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I have written about this wonderful little project before, Elernenmuzik. It is an audio project nominally based at the University of Edinburgh that explores the role of music in elearning, mostly through the development of learning soundtracks. I have contributed some playlists to this project and enjoy the whole process immensely. It forces a considerable reflection on why a particular type of music is good for learning and other music is not; some congeals all the scattershot threads going on in your cognitive space and some doesn’t. Many of the choices aren’t that predictable as they don’t seem like music that might crystallize thought (and some are quite obvious).

I was bantering back and forth with the creator of the project (and fellow MSc at the University of Edinburgh colleague) and this inspired me to cobble together another soundtrack. However, this time I wanted to create a video/collection of images to go with it. So I did. So there. These are images that inspire me, create learning sensations for me (conditions are ripe for learning), or just crystallize thought a bit. Some are technological spaces, some are creative spaces, some are sanctuary, some are all of those. None of them are that extraordinary nor are they presented in any particular order. But they, as a composite, are my learning environment. They aggregate to a kind of meaning, a tablet to write upon. The music itself is relatively diverse, but very accessible:

  1. Chris & Thomas-Broken Chair
  2. Beirut-After the Curtain
  3. The Bee Gees-To Love Somebody
  4. College- A Real Hero
  5. Johannes Brahms-Lullaby
  6. Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou-Mother’s Love

All of this is music I listen to when I learn, or write, or read, or just think. All of it is on my iPhone when I walk the streets of London, or Seoul, or New York. All of it makes connections a bit more possible, thinking a bit more lucid. And these images generally accompany the music so it seemed appropriate to deliver the whole multimodal package in one go. Enjoy.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/GuRz7bmcLog]

By Michael Gallagher

My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.

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