Class, Oct. 24, 2005

I'm so glad we took part of this last class to look at the work of others. I like to think that all humans are made to be creative, but that some like to express themselves more than others. It is fascinating to me to see the variety of ways individuals in a group can complete the same assignment. The pheasant movie was great. I especially liked the music as the dog was moving through the grass. I also thought the constellations on the SMARTboard would be really useful. You can find those in a book, but with technology, you can literally show students photos from their own back yard. I enjoyed seeing how pleased Rita's students were to help make a movie. Mine were, too. That is good to know.

I am so grateful that we were able to participate in this class this fall. I don't know when I would have been able to finish my degree without it. Now I can graduate this May, only 25 years after my bachelors degree. Thanks so much, Katie, for your willingness to teach another class. You already had a lot on your plate. Do you realize that nearly half of my elective credits are for classes you taught?

Class, Oct. 17, 2005

What do we mean when we say we are going to integrate technology? That was the topic on Monday. We discussed three categories where educational uses of technology generally fall. Technology literacy usage would include lessons in which students are asked to learn skills about computers, keyboarding, software and hardware. Another category would include lessons in which students use technology as an additional tool in learning. These are referred to as adaptive uses. The content stays the same, but the tools are updated. Finally, transforming uses would include those more complex lessons where the learning would not be possible but for the technology.

Transforming uses do not come easily to my imagination. Perhaps I just haven't read enough on the subject. Maybe the problem is that my own skills fall somewhere between literacy usage and adaptive. I wonder too, if some content areas lend themselves more readily to this kind of usage than others.

Integration; it seems to me that we will have technological integration when students (and teachers) are just as likely and just as comfortable using computers as we are paper and pencil.

Class, Oct. 3, 2006

I enjoyed meeting the O' Neill students very much. It just occured to me that some of them were probably part of the Action Research project that Molly and I did together a few years ago. I particularly enjoyed Silas's comment that technology made learning more "agreeable". The students certainly expressed what we have been reading about; technology motivates them, their future will depend on it, it makes them think bigger, and it helps them learn teamwork. I find it lamentable that those in junior high and high school wish they could use more technology. They have just come from a place where they were apparently excited to learn, and the momentum suddenly shifted for them; rather like children in primary grades whose delight in learning became apathy toward school, or worse.

I would like to congratulate these students for their award and recognition for their accomplishments in the area of technology. It seems that they are willing to give anything a try; SMARTboards, palms, multimedia presentations, iMovies, Publisher, Garageband, and of course Eagle Eye News. The PR value alone may be worth the expense and time of using technology in education.

Finally, having been bitten by the travel bug myself, I am impressed that these youngsters have been able to travel because of their efforts. While they will "virtually" visit many places on-line, traveling in person will teach them even more. They will certainly be world citizens!

There is a crazy irony in the fact that these young students already know how to use technology that I am earning graduate credit to explore! I can't begin to imagine what the future will bring them.

Multimedia Projects Response

The statement "All learning is self-taught" made me stop to think for a while. I agree that unless students make information their own, it is not learned. That led me to wonder if just knowing something, just remembering a fact, makes it learned.

I also had to think about the comment that "few fields of endeavor outside of education succeed today without technology". I am confident this is true. In the world, outside of school, technology is a tool that the most successful businesses will embrace. It is an edge that those who rely on the success of their business can't afford to ignore. Neither can schools, really. However, in education, use of technology is lagging further and further behind. I am afraid that in music education, it is rarely used beyond simple music notation and accompaniment tracks. Technology does have the potential, as the author says, to be the great equalizer among students with diverse backgrounds; but only if kids can get their hands on it.

I need to do more thinking about class-based projects. Performance classes have a lot in common with these kinds of projects in that everyone contributes based on their own abilities, but they are not student led. I make all the decisions. The 4MAT lesson plan model certainly embraces this sort of project, but I have not found it easy to use that model exclusively. Class-based projects can become rather difficult to guide to an effective conclusion with the desired outcomes learned. The amount of time required seems crazy since I see grade school students for a total of one hour a week.

It may be that the most important lesson in a class-based project is the aspect of collaboration. It is what we need in every walk of life; in schools, in families, in churches and in politics.

Class, Sept. 26, 2005

I am glad we got the chance to work with the iLife suite. This summer I interviewed some music educators about their use of technology and a couple of them were sold on that product. One teacher was starting a new class for music technology using just the garage band part of the program. Another had been issued an apple laptop several years ago, and she doesn't go anywhere without it, including our trip to Europe! I found that even though the commands were a little different, they were not difficult to understand and use. Of course, when something is new, a lot of time is spent just noodling around to see what all the music samples sound like and what all the effects are all about. It takes me a while to get comfortable with all that is available. My plan is to bring some digital video to class next week and see if I can actually do some editing! Wow! Who knew!

Class, Sept. 19, 2005

Okay, here we go, on to iMovie. I feel that this project will take more planning than I can imagine. Even before I begin to use the story board handout I need to do some preplanning. I'm sure a good movie, like any good story telling, needs a strong beginning, middle, and end. A good movie will hold an audience's attention, and they will be more informed than they were before. It seems imposible to do all of that in a 1 minute movie! I am feeling a bit overwelmed I guess. I do know, however, that students are a lot more at ease with video cameras than I will ever be, on either side of the lens.

I think I will use the instrument assembly idea. I will ask the 7th graders to help me. They are a small group and usually quite enthusiastic to try new things.

I really have to wonder how this thing is gonna turn out!

Class, Sept. 12, 2005

Inspiration/Kidspiration seem like good products to help kids learn how to organize information in a meaningful way. I think it would also help to actually remember the information once it is keyed in. I believe that for some students the actual movement of linking the bubbles to the main idea will help them to learn that information. In our current set up however, one computer no SMARTboard, it would be rather difficult to use.

The work we did with photos was all new to me. They were fun activities to be introduced to. At the moment, I can't quite feature just how to use it in my music classes. Any suggestions? I do have some pictures from my trip that would be fun to goof around with, move a photo of Eruopean landmarks to central NE, for example.

Class, Sept. 5, 2005

I have an idea for a power point with sounds and instrument identification. We'll see how it works. I noticed tonight that I can download free sounds from the internet. Right now, however, I'm not set up to use anything with any of my classes. I don't think that I understood before how to make a hyperlink loop useful. I'll try and find time this week to experiment.

Class, Aug. 29, 2005

We covered a lot of territory in last weeks class. From the big screen that is the SMARTboard to the little one that is the palm computer. I'm so glad to know where to look for interactive lessons that have already been designed and am looking forward to researching that a bit more. I had not ever tried the palms before, but in some research I was doing this summer I read about a music educator who was teaching music composition with hand held computers and free downloads of Finale Notepad. I also looked on-line for information on the Teamboard. I came across something called Easi-teach with catagories including math, science, language arts, social studies, etc. But nothing for music.