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.
Maria,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. I have not used a couple of the technologies that you mentioned such as Grooveshark and Teoria. I am very interested in looking into them and seeing if it is possible for me to use them in my classroom also.
It does sound like you are doing a fantastic job of incorporating technology into your classroom. It also sounds like the technology and activities that you use are very effective at having students respond to music. I do not think more technology will necessarily distract from the "meat and potatoes" though.
As you continue to reflect, I would consider you to think of what new activities could be done with the technology we are learning about in this course. Maybe you will find that you are able to replace, alter, or enhance previous activities. Perhaps you find that these new technologies are not beneficial to what you are already doing, and that is fine. Regardless, it is great to be aware of what all is out there to assist us be even better music educators.
Thanks again for sharing! Best of luck to you!!
These are great questions, Maria, and I agree. I have also been wrestling with the technology for technology's sake question, and wondering when it's worth using and when analog is just easier and adequate. Sometimes the tech can be very helpful, but sometimes it's not. But yes, we are busy and there are only so many hours in a day! The demands on teachers are incredible. For my situation, I deal with traveling classrooms, and integrating tech can often be more trouble than it's worth when I'm teaching on a stage in an auditorium.
ReplyDeleteI'm also interested in looking into these music theory sites. Teaching theory through band music is not 100% effective, and I'd like more ways to make sure it's sticking with them. These are very promising!
Thank you!