, place the painting into Illustrator using the “Place” function. Next, establish the single vanishing point for creating the perspective of the hall and its alcoves in the background of the painting. Finally, draw the lines that Da Vinci might have drawn before he began to lay down the paint. In other words, see if you can create the sketch Leonardo must have drawn preparing for this fresco. Good luck!! You’ll be rewarded for your work. Oh, and you can add this to your Let’s Get Visual project.

Many of you are completely caught up with your work, and some of you still need to get the Romeo & Juliet stuff done. Even some of you have the Decimal-Fraction Pattern spreadsheet to finish.

Today I just want everyone to get finished with everything we’ve got going and to get ready to add some more slides – produced in Illustrator – to our Let’s Get Visual PowerPoint.

I’m also thinking of a way to create groups in which all the members help each other stay on track. We need to select a mentor (or leader or expert, whatever we want to call it) who can be a source of help and advice. I’m going to think of ways to create these groups so that they sit together but don’t have to particularly sit alphabetically.

If you have any questions or want to receive credit for an assignment, don’t hesitate to come talk to me. However, I’m going to rely on you to self-manage more and take responsibility for your work progress. If you want good grades for your work, though, staying on task is very important.

If you run out of work, I’ve got more for you! And we’ve got plenty of projects to come.

Update: The first six illustrations for the Let’s Get Visual project are:

1. Right Triangle 1
2. Right Triangle 2
3. Right Triangle 3
4. Naturally Occurring Square Roots
5. Multiple Terms on a Slide
6. Multiple Images on a Slide

Save them as .ai files, and then save them and turn them in as PDFs.

You’re all about to get your tools and pencils out to learn how to draw objects in perspective over in Mr. Paisley’s class. Then, you’ll come back here and learn how to do it in Illustrator and maybe even Google Sketchup, our 3D program.

So let’s prepare for the experience by going to “Drawing in One-Point Perspective.”

We’ll do it together (watch my screen and yours, too).

BTW, perspective, according to Dictionary.com, means “a technique of depicting volumes and spatial relationships on a flat surface.”

Work on finishing the Romeo and Juliet Programs and Posters. Finish the Decimal-Fraction Pattern spreadsheet. If you get that done, work on any late assignments. If you want to get started on the Let’s Get Visual project, go ahead. Everything you need to know is on the last three blog posts below this one. Read them.

Mentors, help others where possible. Let the substitute teacher know if you help someone.

I expect everyone to turn in the Program, Poster, and Decimal-Fraction Pattern. After today, they will be considered late. Work with your Communication Studies teams for the Program content.

I want a good behavior report. Thanks.

Mr. Paisley has given us another Excel assignment, and this time you have to discover the formula for filling out all the cells.

You’ll each get a sheet with all the relevant number values for a conversion from 1/1 t0 16/16 and all the fractional values in between. There is clearly a pattern that you can see where fractional equivalents occur (i.e. 1/1-16/16, 1/2-2/4).

Now, you can fill in all the numbers by hand if you wish. But you’ll receive higher credit if you figure out where to put the formula (and whether you should use $’s to lock in references to other cell values) and then use the Fill Handle Technique to automate the completion of the worksheet.

We’ve done that in the other four Excel assignments, so you know what dragging the Fill Handle is all about. This time you have to discover the formula. It’s not that hard.

Please use Microsoft Excel (not Google Spreadsheet) and then submit it the Student Journal by attaching it to your Response.

Good luck!

Another new project comes to us from Communication Studies. We’re going to use Microsoft Word and our special duplex (two-sided) printer to create and publish programs and prompt books for your Communication Studies production.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Get your copy (scripts) handy. Although you made these in teams in Communication Studies, each one of you will need to produce a prompt book, program, and Photoshop poster for your team’s scenes.
2. Open a new document in Microsoft Word.
3. In “Page Setup,” choose landscape orientation, and change the margins to .5″ all the way around, left, right, top, bottom.
4. Start with your title page (you can put a picture on it if you want). Then enter your scripts just like they look in the script Ms. Dennett.
5. After we enter all the text, we go to “Page Setup” and choose “book fold.” Follow the instructions we say in the video. Important: you must save your document as “Word 97-2003 Document” by using the “save as” choice.
6. When we’re ready to print, you’ll submit the work to me, and I’ll explain how I set the printer to duplex printing. Then I’ll print your work for you.
7. We’ll need to do some special stapling with a special stapler from the office (I’ve got it in the room).
8. We’ll all do this for the programs as well as the prompt books. Every student has to make a program, with each team writer responsible for getting the scene synopsis and cast of characters for each group’s scene, based on the best synopsis of the group. Then email the material to each group member so every student can make a program using the winning synopsis for their group.
9. The programs need to include the synopsis and cast of characters for each group. Everyone should design one, but only the best will be used on the day of the presentation.
10. Posters (in Photoshop) need to include: 1. Communication Studies Present: Edited Scenes from Romeo and Juliet; 2. October 23rd 6:30 PM; 3. Cafegymatorium; 3. Use pictures of Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet from the Internet. As with other Photoshop art, save as a JPEG to turn it in.

We could do the booklets in fancier, more expensive computer applications, but Word is just fine for this. Later, we can learn to do it like the professionals do, in Adobe InDesign.

As for the posters, use what you learned in the first Photoshop poster project.

By the way, I’ll be giving you grades for the production of each of these three connected projects. You may also get credit in Communication Studies, so it’s a two-fer!