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.