Bringing Music Blocks to the Boston Public Schools

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Last year, music educator Devin Ulibarri collaborated with the Free Software Foundation to bring a series of classes to students in the Somerville Public Schools as well as the Boston Public Schools. This article, by Devin Ulibarri, offers a glimpse into the classroom through the lens of BPS volunteers and FSF staff, as well as links to find more information.

It has been over a year since we went into the schools, but I wanted to touch base about it here as well as to share some pictures from the classes, links to handout materials, and link to the FSF bulletin article about the collaboration.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a Boston-based 501(c)(3) that advocates for user-freedom in software and technology. Since I discovered and researched the free software movement in around 2014, I felt that the principles of free software should lead the way in education. The basic hypothesis is this: If students are free to study, share, and modify the source code of the tools they use, then they are free to truly learn how their tools work. Instead of just becoming passive consumers, kids brought up in a free software paradigm will become active contributors in a community. As an educator, this theory seems so common-sense to me that I would bet everything that it is true and accurate.

Last year, we worked together to use Music Blocks as a vehicle to bring free software into the classroom. I created some new lesson plans, commissioned by the FSF, to instruct kids in basic programing in a way that encouraged them to exercise the freedoms of software freedom with their classmates. Moreover, the computers that the students used in the class were prepared by the FSF (pictured below) with only free software to maximize their exposure to the “Free World”. At the end of the project, participating schools were each gifted five of the freedom-respecting laptops.

  • Devin instructs students at Kennedy school in Somerville.
  • Devin shows a handout on rhythm.
  • Devin talks to students.
  • Students working in a group.
  • Students work on the rhythm handout.
  • Devin demonstrates a rhythm you can do with your body.
  • FSF-prepared T400 computers used.
  • Students working together on Music Blocks.
  • Student asks a question.
  • Students work on their projects.
  • The final project was on software freedom, sharing, and remixing.
  • The first lesson was about order and form.
  • Student working on project.
  • Student working with headphones.
  • Music engages youth.
  • FSF prepared laptops.
There are some of the many moments we had during last year’s classes.

Photo Credit: Free Software Foundation. Copyright ©2020 by Free Software Foundation. This image is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Forth to last, third to last, and second to last photos were taken by BPS volunteer, Barry Sugarman. Copyright ©2020 by Barry Sugarman and used by permission.

On the last day of classes we collected some feedback from the students. Here are some of their responses.

After the lesson, we collected some feedback from the students in order to assess the project’s efficacy. One student said, “I learned that music is in code,” and another said they learned “how to music-code.” A few students talked about software freedom specifically, saying they learned “the four freedoms” and “what freedom means.”

a quote from the FSF Bulletin article

Related Links

The teaching materials can be downloaded from https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/trisquelbps/

Link to original Bulletin: https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2019/spring