The International Society for Technology in Education provides five standards for technology use by staff and students in the classroom today. Content standards are designed to give educators direction on the knowledge and skill levels students need to master. (Prensky, 2008) These technology standards are no different.
These standards are: 1) Facilitate student creativity, 2) Design digital-aged learning experiences, 3) Model digital-aged learning, 4) Promote digital citizenship and 5) Engage in professional growth. (http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf )
As a music teacher, technology is a slow addition to my classroom. Not because I am hesitant, but because I am trying to find the right combination of content and how it can be enhanced with the technology resources available to me. The core classes I teach are performance based classes which require music rehearsal. Giving my students a digital-aged assignment more often than not, requires music rehearsal to stop. Add to that the lack of technology based music resources available to me; it is a challenge to give my students a digital-aged experience as suggested by the ISTE standards.
But my classroom challenges are not be confused with what I should know as an educator. With that in mind, when I reviewed these standards, I did find my knowledge and skill levels were lacking. Here is my GAME Plan. (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009)
Goal: My goal is to increase my competency level on standards 1 and 2; Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity and design and develop digital-aged learning and assessment.
Action: The first action I will take to meet this goal will be to examine my day to day rehearsals and content instruction to determine where technology can replace current tools and strategies. The second action will be to take inventory of the resources available such as computer labs, internet access and presentation and music programs like Power Point and Music Ace. The final action I will take will be to confer with other middle school music teachers in my district to determine their use of technology in their classroom. With these lists in hand, I can begin to develop lesson plans using my available resources.
Monitor: To monitor my progress I will try to replace one regular rehearsal or content instruction lesson with a digital-aged based lesson in choir and band by the end of the current nine weeks.
Evaluate: I will be able to evaluate the lesson taught in choir and band by comparing the differences with the same lesson taught before without the use of technology. This can be done by looking at student assessment, engagement and creativity levels.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf
Prensky, M. (2008, March). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45.
3 comments:
Hi Kerry,
I understand your dilemna with including technology and teaching music. I don't have a specific website or project to provide to you, but I have heard of internet projects that musicians (and music students) use to collaborate with each other. The idea is that your students would play an original piece (I don't think it would have to be very long) and then share it with other musicians. The next step is that other musicians add to your music and share it with others and back to you. I'm sorry if this sounds crazy, but if you haven't looked for this type of project, you might consider it. It sounds cool to a non-musician!
Donna
There is some pretty decent and cheap recording software out there like Cubase which would allow you to record your students which would give struggling students a manner in which they could practice to the band. In addition you could also create high quality CD's for your students to take to their parents.
wow...After proofreading my work today, I can see that perhaps I should have spent a bit more time doing that the day I posted. Apologies for grammatical errors.
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