One Note Review

          Microsoft One Note is a free application that is accessible to any device. It allows teachers to keep all of their materials like notes, lesson plans, homework assignments, presentations, and answer keys in one place. It can be used to distribute homework to students and for having students submit their homework. Teachers can collaborate on projects. It can be used to  record audio and it can be used to draw on as well. The real advantage of this project is having everything together and easily accessible.
         Although I can see the value in this program and why it would appeal to some teachers, I do not see myself using it. It did not seem intuitive to use, and I had difficulty attaching files, even a word document. I tried attaching a video and the file was too large. My classes are very hands-on in terms of music-making and there is little to no homework. I prefer paper notes and lesson plans.

Week 7 Reflection

            I already engage in many of the technologies that Bauer references as ones that increase teacher's productivity. Like most teachers, I use email (although sometimes I think this wastes as much time as it saves considering how many irrelevant emails I receive), texting, and Dropbox. I have a website where I communicate important dates and I enter my grades on the computer. I use Microsoft word to make a variety of teaching materials and to communicate with parents. I prefer to use pen and paper for to-do lists and for my calendar as I tend to get tired of staring at computer screens rather quickly.  I use technology to register my students for festivals and when making traveling plans. Facebook even sometimes serves as an aid in my teaching since I can reach out quickly to many other music teacher contacts with a question or an idea. Thanks to this class, I even have an RSS, which will allow me to stay more up-to-date with educational trends.
           
            Bauer also makes some suggestions that I think could be helpful to me. Creating a database for my music library and for keeping track of musical instruments would be very helpful. Perhaps I could even have some responsible students serve as choral "managers" who could help me with the initial data entry, since it would be fairly time consuming. I also liked the idea of communities of practice. There is only one other music teacher at my school and we have different specialties. Interacting regularly with others and sharing ideas could help me to keep my teaching fresh. Unfortunately I am not aware of any specific examples. (Perhaps our blogs and PLNs are two examples.)

           Technology has obviously given me aid with regard to my personal professional development; I am completing my MME completely online. It was interesting to learn of the superiority of blended learning experiences over face-to-face or online only learning, but it wasn't surprising. A disadvantage is that I would really like to work on my conducting and this really does not allow for that. One aspect that I really like the discussion boards. It's easier to articulate myself in writing rather than orally, and I like that I can learn at my own pace.

White Walkers

Week 6 Reflection

           This week's reading on technology and responding to music caused me to reflect on what kinds of activities I am already doing that allow students to respond to music.  Most of the technology I use with relation to students responding to music consists of some activity that goes along with listening to a recording or video. I expose my students to a variety of music recordings and videos and they engage in repeated listening. I have students describe the music that they hear in terms of instrumentation, dynamics, tempo, mode, etc. I have students interpret the mood of pieces and share responses both openly in class and in written form. I have also had students draw a picture of what the music reminds them of or write a short story that complements a piece of music. I also have used listening maps and notation that students  follow along with on the SmartBoard. Students engage in specific movement activities that correspond to a specific sound in the music, and sometimes they simply dance freely to what they hear. They listen to music and create complementary parts. They listen to recordings of their own performances and critique them.
       
           I also reflected on if I should be incorporating more technology into the way I have students respond to music. Certainly I am already taking advantage of the abundance of music available to me at the click of a button via internet resources such as YouTube, Spotify, Grooveshark and that is a huge advantage current technology affords music education. What more is really doing to improve the quality of my teaching? Aren't I already having students adequately respond to music? Can technology really enhance what I am already doing or does an attempt to integrate more technology distract from the "meat and potatoes"? Could the integration of more technology take away from some of the more simple and organic responsive experiences? Or am I just subconsciously making excuses because I'm too busy and stressed to burden myself with more responsibility?

          There were some ideas in this weeks reading that sound promising, and there are many I had never heard of before. I like the idea of using software to create graphical representations of music. (I already do so to some extent with some YouTube.) I wasn't aware that programs like Audacity could create spectrograms of music. I am not familiar with SoundCloud at all, but it sounds promising as a source for listening maps.I am particularly interested in the music theory and aural skills websites like Teoria and MusicTheory.net. It is easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of resources available, but I am glad that I am receiving some direction in our text, and these three seem like a good place to begin.

Week 5 Reflection

                   In general, this week’s reading on assessment left me feeling a bit glazed over, as these kinds of readings always have. I always tend to get concepts like validity and reliability mixed up, even if I studied them and got them correct on assessment in college. The concepts of formative and summative are familiar and straight forward and I include both types in my teaching. In my general music classes, I use a combination of written tests and performance tests that I grade with a rubric. I use fewer performance tests because they are extremely time consuming, even though I think they are very valuable.

                

          I am overwhelmed by all the ways to use technology in assessment and left feeling discouraged. There are certainly many possibilities, but my time is very limited, and our school has a limited amount of technology and even less support. I would be trying to navigate all of these assessment tools on my own, and there would inevitably be glitches. I suppose the key is to take baby steps.

             

          I like the idea of using Google Forms to create online quizzes that can be graded automatically, even though with our limited number of computers, it might be difficult to have access to computers to complete these kinds of assessments. The idea of using clickers   in student response systems is appearling. I would like to be able to see how many of my students understand with the safety of anonymity. The challenge is, again, lack of technology. We simply don’t have enough computers to make this a normal part of instruction, and in our school, students are not permitted to use cell phones. I also like the idea of using technology to assess musical performance. If I could assess pitch and rhythmic accuracy outside the classroom, this would save considerable time correcting errors in class and it could motivate students to achieve benchmarks at a faster pace.

               

           I already use some technology for assessment, so perhaps I shouldn’t be too discouraged.  I use video and audio recording so that my students can observe and evaluate their own performances, although this is more informal.  Also, the students and parents in my school have access to their grades at all times via our district-wide gradebook that they can access online.

            In the reading on instructional design, I was particularly struck with the idea of backward design, and would like to use this more in my teaching. I have heard of this before and it makes so much sense as an educational model.  Yet I tend to go about it as teachers often do—first with learning activities, then with a desired outcome, then with an assessment. 

Chromatik vs. SmartMusic

          Chromatik is an online program for musicians that is designed to help them practice, perform and share music. It can be used on Web, Android, iOS, and Amazon devices and there are not currently any options to print or download music. It offers a free catalogue of  reference tracks, annotation tools, and recording options. The basic version is free, but there are frequent ads that are of minor annoyance, and one only has access to three “plays” or pieces of sheet music per day. There is an option to upgrade to Chromatic Pro, which allows for an ad-free experience and unlimited access to their music. If you are unable to find a piece of music, you can make a request for that piece, although there is already a variety of music styles already available for many different instruments. There are lead sheets with lyrics and chords, guitar tabs with intro-to-guitar information, as well as easy versions of pieces for beginners. There is an option to find scales, but this was sub-par. For example, the “advanced” piano scales included no bass clef and included no fingering, but these could be annotated. Perhaps the greatest advantage of this program is that students can record and share their music with others and receive feedback. One weakness is that there are not many help features. Fortunately, navigating the website is fairly intuitive. For example, if you are looking for classical music to play, you can click “Classical”, and then select your instrument. Below is a link to piano classics.

https://www.chromatik.com/piano

          SmartMusic is another online sheet music library with many other features. It is larger than that of Chromatic, and it is geared more specifically to music educators and their students. Students can play a piece of music in context of the ensemble with professional accompaniments. They receive immediate feedback as the program lets students know of pitch or rhythmic inaccuracies, which will inevitably save time in lessons. In addition, students can record themselves for their teachers who can listen to the performance on a mobile device or computer and give feedback. Students can send recordings of their performances to family and friends. Portfolios can be created of individual students performances, and there are other options for music educators like assignments and assessments and rubrics, that can be tailored for specific instruments and students. In addition, there are many exercises including scales, intervals, arpeggios, vocalises, and more. There are also practice tools such as a metronome, tuner, on-screen piano, and digital recorder. There are online training classes that users can take for a fee that will help them navigate the program. There is a free trial for educators, and there is an annual fee for students and music educators. See the "Discover SmartMusic" video at the link below for more information. 

http://www.smartmusic.com/

          Both of these programs have implications for music education. Chromatic is seems to be geared for more informal study that motivates students. Being able to access the library for free is also a benefit of Chromatic. SmartMusic, while requiring an annual subscription fee,  is tailored more specifically for music educators with its capacity for creating assignments, assessments, and for grading performances. Its ability to helps students recognize their own errors without assistance from the teacher is of enormous benefit and has the potential to save a great amount of time in lessons and large group ensmebles, freeing the director to focus on other aspects of musicianship. 

Week 4 Reflection

                    In the section of "Other Media", in this week's reading, I mostly encountered material that I was already familiar with, some of it more relevant to my teaching than others. Graphics seemed the least relevant to my teaching. I already use videos in my classrooms, mostly short videos from Youtube for instructional purposes. The idea of video editing is a bit daunting, and I don't see much need to use it for instructional purposes. It has potential use for recording and editing student performances so that they can self-evaluate. It might be nice to embed some of these videos on a school website for my students. 

          As I read through the section on "Instructional Software" I reflected on what I already use in my teaching and I thought about which category some of the programs I have learned about would be categorized. The four types were tutorial, practice, creativity, and games. Smartmusic and Chromatic appear to be examples of practice instructional software since prerequisite knowledge is required and these allow students to practice their instrument and learn about areas where they need to improve. Soundation is an example of creativity instructional software. I use tutorials more than any of the others, mostly because my students are beginners. However I see a lot of potential and value in some of the others, especially creativity software. Games can be fun and have potential to reinforce previous knowledge in a fun way, but I think they should be used sparingly, maybe at the end of the school year, when it is particularly difficult to maintain student interest.

          I was a bit overwhelmed by the reading on pages 76-78, where a day in the work life of a band teacher named Michael is described. It would to me years to learn how to work all of the technology that he is using, and who has time to spend hours after work learning new technology? Although I think some of the technologies described in this section, like recording students with audacity, can enhance instruction, I think we need to guard against how too much technology in the classroom. I think it also has the potential to  distance us from our students. One thing that was particularly appealing to me (mainly for personal reasons) was when Michael discusses “the purchase of an electronic mute system that will allow her to practice in the apartment where she lives without disturbing the neighbors” (p. 78). I live in an apartment and my skills are definitely suffering because I can’t practice there without disturbing others.

            Another excerpt from our reading that stood out to me was where Bauer discusses accompaniment. “Researchers have found that students generally prefer to practice with accompaniment” (p. 82). This is consistent with my own experience. However, when I am teaching, my attention is divided between playing the accompaniment and listening to my ensembles so that I can give them feedback. It’s really difficult to do both things well. I think the best solution is to hire an accompanist, but this is not very practical financially for many schools. Technology offers wonderful solutions for this.

             After reading the section on SmartMusic, I was impressed with its potential for aiding band students but left wondering if it was relevant to the choral practice room. The most appealing thing was that it “can be used to sing one’s part along with the other accompanying instruments, including a full ensemble or piano accompaniment” (p. 83).  I am also curious about how it works with regard to sight reading. Is this software expensive, and are there free alternatives that can do what I want since I probably won’t use the full range of features on the program with my general music and choral classes?