NEWS NEWSLETTER 2/2011 UMSIC Workshop and Summer School 14-15 June 2011, Pictures Journal of the news NEWSLETTER 1/2011 The aim of the three-year Framework 7 funded research project UMSIC was to design, develop and evaluate a mobile music technology product that would reduce the sense of marginalization of children who are immigrant, growing up in multicultural contexts or who have moderate learning difficulties. The project involved a multi-disciplinary team drawing from four countries (UK, Finland, Switzerland and Greece). During the project lifetime more than 1400 children aged between three and eleven years from England, Finland and Germany participated in the design and use of JamMo. The findings support other recent studies that musical activities in groups can facilitate feelings of social inclusion in children. Teachers reported that the software appears to be broadly appropriate for recently immigrant children and children with ADHD. Children in England and Finland demonstrated high levels of motivation to use JamMo and its potential musical opportunities. In particular, the basic premise of constructing music using pre-existing musical loops was clearly attractive to children and the research suggested that they enjoyed the musical materilas of JamMo. Project results were presented at the UMSIC workshop and Summer School 14-15 June in Oulu. The product JamMo (jamming mobile) version 1.0 for 3-6 and 7-12 aged children was released June 2011, but the work on developing it will continue as an Open Source Project (www.umsic.org/jammo) starting September 2011. last update 28.9.2011   UMSIC has now turned ahead the last and third year of the project lifetime. In April 2010 an Interim Review was organized in Brussels with surroundings of volcanic dust from Iceland. The project has reached its objectives and milestones so far and in summer 2010 the real implementation of the first JamMo singing and composition game 3-6 yrs starts in UMSIC partner countries. Some usability tests will be carried out during June/July in Preston, UK as well. Additionally the pilot tests for the research methods and the recruitment of the study samples for evaluations will be realized during the summer time. Dissemination activities by the UMSIC partners on the scientific field will be visible in different continents during the summer 2010. As stable version of JamMo the v0.5 was released during the spring 2010 and some usability tests were carried out with Finnish children groups with immigrant background. This was important for the further development of the application. At the moment JamMo v0.5.1 is working with the target devices (N900) that are in use by the researchers, children and their teachers during the testing periods which will really start in the autumn 2010. UMSIC consortium will have their next workshop and public demonstration in schools, instead of the earlier planned Athens in June, in London September 2010. It is expected to have the games for 7-12 yrs ready for the evaluations and usability testing until that. We invite all the readers to join in developing the program in http://jammo.garage.maemo.org Last update 16.6.2010 ---------------------------------------------------- After having submitted their first periodic report to the Commission September 2009 the consortium has proceeded to the implementation of the design for the product JamMo – jamming mobile. All objectives for the first year were achieved and the deliverables were accepted by the Commission Review. (See public deliverables…) A summary of the First Period Report: publishable summary. Showcase for the first JamMo composition game application was launched on Maemo Summitt  in Amsterdam September 2009. Since that the software for the game has been developed for further applications as an Open Source Software (OSS) – project. UMSIC will continuously showcase the product development on a website, where the latest version is repeatedly and easy to be discovered for further development:  http://jammo.garage.maemo.org/. During the last months the iterative design process for the first applications of singing and composition games for 3-6 aged children with the participation of the target age groups has reached a satisfactory level for the implementation and preliminary testing. In becoming months the games for 7-12 yr children will be implemented by the musical material and graphic design. Between consortium meetings the multidisciplinary research group has been working in different subteams. Interaction inside and between the teams have been promising. Next Summer, the consortium will organize a two days Summer School and work shop demonstration in Athens, Greece on June 2010.  February 27, 2010  Previous news The first periodic report was submitted to the Commission on September 30 2009. Further information: publishable summary The UMSIC project had their first workshop in Jyvaskyla, Finland June 10-11. The project has proceeded well and has reached the project objectives for the first period of 2008-2011. Inside the project, multidisciplinary teamwork and individual approaches were presented by the researchers in different partner institutions As an Open Source Software Development (OSS) - project the UMSIC will showcase the product development on a website, where the latest version is always to be discovered: http://jammo.garage.maemo.org/. The consortium will have their next meeting on September 29-30 at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, preparing the first project review in Brussels. Meanwhile the project researchers have presented the project development in several scientific conferences in Estonia (CFME09), Finland (ESCOM2009 and Italy (AAATE2009).