Originally built in collaboration with Pharrell Williams’ education nonprofit YELLOW, this program was created to challenge students to express their own voice, write code using Georgia Tech’s EarSketch platform, and create an original song remix that promotes equity. A key goal was to expose more students to opportunities to learn coding, while raising awareness about social justice issues.
Educators in both Canada and the United States deliver curriculum-linked modules to teach students about racism, the history of hip hop, music composition, coding and Indigenous histories (Canada). The entire curriculum is available through a Creative Commons license for educators to build on. Using Georgia Tech's EarSketch coding platform, students create their songs using Python or Javascript code. Songs with social change themes from top recording artists, including “Entrepreneur” – a celebration of Black entrepreneurship – by Pharrell Williams, “Underdog” by Alicia Keys, and “New Normal” by Khalid, provide students with inspiration and music stems they can remix for their compositions. They have the option to submit their finished work to an annual competition to win a $5,000 scholarship/grant.
After being inspired by Georgia Tech and YELLOW's launch of the program in the United States, TakingITGlobal decided to bring the program to Canada. Two Indigenous educators, Christine M'Lot and Marika Schalla led the curriculum development process alongside support from the University of British Columbia's Cloud Innovation Centre, who engaged other Indigenous students and technologists to provide input. A new version of the curriculum was created to incorporate Canadian and Indigenous histories, including reference to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action. Five Indigenous artists from Canada have contributed music stems for remixes. The EarSketch platform was translated into Ojibwe and Inuktitut to support Indigenous language learning alongside the coding activities.
Interested educators or students can visit www.yourvoiceispower.ca to view and work through the program modules! While the competition is only available for Canadian K-12 students, visitors from around the world can engage with the content and code their own song. In addition to English, the EarSketch coding interface is translated into Arabic, French, Hebrew, Inuktitut, Ojibwe and Spanish.
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