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Music-games present a highly pervasive new platform to create, perform, appreciate and transmit music through peer and online communities (e.g., Peppler, Downton, Lindsay, & Hay, 2011). While learners are increasingly engaged with such digital music participation outside the classroom, evidence indicates learners are increasingly disengaged with formal music education (e.g., Abril & Gault, 2008; Dillon, 2003; Lamont & Maton, 2008). The challenge for music educators is to utilize digital music participation as a tool to create new opportunities to inspire and engage learners with music in formal and informal learning contexts (see Hargreaves, Marshall, & North, 2003). The music-game synergy presents a unique, yet relatively untapped, platform to investigate the processes and outcomes of both music and video game participation in a comprehensive context. On one hand, previous research highlights the power of music education to enrich intellectual, social and personal development (e.g., Hallam, 2010), while on the other a growing body of work highlights the educational potential of digital-games to scaffold and enrich learning (e.g., Wastiau, Kearney, & Van den Berghe, 2009). This warrants investigation of the potential of game-based technology to promote engagement with music, and the wider benefits of music-game participation in the lives of learners. In this light, we present a single exploratory case study of a learner's encounter with Rock Band 3, addressing the learner's attitudes toward music-games and the music-game experience. It is asserted that music-games are a valuable vehicle to connect formal and informal music participation in the 21st century, embodying fundamental musical concepts in gameplay and authenticating formal participation to the wider musical world of the learner.

Supporting patients in making informed healthcare decisions is a cornerstone of ethical medical practice. Surgeons frequently draw for and show images to patients when consenting them for operations but the value of this practice in informed decision-making is unclear. An audit was conducted in a General Surgery Department. 244 patients completed questionnaires on the value of visual materials when giving consent for surgery. The complexity of the operations was classified into "simple", "moderate" or "complex". 100% of patients felt they had given informed consent to surgery. 62% of patients received at least one form of visual material during the consenting process. All patients who received a drawing, and 99% of those provided with other images, valued these resources. Visual materials were considered more useful to patients when giving consent for moderate or complex operations than simple ones. Approximately one third of patients who did not receive visual materials would have appreciated these when making an informed decision. This research highlights the value of surgeons drawing for, and providing other visual resources to, their patients as part of the consent process. There is a role for further research and training materials in drawing skills for surgeons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]