Orange County Register
Santa Ana, CA

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Eight Classes Bound by Music

Anaheim Hills students learn about peers around the world as they 'rock' together

By JIT FONG CHIN

LONG-DISTANCE SHARING: Brandon Reed, center, of Imperial Elementary School enjoys a videoconference with students in Kobe, Japan, as part of the students’ 13-week “Rock Our World” project. Michael Kitada, The Orange County Register

ANAHEIM HILLS – Kids from around the world love sweets and fast food, but not always the same types.

In Japan, children snack on seaweed, not Pop Rocks.

In New Zealand, children grab fish and chips rather than burgers.

In the past month, 15 students at Imperial Elementary School have been learning about the meal habits, school schedules and pop cultural loves of children from around the world.

The connection started because the students are trying to create songs with seven other classrooms from six other countries using Apple's GarageBand software.

Once a week, the Imperial class connects via videoconferencing with another class for an hour to work on the project, learning about different cultures in the process.

It's the modern, digital equivalent of writing a pen pal, except instead of using snail mail, the students see each other on projector screens. Seven thousand miles between Anaheim and Australia forgotten, erased by Apple computers and the Internet.

Six of the seven other schools teach in English, including three international schools in Lima, Peru; Rabat, Morocco; and Kobe, Japan. A public school in Australia and two in New Zealand are also in the group.

Most students at the seventh school – KTA De Merodelei nearAntwerp, Belgium – speak English.

"I just wanted to create a song around the world and have kids learn about maps and different cultures," said Carol Anne McGuire, the Imperial teacher who organized the project.

"It's almost a shame to have the technology and not use it."

The 13-week music project, called "Rock Our World," works like this: Each class picks a drumbeat and uploads it on a Web site. Each song lasts 30 seconds and shares a uniform, upbeat tempo.

The students then download somebody else's drumbeats, add bass lines, and upload the songs again. They continue to rotate through songs and instruments until they've jointly composed eight songs. In October, the teachers will release the songs and other project components on www.rockourworld.org.

A variety of tastes are represented in their music: electronic beeps from the Belgians; hip-hop from the Lower Hutt, New Zealand students; and Latin drums from the Japanese. Most of the students haven't had musical training, but McGuire periodically coaches them with suggestions like: "If you can clap through the whole song, you're good."

McGuire sent out hundreds of e-mails in two months to find the other schools for the project. She met several of the teachers at an Apple educators' camp she attended in Monterey this past summer.

She almost managed to get a class from every continent. A Kenyan teacher was bitten by a spider and dropped out, McGuire said.

And she struck out with Antarctica. "As far as I know, there aren't any schools in Antarctica, just some scientists poking around," McGuire said.

As they worked together, students exchanged tidbits on their classrooms, countries and cultures.

Students from Kobe, Japan, told the Imperial children that their money is called the yen. Imperial students told Peruvian children about U.S. states and explained that Texas isn't part of California.

American pop culture was inescapable. Most students liked SpongeBob SquarePants, Spiderman, and the movies"School ofRock" and "Pearl Harbor."

What about "America's Funniest Home Videos"? an Imperial student asked.

"We don't get that anymore," Peruvian teacher Gaby Eyzaguirre said. "We only have reruns sometimes."

Taylor Alderete, 9, finishing her Carl's Jr. lunch of chicken stars and fries, went up to the camera to ask if there's a Carl's Jr. in Peru.

"No," Eyzaguirre said. "But we have McDonald's, Burger King, KFC."

Occasionally, McGuire reminded her students to behave.

"You are literally all representatives here," she said.

The students take their ambassadorial role seriously. Imperial's Rock Our World group includes six visually impaired students.

"I want to show people that blind kids could also be in regular schools," said Karley Krebs, 10, whose best friend is Carolina Snader, a blind and partially deaf student.

Teachers from the other countries raved about the project.

"(My students) are really excited and motivated," said Craig Price, a teacher at Selwyn Ridge School in New Zealand, in an e-mail. "We are currently working on another project that creates global content for student radio stations."

Week after week, the students still get a kick out of talking to someone from a different time zone.

Conferring with Peru, the students wanted to know: What time is it? (2:48 p.m., two hours ahead of California) What season is it? (Spring, but still cold)

One student blurted out, "What month is it?"

Both classrooms were quiet for seconds.

"It's September," the Peruvian side said.

"Oh my goodness," the Anaheim teacher chuckled in mock surprise. "It's the same month here."

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