Beaumont College were incredibly grateful to have secured a further grant from the Karten Trust in 2019. The bid was focussed on two main areas:
- Developing a more innovative and interactive electronic music provision.
- Upgrading and maintaining the Karten ICT Suite which is integral to the college’s education and social delivery.
Progression with both of these areas is described below.
Making music in different ways
Beaumont has always had an electronic component to its music delivery but in the last few years some exciting software and hardware tools have been released which the music department and Beaumont College Records were keen to access. Beaumont College Records is the in-house record company run by and for learners.
Ableton makes professional music creation software and this has been used at college for years. A new software tool called Link enables electronic instruments to be played live and to stay in time musically. This is really important for many Beaumont students whose physical impairments may mean they know when a note needs to be played, but can’t quite get their hand or foot to hit it at the right time. Link connects instruments wirelessly and synchronises any notes played to a specified timing. Instruments can be keyboards but often are iPads on which there is a wide range of apps with which to create sounds.
It could be seen that this use of syncing stifles creativity, but in Beaumont’s experience Link is a tool which can stop learners focussing on the “correct” timing and free them up to play what they want. It also improves self-esteem by levelling out the timing ability of learners and preventing some from feeling they are failing when playing with other learners. In a live playing situation the electronic instruments are often accompanied by guitar, bass, percussion etc. which cannot be synchronised and this continues to add a “free” element to the live performance.
When recording Link is used in the same way professional artists use it and indeed recording studios have for many years had ways of “fixing” notes played out of time.
The Push is a versatile instrument also created by Ableton. The potential of this instrument was clear for our learners as it has multiple buttons on the front which can be configured to play any note, sound or sample. Many learners have experimented with the Push and different setups are used dependent on the learner’s access skills and understanding. For instance even though there are 64 buttons these can be programmed so that there are four large sections which each play one sound.
Sometimes minor improvements can have major impacts. As part of the Karten funding, Beaumont purchased a number of wireless microphone and instrument systems. These remove the need to have wires connecting microphones and instruments to amplification. This obviously prevents a health and safety issue but from a creative point of view this has enabled more freedom and experimentation within music sessions. Also a cross-curricular project with a dance group has been using these so performers are not ‘tethered’ by cables and can move freely within large spaces.
Upgrade for Karten Suite and increased access
The PCs and touch monitors in Beaumont’s Karten Suite had been serving learners well. However in the last few years many PCs had been repaired or had components replaced. In addition many of the touch monitors were failing and the rise and fall desks were making some ‘interesting’ grinding noises when adjusted. The Karten Suite is heavily used during teaching sessions, at breaks and lunchtimes. Residential learners also use the Karten suite during evenings and weekends.
As a way of increasing access for our learners we are experimenting with 3D depth sensing cameras mounted on the top of monitors. These can be linked to Windows Hello which enables log-in via facial recognition. Many learners at Beaumont it hard to input their log in and password, either because it can take a long time to type or they struggle to remember it. Currently one learner is experimenting with this as a solution and has agreed to work with us to iron out any issues, before we roll it out further. It could be transformational for some learners leading to greater independence, privacy efficiency.
The desks were replaced with new ‘non-grinding’ height adjustable desks. We were very specific about the cases our desktop PCs were housed in. Cases can sometime have the power button on the top, meaning accessibility fails at the earliest point as some learners might not be able to reach to turn the PC on! Likewise we made sure that there were front mounted USB sockets for plugging in alternative mice and keyboards and front mounted headphone sockets.
We chose large touch monitors which also have built in speakers. Previously PC speakers had been unplugged, swapped or were easily broken leading to frustration for learners. Unfortunately the built in speakers are not loud enough for that environment (possibly because they are rear-mounted). There was also some confusion when learners plugged in headphones as Windows displays a dialog box to choose which device you have plugged in. Not all learners can understand this dialog box so were not able to activate their headphones. We have purchased external speakers which have headphone ports and hopefully this will solve the issue.
The flexibility Karten allowed us in this bid enabled a split between the exciting music project and the (seemingly) mundane PC and desk replacement. However, both are critical to the engagement learners have with the subjects they are studying while both also give us the opportunity to experiment with cutting-edge ways of accessing technology.
Fil McIntyre. Lead Assistive Technologist, Beaumont College, Lancaster.
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- This article was written by the Beaumont College Karten Centre
- Featured in the Karten Spring 2020 Newsletter
- This article is listed in the following subject areas: Centre News