Missing standard?

Well....here we are, I am entering into the final weeks of my Graduate Course.  If you have been following my blog you already know that I have been focusing on the National Educational Technology Standards for teachers over the last 10 weeks.  As I have been reviewing my blog posts I realized that somehow I skipped over standard #3 and I would like to address that this week.

NETS*T3 is focused on how a teacher should Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.  When it comes to this standard I would like to focus on 2 indicators:

c. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.

One thing that I have really enjoyed learning about during my Graduate Course has been all of the multiple ways that I can use new technologies to communicate with my students and parents.  Jim has taught us many different ways to use Edline (which I already use to some extent).  We have learned how to use various applications through Google, Blogs, and Wikispaces.  

  d. model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning

Even in a music class I feel that I have a responsibility to help teach students how to effectively research information.  This year I have had my students complete a few research projects using computer applications such as NetTrekker.com.   I feel that this is a great way to model to my students a highly effective way to complete research for any subject.

I have been thinking about how I, as a teacher, would appropriately address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies and providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources (NETS*T4b).

The great thing about the way I am trying to design my Interactive Board Music Project, is that I truly believe it is completely learner-centered, which fits well with this topic. The good thing about the interactive boards is that it forces the students to get up and be a part of the learning...and the teaching. No longer are they stuck at their seats just listening to a lecture about how a major scale is designed, or how to label the form of a piece of music, but now they can be an active part of that discussion. I can have students come to the board and move musical notes around on the staff to build the scale that we are talking about and then have them check the work by having the computer play the scale through the Sibelius notation software and have everything happen at the students' fingertips.

Webinar

Last week I tried to attend my first "Webinar" experience, in other words an online interactive seminar or class. The first point of frustration I had with trying to find a webinar to attend was that I had a lot of trouble finding one to attend, I did a lot of searching and kept coming up with ones that have already happened, or ones that were scheduled for a month from now.

I finally found one that dealt with using a wiki in the classroom, which I thought was a great one to attend since we have been talking alot about wiki's in my graduate class. I followed the link to the webinar, which immediately brought me to an introduction video dealing with who the presenter was for the session. This is where it got confusing again, I tried to sign in on the chat page, and answer the survey that was being conducted on the page and it would not let me participate in either....that is when I figured out that this was actually a replay of a webinar that had already been conducted. At first I was bummed out about this since it was not an actually webinar that I could be active in, but as I watched on I found it to be a really great class and I am very glad I stuck around and watched the video webinar.

Legal and Ethical Use

When looking through the National Educational Technology Standards for teachers I came across indicator number 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

As a music Teacher I thought this was a very important indicator to focus on because it deals with the fact that teachers must understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.

This has always been a hot-button topic for music teachers because most of the materials that we deal with on an everyday basis is copyrighted intellectual property. Any sheet-music that we choose to use in our class, any recordings we want our students to listen to, or anything that we want to record would fall into this category.

NETS*T4a says that teachers need to advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. This is especially true as I begin to use technology more in my classroom. I must be aware that the materials that I place on my computer, or on an Internet site must be properly cited for their source to avoid any infringements on copyright laws. Photocopying music is against the copyright law, so I believe that scanning music and publishing it on the Internet would also be an obvious violation. Placing someone Else's recorded music on the Internet would also fall into this category.

As a teacher it is my responsibility to insure that everything I do for my students is safe and legal.

Technology enriched environments

Last time I started talking about the Nation Educational Technology Standard #2 for teachers (NETS*T2), and focused a lot on the aspect of designing learning experiences which use digital tools in the classroom. This week I would like to focus on indicator B - develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.


In my music classroom it has always been difficult to create an atmosphere that included technology right there in the classroom. However, after starting my graduate course I have already been trying to find new and exciting ways to create this technology enriched environment. The first way I have tried, and mentioned a couple weeks ago, was by checking out one of our schools portable laptop carts to allow the students to use the computers in our classroom for research.

My next step, which I am very excited about, is being able to use the new smart board technology that is being installed in all of the classrooms - including mine! At first I have to admit that I was not looking forward to this, because I had no idea how I could use it. But, now I have done so much thinking about different projects I could have the students actively engaged in right there in my classroom by using this technology. With programs such as Finale or Sibelius I can have my students writing their own music and then listening to is as the computer plays it back for them. There are so many opportunities out there and I cant wait to start exploring them in my new technology enriched environment.

I'm here....really I am

Hey there everyone! I must apologize for my lack of a blog update last week, it was very hard to find any time on the computer as I was spending literally 19 hours a day at school everyday last week (not an exaggeration, unfortunately). Our production of "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" went Amazingly and I could not have been happier!!! Now it is back to real life...

The topic of my blog last week had to do with the NETS*T2 standard. According to this standard a teacher in the 21st century classroom should
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and
resources to promote student learning and creativity
b. develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to
pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their
own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own
progress.

As I have stated previously, I often find myself wondering how exactly to incorporate digital tools into my music classroom as a way to help the students learn and create in a different way. But I would like to focus on one tool that I have actually personally designed which has helped me in the past. I was sitting at home watching television one night and I flipped past the game shows "Don't Forget The Lyrics" and "The Singing Bee" both of which were helping to bring the art of live performing/singing into a new type of entertainment. As I watched these show I thought to myself, what an interesting way to challenge my new singers, into developing the drive to make music independently (Which is one of our National Music Standards).

So I started to think of a way to incorporate a game similar to these shows in my classroom, and after hours of playing around with PowerPoint I was able to design a touch game based on "The Singing Bee" using a mixture of popular songs from the radio, and songs that we were learning in class. I introduced this game to my classes with a very positive outcome and response.

That was my first real experience with designing a relative learning experience which Incorporated this sort if Digital Tool, but now I am still looking for even more experiences similar to this, which can help break up the every-day routine of the music class.

Trying something new

This past week I have been insanely busy trying to prepare my drama troupe for their upcoming performance of the Broadway musical "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" (Feb. 27 & 28.....shameless plug!!) and it really has me thinking about ways that I can improve communication within the group outside of rehearsals.

We don't really have a website or anything to post information to, have discussions on, or even just have fun with. It's always been something that I've wanted for my group, but my lack of website design knowledge has prevented me from trying.

In the rare few seconds of free-time that I had this weekend I decided to try to make a wiki page which could be used to post rehearsal notes, pictures and have a place for the students and parents to be able to check out what is going on. So, I signed up for a free wiki page using wikispaces.com and have set out to create KingsBackstagePass (Thanks for the name idea Jim!). So far the site is still only being designed and has not been made available to users, but I hope to have the site working in time for our next major production. I am coming across some limitations due to the settings the company has placed on free sites. So far I can either make the space public (open to anyone), or private (open to only approved people) but I can not mix them. In other words, if I wanted my homepage to be public, but for the page dedicated to "Charlie Brown" to be private for cast members only I can not because of the limitations.

There are defiantly some kinks to work out, but at least I am trying something new and opening up myself to the ideas of web 2.0 and the 21st century classroom.