Webquest

I've always been a do it as I go type of person, so here is my completed webquest. I used google sites. If anyone happens to view this early please let me know if there are any viewing problem. I sent it out to a few people to test it, but it had a success rate of 85%.

PLN Week 15

So I know we went over this in class, but today I've decided to share the SmartMusic blog. Ever since we went over it in class, I thought that this would be a great tool for us as teachers. Enjoy!

Week 14 PLN

I found this article about Music as cognition. It's very interesting because it discusses music in very broad terms which can be important to stress to students: Music is all around us.

Week 14 Post

Assessment is something that music teachers constantly struggle with. In a group situation like an orchestra, it's hard to pick out one single player and decide how they should be graded. In that kind of situation, it's almost impossible to give a grade that truly reflects the students performance, and also the effort that they put in to learning the music, and producing a quality sound. Dr. Bauer's article was very informative in this aspect. He gave us many good ideas about how we could assess our students. The ways to use tools, such as checklists and rubrics were a very good reminder of what we should be doing in order to make sure our students are properly assessed. With technology it can also be hard to assess what is going on, as some of the work can be harder to assess. Although there are several ways that we are using technology to get around some of our assessment issues. This is one of the reasons that when we explored SmartMusic I was fascinated. It gives us the oppurtunity as music teachers to give tests the way any other teacher does. I think it's a tool that I will use in the future. The article about technology for people with diabilities was also very interesting. I really enjoy that technology is all inclusive so that anyone, regardless of what disability they may have can be something for everyone to use.

Week 13 PLN

This is an interesting video from TedTalks. It's all about electric looping and music. It was very interesting to me, and of course I like anything that involves an electric violin. Enjoy!

Week 13

Dr. Bauer's article about performing music in the technology assisted classroom was very informative. It lays out ways that we were can use technology in performance aspects. The situation layed out in the beginning of the article with a teacher using technology throughout every level of his music program, is something that could be doable for every teacher. It could help bridge the gap between digital natives and digital immigrants that we read about last week. The website outlines what we were talking about in class this past week. It further explain what copyright is. As music teachers, it's important that we know how copyright functions so that we know how we can use music with our students. Ignorance  of the law is no reason to break it, so were we to not know something about copyright we could still get in trouble for it. So dealing with a lot of copyrighted material means that we do need to have a good understanding of copyright law. The multimedia basics about video is something else that would be good to use in a classroom. Videos are a good way to illustrate a point. You can easily show an example about a composer or even a style of music through video. You could show a live performance, or maybe even a video of a presentation in another course. It's a really excellent tool.

Week 12 PLN

We've been looking into a lot of audio editing tools and this is an online one that I found on the delicious music ed hotlist. Enjoy

Week 12 Reading Reflection

The Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants article was actually rather eye opening. The way that the two groups were described, as almost entirely separate cultures being forced to combine, made a lot of sense to me. In high school, there was little access to a computer lab, and there was a ban on phone and a lot of other technology in school. It just doesn't occur to some teachers that some students might find it more beneficial to be able to take notes on a laptop. Most students type faster than they write, so what would be bad about letting students take notes on a laptop? The possibility of the students roaming the internet? Well thats to be expected, but if you're going into a school setting where you want to use computers you either have to disable the internet or deal with it. Sure there are going to be some students that will use it in a negative manor, but others may use it to their advantage looking for more background on the topic of discussion. What about all that annoying clicking? Honestly, it's the wave of the future, and it's something teachers are going to have to get used to. I think the gaps in tech based knowledge between teacher and student are a serious issue, because then a student can get it into their head that a teacher knows less than them, and then the student will shut down. What's the point of learning from someone that doesn't know as much as you do? I think there has to be some sort of compromise between the digital age, and those who are immigrants into it. The problem is getting people to actually try to work towards it.
The article on Webquests ties in nicely as a potential compromise. Perhaps there is a way that teachers can use the internet to their advantage, through something like a webquest. That way students are guided to specific activities that will help then learn the subject that a teacher is trying to get across. This is where the TI:ME strategies become very important to music educators because it is a set of standards that can help us meet with the Digital Natives and provide teaching the complements their learning style. The multimedia pictures also were a compromise. By learning about how to incorporate pictures into presentations and things like that we are bridging the digital gap.