Music in the design studio
I found that most students began listening to their ipods and other personal music players and were disengaging from the dialogue that makes studio collaboration so critical in their development. To remedy this I asked that they come to consensus to have music throughout the studio so they can still hear the comments made by myself and others. The students rotate the type of music through a lottery system they developed themselves, it has been most effective in restoring a collaborative atmosphere to the class.
I find that students prefer to listen to something while they are working. While I can select something for the entire class, there are always some that will listen to their own (we are all individuals, after all). Many prefer to stay engaged, and available for commenting on each others' work and collaboration. The background music fills the silences when everyone is concentrating.
we use to play music in the lab in one of our custom body classes, what a differece it made to the attitude and the quality of the students work projects, but than some person decided that it was not a good thing so we had to stop playing music, BAD! decission as the quality an moral of the students has dropped.
I would think that the type of music could make learning even better. I am sure that you could have to have it playing all the time but at the same point you may not need to go with out, Just adjust the level or choice of music. I have seen where the tempo can of the music can change the entires class attitude
We can not listen to music in class because students will not be able to concentrate on tasks at hand. We teach culinary arts and we need to communicate with each other not listening to music.
we do not listen to music in my design studio classes. students listening to personal devices are, indeed, disengaging from the group and i find that listening to music as a group leads to the same unfortunate result. i require students to focus on the work being done without the distraction of music. we take occasional breaks from working and engage one another in many interesting and entertaining discussions about design and life in general. the instructor must be in control of the situation, music is an invitation to losing control.
