music and technology

I tried two tools this week. The JigZone caught my attention first. I created a puzzle and sent a puzzle postcard to my daughter. This was simply for fun and really would not be the most useful music instructional tool, but I can see plenty of regular classroom uses. Is this sharable? Yes. Is it collaborative? You can rate the puzzles and compare your solution time to other users. I did not see a comment space.

I tried to embed the puzzle and the Sketchcast video I created here in my blog and in my sandbox page but it did not work. Not sure if it is “user error” or that we can’t embed these tools into our blogs and wiki pages.

Next I looked at Sketchcast. I was intrigued by the idea that you could add recorded sound. I watched several tutorials and only found background-not “how to” advice. I tried a first draft and I like this tool. It was harder to draw than I thought it would be. Videos you create can be saved and embedded so this is sharable. There are comment options as well. I can see applications for the music classroom. How to draw rhythms, treble clefs, melodic contour….

From the 2006 online conference I “attended” Personal Professional Development “Toward a System for Online Curriculum Sharing”  which provided a link to a podcast and a PowerPoint slide show which could be viewed/listened to simultaneously.  Rob Lucas and Kevin Driscoll shared several lesson plan sharing sites and also discussed 7 challenges to creating this type of site.  They pointed out the same problems I have encountered as I have tried to find music lesson plans that are well written and content based for my age level. I loved this format for a conference.  I could watch and listen when I had time and could stop and go back over anything I missed.   It’s a great idea for getting ideas from other teachers without the hassle of getting on a plane and writing sub plans. Here is the down side to this session. (and a reminder of how fast things change in the technology world!)  In 2006, Rob and Kevin were in the process of developing a site called Teach Forward which they hoped would address the problems with the current sites. I excitedly headed to the site only to find that it does not exist in the format that they discussed in their session.   It has become something called Developing Curriculum, Inc. which is a content partner of the Curriki site.  I could not even find it within the site.  I found lesson plans from Rob Lucas without the simplicity, large fonts and pictures that he hoped to include in his site.It’s worth checking out, but sadly most of the things these guys discussed putting in their site are missing from the Curriki site.  If I was not so busy teaching, I would love to create a nonprofit site where lessons plans for music education could be accessed, rated, commented upon and shared.  It’s an idea I had hoped to see before I knew what Web 2.0 was. 

Seven Golden Daffodils click on the title to see it.    

made on http://www.bubbleshare.com/

photo by foshe titled Daffodil   http://flickr.com/photos/foshie/128527606/ 

My slide show of the song Seven Golden Daffodils is a project for an art teacher who is retiring at our school (Sssh, it’s a surprise.)

Each class sang a different verse, so I found pictures on flickr for each one. I’m going to try to do another slide show with the same pictures on animoto.com so that I can include the sounds of the kids singing. I’ll add it here when I figure out how to get the music on to the site. Anyone want to tell me how to do that? It’s on garage band and I also imported it to itunes. What’s the next step to imbed sound in a slide show or web site?

How in the world are we supposed to remember all this user names and passwords????

This picture was found on Flickr under interestingness. It speaks to how I feel right this moment. I am trying to make and stay on my own path as I try to write more than 200 evaluations, keep up with this class and still remain an effective teacher (plus attending my own children’s 4 soccer games, 2 track meets and one school event all in the same week!)

This photo is by Anahata Katkin and was taken in Ashland Oregon.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anahata/2358516921/

I am so excited about making my first cd cover. I have been working on making a recording of all my classes singing on garage band as a gift for a teacher who is retiring. It is a song she taught me about daffodils. I was able to put my own photo of daffodils (that I took on our campus) on the cover along with her name and the information.
Photo by Miranda

Here’s the place I found under flickr toys where I made my

own daffodil picture into a cd cover.
I can easily see ways to use this in teaching. Being able to look under tags helped me find pictures to go along with the words of the Seven Daffodil song. I found flowers on hills, with sunrises, with castles and frozen with snow. I’m looking forward to making the slide show.

This same idea could be done with a short story, poem or different song and shared with parents at a performance or shared with other classes. I have been doing a lot of projects on garage band where I record my classes performing live (not the bad canned stuff you can get on garage band) and I would love to put the musc together with a slide show. We just finished making character pieces for Beowulf. I can see lots of ways I could use their music with pictures. I just need to learn how to imbed sounds into web sites and blogs!

Under the organizr feature I really liked the way you could set a picture and hide descriptions or comments in different boxes on the picture. I know I can use this-I’m just not sure how.

Final thought: I loved finding out about the guest pass feature that allows people without accounts to see your pictures for a set time period.

• Have you noticed the CC logo on any websites you visit? Did you wonder what it meant? I have actually noticed the creative commons symbol on sites and photos and had no idea what it meant. I have been aware of copyright laws since my first years of teaching when I watched teachers copying music and books without first gaining permission. I know the frustration of following the rules even when it means you cannot use a song or teaching material because the author will not grant permission. From this stand point I see CC as being invaluable for students and teachers. In music there are many video and sound clips that I would love to show/play for my classes. Creative commons makes it look like it will be easier to find links to material I can use.

• Do you think CC will impact the way students learn and create projects? How? On the OER commons site I have found some good basic music lessons. In the Basic Elements of music lesson by Catherine Schmidt-Jones under the link called texture there is a link to Turkish Music. It was easy to follow the lesson plan about texture and find examples I might use in a lesson. Even better-some of the examples had links on the page.

Turkish Instruments picture by tvol.
http://flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/540810543/

• Do you use digital images, audio or video clips from the web in your teaching (or professional practice)? I have been given an activ board this year which has opened up new possibilities in my music room. I can get closer to bringing the world to my classroom. I use teacher tube and you tube, so I am interested in learning more about how CC applies to this. I plan to begin making my own flip charts for the board and I see creative commons as resource for images and sounds to imbed in these new charts. ( If I ever find the time!)

• Do you ever share content on the web?
• Who owns your teaching materials? I have taught workshops to other teachers on music ideas I created, but have not done this through the web. For most ideas I would want other teachers to have access. I think you purposely give up the ownership and control when you decide to use CC and the web. This could be a great way to see how other teachers can extend your original idea.

• What are some potential negatives for using CC? If you were planning to publish and charge money for your ideas, it would not be a good idea to use cc.

My favorite bit of new knowledge is understanding the lists of tags on the side of blogs and other sites. I had no idea that the larger the word is the more information or images will be found.

I am feeling so much better now. When I heard the term wiki at the beginning of this course, I felt so out of the technology loop. Even when it was explained to me, I did not fully understand what a great tool this could be in the classroom. What I found the most surprising was how very different they all were. This seemed to depend on the age level, class and purpose of the wiki. I know we are supposed to reflect on how we might use this in our own teaching, but my mind is spinning with so many ways to use this new concept, that I find it hard to focus my thoughts on specifics. Perhaps when I a done writing this post I will have more clarity!

Kindergarten Counting Book was the simplest of the wikis-and it makes sense. This is a place for digital pictures of numbers of items ranging from 1-100. It starts with a cookie in a bag for 1 and ends with a $100 bill. I can imagine the smiles (and learning) taking place as these kids learned to count.

Salute to Seuss is an example of a worldwide project. Schools with kids from preK to 6th grade were invited to add to this wiki. What a fantastic way to create a link with students all over the world. There are 38 U.S. states represented as well as Canada and New Zealand. The age range is broader than in the Kindergarten wiki, but the subject of honoring Dr. Seuss was specific. There are book lists, reviews, resources, a student gallery, links, etc. I think the downside with this big of a participation base is you have less control over the quality of what is posted. In this case that was irrelevant as the point was to share the many ways schools studied his books. There were several videos with kids reading and acting out books. I would have loved to have seen kids reading more fluently or expressively, perhaps with sounds and some movement as they acted out the story. It’s not fair to judge from afar. This could represent a tremendous accomplishment for a particular class.

Schools in the past is another example of a wiki for one specific class. In this case Mrs. Cassidy’s first graders. It serves as a place for the kids to record their interviews with parents and grandparents about how schools have changed in terms of playgrounds, libraries, number of students in the class, what was studied, school rules, and other differences. This was the most basic wiki I viewed, but it looks like it served a learning purpose for these kids. Art work or recordings of some of the interviews would be a fun addition. Perhaps a graph of the ages of the people who were interviewed. It’s hard to tell what time periods this covered. My favorite quote, “misbe havior cou get you the strap no goofing around there was only 1 teacher and what she said was law.”

Holocaust Wiki Project is an example of a site where kids would go to get the information needed for an AP World History class. I would have LOVED to have had this kind of simulation class experience in high school. If you are a history teacher, this is a wiki you should check out.

Grazing for Digital Natives is a wonderful wiki site as a resource for educators. You should visit the site just to see a voki. Jennifer Dorman, the wiki creator, has a very bare bones front page for the wiki because she uses a cartoon like character (voki) that explains the site to you. It would be helpful to have a title on this page, but the material within the site is extensive once you start to click on things. Under class resources she has an amazing amount of information for students and parents. I wish every class my 9th grade son has had a page like this. This is clearly a strong and organized social studies teacher.

Finally, on Vicki Davis’ Cool Cat Teacher blog
Wiki Wiki teaching you should check out the study hall wiki that her students created. What a great use of a wiki as well as a way to teach kids to use the technology.

I am most interested in being part of a wiki that is open to schools world wide and collaborating on a common topic or theme, but I can see myself creating a wiki as a place for classes to post and share information they learned on a specific topic or project. Having a place to store their “final products” that can easily be viewed by the kids and parents would be a great tool to use.

I would love to hear from any other music teachers or elementary teachers who have used wikis with a class.     Miranda

• My first thought refers to the task where we added a “fun” feed to our reader.

I don’t advise adding the amazon gold box deals of the day unless you want

your inbox flooded with dozens of items!

• On the Catalysts and Connections reader I was struck by the article titled

“Congratulations HASTAC Digital Media and Learning Grant Winners:

Another look at technology based orchestras.” PLOrk is the name of the

Princeton University Laptop Orchestra. They have 15 computers, each attached

to a speaker. The “musicians” use keypads, drum pads and the mouse to “play”

musical pieces. I find it thrilling and frightening to think of computers

replacing traditional instruments. Just as I fear that live theater performances

will disappear one day, I wonder if the same could happen to live music.

• On the reader So you want to teach? there is an article titled “Reflections on

December and January.” Item #4 links you to Joseph Pisano’s article titled

“100 Music Education Blogggers by the end of the year.” The goal is as simple as the

title states. The blog writer, Joel, includes instructions so even teachers new to blogging

can start and he has created a new term-MusicEduBlog which encompasses music education and

technology. If you google the term, he says, you only come up with one entry-his own.

• On the Race in the workplace reader in the article “links for 2008-02-20″

there is an article/review “Are Girls Wired not to Win?” Susan Pinker is a

psychologist who is the author of a book that looks at the hormone oxytocin

and it’s connection to how it affects women . She says this is why girls are wired

to care for their children rather than strive to succeed in the workplace.

“When the researchers looked at women’s motivations to work, they discovered that having a powerful position was the lowest ranked career goal of highly qualified women in every sector. For 85% of the women, other values came first: the ability to work with people they respect, to “be themselves” at work and to have flexible schedules.”

Even when women were given help to balance work and home, many

women either chose not to advance in a career and spend time at home,

or to advance and feel guilt about the decision.

I would love to know what readers of this article think about this idea as

well as how it affects teaching.

     Using an RSS reader is an entirely new thing for me and I love it! I found it easy to scroll through dozens of news items and find ones that were interesting to me. On the npr education site I found one item I could not pass by. The title does not clue you in to what caused this news item to strike a chord with me.

“California teachers may get racial sensitivity training”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16466271

I found this article made me stop and reflect, eventually leaving me with more questions than answers. The article discusses the achievement gap which they defined as the difference in test scores in students of different ethnic groups. The standard explanation for this has been poverty, but new research is pointing to race. Many people, with different opinions, were interviewed for this story. Some discussed what they called racial bias which they believe occurs when the race of the faculty in no way represents the race of the students. A former school superintendent felt that this gap in performance makes minority students feel left out. I find the use of the word minority interesting when 55% of the students are Black or Latino, which is clearly is not a minority. Teacher associations in California feel teachers are being blamed for yet one more thing.

This article leaves me with a sense of curiosity and questions I want to ask. I’d love to see responses and questions it raises for you.

How important is a diverse faculty to the success of students?

Are we ready to discuss research that shows the achievement gap is not the result of economics?

What are schools doing (or not doing) to create an environment that works for all students?

My favorite quote from the article: “If poverty is no longer the only factor…..You have to start asking a different question. What else is going on? (more…)

• How is blog reading different from other types of reading? How is it similar?

The biggest difference I noticed was the organization and immediate access to information and links. Multiple pages of text can be overwhelming, but blogs can direct you to links if you choose to get more information on a statement or topic. This allows you to choose the direction your reading will take you. Skipping over comments that don’t grab your attention and delving into areas that catch your interest is much easier when reading a blog.  Obviously reading from a computer screen is a different experience than from a book.

• How does commenting contribute to the writing and meaning-making?

On the blog called Patrick’s update which is written by a 5th grader the commenting is specially meaningful for the writers and hopefully for the student. Teachers and students have a chance to make encouraging comments and stories from their own lives.  It feels more like a supportive diary than most of the others I read.

On the blog called Why Don’t I Assign Homework ? written by a math teacher,  I found the comments as interesting as the reasoning provided by the blog writer. Knowing you have the opportunity to immediately respond to the thoughts of another person makes the experience reminiscent of a live conversation.  He has an index on the right hand side with links to recent posts which works well for this type of blog.  I like his links to items he mentions that can tell you more of what he is thinking.  I particularly liked the update section where he responds to comments made to his blog and further clarifies his ideas while respectfully disagreeing.

Favorite quote from his blog:

“If it’s just school work done at home, what makes it more valuable than school work done at school?”

And finally my I loved the blog called A Final Goodbye.  I can imagine that the third graders in that class will become better writers.  They might have even had fun having a funeral for the overused words!

The fact that I am taking this course along with teachers from all over the Atlanta area on a Macbook computer supplied by my school, as I sit on my couch far from wires and a desk, tells me that so much has already changed since I began teaching 21 years ago. I am curious about how we might use tools to engage today’s digital learner. Whether or not schools and teachers keep up with the web, the students we teach will continue to explore and use the web in ways we cannot even imagine. Writing my own blog is a new skill for me, but I can see how helpful it could be for me to share and learn from colleagues. I am also interested in learning more about team wikis and podcasts as ways to connect students , teachers and parents with what goes on in my classroom.