Jen’s Blog

I’ve just read Cassie’s thoughtful post, Aquiram’s thoughts explored. She summarises some of the points in the post and particularly raises the point of teachers using technology to finalise papers and provide opportunities for plagarism.

I remember back in primary school how easy it was to plagarise off the internet. I think the mentality is “why reword it when it sounds good already”, or even “I have no idea how to reword it”. This is a struggle many kids go through, but it is a necessary skill to learn. I like how Aquiram states that teachers need to structure lessons online so that students can’t plagarise and learn how to reword and summarise things!

(Image source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/aba0039l.jpg)

What is podcasting, why is it called podcasting, what was around before?

podcasting.mp3

I have just read Laura’s post on Generation Z. She remarks that children today are so tech-savvy. Probably more tech savvy that we are! This is so true! I was watching the kids I trialled my LAMS task on and they were so easily understanding how to use the technology and seemed to really enjoy using it as a learning tool.

With children being so open to using technology teachers have so many opportunities. It makes me sad to view that most teachers only use technology for games and free time and don’t recognise the great value in using it for learning. Hopefully this new generation of teachers will make use of this wonderful technology!

I was just posting and noticed a tip come up on my page saying “want to use blogs with your students? Here are some tips!”. I thought I’d take a look and see what they suggest! There are soooo many useful ideas here! I recommend you really check it out!
•    Start with a class blog before progressing to individual blogs.
•    Use blogs to engage with ideas, extend learning, create learning conversations and to promote reflection.
•    Must have a real purpose!! Not using technology for technology’s sake!

(I suggest to further reflections on this point look at Susan’s blog particularly her post “The world according to Matt”. She really outlines the importance of using technology meaningfully!).

I have chosen to do a particular focus on the use of ICT in music education. I thought to begin my process of focussing on this I’d have a look at what interactive music websites are available for kids. There are many! I had a look at the curriculum support website and found a number of NSW DET supported websites. I’ve seen a number of these before and have liked what is there. I had a particularly good look at the Viva Zone website.

Musica Viva is an organisation which employs professional musicians to come and perform to children in schools. Teachers are given packs and attend workshops and then teach a unit to the children culminating in a live performance. The Viva Zone website is designed with children in mind to support teachers in this unit. It addresses all the key elements of music, pitch, tone colour, dynamics, tempo and rhythm in a child friendly way. Kids can play games and learn about real musicians.

Check it out!   (Make sure you have your sound turned up!)

I just watched and read Matthew commentary on his post entitled “Risk-taking“. It’s true – I think we all face anxiety when we tread areas where we aren’t as comfortable. I wrote about that in my podcasting post. But, as Matthew says, it’s so important in our profession that we try these things even if it means making a mistake as it may benefit our students.

I think that is what I have enjoyed about this subject, we were given a chance to experience these technologies in a safe environment where we could make mistakes in order to become familiar with them.

I just read a wonderful article on student motivation, Six C’s of Motivation, and how teachers can increase it in the clasroom.

1. Choice – students involved in making their own decisions in a task (eg. topic etc).

2. Challenge – providing students with challenge to avoid boredom, but not too much so it doesn’t produce anxiety.

3. Control – Students deciding their own roles, being involved in decision making, organising of content.

4. Collaboration – Students work with others to reach a desired goal inspiring one another.

5. Constructing meaning -Teacher acts as a facilitator to help students construct meaning, setting a meaningful goal, and students begin to understand the value of knowledge.

6. Consequences -  Students work is published to increase ownership, effort, achievement and repsonsibility.

This learning design works well with open ended tasks! Sounds good!!

Finally I can get on here and post! I feel slack, but it seems when I’ve gone to get onto edublogs this week it’s had an issue! I kept getting syntax errors today :S

But anyway! I’ve been reading an article from a magazine called “Music in Action“. This article is called “Using New Resources” and is by Len Clark.

Clark talks about how he uses Audacity in his music lessons to record kids playing. He uses it as a marker of progress, a tool to share with parents what he has been doing and give kids an opportunity to critique themselves.

I think this is a great idea!  I teach flute and know that kids often have trouble hearing what they are playing. Particularly as beginners when they are concentrating on so many things at once often kids forget to listen! I think this is something I’ll try in my own music teaching.

Clark states, “You should have seen his face light up when he heard is own playing for the first time… Until I started recording, it was me providing examples by playing patterns on the drums, or him watching then playing the text on a page. The recording confimed to him what I Had been telling him all along… They were my words, but the recording was his work.”

What great advice – kids have that sense of ownership!

I think that image explains it well!

Reference: Clark, L. (2006). Using New Resources. Music in Action 4, 2, p.26-27. Australian Music Association: Victoria.

Image: http://www.ejel.org/volume-2/vol2-issue1/issue1-art17_files/image002.jpg

Chefy

After a long week of classes I thought tonight as a treat I would reward myself and have a play around with GarageBand again. This time I thought I’d make a music track. I used the loops etc that they have available and put them together to make this. It’s a bit repetitive towards the end but hey, not bad for a first attempt!

I have a real interest in ICT in music – I think there are many possibilities. This could be one of them! I think I might do this as my topic for next week!

Frenzy

^ My Song