This week I worked with a lot of programs with which I am extremely familiar. Google Docs is a great resource and we use it all the time at FLVS. Since we all work remotely, it is important for us to be able to share information quickly and to have the ability to work on documents together. I enjoyed working on the projects this week, and I was happy to have the opportunity to discuss these products with my classmates.
My Calendar, Newsletter, and Presentation projects allowed me to use these programs in new ways. I think that creating a dynamic virtual newsletter for our students would be a great way to get information to them quickly. We would have the ability to embed it into our course welcome page relatively seamlessly.
Everything we do at FLVS relating to productivity is based on technology. We have electronic gradebooks, electronic student monitoring, Google Docs, MS Office, Concur Expenses (for travel), and countless other tools to help us do our jobs better. I am very reliant on my Outlook and iPhone calendars. They are the only way I know how my day will go. Unlike a classroom teacher, my daily schedule varies day to day, even hour to hour. My students continually make and cancel appointments, I attend meetings, and I cover other teachers' classes. Without my digital "helpers," I would never be able to stay on top of my day to day activities.
Because I teach online, all of our assessments are delivered digitally. My students complete their assignments and submit them to me electronically. They take a quiz at the end of each module, which is auto-graded. One thing that Google Forms does that our system does not is break down the data relating to the questions. I would love to be able to analyze the data from our quizzes to determine the validity and reliability of the questions. I doubt I could convince my school to switch to Google Forms (we have a contract with our course content designers, after all), but I think it would be very valuable for the teachers to have access to quiz and exam data to determine how effective these means of assessments really are.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Technology Blog - Week 6
I felt very comfortable with the material this week. Having taken the Instructional Design course recently, I am very familiar with the concept of Backwards Design. It's incredible how "common sense" this approach seems. I remember having a "why didn't I think of this before" moment when I first read about Backwards Design. It just makes sense!
I really enjoyed reading my classmates' posts this week. It was enlightening to see what everyone felt was the most important. I mentioned to one of my classmates that I wish I had chosen one of her ideas, because after reading her post, I was reminded of how important it is. She mentioned "teacher as facilitator" and I have discovered very recently what a great idea this is. As teachers, we should feel confident and comfortable in letting our students take the lead on some projects and activities. We should encourage their creativity and facilitate their learning, rather than standing up front feeding them information. Many of these elements all work in tandem to create a dynamic, inspiring learning environment!
I am very interested in continuing our WebQuest project. I am not fully convinced that my idea will work exactly how I want it to, but I hope that as I progress into the "nuts and bolts" of the project, it will come together the way I envision. I have lots of experience with Google Sites from my own classroom and personal use, and I feel confident that my project design will be clean, appealing, and user-friendly.
I really enjoyed reading my classmates' posts this week. It was enlightening to see what everyone felt was the most important. I mentioned to one of my classmates that I wish I had chosen one of her ideas, because after reading her post, I was reminded of how important it is. She mentioned "teacher as facilitator" and I have discovered very recently what a great idea this is. As teachers, we should feel confident and comfortable in letting our students take the lead on some projects and activities. We should encourage their creativity and facilitate their learning, rather than standing up front feeding them information. Many of these elements all work in tandem to create a dynamic, inspiring learning environment!
I am very interested in continuing our WebQuest project. I am not fully convinced that my idea will work exactly how I want it to, but I hope that as I progress into the "nuts and bolts" of the project, it will come together the way I envision. I have lots of experience with Google Sites from my own classroom and personal use, and I feel confident that my project design will be clean, appealing, and user-friendly.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Technology Blog - Week 5
I spent a good part of this week away from my home and my computer. I started the week (just as I had ended last week) in Homestead, Florida visiting one of my Florida Virtual School Blended Learning Labs. I was able to spend 2 days working face to face with some of my virtual students. This does not happen very often in my position, and I really enjoyed being able to see my students in person. I have visited the school 4 times this year, and this was my last trip. It was frustrating to see how much the technology was holding them back. The lab suffers from malfunctioning laptops, slow internet, intermittent wifi, and not enough student workstations. I think that if we are going to use technology in our classrooms to teach our students, that technology needs to work!
I reviewed Solfeggio Maestro 6 this week for my project. I found the program to be very frustrating at first, until I really explored the creation tools. By inputting a set of parameters, the program would actually auto-generate sight-reading exercises based on those parameters. It was quite impressive. I have spent a lot of time in the front of my classroom composing brief sight-reading exercises on the spot, and this program would save me a lot of time and frustration. It is easy to pinpoint an exact skill on which you want to work, input the parameters, and get brief examples that are exactly what you need. The biggest downside, as I discussed in my review, is that you are unable to print the examples for use at a later time.
After checking out my Feedly page and posting on my Twitter feed and Google+ account, I felt very frustrated that we had another social networking page to explore. The layout and interface of Diigo are clean and easy to use, and I do prefer it to the Google+ group. My biggest problem is that I already have multiple social networks active (both personally and professionally). Therefore, I don't see myself adding Diigo to my professional or social life after this class. I do think that it is possible to become too connected and have too many places to explore each day or week. They all tend to blend together and I think involvement in too many networks (personal or professional) can be counterproductive.
I really enjoyed listening to my classmates' remix projects this week. I think that one of the best parts of this course is that we have been able to listen to and discuss each other's work. Some of my classmates have expressed their frustration with those assignments, and I feel as though I have been able to lend a bit of support and encouragement to them as they move on through the class. I have felt very comfortable with the technology we have used throughout the course, and I am glad that I have had the opportunity to help my classmates, if even for a brief moment.
I reviewed Solfeggio Maestro 6 this week for my project. I found the program to be very frustrating at first, until I really explored the creation tools. By inputting a set of parameters, the program would actually auto-generate sight-reading exercises based on those parameters. It was quite impressive. I have spent a lot of time in the front of my classroom composing brief sight-reading exercises on the spot, and this program would save me a lot of time and frustration. It is easy to pinpoint an exact skill on which you want to work, input the parameters, and get brief examples that are exactly what you need. The biggest downside, as I discussed in my review, is that you are unable to print the examples for use at a later time.
After checking out my Feedly page and posting on my Twitter feed and Google+ account, I felt very frustrated that we had another social networking page to explore. The layout and interface of Diigo are clean and easy to use, and I do prefer it to the Google+ group. My biggest problem is that I already have multiple social networks active (both personally and professionally). Therefore, I don't see myself adding Diigo to my professional or social life after this class. I do think that it is possible to become too connected and have too many places to explore each day or week. They all tend to blend together and I think involvement in too many networks (personal or professional) can be counterproductive.
I really enjoyed listening to my classmates' remix projects this week. I think that one of the best parts of this course is that we have been able to listen to and discuss each other's work. Some of my classmates have expressed their frustration with those assignments, and I feel as though I have been able to lend a bit of support and encouragement to them as they move on through the class. I have felt very comfortable with the technology we have used throughout the course, and I am glad that I have had the opportunity to help my classmates, if even for a brief moment.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Technology Blog - Week 4
This week has provided some challenges to me, mostly because I was away from home all week. A majority of my communications with my classmates took place by typing on my iPhone. Since we are in a technology class, it stands to reason that this is a positive thing, and that it proves how much power our mobile devices have!
I was an adjudicator at the Florida State Thespian State Festival this week. I judged the solo musical event for 2 days, and the large group musical event for one day. Many of the students ran into technology problems. The sound systems these students were using were sometimes quite awful; a burned CD in an old CD player with terrible speakers, iPods attached to speakers, and others. It shows how much bad technology can hinder a performance.
Many of the websites and programs discussed in our text this week were very familiar to me. I have used SmartMusic in my classroom for years. 6 or 7 years ago, it was a very temperamental program, but it has really come a long way since then. I think programs like TeacherTube and SchoolTube are great, IF the videos you are looking for are there. I prefer safe-sharing websites that allow teachers to share YouTube videos directly, without any advertising or comments being able to be seen. This keeps the limitless resources of YouTube useable to teachers.
I am very familiar with Audacity, and had a good time working on my remix. As I stated in my reflection, the most frustrating thing was the quality of the track that we were required to remix. I did not like being forced to choose snippets that included all of the audio elements in one mixed down track. It made it very hard sometimes to get the percussion to line up properly. I would have much preferred tracks that were split based on the instrument (voice, percussion, brass, etc). This would have allowed me to not only free myself from the constraints of existing percussion, but play around with individual parts more specifically. I see a lot of potential for classroom use in Audacity, which is interesting because I always though of it as a tool for me, the teacher, not for my students. It's a wonderful way to introduce students to remixing (and even arranging), without being too overwhelming on the student or the budget.
I was an adjudicator at the Florida State Thespian State Festival this week. I judged the solo musical event for 2 days, and the large group musical event for one day. Many of the students ran into technology problems. The sound systems these students were using were sometimes quite awful; a burned CD in an old CD player with terrible speakers, iPods attached to speakers, and others. It shows how much bad technology can hinder a performance.
Many of the websites and programs discussed in our text this week were very familiar to me. I have used SmartMusic in my classroom for years. 6 or 7 years ago, it was a very temperamental program, but it has really come a long way since then. I think programs like TeacherTube and SchoolTube are great, IF the videos you are looking for are there. I prefer safe-sharing websites that allow teachers to share YouTube videos directly, without any advertising or comments being able to be seen. This keeps the limitless resources of YouTube useable to teachers.
I am very familiar with Audacity, and had a good time working on my remix. As I stated in my reflection, the most frustrating thing was the quality of the track that we were required to remix. I did not like being forced to choose snippets that included all of the audio elements in one mixed down track. It made it very hard sometimes to get the percussion to line up properly. I would have much preferred tracks that were split based on the instrument (voice, percussion, brass, etc). This would have allowed me to not only free myself from the constraints of existing percussion, but play around with individual parts more specifically. I see a lot of potential for classroom use in Audacity, which is interesting because I always though of it as a tool for me, the teacher, not for my students. It's a wonderful way to introduce students to remixing (and even arranging), without being too overwhelming on the student or the budget.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Technology Blog - Week 3
Some of the most interesting things I encountered this week were actually from my PLN. I was excited to share some exciting talks and demonstrations with my students.
First was this TED Talk from Mark Applebaum. He is a composer and spoke about being bored with conventional notation and conventional instruments. He discussed some of his musical creations (including a Concerto for Florist and Orchestra) and his instruments. I found his talk to be fascinating and it challenged my thinking as a musician and as a composer.
The second video was a Wired presentation from Imogen Heap. Imogen has been one of my favorite performers in the last 5-7 years. Her music is ethereal, beautiful, and imaginative. In this video, she describes a new musical glove that she has been working on. It allows her to control her electronics with her hands, by using gestures, finger placement, and sharp movements. Additionally, she is able to assign different parts of the stage to different effects. It was amazing. There is a Kickstarter campaign running right now for the large scale production of the gloves. When these become more cost-effective, I am excited about the educational and musical possibilities.
In my discussions with my classmates, I found that many of us face the same challenges when it comes to using technology and developing Non -Traditional Music courses. Many of us struggle with finding the financial resources needed to incorporate technology into our ensembles, but also to start new courses that can help reach the "other 80%." A big example of this is in my own former brick & mortar school, where our band director has had to use band money and equipment to start a sound engineering class. With STEM becoming such a big deal in the world of education, you would think that administrations would jump at the chance to offer more tech-oriented courses. Unfortunately, it is not always the case.
I enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with Soundation this week. My biggest concern came from the latency problems between my MIDI keyboard and the program. I can only assume that it had to do with the fact that Soundation is web-based. I tried on two different computers and in two different locations (with various internet speeds) and the latency continued to be a problem. I could not keep up with the click track and I did not have the energy (or time) to go back and manually adjust each phrase to line up properly. This changed the way I constructed my song. My original plan was to compose many melodies and countermelodies that would make up the majority of my piece. I had also intended to develop my own beats and percussion, rather than use the pre-made (canned) ones. Time was not on my side, and I had to settle for a few original samples, and then I used the ones provided in the library. Overall, I was pleased with my composition (though I use that term lightly since it contains mostly pre-existing material, perhaps arrangement is better) and I feel it has a strong beginning, middle, and end. I think that teachers with the opportunity to incorporate this program into their curriculum should. I have already shared it with several of my colleagues outside of this course.
I am thoroughly enjoying this course and am looking forward to the projects in the upcoming weeks.
First was this TED Talk from Mark Applebaum. He is a composer and spoke about being bored with conventional notation and conventional instruments. He discussed some of his musical creations (including a Concerto for Florist and Orchestra) and his instruments. I found his talk to be fascinating and it challenged my thinking as a musician and as a composer.
The second video was a Wired presentation from Imogen Heap. Imogen has been one of my favorite performers in the last 5-7 years. Her music is ethereal, beautiful, and imaginative. In this video, she describes a new musical glove that she has been working on. It allows her to control her electronics with her hands, by using gestures, finger placement, and sharp movements. Additionally, she is able to assign different parts of the stage to different effects. It was amazing. There is a Kickstarter campaign running right now for the large scale production of the gloves. When these become more cost-effective, I am excited about the educational and musical possibilities.
In my discussions with my classmates, I found that many of us face the same challenges when it comes to using technology and developing Non -Traditional Music courses. Many of us struggle with finding the financial resources needed to incorporate technology into our ensembles, but also to start new courses that can help reach the "other 80%." A big example of this is in my own former brick & mortar school, where our band director has had to use band money and equipment to start a sound engineering class. With STEM becoming such a big deal in the world of education, you would think that administrations would jump at the chance to offer more tech-oriented courses. Unfortunately, it is not always the case.
I enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with Soundation this week. My biggest concern came from the latency problems between my MIDI keyboard and the program. I can only assume that it had to do with the fact that Soundation is web-based. I tried on two different computers and in two different locations (with various internet speeds) and the latency continued to be a problem. I could not keep up with the click track and I did not have the energy (or time) to go back and manually adjust each phrase to line up properly. This changed the way I constructed my song. My original plan was to compose many melodies and countermelodies that would make up the majority of my piece. I had also intended to develop my own beats and percussion, rather than use the pre-made (canned) ones. Time was not on my side, and I had to settle for a few original samples, and then I used the ones provided in the library. Overall, I was pleased with my composition (though I use that term lightly since it contains mostly pre-existing material, perhaps arrangement is better) and I feel it has a strong beginning, middle, and end. I think that teachers with the opportunity to incorporate this program into their curriculum should. I have already shared it with several of my colleagues outside of this course.
I am thoroughly enjoying this course and am looking forward to the projects in the upcoming weeks.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Technology Blog - Week 2
This week has offered an opportunity to explore two pieces of software with which I was not familiar at all. Both of them have some pros and cons from a notation perspective. They definitely seem geared towards users that do not have access to more powerful software.
I first worked with MuseScore on a simple notation input project. I found the videos on the website to be very helpful. Many of the input shortcuts were relatively intuitive and made entry without a MIDI keyboard quick and easy. The palettes menu on the left-hand side of the screen offered immediate access to all of the possible options that one would need to add expression, which was very helpful. My biggest problem with this program was the inability to move the scores around dynamically. The only way to adjust the distance between staves or systems was to adjust them through a menu. I much prefer the ability to click and drag them where I want them. It made it very frustrating to get the layout I wanted. With only 8 instrument staves available, it does not seem like a viable option for composition, but could be very usable in a music classroom.
The other program was a web-based notation system, Noteflight. I found the note input system to be very easy to learn and master. I was able to input notes and chords more quickly on Noteflight than I was with MuseScore (which was quick itself). I really liked the chord-building shortcuts (using shift) and the simplicity of repeating notes and/or measures (using R). The most impressive feature in the notation input was the use of [ and ] to change the value of the notes. I found this to be much quicker than the use of numbers like in MuseScore and Finale. The free version of this system seems to have some significant limitations and I found myself being prompted to upgrade to the "Crescendo" format. I did enjoy the iPhone and iPad compatibility, though.
I shared with my classmates an incredible experience I had this week. My wife was invited to attend the FIRST Robotics Regional Competition in Orlando this weekend. The competition brought together students from all over Florida, the USA, and around the world in a celebration of robotics, creativity, and sportsmanship. We got to tour the pit area and talk to some of the students about their robots. The amount of creativity and hard work that was on display was astounding. The students had their robots compete in an "aerial assist" competition much like basketball. The finals felt like a major sporting event, with dancing, cheering, enthusiasm, and a "to the wire" finish. This type of technology showcase just proves how much our students feel connected to developing technology. It makes perfect sense to work to include exciting new technologies in our classrooms!
I first worked with MuseScore on a simple notation input project. I found the videos on the website to be very helpful. Many of the input shortcuts were relatively intuitive and made entry without a MIDI keyboard quick and easy. The palettes menu on the left-hand side of the screen offered immediate access to all of the possible options that one would need to add expression, which was very helpful. My biggest problem with this program was the inability to move the scores around dynamically. The only way to adjust the distance between staves or systems was to adjust them through a menu. I much prefer the ability to click and drag them where I want them. It made it very frustrating to get the layout I wanted. With only 8 instrument staves available, it does not seem like a viable option for composition, but could be very usable in a music classroom.
The other program was a web-based notation system, Noteflight. I found the note input system to be very easy to learn and master. I was able to input notes and chords more quickly on Noteflight than I was with MuseScore (which was quick itself). I really liked the chord-building shortcuts (using shift) and the simplicity of repeating notes and/or measures (using R). The most impressive feature in the notation input was the use of [ and ] to change the value of the notes. I found this to be much quicker than the use of numbers like in MuseScore and Finale. The free version of this system seems to have some significant limitations and I found myself being prompted to upgrade to the "Crescendo" format. I did enjoy the iPhone and iPad compatibility, though.
I shared with my classmates an incredible experience I had this week. My wife was invited to attend the FIRST Robotics Regional Competition in Orlando this weekend. The competition brought together students from all over Florida, the USA, and around the world in a celebration of robotics, creativity, and sportsmanship. We got to tour the pit area and talk to some of the students about their robots. The amount of creativity and hard work that was on display was astounding. The students had their robots compete in an "aerial assist" competition much like basketball. The finals felt like a major sporting event, with dancing, cheering, enthusiasm, and a "to the wire" finish. This type of technology showcase just proves how much our students feel connected to developing technology. It makes perfect sense to work to include exciting new technologies in our classrooms!
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