This has been a very exciting and overwhelming week for me getting started in this class. Many of the tools we were required to set up I am quite familiar with. I have had a Twitter account for several years, have been working with Google+ for a bit (though I have never really gotten into the habit of using it). I have never really used RSS feeds in the past, so the Feedly site took a little getting used to. I am still adding sites to my page often, as I find new suggestions from my classmates via Twitter and Google+. I really enjoy the fact that all of the students from each of the classes are able to work together in the social media environment. It has given us a large community of classmates and colleagues from which to draw inspiration and ideas.
I found our assignment with Incredibox to be very interesting and exciting. I ran across this website once before while using StumbleUpon and spent some time "playing" with it before moving on. I had never really considered the educational possibilities. I think that it would be a wonderful mechanism to introduce students (especially elementary age) to the concepts of composition and improvisation. It is simple enough to understand and manipulate, and contains catchy hooks that students would really enjoy.
Pedagogical and Content Knowledge were well known to me, as a veteran teacher. It's something we hear about all the time in professional development, staff meetings, and workshops. However, while it sounds like common sense, the concept of Technical Knowledge as an addition to Pedagogical and Content Knowledge was quite new to me. It stands to reason that in the modern age, the ability to effectively use technology to instruct our students becomes a vital key to our success as educators. I have always been a big fan of new technologies (since I was a child). I am continually looking for ways to include technology in my classroom. Many times, it is in relatively simple ways such as using my iPod to play music for students, using Skype to talk to composers, working with Finale for notation activities, or taking my AP Theory students to the computer lab to work on their ear training at www.musictheory.net. Other times, I have used SmartMusic to help students rehearse their solos for Solo & Ensemble. My wife was a voice teacher for many years. She had a program on her iPad called Voice Analyzer. It is similar to a program we had in one of the voice studios at my undergraduate university in the late 1990s. It shows a spectral analysis of the voice, including partials, vibrato, and vowel shape. I sometimes would take this into my classroom to help students prepare for their solos. It's an amazing piece of technology!
My current position at Florida Virtual School (FLVS) offers some benefits and challenges to the use of technology. At their heart, FLVS classes are technologically centered. Students use their computers to access the content, view videos, make recordings, and interact with the teacher and one another. We use Blackboard Collaborate for our live online lessons. When my students come to the lesson, they hear me on my microphone (and sometimes video) while I discuss the content of the lesson. The students have the ability to "grab" the mic and contribute to the discussion that way. Otherwise, they can type into our chatbox. Blackboard Collaborate rooms have a dynamic whiteboard where students can write, draw, and manipulate objects as the lessons dictate. It's a wonderful tool. The downside to my course (Music of the World) is that I do not have input into my curriculum or how it is presented. The courses are designed by our curriculum team, and while I think the content is interesting and relevant, I sometimes think we are not utilizing all of the possibilities that the internet and virtual learning has to offer.
I find the TPACK concept described in the video and in the opening chapter of Dr. Bauer's book to be a logical concept that music teachers (all teachers, really) should be developing and striving to improve to become a well rounded teacher that integrates technology into their classroom. When I taught in a brick and mortar school, I always felt that I was on the leading edge of the technology users in the school. We were a small, rural high school with not a lot of access to money or bandwidth. We managed the best we can. However, I am really looking forward to this course because I know that there are many, many ways in which to incorporate technology into the classroom that I have no idea even exist.
No comments:
Post a Comment