Note to self

Today was a fun class — I think the whole class knows how much fun I had playing around with the LiveScribe pen 🙂  I can definitely see how I could use this tool as a student myself, but not so much as a teacher.

Both the iPad and Kindle were interesting to try out, but neither really sparked my interest.

Overall, though, I am excited for all of the new technology I have learned about and learned to use over the semester. I am still a little overwhelmed with the sheer volume of technology available to us and the amount that can be worked into lessons…but I’m sure I’ll get over it :-p  I’ve got a little more time to get comfortable before I’m thrown into the classroom!

—-

And, as a note to my future self, below are useful links (for when it seems like I’ve forgotten everything from this class…)

CIS 220 Blog

• Blog has links to useful Diigo lists

CIS 220 Screencast Wiki

CIS 220 Web 2.0 Tools

• Digital storytelling
• Interactive discussions
• Podcasting
• Video
• Virtual collaboration

Teaching the class to create a podcast…

Overall, I enjoyed the process of learning and teaching about podcasting. Although it seemed very overwhelming and complicated as we stumbled through the process of creating a podcast, I am now comfortable enough with this tool that I will probably using it in my own teaching.

I am also excited about the various places I can locate helpful podcasts on music education topics that I can use in my own lessons or use to better myself as an educator.

I enjoyed working with Jessica — though I’m sure she wished I was a little less neurotic about the details sometimes 😛 I think we worked well together and I am pleased with how our presentation flowed. Despite a few technical difficulties I think everything went very smoothly and with minimal confusion! I’d say that’s a success!

Interactive Discussion

Ever since the emergence of Twitter I have refused to join the fad – mostly because I couldn’t wrap my mind around the point of it. I thought it was creepy to be able to “follow” just about anyone and to publicize updates on your everyday happenings in such an informal way… BUT this lesson definitely informed me about how Twitter can be used for GOOD 🙂  While I may still hesitate to use it myself or for my classroom, I do see that it can be a good way for teachers to update parents on what’s going on in the classroom.

Blogging is a great resource because there is so much you can do with it.  The neat thing that I like about blogging is that it is a way to sort of make your own website (as a teacher), rather than being stuck within the confines of the school website or webpage designated to me by my school.  A blog is versatile and can be easy to use — so I am glad we have been getting familiar with wordpress this semester.  Again, I think this is a great tool for classrooms to keep parents in the loop with class activities and announcements.

Voicethread — though it gave me A LOT of trouble today! – is an interesting tool.  Sorry to be skeptical still, but I don’t quite see how this particular tool could be useful to me in my band class as a means of interactive discussion… I suppose I could utilize this if my band goes to festivals/competitions/field trips and I wanted to create a visual & audio product to share the experience with parents and other school bands.

The online whiteboard was definitely my favorite thing we learned about today. Granted – it is a great way to procrastinate and stay distracted, but it is also a really neat tool for staying productive with others when you can’t get together to work.  I think this would be a great way for students working on group projects to collaborate from home.

The whole topic of interactive discussion seems like a new frontier for me because I have done fine through school without it so far!  I am starting to understand why my mom gets flustered with technology sometimes because it can be overwhelming how much there is to learn and how much is available to utilize. As a general reflection, I am glad that we are doing these lessons with the class because I don’t know if I would learn about these tools and resources otherwise!

Virtual Collaboration

Wow! When it comes to virtual collaboration it really seems like “the sky’s the limit!”

One thing that I liked most about learning about these collaborative tools is how versatile the uses are — not only for in and out of the classroom with students, but also with colleagues.  With a music teacher mother I’ve learned about the importance of maintaining good, strong relationships with the other music teachers in a school district/community; so many of these tools can be helpful in this respect.

Ning is a wonderful site – especially with it’s privacy options and how easy it is to use. As I was exploring it everything was easy to find/locate and I love the various ways there are to communicate with others in the network (public chat, private chat, messaging, forums, etc.).  I think students would love the opportunity to personalize their profile page in this environment which is much safer than Facebook or MySpace.

Speaking of Facebook – I like the idea of using Facebook to keep students’ parents in-the-know with our classroom or school. My only worry here is if parents wanted to “friend” me on Facebook or harass me via Facebook messages or the like.  –Not that I’m expecting parents to do this, but I’ve heard horror stories about crazy parents! 😛

The idea of using Skype in the classroom is really cool! While there is no telling if my classroom will have (or be able to get) a SmartBoard, it would be really neat to be able to “bring in” a professional to talk to the students without needing them to come out to the school and take time away from their own work.

I can see how the bookmarking tools (Delicious and Diigo) can be useful: sharing links with students, colleagues, etc. I am currently a little overwhelmed with online organization because I function best when I have everything I need on a hard copy in front of me…but I’m sure I’ll come around to liking these bookmarking tools eventually…

I do see the usefulness of wikis and think that I am comfortable enough with them now to be able to use one with my classroom — however, after seeing how great Ning is, I don’t think I would need to use both of these tools.

Finally — I am a little bummed we didn’t get to fully explore Second Life because it looks really cool…but I think that, in terms of using it with students, the risks are too great to justify classroom use (for me). I like to think that all people are good people, but when it comes to the internet and sites where people can create alternate identities with very little possibility of consequence or punishment, anything can happen.

—

Overall, this was an eye-opening presentation. Allie and Ryan presented it nicely and I’m excited to use these collaborative tools in the near future!

Video experience

I’ve never used a flip camera before, but I have a little experience with making videos (from back in high school). The most recent experience I had with making a video was when I needed to make an audition video — I had a friend video tape it and I used iMovie on a library computer to (sort of) edit it.

—

After the lesson…

I suppose an applicable use of video in my teaching of a band class might be the video recording of a band class/rehearsal to show parents how things are going; or making a video about a band trip to a competition or adjudication.
I am totally sold on the Flip Camera now! …good thing my birthday is next week, right? 😛
Learning how to use the different movie programs has encouraged me to explore this media further, on my own time.
It think it’s clear how useful making videos can be for students and teachers — again, it’s a little tricky to think of lots of uses in the music ensemble classroom. BUT — I do know of several music technology sites and blogs, so I will definitely be searching for suggestions on how this technology could be implemented into my future classroom.

Digital Storytelling

Susanna and Leah’s lesson on digital story telling was very interesting. I already had a bit of experience with powerpoint, but I learned a few things about how to utilize the program to make image-based slide shows/presentations. I found photo story really interesting and could definitely see myself using this program in the future. I was most fascinated with the “create music” option and all the different things you had to choose from…especially “mood” (ranging from happy to romantic, to yearning, to sad!)…and I got a kick out of the fact that sometimes, depending on the music genre selected, the only thing that changed when a different mood was selected was the key the music was in! …in my opinion, there’s a lot more to a piece’s mood than it’s key! :-p

As for national standards, I definitely think that digital storytelling encourages student creativity and innovation, as well as an awareness of their responsibilities as digital citizens (in thinking of the creative commons license and all media chosen for the final product). Also, digital story telling can build skills in important programs such as powerpoint.

For teachers, digital storytelling can definitely help facilitate student learning and creativity – and get students excited about incorporating technology into their learning. Having students create a digital story can also be a successful means of assessing student understanding/learning.

I could definitely see digital storytelling being of good use in an elementary music classroom, but definitely not a secondary level instrumental ensemble. Perhaps I could create a digital story explaining important parts of music history relevant to the music being learned at the time…or maybe I could present this project as a way for students to earn extra credit by creating such a story themselves.

Podcast Episode 1

Podcast project progress

At this point, I’m a little surprised to say that I am still feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information to be covered and that is available to talk about on the subject of podcasting.  It feels kind of like going to the grocery store to buy tomato soup but you get to the isle and there are about 30 different tomato soups to pick from…Ahh!!

Jessica and I work well together and I think we’ve got a solid idea of the basics of podcasting and what we want to do/say in our lesson to the rest of the class.  We almost finished our wiki page today and will finish that in class on Tuesday.  We are also planning to create at least two podcast episodes next class to be included on our wiki page and in our lesson.

While I am still a little skeptical about how I might use podcasting in my career, I am convinced of the media form’s value for learning and teaching.

Podcast Blog test

Episode 1

Kaitlyn Fay’s Podcast

Bringing technology to the band

One question my peers and I are constantly asking is: How can we use technology effectively and purposefully in the band class setting?  All of us grew up in band programs where each class was a rehearsal period and we spent the time playing instruments, learning literature, and growing as an ensemble; not watching our teacher use a Smartboard or spending class time at the computer lab on our latest project… So this was on my mind as I searched through music  education & technology blog sites.

An interesting post that I found was from the viaAcademies website (“via” stands for “Virtual Instrumental music Arts academy”).  via Academies is an online educational institution that organizing online courses/classes for k-12 students.  The website is home to a blog where different music educators contribute articles on a regular basis.  The post I found is titled “eLearning Will Save the Band.”

In this post, author Mark Burke argues that in order to sustain music and band in students’ lives (which are growing increasingly centered around technology and “eLearning” via the internet) music educators must incorporate some sort of technology based learning into their curriculum.  The example he provides is quality instrument lessons (in video form), such as those that he has been helping to develop for the website over the past several months.  I think this is a great idea for supplementing students’ musical experiences outside of the band classroom and rehearsal time.  Bringing music/band to the internet could give some students more incentive to get involved in such activities since they are already spending so much time on computers.

In my own teaching I may return to this website and recommend the videos/eLearning offered there to my students, or I may create my own videos for them. Much will depend upon my students and how I decide to manage my class, but I am definitely keeping this in mind for the future!