I am also a new "lurker". Since I have used music a great deal in my
consultancy work in China, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and some
countries in the Middle East, I have decided to share some of my
experiences re: its applicability in a variety of learning situations.
In China, having discovered that most of the participants were
pre-dominantly auditory, I often used music for concept recall. They
worked in teams to compose their songs making use of concepts learned and
borrowing the tunes from popular folk or modern Chinese music. They just
loved it! Gave me the goose bumps realizing the power of music not only
as a mnemonic aid but also in enhancing teamwork, creativity and pride in
their "creation" .
In Malaysia, the learners were predominantly visual and I used a different
medium to appeal to their predominant learning style. However, choosing an
appropriate popular 'theme song' to close a course and asking them to sing
the song elicited intense feelings and as they put it, " the song would
remind them about the things taken up in the course."
Vietnam was a different case. Right after the Strategic Planning Workshop
of the managers, each of them communicated the vision to their teams. They
were given a roadmap and a script on how to go about it. One interesting
activity was asking their team to compose poems ( poetry writing is
popular in Vietnam) or songs depicting the hotel vision. To add more
excitement to the activity, we opened an interdepartmental competition and
explained the criteria for the winning entry. I did not realize the power
of such exercise - the teams worked on their own, pooled their talents
together , maximized best possible resources and one thing was common to
all - the desire to create the very best! We were not only able to enhance
teamwork and creativity but we found that it was a powerful tool for teams
to fully undersand the hotel vision. When each team presented their songs,
I was very much moved. To us, all teams were winners. That was where I had
seen "intensity, expressiveness and effective collaboration" in an
environment which was conducive to naturally allowing all 3 components to
emerge . It was such a touching experience that the General Manager
thought of utilizing music and the power of the team not only for hotel
promotional activities but also for special hotel events. The managers
also realized how empowering the experience was to their teams.
At the moment, I am toying with the idea of collaborating with a musically
- gifted paraphelegic in the Philippines to compose songs which could be
used as a learning tool in a corporate setting and in the schools.
Gloria Martillano
Learning Consultant; Manila, Philippines
gloria@helios.iconn.com.ph
--gloria@helios.iconn.com.ph (Gloria Martillano)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>