A couple weeks ago I learned that L2Ork was awarded 2010 Virginia Tech XCaliber Award that is given out every year “for exceptional, high caliber contributions to technology-enriched teaching and learning.” Special thanks go to l2orkists past and present for their time and dedication that has made this award possible!
Yes, the rumors are indeed true. Last fall L2Ork has partnered up with the Boys & Girls Club of Roanoke, VA and the Music Lab at the Jefferson Center and with the help of grants from 21st Century and Bank of America, we are now in the process of designing and building a satellite laptop orchestra for the 5th graders. As excited as we are about our upcoming version 2.0 of our shiny hemispherical speakers, we simply had to share this photo with everyone. The red hemispherical speakers offer a number of structural improvements over the old design, as well as the new red look. The new hemis have already become famous among l2orkists as “ladybugs.”
As part of our ongoing partnership with the Boys & Girls Club, this coming Friday we will be hosting 5th graders here at Virginia Tech DISIS who will assist us in building the remaining “ladybugs” as well as have an opportunity to interact and “jam” with VT l2orkists. The event will be held on Friday March 19th 3:30-5:30pm (EST) in DISIS. We would like to use this opportunity to also cordially invite all VT Stakeholders to join us in celebrating this exciting event. For directions to DISIS, please click here.
To top this all off, I have a number of other exciting announcements to share with you, so stay tuned for more updates.
Let the ladybug invasion begin!
I was just informed that we now have an official Virginia Tech PR kit made publicly available through Virginia Tech Public Relations office (many thanks Jean for all your hard work on this one!). For more info click here. Apparently, the same release has also found its way onto Newswise (viewable here).
Things are also getting very hectic on the rehearsal front with patches and bug-fixes being issued on a daily basis leading up to the Friday debut.
Almost… there… must… stay… awake…
All right, so the event page has been now updated. The countdown to our debut “sneak preview” event is now officially underway. For additional info, click on the events page and/or visit our us on Facebook…
Happy Thanksgiving!
And so the first phase of what is hopefully going to be a very long (in a good way :-) saga in the life of L2Ork draws to a close and it seems like a perfect opportunity to once again thank all involved for their hard work and dedication. Not only have we met most if not all of our projected summer milestones relying exclusively upon a cohort of undergraduate student researchers, but have also managed to squeeze-in a few extras and to top it all off have a good deal of fun doing so!
So, once again I thank all Students and Colleagues: Dr. Martin and Prof. Standley for your hard work and dedication, I wish you a very pleasant and restful summer and I hope to see at least some of you in the fall as part of what is to become the very first generation of L2Orkists. Until then, be safe, get plenty of rest (you have definitely deserved it), and perhaps most importantly be proud of what you’ve accomplished!
Now, back to packing… Vacation, here I come!
