Here is my Five Minute Technology Tip and corresponding Written Document
I believe that this technology tip will be very useful for music teachers because so many of them have such a hard time coordinating concerts between middle schools and high schools. This way, teachers would be able to schedule concerts as they go and could also work as a “first come, first serve” for choosing concert dates.
Creating this technology tip was a lot more work than I expected; I kept having to re-record the screencast because I would make an error in what I was saying or I would decide to add or change what I would teach about.
In the article, “Digital Citizenship”, Ribble et. al. explain that “Digital behavior makes everyone a role model for students.” This is important because teachers are to be models for their students and exemplify those characteristics they wish to observe in their students. If a teacher writes an email to a parent and says “ttyl, Mr. Townley” at the end, it is not appropriate because it shows the student’s parents that the teacher is not respectful of the parents and that the teacher is not leaving a professional distance between his or her self and the parent and subsequently may have the same difficulty interacting with the students. The students may also see their teacher using inappropriate shorthand in emails and thinks that it is okay to do so.
UPDATE: I have done my research and found that Ribble has kept up with technology and created his own blog about digital citizenship:
http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/
It is important to note that teaching digital citizenship is only a small portion of the overall goal in education to teach citizenship. I also would like to note that this article, because it is about technology, should be updated. It was written in 2004 and does not even mention anything relating to Web 2.0 which is now used in many contexts. Also, the article mentions chat rooms, but I do not know anyone who has joined a chat room in at least 6 or 8 years. It must be updated.
This week’s articles really challenged me to think about how I would use educational gaming in a music classroom. There are many examples of what Resnick refers to as “edutainment” games which teach students various musical concepts and blend them with some sort of game. The problem with these is that they leave out an important aspect in music as well as most areas in life: creativity. I would like to see my students perhaps someday creating music games which require them to understand the concepts on such a deeper level. I think creating a game would be an awesome place for cross-curricular development because the student could create a game and incorporate English in the way they write, reading to discover what to include in their game, as well as music which they could either write or incorporate some other way.
The principal flaw which I found to be in both articles is that participation in the programs they mention is not compulsory. Students come to the computer center or they attend a workshop on “crickets”, but I did not find any evidence when students are required to create a game or a new cricket invention.
In Resnick’s article, “All I Really Need to Know (About Creative Thinking) I Learned (By Studying How Children Learn) in Kindergarten” it is mentioned that “Unfortunately, after leaving kindergarten, children
have not had the opportunity to iterate on what they learned in kindergarten, to continue to develop as creative thinkers.” According to my understanding of the article, the author is suggesting that a majority of classroom time should be spent creating new ideas. This seems like an ideal concept until you think about the implications of it. By only allowing students to create their own learning experiences, you eliminate the possibility for them to learn what has taken so many hundreds or thousands of years to discover. I’m sure students could eventually discover how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide on their own given enough time, but why rediscover what has already been discovered hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Creativity should be valued highly in the classroom, but only after the students have been taught about what is already known.
Here is a website from a music technology teacher with some resources she has created:
In Ertmer’s article, “Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs”, the most important concept I gained was that teachers will not be willing to use a technological tool if they it does not align with their beliefs about teaching and learning in general. For example, if a teacher does not value collaborative learning, they will be very unlikely to use a tool such as a Wiki, which bases its value almost entirely on the fact that it is collaborative. I value the importance of collaboration with parents regarding student achievement and I would really consider all technological tools which allow me to collaborate with parents. This would be doing, according to Ertmer, what “instructional technologists might consider introducing technology as a tool to accomplish that which is already valued (e.g., communicating with parents, locating relevant instructional resources).”
The power of vicarious experiences also helped me to understand how my educational beliefs are shaped. I met with a teacher who was successful in his use of podcasts and blogs with his music classes. Seeing him implement technology which I thought would never be useful in a music classroom helped change my beliefs regarding the use of technology in the music classroom.
This is an interesting interview with professors’ first experiences with technology:
In music I could use wikis as part of the sectional group work for orchestra. I would create a wiki for each section: first violin, second violin, viola, cello, and bass where they would be able to go onto the website to discuss the more complex areas of music where they struggle. They can give tips to each other and discover the best ways to practice different sections of the music.
Wikis are an advantageous use of technology for music because an important part of music is its “chemistry” in practicing and playing together. Wikis allow students to respond to one another and influence each other in a positive way. Music lends itself towards constructivism because all members of an orchestra are useful at some point or another and everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute to the group just like Wikis allow all members to create their response.
I found this link to a wiki music guide: not too useful for K-12 music education, but interesting nonetheless:
As a suggestion, I would like to suggest that instead of hiring more IT personnel, school districts should provide stipends to current teachers who are successfully implementing technology. The stipends would be to compensate teachers for training other teachers how to implement the new technologies. I think that a teacher is more willing to learn from another teacher than they are an IT person sent from the district. I believe this is because the teachers are able to picture themselves succesfully implementing the technology because they see an actual teacher using the technology.
This article also taught me the difference between simply using technology and using it to help student learning. Teachers need to be more creative with their use of technology. They should be teaching students not only the content, but the newest technologies as well. This year I may be starting an elementary music position in a classroom with a chalkboard and chairs-nothing else. I hope to begin to utilize some technology, especially when it comes to encouraging students to use technology on their own.
After reading John Seely Brown and Richar P. Adler’s article called Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail and Learning 2.0, I realized that my opinion of social learning changed dramatically. As a college student, I did not realize how important it was for me to talk to other students about what I was learning in all my classes. Rather than thinking that my learning finished when class was over, I realized that I continued to learn as I exchanged conversations and learning with other students after class in our dorms or other places. With Web 2.o, students are now able to continue their learning outside the classroom in more ways than ever. For example, a student may choose to talk about what they learned in class on a Facebook Note. Then their friends from all over the world can read that note and comment on it. This is an example of what is mentioned in the article about how many people are actually benefiting from the education at the University of Michigan.
I also began to think carefully about Wikipedia and its accuracy. The article made me think about “Scholarly Journals” and how they gain legitimacy compared to Wikipedia. A journal article submitted for publication may have 5 or 10 peer experts read it and decide whether or not to publish it. In a Wikipedia article, many people have contributed to the article, but over the course of time, hundreds of experts on the topic have probably read and made corrections to the article. There are two advantages to this:
1. The article will constantly be updated by changes in scholarship.
2. There is a large number of experts reading and contributing to the article and it is more likely that a large number of experts will be correct rather than 5 or 10.
I plan on using Open Education resources mostly in my professional development. The primary websites I plan on using are iTunesU and http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org
One of the most promising benefits I currently see in music education today is the use of podcasts to teach students basic musical skills and techniques as well as providing updates to students and parents regarding the status of the music program.
At the secondary level, music students tend to be quite varied regarding their musical background: Some students have been studying music since they were 4 while others cannot even read music and play by ear. For this reason, I would create “re-usable podcasts” which Dr. Kathleen Bacer introduces in her paper, Utilizing auditory and visual tools to engage the 21st Century eLearner . I would create a series of podcasts which teach fundamental priciples such as practice techniques, music theory, and performance ettiquette. Students would then have the opportunity to listen to the podcasts on their own time or I would assign specific students or classes to listen to a podcast that would meet their needs.
The second podcast would be an update to students and parents either weekly or bi-weekly. Music parents generally are very interested to hear what is going on in the music program and frequently email music teachers to ask what is happening. Instead of only providing this information to those parents who ask, I would provide podcasts to the parents so they can stay updated on what is happening with the program. In this way, I would also save valuable time by reducing the number of emails I would receive regarding general updates with the music program.
Thanks for visiting my professional teaching blog. As this term progresses, you will have the opportunity to read about what I have been learning about integrating technology.
