Techno Teaching: What Educators Can
Learn from DJs at MACUL 2015 was an interesting presentation. And
thought provoking.
Presenter Gary Abud described the work
of the DJ as someone with a number of complex skills managing many
different things at once, responding successful in the moment to
contingencies. A DJ creates a compelling environment for clubbers.
The DJ can get clubber to dance, put their hands up... you name it.
The analogy with teachers is obvious, and a very good one.
While compelling, however, it also has
a less attractive side.
The subtext, as I see it, is about
creating the “wow” lesson: a flashy, hypnotic, and mesmerizing
performance. In this scenario the DJ-teacher alone has agency. The
clubbers-students can only respond, only go where they are led. There
is only one response.
I think I'd rather have some
co-creation. Some back and forth. This DJ stuff shuts down all
spontaneity and responsiveness.
And then there's the beat, the DJ beat
Abud said was so great... that it's all about how a DJ appropriates
another DJ's beat, modifying it... (way too PoMo for me!) Don't tell
me there's a person behind it--a machine is the soul of that "beat."
In other words, no soul. Why do you Gen Y people and millennials
think there's a grove there? There ain't no groove there. This is a
groove: Bernard
Purdie putsdown a groove on “Home at Last.”
Or this groove? Nuff said.
