There are many pros and cons of using certain technologies in your classroom. The technologies I would use (some I also have elaborated on in other blog posts) would be, Sibelius and other music software, Youtube (computers in general), microphones (for recording purposes only), earplugs, (for safety), and playback devices to have students listen to themselves. Technologies that I would never use in a music classroom would be a SmartBoard, (they hold no place in a music classroom), a synthesizer, my students will learn to play their own instruments..I would never use a radio or tell my students to listen to the radio. The radio plays the "popular music" of today, i.e, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Jay-Z, Diddy etc. These artists know how to create popular music that young generations love listening to, but chordally and when analyzed down to its fundamentals, they know absolutely nothing about music. Their music is not interesting, it is not fascinating, and half the time they don't even write their own music let alone how to create a proper chordal sequence. All of the popular music of today is I-vi-IV-V-I.
There are some technologies that are helpful in the classroom. There are many however that are not helpful. Technology can make students to feel overwhelmed, and as the teacher it will also overwhelm me. The students get better at their instruments not through CANVAS or any blog writing..but by physically taking part in playing their instruments. I will never use CANVAS to outline a unit of mine or to show my students specific topics. They don't want to learn how to navigate another website, their brains can hardly handle what we throw at them on a daily basis. I will use PowerPoint and demonstrations with real instruments if I want my students to learn about the nuances of the clarinet. If I need to teach the history of some composers, I'll use time-lines, PowerPoint, Word, Excel even!
My goal is to have my students to understand and comprehend the subject matter I present to them. We have been educating students for hundreds of years, just because new technologies exist doesn't mean it makes it easier for the students to learn..that is false. Be open to new technology, but relying on them can greatly prohibit learning.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Tech Labs
At Montclair State University, in the music building, we have the luxury of having a tech lab. A tech lab is a room filled with computers, attached to pianos that you can easily compose music on. This is a luxury that not many people have access to, but is extremely beneficial. I must admit, I do not always utilize the lab, very rarely actually. In total this one room contains about $100,000 worth of music technologies and programs that are specific towards music education, (Sibelius, Finale, 17 20inch Mac Desktops, attached to 5 octave pianos that have alternate drum keys for percussive sounds, dual speakers for every Mac, and one enormous TV that can connect to any computer for teaching purposes. This room is where most students relax and do homework, unfortunately it isn't always used for music writing. I wish I could spend more time writing music and learning how to use these machines to their full potential, but with the 12 classes a semester and the never-ending homework, it is hard to find time to work on my music. Anyone can attend this music lab, I recommend stopping by and giving it a try!
Youtube, should you use it?
Using YouTube in your classroom is a wonderful tool as a music educator. You can access almost any song by any composer or any artist. This is a great to show your students interesting music examples from different parts of the world as well! If you want to learn about African drumming or about Zimbabwean musics, you can easily search it and you will get hundreds of musical examples. One thing to be weary of if you are using YouTube, is authenticity. You will not always find "good" quality music from YouTube, since everyone can upload their own rendition of their favorite song. You can also do a show and tell project in your classroom with YouTube. Ask your students to find a song on YouTube and present it to the class, this gets them engaged and searching for musics, they may stumbled on some music that they have never heard before! Finding new music is very easy on YouTube, however you must be careful when you search, not everything is authentic and not everything is done by a reputable musician. I would recommend YouTube to any teacher and for any classroom (not just music related.)
Video games, can it help you be a better musician?
Video games today are becoming very advanced. Rocksmith, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band are wonderful games that allow not musically inclined kids to create wonderful music with friends. They all have the same premise, to play along with the songs in the game, the more accurate you are the better your score is. They utilize a scroll sequence in all of these games. That means the notes reach a specific place, on a scroll, and at that time you strum your guitar or hit your drum set. The more precisely you play the note, the more points you receive. This is the same in "actual" music. You count your measures and play your notes right where they belong. This is a useful tool in helping with internalizing the beat, and allows you to become more accurate over time. Not all video games are beneficial to learning music. Guitar Hero for example has 5 buttons, guitars obviously do not have buttons so it is a little unrealistic. Guitar Hero will not get you better at guitar, but it will help with you with accuracy and it gives you the tools necessary to read music (although not music in standard notation.)
Thursday, December 12, 2013
CURR316 Final Project
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkLA4fnlVHOhdEJ0X3ZiSkJkR0pjdzFSYlVfZDMyVHc&usp=sharing
For my final project, I chose to
create a matrix on a 2-day lesson plan that revolves around creating
interesting improvisational works by analyzing non-western and western pieces.
This lesson plan allows students to take part in group work while individually
expressing their ideas through their music. This lesson plan draws from the
students collaborating and sharing ideas/motifs with one another.
To begin, the teacher would introduce
various pieces of music from different parts of the world. The teacher would instruct the students to
analyze the music and create a group discussion of the similarities and
differences between the works and explain why they are so different (possibly
in regards to region of the world, religious influence, time period
differences, lifestyles.) This aligns nicely with standard 1.3.12.B.1. and
allows the students to come to agreements about stylistic differences between
these works. Finally, it is up to them to introduce/perform their own musical
ideas; this can be done by means of the internet, recording software, or other
modes.
Next the students would then see
the scores of the musics they have just listened to and analyze them. I see
this mostly being an independent activity in which the students do their respective
work on their own, however I’d want them to come together to share their ideas.
The analysis should be somewhat similar; however the ‘intent’ behind the music
can come across quite differently. Those differences will greatly impact the
way they begin writing their improvisational works. This aligns with standard 1.3.12.B.2,
because they would be utilizing the original scores and learning first hand from
what the composer wanted and how to appropriately ‘add’ to their music.
Next, students will make their
improvisations come to life. With the use or recording equipment, Sibelius, and
recordings of the music, students will program their pieces into the computer
software and be able to listen to them. This will be the general assessment part
of the class in which students compose then share their improvisations with one
another. This utilizes group and individual efforts, along with teachers’
guidance. This will align with standard 1.3.12.B.3 because the students will
take the works of the composer, and build off what they have already written.
Because of this, a new and unique composition will be written by your students in
the style of the original composer. This will additionally allow the students
to use recording softwares and Sibelius as a means of music composition which Is
vitally important for music education.
Finally, the students will reflect
on the compositions of their peers and collaborate on the strengths and
weaknesses of their pieces. This goes along-side with standard 1.1.12.B.2.
Deconstructing musical works are a fantastic way to learn the style, and the
thought process of the composer (and in this case the composers are the
students in the class.) It is important to allow the students to use works from
anywhere (traditional and non-traditional or western vs. non-western musics.) In
this portion of the lesson it relies heavily on student opinion, teacher
guidance and participation. It is important in this point in the lesson to be
constructive but in a friendly way, no one is wrong in their improvisation and
no one is right. In order for these things to happen, the use of computers, the
recordings and the Internet are vital.
Since
this lesson plan is a 2-day event. The first day is dedicated to the analysis
of specific works, the homework then being to begin pondering improvisational
examples, finally concluding with, typing them into Sibelius, performing them,
and deconstructing them into the fundamental basics. Students learn not only
different genres of music, but how they are constructed, why they are relevant,
and how to build off of them and create a new piece of music. The success of
this lesson relies on the teachers’ ability to select different unique music
that will peak the interest of his/her students, student willingness to jump in
and compose their own works, and a caring environment in which constructive
feedback can take place.
The Internet has a lot of "free" stuff
Pirating is something most internet
users do without thinking. This falls under the category of music files or even
specific software, this will cost some amount of money to obtain, but we do not
want to spend our hard earned money so we look for alternative methods.
Although this may seem like the easiest and most sensible option, there are
several disadvantages of pirating that I would like to note. First of all, if
you purchase a piece of software, in most cases it will come with lifetime free
updates. When pirating software, there is no guarantee. It is possible that you
may end up with older outdated software that is unresponsive, crashes
frequently, and that you cannot upgrade. It is even possible that you may not
end up with any software at all. In the worst case, you could end up
downloading a virus or corrupted file, this happens quite often. In addition,
you can be arrested and charged for essentially stealing music of files without
paying.
One
obvious flaw in pirating music is the fact that it is illegal. Even for the
function of education, downloading audio files and listening to them is against
the law. The copyright law is an iffy subject when it comes to music making and
production, however if you are integrating it with software and not just the
music, it becomes quite difficult. We must not forget that software companies
depend upon our business to stay in function, and if we stop buying their
products, they will be less and less able to serve us with those products as
well as new products and product updates. One important thing to keep in mind
is that some programs may have student offers. For example, Sibelius offers a
student package where you can purchase a piece of software as a group, and
everyone in the group gets one download. This seems like an excellent way of
spreading the wealth to students who only need one copy of the program. It also
makes it very affordable
If you consider taking a part in piracy,
you now have a little bit of information of how it could backfire on you. Yes,
pirating music and files makes things more accessible and is cheaper however
you need to be carefl. Or, you may be overly adventurous and decide that piracy
is the best option. Piracy has its pros and cons, my hope is you consider these
pros and cons and make an educated decision before pirating music and especially
files.
OnMusic Series
OnMusic Series
It seemed to have chapters that you can become a part of, much like our
regular NAFME (national association for music educators) and ASTA
(American String Teachers Association). However, the website itself
wasn't as fruitful as I had hoped. I searched through the website itself
and found mostly nothing...except this, in it's partners list was this
link:
This website was another story! It's a bunch of online text
books that have assignments and information that is content-specific,
and you can teach through your computer. It has a bunch of textbooks
that are specific to online teaching and technology. The great thing
about these books and programs is that once you purchase them, you keep
using them.. So the school district really would just pay once, and
there it is! You've got yourself a new way of integrating technology
into a classroom setting with music! It teaches music history,
comprehension, composition, theory, appreciation, and even- get this- it
has one on HOW to teach music!
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