Enhance, not replace! That is the key...

My originals goals were to research techniques and technology that can be used to replace a current teaching strategy in my music classes. While I don’t think I will ever be able to use technology to replace the element of everyday rehearsal, what I can do is use technology to enhance it. Maybe that has been the goal of this class all along. Either way, my apprehension of finding that golden bridge to take my music classes to the 21st century has started to ease.

I think the biggest progress I have made so far on my GAME plan actually came as I started to develop my Unit Plan for our Application assignments. I am working to develop a plan that will allow my students to use digital aged learning to guide the music rehearsal and final performance that will take place in the spring semester. Students will conduct online research (with the perfect web site I discovered by accident.) They will collaborate to share research with their fellow choir-mates in the very next hour. And finally, they will use online presentation tools to present their final designs. This will have most of the benefits of online collaboration that Vicki Davis spoke about in this weeks’ DVD program from asynchronous teamwork to multiple contributors to a final product. (Laureate, 2009) It will be these student designs that will shape and guide the rehearsal side of choir for the rest of the semester. So, students will be conducting digital-aged learning and using a lot of personal and group creativity to guide this project. To be honest, this entire project was birthed out of the frustration I had with one choir class just not wanting to put forth any effort while the other class can hardly be contained. By giving them the controls that will shape their performance, my hope is there will be greater personal buy-in and thus greater involvement. Their final performance will be one they designed, created and produced. I will merely be the facilitator.

I do realize, as I posted in my discussion this week, the challenge for this type of teaching strategy is the time that will be involved in teaching my students how to do all this work. The technology must first be taught in order to do the work required to use it. So that will take time. It is time I will have to balance very carefully so the technology does not overshadow the end performance.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.