Christopher Cayari gave us the opportunity to play around with various technologies and gave us examples on how to use them to our advantage in the classroom. This all started for him when he went to take his masters and wanted to figure out what was happening to those groups who had no music education. Cayari was then introduced to the ukulele and was inspired by how people use Youtube as a platform to share their creativity. Cayari conducted a research study in which students had four weeks to select songs and groups and record it using either Audacity or Garage Band. They then had the opportunity to publish the video online. As for evaluation of the project, the students determined their own marks and those marks were to be approved by the teacher. I am not necessarily new to this concept because it was used in my Vocal Methods class this year in which we completed the project and assigned ourselves marks to which we consult with the professor later on. I really like this idea of allowing students have more freedom with their evaluation because not only does it eliminate the fear of failure but it also gives the student more freedom to be creative. I am concerned, however, with what age group is appropriate for this type of evaluation. Is it appropriate for the elementary level or for high school students? I find that this type of evaluation provides the student more space for self-evaluation and in my experience I wasn’t one to put much effort into self-evaluation within high school and especially elementary school. However, I do think that self-evaluation is very important and if you can open your student’s minds to that then it would be very beneficial. When the research study concluded Cayari found that a lot of people worked together rather than individually and that the emotions through the project progressed from negative to positive. It was also quite interesting to hear about what inspired them to create that video such as the girl who was inspired by her brother with leukemia. The results from this project inspired many to share as one person who created a brass quintet sent his piece to over 50 professionals asking for feedback to which he got 32 responses. I was shocked by the results of this project and how it inspired the students in different ways. I didn’t know how powerful the idea of using technology and website platforms such as Youtube can evoke such creativity and sharing. Other examples of projects in which Cayari gave to his students were composing for social change in which people with no musical training took poems from the “A is for Activist” book by … and created a simple melody. I found it quite interesting how those people made a connection between the syllables of the words and rhythm. Another project that Cayari assigned his students was collaborative vlogging in which his students were given a challenge such as take a rap song and turn it into a ballade and explain them while vlogging themselves. These projects that Cayari explained to us intrigued my thinking on how I want to incorporate those ideas as a future educator in order to help create a community through video making and provide a safe an stress-free environment for my students. When we got the chance to test out these programs I really liked how everyone had different ideas and understandings of the task, as it was quite vague. For example, when we went to the Acapella App most groups tried to make a song with maybe some harmonies while my group focused more on rhythm by trying to recreate the Potter Puppet Pals Youtube video. I think that video making is a great platform for students to share their creativity and be given the opportunity to try new things such as improvisation or even learning new instruments.