When you think that you suck..

One of the things about trying something new is that you cannot go into it thinking that you’re gonna be perfect straight on. Many things take hours and hours if not years to perfect. When I rented my drum kit I had the vision of me being able to perform a solid beat within setting up the kit but little did I know that I actually didn’t know that much about drumming. I had a digital drum kit before so I do have the basic movements down but that was on a digital drum kit which is completely different from an acoustic set because an acoustic set you can tune to the exact sound you want, let alone tuning every tom, snare, and kick to work with each other; along with tuning comes how hard you hit the drums itself, its crazy how customizable it is. With this come the discovery of my sound which I have yet to find because of how vast the drums can sound.

The sound and tuning is only the first part of realizing that I actually don’t know everything about the drums and intrigues me to play more. I can maybe play two songs all the way through at this moment with maybe a couple of mistakes. However, the thing that I am noticing that whenever I think to myself that “I suck” or “You sound bad” I end up playing better because I am striving to sound good. Thats why I believe it is not negative to look down on yourself in some cases because it allows you to focus on your flaws, and improve on those flaws that may be holding you back. Everybody has flaws there is no denying that, you are never going to be perfect; but the more you work on your flaws the more confident you will become with them, and focus more on the bigger picture!

🙂

Learning a bit about tuning..

One of the parts about drumming that I never considered about drumming is the fact that you need to tune the drums to your liking. Just like any instrument you have to tune it so that it sounds right however, drums can’t (actually they can but its confusing) be tuned to a note, or a chord. There is no A or C chord for the drums, so how do you tune them? Drumming is solely based on what you want yourself to sound like, and this is where tuning helps achieve that. You are able to tighten and loosen the tension rods on a drums head to either loosen or tighten the sound (if that makes sense). I learnt through youtube videos that tuning a drum kit to your liking is actually extremely important because in order for you to play well, you have to like how you sound. With that comes a bunch of trial and error, and if you get annoyed by not the right sound easily.. well theres lots of that!

 

Googling my name.

Following May 24’s class I decided to google search my name just to see what shows up if an employer, or school division were to do so. I was somewhat surprised but also disappointed to what comes up. When I google my name the first thing that pops up is my Facebook profile.. Alright.. I did a major sweep of anything on my Facebook so no unprofessional photos, or posts appear and you essentially need to contact me before you can see anything. Next are just some old profile pictures and what not, then theres my youtube account. Then there is my youtube account; again there is nothing unprofessional on there just some guitar videos, video game montages, and old embarrassing videos of myself. What is left on the first page of my name is basically my social media forms so twitter (which is professional and being used now), Instagram (which is also the same as Facebook, I have to allow someones ability to look at my stuff), and my old Vine account (lol). Last of the first page is a relation to Darren Dreger who is an NHL player given that we have the same last name.

This is the part that disappoints me, on the first page I have no professional outlook of my lifestyle and personality that may benefit me to an employer. It takes going to the second page to see a link to my bio on WordPress, but even then there is no professional vision on my first page. This is where I see the importance of building a strong digital identity because you want to direct someones attention to the best image of you; as we know the internet could possible harness a lot of unprofessional, disgusting personal information about yourself if you aren’t careful because anything posted to the internet never leaves. So having it difficult to find this information by having the positives on the first page is by far one of the better things you can do for yourself as a digital citizen.

Early 2000’s Youtube

After watching the excerpt from Michael Welsch, and the presentation from Alec Couros on digital identity it got me thinking of how far we have come with social media. Back in the early 2000’s when I was first introduced to youtube it was a much different website then what it is now. Back then videos were only ever 5 minutes long max because the servers couldn’t hold enough data for a video longer than 10 minutes. The videos were so grainy that it was as if you were looking at the pixels, and for the most part the videos were flash videos (cartoons), or video game skits. Now youtube is on its way to having 4k resolution and there is billions of accounts all unique and such.

The reason I am referring to old youtube is because of how much the internet impacted the world with such a simple concept. When you think back to the old youtube videos such as the “numa numa” video or “star wars kid” normally the only way for people to get that video were through chain mail and what not. However, there was this website that allowed there to be a community that anybody in the world could access; because of this community these videos were able to circulate around the world and essentially create the youtube that is to this day the leading video community in the world.

With this being said I can see the positive sides of the internet and how many people you can reach out to so easily because of this digital community. I can contact an educator in Arizona that could give me ideas on lesson planning rather than you know.. Having to fly to Arizona (Idk why I would that was just an example). The positive to this is the world is more open then it was before social media sites were created when such resources were only possible through word of mouth. Now we can just as easily find possible lesson plan ideas on Pinterest as making Kraft Dinner.

Lets do this…

Alright! I did it. I finally did something that has been in my interest for basically my whole life. I am currently renting a drum kit!!! For my ECMP 355 learning project I am going to work on becoming a drummer (which is something I have always wanted to do).

So first thing off, I have drummed before in my life which means that I have a few basic beats in my head; I also play guitar so I have a natural rhythm going on. However, this is the first time I ever played an acoustic drum kit.. The sound, feel, and overall placement of the heads are all different from what I am used to (and thats not even a lot!). So you could say I am basically starting from scratch with natural rhythm

 

    (It actually didn’t take that long to set up!)

Second off I am renting in the meantime (I wish I could buy but I have no money). The guys at long and mquade also said that renting is very good for beginners because you have yet to discover your sound, let alone the basic rhythm down. So with renting has its complications.. they forgot to give me some serious components: my seat stand (its called a throne lol), a leg for my bass drum (the biggest one), and a ride stand (one of the bigger cymbals that make that “ting” sound, so I need to get those covered before I can really go at er.

Last of all I want to leave the people who read these with a little treat/ a control. I want to have the same song I am covering in my first post, and also my last post to sort of show my progression. If you’re somebody who knows me, “Stressed” Out from Twenty One Pilots is the answer to my life at this moment, with that being said I want to be able to drum to the sick beat that is “Stressed Out”. So I am going to leave this blog with the video of my first  drum cover ever 😉 ENJOY!

Twitter Talk.. #idk

Just a heads up this is a blog on all social media not just twitter.

So as I have stated before in previous blogs I am an introvert. Only like interacting with small groups of close friends and what not; This also applies to social media. I avoid forms of social media (I barely even use Facebook) because 1.) I am an introvert and 2.) I think its a waste of time and destroying society. Now it seems like I am jumping the gun here and completely bashing social media but I have my reasons for both using it and disliking it. I do understand the important, and beneficial side to social media. Forms of social media such as Twitter, and Facebook are great networking tools given that employers pretty much put a face to your digital identity. It is also perfect for getting a professional profile to your name considering that in todays society that social media is EVERYTHING.

Every living thing seems to be revolved around social media which directs me to my negative beliefs of social media. It can get very messy; Social media is basically an option for a**holes to say whatever they want with no real consequences. Not saying that I am a softy that doesn’t want to get bullied, I just don’t like associating myself with negativity most of the time. I also still have a gut feeling that social media is destroying society in the sense that when I go for supper with my parents, Ill put my phone down (giving respect to my parents) and they will be typing away doing whatever they do on their phones. I feel like people should not be glued to their phones 24/7 in order to get social media fame over actual socialization.

I understand the benefits of social media, and I am ever growing into a more digitally active individual (I actually got a twitter account),However I still have my doubts. I understand there are methods to avoiding negativity on the internet (somewhat) but I still feel like the proper way to interact with people is to actually talk to them face to face, rather than on a screen.

This video sums up how I feel about social media; Though I am still open to discussion and what not!

 

 

Hello Hello

Hello everyone that will be taking ECMP 355 with me during the spring semester. My name is Brayden Dreger and I will also be taking ECMP 355 (hence why I am making this introductory post). A little about myself I am an adventurer, an introvert, and a musically inclined individual. I love camping, fishing, hiking, snowboarding basically anything outside I will do because I would rather be outside than inside. Most of the things I do are actually by myself or in a small group because surprisingly I am an introvert and most likely will tend to myself which sort of digs into my idea of a technological presence. I play guitar very well, and believe that I am musically inclined because of the level that I enjoy music (I really like music). I love Marvel movies as my learning project for ECS 210 was a voice over of the new Civil War trailer (inside joke kinda)

I avoid most social media forms such as Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram (Ill post one every three months lol). That is why every time I take a class that involves blogging, I become a little less introverted (technologically) because I am enforced to have a presence online. Apart from me never really going out with huge crowds of people I consider myself a very down to earth, and outgoing individual with great ideas. If you are interested in viewing my Instagram here is my account.(the links in the word omg)

I look forward to the rest of this spring semester because for once I have a feel for blogging (after ECS 210), and think my presence will be greater in time.

Stepping Forward From Here

One of the main things I will leave with because of ECS 210 is the fact that I learned how to create a relationship with my peers, and my professor’s. Prior to this course I barely ever spoke in class (having fear of being wrong), and would rarely speak to the prof about anything (also the fear of being wrong). However, this semester I decided to not care as much because I believe that 210 allows you to voice your opinion with no restrictions. Overall I enjoyed this course (as you can tell in my video), and look forward to incorporate the uncomfortable learning into my teaching philosophy.

Here is the link to my digital story telling.

The reason why I decided to screencast myself watching the civil war trailer for my digital story telling project is because I think it is a great example of how different opinions clash, and no one wins in the end. Though the movie will be different from what I heard, the original Civil War comic from Marvel has two sides of superhero’s fighting the ones who believe that their identities should be kept secret, and the other side that believes a superhero should be government position (funded by the government) hence giving up their personal Identity. I believe this is a perfect example of the issue I have with the phrase “common sense”, because it should not be the reason for negativity, and conflict. Just because someone does not have the same opinion as you does that make them the bad guy and as seen in Civil War SPOILER ALERT* Captain America dies in the final battle because two groups of people have disagreeing points of view. Basically we should all be considerate of each others customs, and opinions and rather than causing conflict we should step towards understanding the different points of views this world has and embracing them towards our own.

Thanks for a great semester 🙂

 

 

Subject told to teach only if you want.

The purpose of treaty education in my opinion is just like claire said in lecture that “it is not necessarily for the Indigenous people in the classroom, it is for the settlers”. I strongly believe this in the sense that treaty education is more about educating students who fall within a settler origin about the land that they migrated to. Indigenous people were here well before Europeans stepped foot on this land, and through many many horrific years we finally made agreements with the Indigenous people that in our words “owned” this land before us to share the land; treaty ed focuses on the history of the land that we are sharing with the Indigenous people.

I feel as if we start enforcing let alone encourage treaty education in elementary, and secondary schooling then we will truly start our step forward with recognition of Canada’s dark history. As claire stated she had her hardships, and embarrassing mistakes with enforcing treaty ed into her classroom, but she stated that she has yet to offend someone or make someone upset (which I feel is one of the stronger reasons we don’t teach it). We as educators should not be afraid to step into the dark part of our countries history.

What we do not want to hear in School

With all of this hidden curriculum and troubling teaching we have been covering in ECS 210, I have come to terms with the sense that we need to dig right into the dirty in order to better the next generations. Through out the years of my education I have noticed that not only have I not been taught the troubling aspect of human history, but it was near ignored. I did not know the holocaust was a thing until grade 6, and I never heard the term “Residential Schools” until the last semester of grade 12, and that was just barely touching on the topic. It was not until I was in university that I really gained a true sense of the horrors of human history; everything up to that point was basically butterflies and rainbows. In my opinion the reason I was never taught about this kind of stuff is because my educators were probably afraid to approach these topics because they are deemed “not appropriate for school” but why? Why is it a bad thing to review the negative side of human history so that we can improve from it? School should not all be troubling don’t get me wrong, school is fun which is why I am wanting to become an educator. However, introducing the dark side of human history (that everyone is so scared to even mention let alone explain) should open the eyes of our students to the truth that people can be horrible monsters, but we can always improve.