Different Country, Different Apps

Look at what happens when you mix American pop music with gadgets.
I decided to put up three videos to show you what the youth of today is doing with content and technology.
You’ll see that the real difference between what the two Asian students are doing versus what the American student is doing is that the American is focused on content and the technical skills of music instrumentation. The two Asian students have mastered the technical proficiency in apps and mobile music playing. I think these are slightly different skills, and one is much more important in today’s world than the other. Guess which one that will be.
In the first example, we have a Korean student, Kim Yeo-hui using three different iPhones to play a song by Lady Gaga.Then you have this amazing clip of a Chinese student playing “Take a Bow” by Rihanna with a Google Android phone.Then you have a 13-year old playing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” in a school in America. I think his name is Grayson Chance. All credit to the kid. He can play and sing like crazy.

Two things:
1. Content made in America is popular, and it travels all over the world. People love it. But the content isn’t what’s fascinating about this. Look what these girls can do with technology. They are mastering a skill and an attitude that is mostly about sharing their talent through mobile devices.
2. Is there a reason that I’ve never seen a high school orchestra playing all iPhones? Is it because we want to stick to a traditional script?
It’s all about frameworks, I think. Success in America is about fame. It’s about not so much being original, but mastering something and being so good that other people can’t match you.
I don’t think, in my experience in Asia, that this is the same experience in those cultures.
Teaching kids to do things on mobile technology does more than teach them music, or teach them language. It teaches them how to do what other people are doing in a world far away from them. It shares their skills with a bigger group. That’s the most important lesson.