Technology Assisted Music Learning #8

We have come to the end of our technology assisted music learning course. This week we had to major assignments to complete. We were asked to create a WebQuest and an ePortfolio and submit the URL of our projects. WebQuests and ePortfolios are rather new to me. I have viewed various WebQuests over the internet but I have never created my own. Luckily for me, I know had an opportunity to create my own WebQuest. I must admit that I felt a bit overwhelmed prior to creating my WebQest and ePortfolio. After watching the tutorials numerous times I made a few practice pages to just test my skillset in making a WebQuest. Some of my practice pages turned out great and others did not. I really struggled with adding pictures, clip art and videos. However, I refused to let any adversity stop me. After a few more tries I eventually grasped the concept of how to insert items in my WebQuest. I watched the videos yet again to make sure I had an understanding of everything before I started to creat my final WebQuest. I created a WebQuest for a music appreciation class that I called G Dumas American Popular Music. My WebQuest gives students an opportunity to explore various genres of music that is popular in America. I feel that I did a good job in creating  my first official WebQuest. My WebQuest creativity will not stop here. I definitely plan on creating more WebQuests for my classes in the near future. I feel that they are a great learning too that can be used to encourage larning through technology. As we have learned throughout this course, learning through technology can be very challenging and fun at the same time.

We also had an opportunity to create an ePortfolio. I have used electronic portfolios such as live text in the past but I have yet to create my own professional portfolio through the use of Google Sites. I used the knowledge I had gained by learning how to create a WebQuest. I chose to create my ePortfolio from scratch and then chose a theme for my page. We were asked to create sections that documented our learning and achievement in this course. We were also asked to include artifacts as examples along with reflections. I feel that creating the ePortfolio will be very helpful for future endeavors that may be professionally job related as well as continuation of graduate studies.

Technology Assisted Music Learning Week #7

For module 7 we learned more ways to use technology for assessments. I feel that module 7 also provided great examples of how to use technology for administrative tasks. The discussion post for this week prompted us to discuss ways we currently use technology for assessment purposes in our classrooms. We were also asked to discuss ways we use technology for administrative tasks that is used for professional productivity. I use Finale software for assessing students. Finale is a great music notation software in which you can create music through music notation as well as MIDI. For example, one assessment that I have created through Finale was a music notation test. My created music notation test was very helpful because I could create my own test based upon the level and needs of my own students rather than using a pre-created test. My students can also use Finale to create their own music through music notation. For example, I would ask the students to create a 15 measure rhythm in 4/4 time by using half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes etc. I have also used GarageBand for music creativity assessments. Quite naturally one major difference in the two programs is that Finale is much more costly than GarageBand. I feel that we should definitely incorporate more ways to assess our students through technology. One of my group members mentioned that they use digital notebooks in their school. I feel that a digital notebook is a great tool that can be beneficial to students as well as teachers. Students can become more organized and teachers can track student progress through digital notebooks.  Although we may view band and chorus as performance based classes, we still must find ways to use technology for assessments.

Module 7 also gave us an opportunity to learn more about using technology for professional productivity purposes. I was amazed at how much we can use Google to complete administrative tasks. We had an opportunity to create documents, quizzes, presentations and calendars. I have to admit that I did not know that you could create an assessment through the use of Google Forms and Google Drive. In the past I would just simply create a quiz through Microsoft Word or somehow stumble upon a "ready made" assessment. The good part about creating your own assessments is that you can create assessments specifically for your students based upon the topic and knowledge level of your students.  I really enjoyed creating the newsletter and presentation through the use of Google Drive.  Google Calendar is another technology administrative tool that we became acquainted with. I will definitely begin to use Google Calendar to help me keep track of important dates of performances, meetings and deadlines.

Technology Assisted Music Learning Week #6

Module 6 was a very interesting module that included topics that personally hit home in my opinion. This weeks discussion post prompted us to consider instructional design and how we apply instructional design strategies during our classroom instruction. After reading chapter 6 we were asked to create a top 5 list of topics that we thought were new, interesting or important. My top 5 list includes; 5. Project Based Learning, 4. Instructional Logistics, 3. Copyright, 2. Public Domain and 1. Backward Design.

I feel that instructional logistics really hit home in regards to my current teaching situation and could also have an impact on other music educators as well. I have personally experienced logistical issues that has caused frustration. I gave an example of a situation where I began the school year with a set number of students and a set number of computers. However, the number of students increased whereas the number of computers remained the same. These issues are definitely frustrating to me, however, theses logistical issues are not discouraging. We must find ways to overcome instructional logistical issues and continue to teach our students by any means necessary.

Another interesting topic that one of my group members mentioned is the misconception that students have about music. I feel that students are often lured to believe misconceptions about things because they do not take the time to either research information themselves or ask the teacher for conformation. One misconception my students have is believing that a certain genre of music is boring to listen to or perform. I try to do my best to expose my students to a variety of genres of music. In most instances my students tend to change their outlook on things after lessons and performances.

This week we also began to learn the process of creating a WebQuest. I have explored various WebQuests but I have never created a WebQuest for my classroom instruction. So far I have created an outline of what I want my WebQuest to consist of. I was able to complete the WebQuest tutorials and gain a better understanding of how to create a WebQuest and how to make it unique. I am really looking forward to completing my final WebQuest and hopefully begin to implement such technology resources for my classroom instruction.

Technology Assisted Music Learning #5

For module 5 we had the opportunity to learn more about technology assisted music learning. However, this week took us into another mode of thinking when it comes to incorporating music technology for our classroom instruction. This weeks discussion post asked us to think about ways we facilitate and develop students' responses to music through the use of technology. There are many responding to music activity types that are located on pp. 122-127 in the textbook. I had to spend some time self reflecting about ways I currently facilitate and develop students' responses to music in my own classroom instruction. As I referred to the readings on pp. 122-127 I noticed that I was indeed providing facilitation and development for students' responses to music through music technology. One major aspect of facilitation of music technology that I use is allowing my students to listen to recordings of music that we are currently rehearsing for festival or concerts. I call this type of exercise "music listening resources". For example, if we are starting to learn a new piece of music I will first distribute the music to the students and allow them to look over the music for music notations and rhythms. I usually address any problematic areas that I may feel that the students may have trouble with or the students will ask me themselves about certain rhythms they may not understand. We will then begin to play through the music as best as we can. I believe this method is also great practice for sight reading purposes. After we have played through the music for the first time I will then play a recording of the music for the students. Now the students can listen to what the song sounds like as well as focus in on their particular instrument that they hear. Not only does this method help students learn music but it also teaches them to listen critically, evaluate and analyze music more effectively. Some people may not agree with this type of facilitation to develop students' response to music because they may feel listening to music may serve as a crutch for music performance. I do not view this method as teaching my students to play by ear, however, I feel it provides my students another way of learning to perform music through the resources of technology. Coincidentally, I have noticed through our discussion posts and responses that a number of people also use music listening as a form of learning music and to facilitate students' response to music. I also record rehearsals as well as performances in both audio and video formats. I will typically playback the recorded rehearsals and performances back to my students so that they can participate in self-evaluation.

We were also introduced to a type of social bookmarking called Diggo. Diggo is a very cool tool that allows for not only social bookmarking but research and knowledge sharing as well. It has really cool features that allows for tabs as if you were using sticky notes to mark a page. I also like the highlighting feature in which you can use a highlight tool to highlight important passages in readings. The highlights can be in different colors such as yellow, green, blue and even pink. This form of social networking is quite new to me but I feel it is definitely a great resource.