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?

Soundation Composition

https://soundation.com/user/mwood349587/track/myfirstdawscomposition-1

               This was my first experience with Soundation and I really enjoyed creating a composition with it. My composition was not representative of any story. With only a week to create it, I knew I would need to work on it for several hours at a time, so I chose sounds that weren’t overstimulating. My goal was simply to create a relaxed ambience that could serve as background music.  With all of the electronic sounds, this program lends itself well to creating a hypnotic effect so I attempted to achieve this with the loops. I attempted to create variety by varying the melody with the MIDI.

               The software inspired creativity. I have always enjoyed improvising and composing on a variety of instruments. I am naturally fairly creative, but sometimes when I am creating music, everything I create begins to sound the same. It was nice to listen to the pre-composed loops. I chose ones that I liked and then those served as inspiration for adding other sounds and for creating melodies. After I found the first loop that I wanted, this started a “workflow” and I began adding new loops and then improvising melodies.

              My biggest limitation was lack of time. I would have liked to have “cleaned up” the melody I added with the MIDI, if I could have done so easily without compromising other parts that I wanted to keep. I wanted to erase a note without having to cut out time. It’s possible to cut out sections of time with the scissors tool, but what I wanted was a tool that could erase the sounds without impacting the timing. I chose to just leave them in rather than risk losing a part. Also, I would have preferred to have more options with the MIDI sounds, but considering that this was a free program, I think it is fairly good. I assume that with the premium packages, there would be more variety.

                This program offers wonderful possibilities for my students, and I think they would really enjoy it, particularly “the other 80%” of students who may not be particularly strong with notation or who lack formal music education in the form of private instrumental lessons. It offers more ways to enjoy the creative process.  I intend to use this with my middle school general music students. I want to avoid causing stress for my already-stressed-out students, and instead to simply offer a chance for them to be inspired and to enjoy their own creativity. I would probably begin with showing them some basics and having them listen to the compositions of others. Then I would  allow  them considerable time just to explore, and then culminate the experience with a project similar to this one. I would only require them to use a small number of loops, and have them add audio or MIDI if they wanted to for extra credit. The goal would be to give them a taste that would leave them wanting to create more on their own. I think they would enjoy it. 

Week 3 Reflection

        In our reading for this week, Bauer suggests that working with digital audio is made easier by having a basic understanding of acoustics. This connects to what I am teaching now. Even though I haven't taught with any digital media (yet), my students gain a basic understanding of acoustics in the the 5th grade. I teach a sound unit along with the science teacher in which are students explore frequency and amplitude. They learn about how matter in the air vibrates to create sound and then they determine what category instruments belong to based on what causes the first vibration. (For example, drums are membranophones because the membrane is the first thing to vibrate and cause the air to vibrate). The students also look compare models of sound waves and determine what will have a higher frequency and amplitude.

        The reading on analog versus digital and audio file types clarified and refreshed some familiar concepts that I have read about before, although I have always found this subject a bit dense. I had a vague notion that analog represented "real sound" and digital was code on a computer. I still get confused when thinking about reproductions of sounds verses "actual sounds". If I can hear it, isn't it a sound? It's helpful to think about how with digital information, not all of the sound is captured, and it is converted to binary data, whereas with audio recording, there is a "physical depiction of the sound" (p. 30).   I was also reminded that audio can be converted to digital through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and these can be greater and smaller qualities.  One disadvantage of analog is that every time it is copied, the quality lowers. With digital audio, it is possible to make copies without losing quality.

        Although I was familiar with the names of various audio files and that these files can be very different in size, the ideas of using codecs and the different compression types was new to me. I learned that codecs are processes to shrink the size of files, and that with lossless compression all of the original sound can be recreated and with lossy  compression, some sounds are permanently removed. WAV files are examples of lossless and MP3s are examples of lossy.

        It was interesting to read about approaches to teaching composition and relate it to my own teaching. Like many other music educators, I find it more comfortable to teach with a notation-based approach, since I have so little experience with DAWs. I think creativity and composition are so important and I incorporate a great deal of them in my teaching, beginning with exploration and improvisation. This is challenging for students and it makes sense that "the other 80%" tends to be more attracted to non-notational composition through technology. I am excited about our project for this week and I'm hoping to increase my comfort level with this technology so that I can incorporate it in my teaching.

        It was helpful to read about how to critique our students during the compositional process. I think my own tendency is to give too much feedback to students all at once and overwhelm them. I like Bauer's idea of the the "compliment sandwich", or of giving a positive comment, then a suggestion, then another positive comment. Also, I learned that students are more receptive to feedback earlier in the process. This makes sense since they would be less invested in it. I often find it overwhelming to work with students on composition projects because of the number of kids, and the beginning stages are often the most overwhelming. I tend to spend too much time with individuals and run out of time to give all students the help they need in the beginning stages. Remembering the "compliment sandwich" will help me not to get held up with one student while others are waiting.
      

Noteflight "Bicycle Built For Two"

Week 2 Reflection

        This week's reading in chapter two helped me to freshen up my knowledge of MIDIs. I remember using them in college for theory and orchestration assignments. We had keyboards connected to to Mac computers and we used Sibelius. Usually I found it easier just to manually write in the note I wanted, so I did not use the MIDI that much. From this week's reading, I learned that a MIDI controller isn't necessarily a keyboard; there are guitar controllers, and drum controllers, among many others. I also learned that there is technology available to  allow an acoustic sound to be converted to MIDI.
       
        If the resources and space were available, I think a simple MIDI set up could help my students with compositions. As Dr. Bazan, pointed out in this weeks lecture, it can be time consuming for students to write their compositions on manuscript paper using pen and pencil, and they can't immediately hear what they have written.  I remember struggling to figure out how to work the MIDI with Sibelius, so in order for me to integrate this kind of technology, it would need to be a program that I could figure out how to work on my own, that is easy to navigate, and one that was not too difficult for my students to use.

        I love that in our chapter three reading, Bauer talks about "the other 80%" (pp. 46). These are the students who are not involved in formal music instruction like band or orchestra, and yet "have strong musical interests and untapped creative potential. Most of my teaching day is spend with this "other 80%". In my school, the program is divided into band and general music; students who do not elect to take band, take general music, which is what I teach. Bauer describes a students named Katie who has had no formal training, but who can play a few chords on a guitar and figure out how to play songs. She took a music technology course and became very enthusiastic and involved with the technology she learned in this class, like GarageBand. Since this is my demographic, I think it is especially important for me to explore ways to engage my students with technology for composition and creativity. I think it will help students who do perhaps do not think of themselves as musical to tap into their musical creativity.

Week 1 Reading Reflection

          This week's reading brought to my attention the fact that  my teaching is not "technology-based". Bauer quotes Dorfman, defining "technology-based music instruction (TBMI)" as instruction in which "technology is the major medium by which music concepts and skills are introduced, reinforced, and assessed" (Bauer, 2014, xiii).  He also writes that the implication is that students are more engaged with the technology "rather than simply with the "products of technology work that the teacher has prepared" (xiii). The technology I have used tends to fall more in the latter category. We are not equipped with a music lab with digital audio workstations (although I'm thinking of purchasing some kind of equipment that I could store in the facilities I already have). I do use the Smartboard to introduce new concepts and show videos, but for the most part, what I do tends to fall into what Dorfman called "teacher-prepared" rather than students interacting more directly with it. The most "technology-based" project I had my students engage in was a project in which that had to create a chord progression on a free program called "jam studio" in which they could enter their chord progression and then add instrumentation, and different styles to it.
       
           Apparently my situation is not unique; I learned in chapter one about a "technology integration gap". It is an integral part of our lives, but there are barriers that prevent it from being more integrated in the music classroom like "a lack of computers, inadequate  technical support, and insufficient professional development to acquire the pedagogical understanding necessary for effectively integrating technology" (p. 9)".  Of these, barriers the two latter ones impact me the most; Although I could probably acquire the technology, maintaining it would be one of the most significant barriers. I would love to acquire my own music lab with GarageBand, but the tech company that maintains our equipment now already can't keep up and teachers may wait for several weeks before a technological problem is resolved.

           Although it does not seem like we are at this point yet (at least not in music classrooms), as with any new trend, there is a danger of taking it to an extreme. If our students are already so immersed in technology, how much really benefits them in the music classroom? I support the use of technology in the music classroom to some extent, but I think there is a real danger of becoming "alone together", an environment where everyone has their eyes on their own screen with their headphones on, not to mention, a very sedentary one. I think there is a real and growing need for authentic connection with others and movement and in some ways, too much technological immersion is causing this. I think the beauty of the general music classroom is that we can make music together, or dance, or speak together in real space in real time; We can connect to others and our own humanity by making music together in the physical world. Although technology can and certainly has enhanced our muscial creativity and experiences, we must be careful that it doesn't supplant some of the more organic experiences that are part of our essence.

          Even with these apprehensions in mind, I would still like to integrate more "technology-based music instruction" primarily as a means for student composition. As Bauer mentions, "traditionally, music composition has been taught with manuscript paper and a pencil, and sometimes has involved experimentation with an acoustic instrument such as a piano (p. 15).  I have attempted (with some success) to do this with my general music classes, and it can be difficult and overwhelming considering the limited musical knowledge that they have to first create a musical idea, and then to write it down. I think the technology could be used in this circumstance to allow students exercise their creativity, get the general idea of how writing music works, but have the computer do the hard work of writing out the music, without having the students get frustrated. I also really like the idea of having students create loops since these seems accessible and I would really like some easy ways to incorporate this. Perhaps a tablet of sorts would be appropriate for my general music classroom.