Throughout this course I have learned a great deal about various new technologies. The techquest really pushed me to think about a way to implement newer music distribution technologies into my classroom. My goal for the future is to continue implementing it and finding ways to make the process easier and more effective.
Another are that I have grown a great deal in is my web design. Before the class I had some experience doing web design/building. From this class, and experiences in CEP 811, I have grown a great deal and become much more capable at designing and building websites. My goal for the future is to continue becoming more comfortable with it and to also learn more about web design. Overall I hope that I can become more technically advanced as well as sophisticated in this area.
One of the greatest lessons I learned from this class was about the ISTE national standards for technology. This helped me to give a backbone to my work in education as well as realize what's important. It's also helped me to develop and foster strategies for teaching education. Standards based teaching makes sense to me and feels like the most effective way of teaching. ISTE provided those standards.
All of the technologies we explored in relation to web 2.0 (blogs, wikis, etc) really made me look at what's feasible in my classrooms. With the large classes that I have, it can be difficult to manage. But by using web 2.0 technologies, I hope that in the future I will be able to spend less time on logistics, and more time on teaching.
Overall, I felt that I have met my goals. I have become more versed in new technologies and how they can be implemented in education. I have also explored many applicable technologies that can be used in my classes. Another great accomplishment this session was finally getting my e-portfolio together which has been a long-time goal of mine.
My new goal is to find ways of promoting these technologies in my school. Sometime down the road, once I'm finished with the school myself, I want to devote some time to working with teachers and empowering them to use this technology themselves. My hope is that by doing that, we can create a culture in our school that is 21st century. From this class, and the other CEP courses, I have learned the importance of asking if the technology is serving a goal and using technology to meet an educational need, rather then starting with the technology first.
In closing, the CEP courses have been a wonderful experience. I feel ready to head into new territory as I start the fall semester in the MAET program. My hope is to get as much out of my future classes as I've gotten out of this class.
Showing posts with label CEP 812. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CEP 812. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Project Evaluation Blog Entry
How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?
After implementing the project in a trial run/stage, I've learned a couple of things. One is that while most students listen to music a lot, they don't do it at a very deep level. In the future, one thing I'll change is the preparation I do with the students before integrating the technology. Many talks about deeper listening are going to be very important for the success of this project.
Another thing I'd change is the medium I use to keep accountability. Instead of using a google form, I am thinking of using a message board. After the trial implementation, I realized that the responses that were coming in, were very one sided. My hopes is by using a message board, students can bounce ideas of each other and gain a different perspective.
What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?
Whenever using a web based technology, I've learned that the way you communicate the links to students is important. For example, for my project, I didn't have a domain. So when I shared it, I had to copy and paste it into word and print it (w/ instructions). Many students expressed that would have rather received an email.
How we transmit instruction regarding the technology is just as important, if not more so, than what kind of content we integrate into the technology. It's like trying to cook in the woods - you have to figure out how to start the fire or else deciding what you're going to cook on it becomes moot. Same with technology - you have to teach empower students with the technology before the content can be delivered.
In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?
I really want to do this project more in the future. I am a believer that listening is so important in music education, well in all education. I think I won't do it as often as I originally thought. I also am going to be very wary of how much music I put on each play lists. I think I might even put at most 2 pieces per a list in order to help students focus on what's important.
After implementing the project in a trial run/stage, I've learned a couple of things. One is that while most students listen to music a lot, they don't do it at a very deep level. In the future, one thing I'll change is the preparation I do with the students before integrating the technology. Many talks about deeper listening are going to be very important for the success of this project.
Another thing I'd change is the medium I use to keep accountability. Instead of using a google form, I am thinking of using a message board. After the trial implementation, I realized that the responses that were coming in, were very one sided. My hopes is by using a message board, students can bounce ideas of each other and gain a different perspective.
What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?
Whenever using a web based technology, I've learned that the way you communicate the links to students is important. For example, for my project, I didn't have a domain. So when I shared it, I had to copy and paste it into word and print it (w/ instructions). Many students expressed that would have rather received an email.
How we transmit instruction regarding the technology is just as important, if not more so, than what kind of content we integrate into the technology. It's like trying to cook in the woods - you have to figure out how to start the fire or else deciding what you're going to cook on it becomes moot. Same with technology - you have to teach empower students with the technology before the content can be delivered.
In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?
I really want to do this project more in the future. I am a believer that listening is so important in music education, well in all education. I think I won't do it as often as I originally thought. I also am going to be very wary of how much music I put on each play lists. I think I might even put at most 2 pieces per a list in order to help students focus on what's important.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Internet Radio: Research part 2
This part of my research focuses more on why listening to music is an essential part of music education. It is my ultimate goal after all to use internet radio to aid in listening activities and promote better listening habits.
Colwell (1966) argues that just because students perform music, doesn't meant they understand it. Instead we must take a holistic approach to music education, ensuring that we provide the necessary activities that foster deep understanding of music.
This same idea same idea is echoed in an article by Margaret Barrett (1992) , "listening experiences which expose children to a variety of musical forms and styles; opportunities toparticipate in a range of musical experiences; and, perhaps most importantly, the oppor- tunity to experiment with the materials of music in order to discover their possibilities and limitations, provide children with a number of examples of how music may become meaningful to them, and a powerful part of their daily lives."
So the question then is how do we teach listening in a way that aids student understanding of music and ultimately their performance.
The first step is to give them the background information. We need to teach them musical terms and how to connect their listening to their emotions. In a book written by Nicholas Cook (1990), he states, "listeners perceive musical structures depending on their degree of training and understanding of historical and social contexts. Again, imagination is vital in this aspect of musical understanding." So in other words, we need to set our students up to succeed as listeners and treat it like we would any other skill such as writing or performing.
The next step is training. We need to train our students to be deep listeners. Patricia Campbell writes about the pedagogy of listening. The article outlines three stages: attentive listening, engaged listening, and enactive listening. The ultimate goal is to get students to the enactive listening in which they are listening to every nuance of the musical recording.
The final step is assessment. How do we know if students are listening and understanding what they are listening to? I was able to find rubrics to evaluate student listening. These were some great sample rubrics available in Cavner and Gould's article (2003).
Ultimately the goal is to improve student understanding and performance. When we think of higher levels of thinking this would be hitting to that highest level of creation or synthesis. Listening is the step below that, evaluation. This is a much more attainable step that all students in and out of a music classroom should be taught. "The most important thing that we can provide for the majority of children is to teach them how to listen intelligently, and with a growing sense of the power of music to symbolize our emotional sensibilities. Focusing so much on performance in music education, at the expense of developing sophisticated methods of teaching students to listen with intelligent involvement, fails to address the demands of the majority of students, with the result that most young people leave school with no idea at all of how to listen to music, or what to listen for." (Walker, 2005).
Through this research I learned more about the need to teach listening to students. I also picked up a few strategies and terms to help me in that process. I feel revitalized in my goal of incorporating internet radio and finding ways of broadening my music curriculum.
On a side note: I also am getting more comfortable searching for articles via the MSU library. My initial research focused mostly on google searches and google scholar searches. A few things came from so blog links as well. This post primarily came from the MSU e-sources. It's a very handy resource indeed.
References:
Barrett, M. (1992). Music Education and the Natural Learning Model. International Journal of Music Education, 27-34.
Campbell, P. (2005). Deep Listening to the Musical World. Music Educators Journal, 92 (1), 30-36.
Cavner, D., & Gould, E. (2003) Whole Language and Music-Listening Instruction: Part 2 of 2. Music Educators Journal, 89 (5), 19-25.
Colwell, R. (1966, Jan). Music: Both a Performing Art and a Listening Art. Music Educators Journal, 52 (4), 45-50.
Cook, N. (1990). Music, Imagination, and Culture. Clarendon Press.
Walker, R. (2005). A worthy function for music in education. International Journal of Music Education, 23 (2), 135-138.
Colwell (1966) argues that just because students perform music, doesn't meant they understand it. Instead we must take a holistic approach to music education, ensuring that we provide the necessary activities that foster deep understanding of music.
This same idea same idea is echoed in an article by Margaret Barrett (1992) , "listening experiences which expose children to a variety of musical forms and styles; opportunities toparticipate in a range of musical experiences; and, perhaps most importantly, the oppor- tunity to experiment with the materials of music in order to discover their possibilities and limitations, provide children with a number of examples of how music may become meaningful to them, and a powerful part of their daily lives."
So the question then is how do we teach listening in a way that aids student understanding of music and ultimately their performance.
The first step is to give them the background information. We need to teach them musical terms and how to connect their listening to their emotions. In a book written by Nicholas Cook (1990), he states, "listeners perceive musical structures depending on their degree of training and understanding of historical and social contexts. Again, imagination is vital in this aspect of musical understanding." So in other words, we need to set our students up to succeed as listeners and treat it like we would any other skill such as writing or performing.
The next step is training. We need to train our students to be deep listeners. Patricia Campbell writes about the pedagogy of listening. The article outlines three stages: attentive listening, engaged listening, and enactive listening. The ultimate goal is to get students to the enactive listening in which they are listening to every nuance of the musical recording.
The final step is assessment. How do we know if students are listening and understanding what they are listening to? I was able to find rubrics to evaluate student listening. These were some great sample rubrics available in Cavner and Gould's article (2003).
Ultimately the goal is to improve student understanding and performance. When we think of higher levels of thinking this would be hitting to that highest level of creation or synthesis. Listening is the step below that, evaluation. This is a much more attainable step that all students in and out of a music classroom should be taught. "The most important thing that we can provide for the majority of children is to teach them how to listen intelligently, and with a growing sense of the power of music to symbolize our emotional sensibilities. Focusing so much on performance in music education, at the expense of developing sophisticated methods of teaching students to listen with intelligent involvement, fails to address the demands of the majority of students, with the result that most young people leave school with no idea at all of how to listen to music, or what to listen for." (Walker, 2005).
Through this research I learned more about the need to teach listening to students. I also picked up a few strategies and terms to help me in that process. I feel revitalized in my goal of incorporating internet radio and finding ways of broadening my music curriculum.
On a side note: I also am getting more comfortable searching for articles via the MSU library. My initial research focused mostly on google searches and google scholar searches. A few things came from so blog links as well. This post primarily came from the MSU e-sources. It's a very handy resource indeed.
References:
Barrett, M. (1992). Music Education and the Natural Learning Model. International Journal of Music Education, 27-34.
Campbell, P. (2005). Deep Listening to the Musical World. Music Educators Journal, 92 (1), 30-36.
Cavner, D., & Gould, E. (2003) Whole Language and Music-Listening Instruction: Part 2 of 2. Music Educators Journal, 89 (5), 19-25.
Colwell, R. (1966, Jan). Music: Both a Performing Art and a Listening Art. Music Educators Journal, 52 (4), 45-50.
Cook, N. (1990). Music, Imagination, and Culture. Clarendon Press.
Walker, R. (2005). A worthy function for music in education. International Journal of Music Education, 23 (2), 135-138.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Internet Radio... not a new idea?
Here I thought that the internet radio idea was a relatively new idea... one full of great potential that has just yet to be tapped. Upon researching this topic more, I found that I was wrong... well sorta.
In 2007, a research article published in the International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, by E. Menduni, outlines the history of internet radio and also the history of pod-casting. The article states that internet radio dates back to the early nineties and that it never caught on due to a couple of reasons:
1) lack of portability
2) lack of accessibility
The article examines the idea that pod-casting was a better alternative and replacement to internet radio.
I think though, that this article is already outdated in its thinking. A couple of recent developments and advancements makes the internet radio of today very different from the past. 1) Mobile internet capable devices now make internet radio much more portable and accessible. 2) Web 2.0 technologies, such as tagging and social networking, make internet radio a safe & legal way of sharing music with peers, and ultimately with my students.
In fact, in that same year 2007, J. Knowles published an article titled: "A survey of Web 2.0 music trends and some implications for tertiary music communities." Knowles details services such as Pandora radio and lastfm.com and writes about the power that Web 2.0 technologies brings to these services. One thing that I learned from this was that lastfm.com allows users to publish their own music to the site... great potential in a music classroom for sure!
So I began to look for a site with tips/steps on how to do this and found a jumping off point.
What I couldn't find, were projects like my idea. I am beginning to think it's a bit narrow in its scope so finding others who are doing similar projects will be difficult if not impossible.
On another tangent, my new school had new teacher orientation this week. Part of that orientation was us revisiting a district wide initiative of including rigor, relevance, and relationships in our curriculum. I began to think about my project and how it was related. So I dug a bit deeper on International Center for Leadership in Education website.
I began to realize that this activity fostered a high level of all 3 rigor, relevance, and relationships (a big eureka moment for me):
Rigor - promoting higher level thinking skills of evaluating existing musical performances, and then applying that evaluation to their own creation/synthesis of music.
Relevance - Making real-world connections with unpredictable situations (new music) and having to use their knowledge of music to make informed decisions and opinions
Relationship - Because I build the radio stations, I foster a new connection with my students that goes beyond the classroom.
The last article I'll share dives into how music affects the mind and learning. This ties back to the idea of rigor (higher levels of thinking). I realized from reading this article how powerful this tool of using internet radio can be. It not only can serve my needs in providing exemplars to my students for performance, but might ultimately affect their cognitive abilities and stretch their thinking in new directions.
UPDATED: Continued my research in... part 2.
In 2007, a research article published in the International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, by E. Menduni, outlines the history of internet radio and also the history of pod-casting. The article states that internet radio dates back to the early nineties and that it never caught on due to a couple of reasons:
1) lack of portability
2) lack of accessibility
The article examines the idea that pod-casting was a better alternative and replacement to internet radio.
I think though, that this article is already outdated in its thinking. A couple of recent developments and advancements makes the internet radio of today very different from the past. 1) Mobile internet capable devices now make internet radio much more portable and accessible. 2) Web 2.0 technologies, such as tagging and social networking, make internet radio a safe & legal way of sharing music with peers, and ultimately with my students.
In fact, in that same year 2007, J. Knowles published an article titled: "A survey of Web 2.0 music trends and some implications for tertiary music communities." Knowles details services such as Pandora radio and lastfm.com and writes about the power that Web 2.0 technologies brings to these services. One thing that I learned from this was that lastfm.com allows users to publish their own music to the site... great potential in a music classroom for sure!
So I began to look for a site with tips/steps on how to do this and found a jumping off point.
What I couldn't find, were projects like my idea. I am beginning to think it's a bit narrow in its scope so finding others who are doing similar projects will be difficult if not impossible.
On another tangent, my new school had new teacher orientation this week. Part of that orientation was us revisiting a district wide initiative of including rigor, relevance, and relationships in our curriculum. I began to think about my project and how it was related. So I dug a bit deeper on International Center for Leadership in Education website.
I began to realize that this activity fostered a high level of all 3 rigor, relevance, and relationships (a big eureka moment for me):
Rigor - promoting higher level thinking skills of evaluating existing musical performances, and then applying that evaluation to their own creation/synthesis of music.
Relevance - Making real-world connections with unpredictable situations (new music) and having to use their knowledge of music to make informed decisions and opinions
Relationship - Because I build the radio stations, I foster a new connection with my students that goes beyond the classroom.
The last article I'll share dives into how music affects the mind and learning. This ties back to the idea of rigor (higher levels of thinking). I realized from reading this article how powerful this tool of using internet radio can be. It not only can serve my needs in providing exemplars to my students for performance, but might ultimately affect their cognitive abilities and stretch their thinking in new directions.
UPDATED: Continued my research in... part 2.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Project Description Entry
Educational Need: The national standards of music include 2 areas that are essential to a well-rounded music education:
Technology: I believe Internet radios, such as Pandora and lastfm.com, provide an answer. Students can listen to music streamed through their computers online. This is not only free but also legal. Teachers can create their own ‘stations’ that students can then go home to listen to.
Online forms/surveys, such as those created through google docs, can help to hold students accountable for their listening activities. These forms can also be used to help guide students through the listening process and focus them what’s important.
Research: The following article talks about research regarding listening and how it affects brain development (http://128.200.122.84/weinberger/publications/Weinberger,%201998e.pdf). Of course when I talk about listening I am talking about listening at a higher level, rather than just casual in the background listening. This blog outlines the importance of deep listening and pointers when teaching it students (http://musiciansway.com/blog/?p=2636)
I had a difficult time finding currently existing applications of this technology. I think in part because it is pretty brand new. I did find a few teachers from other subjects that talked about their uses/benefits of using Internet radio in the classroom:
http://scottangle23ed4766.blogspot.com/2006/02/internet-radio-and-classroom.html
http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/using-pandora-radio-in-the
The Plan: To implement it over the summer, I am going to create a radio station that relates to our marching bands field show. I will share this station with a group of my student leaders along with a short online survey for them to take. In that survey I will ask about how they felt listening affected them and if it helped to improve their understanding of the music, etc.
Once I get their feedback, I will continue with this implementation in the school year. I hope to create several stations that I will share with my students throughout the year. During down times, away from performances, I will also create surveys for them to fill out about their listening. During the year I hope to use blackboard to create these online quizzes/surveys.
Common Places in Education:
Teacher – The teacher’s role in all of this is facilitation. They are the sage the guides students through and to listening experiences. The Internet frees up valuable class time and allows for teachers to focus on what’s important. It is easy to set-up and monitor.
Student – The students will be exposed to new music and gain deeper understanding through listening. This will hopefully improve students’ appreciation of music as well as performance. They should have a very easy time with the technology since it is something that most of them are familiar with. For those without Internet access, school computers will be made available.
Subject Matter – Listening is an essential skill in the music classroom and thus incredibly important. It can also help to develop deeper listening abilities that will cross all subject matters.
Setting/Context – This plan/technology opens up the music classroom to the home. Students are already plugged into their listening technology, like iPods, so this helps for us to bridge that gap.
- 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
- 7. Evaluating music and music performances.
Technology: I believe Internet radios, such as Pandora and lastfm.com, provide an answer. Students can listen to music streamed through their computers online. This is not only free but also legal. Teachers can create their own ‘stations’ that students can then go home to listen to.
Online forms/surveys, such as those created through google docs, can help to hold students accountable for their listening activities. These forms can also be used to help guide students through the listening process and focus them what’s important.
Research: The following article talks about research regarding listening and how it affects brain development (http://128.200.122.84/weinberger/publications/Weinberger,%201998e.pdf). Of course when I talk about listening I am talking about listening at a higher level, rather than just casual in the background listening. This blog outlines the importance of deep listening and pointers when teaching it students (http://musiciansway.com/blog/?p=2636)
I had a difficult time finding currently existing applications of this technology. I think in part because it is pretty brand new. I did find a few teachers from other subjects that talked about their uses/benefits of using Internet radio in the classroom:
http://scottangle23ed4766.blogspot.com/2006/02/internet-radio-and-classroom.html
http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/using-pandora-radio-in-the
The Plan: To implement it over the summer, I am going to create a radio station that relates to our marching bands field show. I will share this station with a group of my student leaders along with a short online survey for them to take. In that survey I will ask about how they felt listening affected them and if it helped to improve their understanding of the music, etc.
Once I get their feedback, I will continue with this implementation in the school year. I hope to create several stations that I will share with my students throughout the year. During down times, away from performances, I will also create surveys for them to fill out about their listening. During the year I hope to use blackboard to create these online quizzes/surveys.
Common Places in Education:
Teacher – The teacher’s role in all of this is facilitation. They are the sage the guides students through and to listening experiences. The Internet frees up valuable class time and allows for teachers to focus on what’s important. It is easy to set-up and monitor.
Student – The students will be exposed to new music and gain deeper understanding through listening. This will hopefully improve students’ appreciation of music as well as performance. They should have a very easy time with the technology since it is something that most of them are familiar with. For those without Internet access, school computers will be made available.
Subject Matter – Listening is an essential skill in the music classroom and thus incredibly important. It can also help to develop deeper listening abilities that will cross all subject matters.
Setting/Context – This plan/technology opens up the music classroom to the home. Students are already plugged into their listening technology, like iPods, so this helps for us to bridge that gap.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Problem of Practice preview
One of the most important activities that music educators need to do is encourage our students to listen to music and to expose them to new music. Listening to music provides exemplars and a target for students to reach for. It also fosters musical maturity and appreciation. The difficulty is that this takes time.
Like most classrooms, time in a music ensemble rehearsal is a very precious commodity. It is a struggle to determine what is the best way to spend that time as we need to divide it between warm-ups, rehearsing, announcements, and various other activities and discussions, such as listening activities.
Technology could hold the answer to this dilemma. Music has come to exist mainly online now, rather than in record stores, and thus it has become much more accessible. Increased Internet speeds and technologies, such as the iPod, have increased accessibility and changed the way that we are able to listen to music.
This means that these listening activities could occur at home without the need to spend precious rehearsal time doing so. This however creates a crop of new issues/problems:
· What if a student doesn’t have access?
· What technology is the most effective to use? Podcasts? Internet radios?
· How do we monitor and hold students accountable for listening?
· How can we assess their understanding of what they are listening to?
· Copyright and fair use issues
I believe in the end, the solution must address these issues for it to be a worthwhile and truly make a difference. The ultimate goal is to expose our students to new music and develop a deep understanding of music.
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