Episode 194: FOSSY 2023 with Timmy Barnett & Devin Ulibarri

Guests Timmy Barnett | Devin Ulibarri Panelist Richard Littauer
Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain!  Richard is in
Portland at FOSSY, the Free and Open Source Software Yearly
conference that is held by the Software Freedom Conservancy. In
this podcast episode, Richard interviews Devin Ulibarri and Timmy
Barnett about their work with Music Blocks and Sugar Labs. Music
Blocks is a visual programming language that combines music and
computation, allowing users to explore musical and computational
concepts. Sugar Labs is a non-profit organization focused on
providing free software learning activities for kids and teachers.
Devin explains that Music Blocks started as a collaboration with
Walter Bender, co-founder of Sugar Labs, to create a tool that
empowers kids to learn and create music using free software. The
software aims to offer a creative approach to music education,
helping students explore concepts and compose music from the very
beginning. Download this episode now to hear more! [00:01:28] Devin
Ulibarri introduces Music Blocks. It's a visual programming
language for music developed in collaboration with Sugar Labs, a
non-profit organization promoting free software for education.
Music Blocks combines music and computation, allowing users to
explore both musical and computational concepts. [00:02:26] Devin
explains how it got started. He was interested in free software in
education and attended a talk by Walter Bender, co-founder of Sugar
Labs. They collaborated to create Music Blocks. [00:03:43] There
are more than 150 contributors to the Music Blocks project, and
Japan has shown interest in using it in their national elementary
school curriculum for teaching programming. [00:04:21] Devin
explains how you can use different instruments or even record a
sample of a sound to create an instrument. [00:05:14] Devin talks
about being a musician and started a job at the Free Software
Foundation last year, having played a significant role in
incorporating Sugar Labs. [00:06:20] Sugar Labs is used across the
world and it’s impossible to really know with the nature of the
software. However, there isn’t nearly enough people operating it in
the U.S. [00:08:23] Music Blocks is seen as an instrument, and the
team focuses on reaching a critical mass of users to create a
culture that promotes active learning and creativity. [00:09:16]
The main challenge is educating the public about Music Blocks and
providing teachers with the necessary tools and materials to
integrate it into classrooms effectively. Also. there needs to be a
culture with it. [00:10:15] There’s Music Blocks for musicians and
music educators. It offers a creative approach to music composition
and exploration of musical concepts from the very beginning, which
can be beneficial for music education. [00:11:15] They use an
active approach to technology rather than passive. They hire
students from music colleges to teach the kids via Music Blocks.
[00:13:39] Music Blocks allows students to explore musical concepts
and start composing music from the very beginning, promoting a more
active and engaging learning experience. [00:14:35] Find out where
you can follow Devin and Timmy on the internet. Links SustainOSS
(https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) SustainOSS
Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss) Richard Littauer
Twitter (https://twitter.com/richlitt?lang=en) Software Freedom
Conservancy (https://sfconservancy.org/) Open OSS
(https://openoss.sourceforge.net/) Devin Ulibarri’s Website
(https://www.devinulibarri.com/) Timmy Barnett’s Website
(https://timmybarnett.com/) Music Blocks (https://musicblocks.net/)
Music Blocks Mastodon (https://mastodon.education/@musicblocks)
Sugar Labs (https://www.sugarlabs.org/) Free Software Foundation
(https://www.fsf.org/) Credits Produced by Richard Littauer
(https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree
Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guests:
Devin Ulibarri and Timmy Barnet.