I’m actually less interested in the validity of Garageband discussion that I’m getting us started on and far more curious about other disciplines that may have had similar experiences. Let me reconfigure my question so as to better relate it to ThatCamp LAC: are there programs in your own disciplines that your students use to facilitate their work that perhaps aren’t as well-suited for the task as something either potentially more complicated or less familiar? And if so, how do you work around the initial hiccup “why should I learn your less-user-friendly program when my simpler version *seems* to work too?

I won’t go into too much detail here since we may have the opportunity to discuss this a bit today, but Michelle I think you’ve actually highlighted my concern: is Garageband ACTUALLY a tool for composition just because that’s how it markets itself?

Composition has been hip to technology since at least the early 90′s. I personally have only once composed a work using pencil and paper…and that was during undergrad for a notation course (ha!). So I’m not sure this is quite the same thing as “let them use technology that helps them” as much as it is “by using THIS technology, is it still composition? And if not, what is it? Musical synthesis?” I relate programs like Finale or Sibelius more easily to an accountant’s calculator, and Garageband to a chef using a boxed cake mix. But if the results are the same (at least in theory) and if people are using the program out in “the real world” (Nine Inch Nails does their music on Garageband now), does it really matter?

Of course, the process between composing from notes vs. composing from loops is quite different. Maybe that’s where we want to pay the most attention?

Hmm… I know it’s my post, but I REALLY don’t have an answer on this one.