Students Share Their Voices Through Songwriting and Videos

Students Share Their Voices Through Songwriting and Videos
Posted on 06/28/2022
Students Share Their Voices Through Songwriting and VideosStudents across the OCDSB are sharing their voices through songwriting workshops, videos, and album releases in collaboration with Juno-nominated folk singer Craig Cardiff and the team of artists, producers, and animators at SongCollab.Studio.


Working with the OCDSB Innovation and Adolescent Learning department, Craig and SongCollab.Studio have provided virtual songwriting and animation workshops for over 12,000 grade K-12 students across every OCDSB school since 2020. Those experiences have added up to an impressive 3,684 songs and 1,200+ video animations! 


Additionally, the program has created opportunities for 106 students to participate in Co-op, SHSM, and paid work opportunities in the fields of arts, music, and animation, with 184 academic credits granted.

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For musical experiences, the creative process begins with virtual class workshops, where Craig and the team use the software SoundTrap to guide students in experiments with rhythms, instrumentation, lyric-writing, and singing. These workshops are an opportunity for students to express themselves and explore issues that are important to them and their community.

OCDSB Co-Op and SHSM (Specialist High Skills Major) students lend their music production, mixing, and album art design skills to help bring the recordings to life. The albums are published on streaming platforms, and schools often celebrate by holding an album release party to share their songs with their school community. In the 2021-22 school year alone, students have collaborated on over 2,900 compositions!

Here are just a few of the musical highlights. You can dive into the full discography on Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music!

This year’s album releases also include music from Brookfield H.S., Emily Carr M.S., Fielding Drive P.S., Half Moon Bay P.S., Huntley Centennial P.S., Kars on the Rideau P.S., Merivale H.S., Ottawa-Carleton Virtual, Robert Hopkins P.S., Roberta Bondar P.S., Regina Street Alternative, Rockcliffe Park P.S., Severn Avenue P.S., Terry Fox E.S., Westwind P.S., and Woodroffe Avenue P.S. Many other schools have participated in workshops with the entire SongCollab.Studio team, and there’s more music on the way.


In addition to students creating original music, the program has expanded to support collaborative multimedia projects that span across schools and grades. Co-Op and SHSM students are using programs like Canva, Adobe Character Animator, and Adobe Premiere to bring songs and scripts to life through video editing and digital puppetry. Check out some of the projects below:

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