PLENARY SESSION

Vignettes from ATMI’s Thirty Years:

The Little Organization That Could!

Ann Blombach, The Ohio State University

Michael Arenson, University of Delaware

David B. Williams, Illinois State University

10:00 am, Fri., Nov. 4, St Laurent Centre/North

Abstract:

As we celebrate the anniversary of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction and look forward to its future, we take a moment to honor its thirty-year history with a series of historical and humorous vignettes from its past. From its naively optimistic beginnings in 1975 to its vibrant present, ATMI’s chronology is marked with ups-and-downs and zigs-and-zags. As we musicians, educators, and technologists navigated our way from mini and mainframe computers, to the first personal computers, to multimedia and the Web, to the mobile-laptop world we experience today, this band of ATMI’ers has moved fearlessly forward into the next new world of technology, exploring new ways to support our teaching and to open new doors for our students to experience music. Our series of vignettes begin with the organization’s inception as the National Consortium for Computer-Based Music Instruction (NCCBMI) and its early relationship with the Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional Systems (ADCIS), through to its transformation into ATMI and its long-standing association with the College Music Society. Join us for a special hour of paying tribute to the people who are this group we call “ATMI”!

Biographical Information:

Ann K. Blombach likes to think she is far too young to have been among the founders of NCCBMI (later ATMI), though she does admit to joining the organization a year or two after its founding. Starting in the punch-card era of mainframe computers, she directed her early research efforts toward computerized music analysis until administrators assigned her the daunting task of developing computer-based ear-training software. Much to her surprise, she loved her new assignment. Even though her achievements were only intermittently supported, understood, or rewarded at The Ohio State University (OSU), the unfailing encouragement from her NCCBMI/ATMI colleagues gave her the validation she needed to keep plugging away over the years. Ann’s three years as Vice President and four years as President saw many changes as the organization matured, changing its name to ATMI, leaving the protective wing of ADCIS, and beginning its ongoing association with the College Music Society. Although Ann found tremendous joy and fulfillment in classroom teaching, even more so after enduring ten years as Chair of Music Theory and Composition, she retired from OSU in 2001 (at a very young age) to devote herself full-time to teaching the more than 20,000 students who currently use her MacGAMUT ear-training software every year. Satellite Internet and laptop computers that can be easily portaged make it possible for her to live about half the year in a remote part of Northern Ontario. For those rare times when she isn’t chained to multiple laptops, her Emeritus status allows her to park her pickup on-campus for free while she walks her dog and enjoys her new knees, but her preferred modes of transportation are hiking, swimming, biking, canoeing, and snowmobiling.

Michael Arenson is Professor of Music Theory at the University of Delaware. He began his first work with computer-based instruction while working on his M.M. at Florida State University in 1965. Using the Coursewriter CBI system on an IBM 1500 mainframe computer to try out the frames and branching for a programmed text based on Hindemith’s Craft of Musical Composition, he learned how much fun it can be to watch fanfold paper work its way off of the platen of a teletypewriter terminal. As a Ph.D. student at The Ohio State University (1969–1976) he developed a CBI program which he tested on freshmen music theory students using an IBM 370 mainframe computer. His students also learned how much fun it can be to watch fanfold paper work its way off of the platen of a teletypewriter terminal. He graduated from the teletypewriter terminal to the beautiful ORANGE screen when he started working with the PLATO^R System while teaching at Iowa State University (1973–1977). He continued his work in “orange” while developing the GUIDO^R Music Theory drill-and-practice package at the University of Delaware (1977–present). He later learned about other colors (after all, he is a university professor) and went on to develop other software packages with a little more sophistication. In 1975, while at Iowa State, Professor Arenson joined Fred Hofstetter and eight other technology pioneers in Newark, Delaware, to create the National Consortium for Computer-Based Music Instruction (NCCBMI). He created the first two issues (1982 and 1983). Professor Arenson served as Pre-session Chair for ADCIS in 1980 and 1981 and served as President of NCCBMI in 1984 and 1985. In 1984, at the ADCIS Conference in Columbus, Ohio, he received a Presidential Citation from Dr. Ron Comer “in acknowledgement of many years in support to ADCIS.” Although his interests have shifted to other organizations through the years (e.g., CMS and IAJE), Professor Arenson continues to support the exemplary work of his colleagues in ATMI.

David Brian Williams is Professor of Music and Arts Technology at Illinois State University. His ATMI career started around 1979 attending his first NCCBMI/ADCIS meeting (Baltimore?) where he also exhibited his first music CAI software/hardware package for the Apple II in the midst of the big-iron corporate CAI vendors of that time. Contributions to ATMI’s history include serving as Vice President from 1995 to 1998, designing and managing the first ATMI Web site, and, since 1989, contributing workshops to ATMI conferences with his long-time accomplice in music technology, Peter Webster. Along the way the Peter-and-Dave duo also penned a monthly “Squeak and Blat” music technology online column. Dave’s computer career goes back forty years to the first t-tests he programmed on the ArkLa Gas company’s computer in Shreveport and included along the way mini’s (PDP 8/10/11 and Data General) and micros (Apple, Commodore, Macintosh, and PCs) as well as big-irons (CDC and IBM run by white-coat-behind-the-door technicians who didn’t talk much to musicians in those days). With David Shrader he started Micro Music Inc in 1978; MMI (later part of Temporal Acuity Products) developed the first four-voice DAC card and an extensive music CAI library of software for the Apple II/II GS computer. His music software titles include Melodious Dictator, Interval and Chord Mania, Music Composer, Envelope Construction and Shaper, Toney Music Games, and the ORAT Review Shell. Much of his current creative energy goes into the textbook he co-authors with Peter Webster, Experiencing Music Technology, now in its third edition.