Personal Learning Network article reaction

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Ffeeds2.feedburner.com%2FSoYouWantToTeach

In this blog, the author relates some of the ups and downs over the years in his teaching career as a band director. I liked the article because it did not gloss over the more difficult moments in his life; in fact, he even talks about some of his darkest days, where he suspects now that he was clinically depressed. I feel that the author is honest and authentic. I feel this way because reading a blog is essentially a diary entry that the whole world is open to. In other, more informal settings, it may not be appropriate to talk about some of the more negative things he has experienced in his career as an educator.

Through his career, he has been through several "stages"--many of them seem to be more about his emotions than in the development of his actual skills as a teacher. As he is forming ideas for what he wants to leave behind as a legacy in his life as a music educator, it seems that his emotional reactions are the most important things he remembers.

The first stage is his over-confidence as a new teacher. I imagine that, as a new educator fresh from Case, I will erroneously feel as if I am ready for anything. His realization that he doesn't have much of a clue in his career is the next stage that he enters. Then, he tries to use coercion and intimidation to get the behavior that he wants from his students. As he moves into a new district, he seems to have more tools under his belt to make his classroom run more smoothly.

After he decides to stop using intimidation and coercion to manipulate his students, he seems to come to a new realization about himself as an educator: that positive reinforcement and coming up with solutions for problems works for him AND works for his students. This is not an earth-shattering revelation (to me), but it is the most important thing that I read about in this blog. He had lost sight of his power to affect himself, his students, and the quality of his rehearsals. When he realized this, it sounds to me that his career seemed to get back on track. It also seemed to me that he was able to affect change in his life and in his students' lives.

TPACK article reaction/reflection

Technology in music education is an idea that I am not entirely comfortable with. In a very large way, this is due to the fact that I have not been exposed to very much technology in my own musical education over the past 18 years. Because of this, I am skeptical. Part of me figures that if I had a proper music education and technology had no part in it, then I must not have missed out on anything. Another part is anxious and scared of the change that I know I must inevitably take part in as a music educator.

The TPACK article made me realize that I am not alone in my anxiety. In reading about the frequency of use of technology in music education, I was surprised to learn that so few educators utilize technology in their own curriculums, and even fewer students are utilizing the music technology that is available. I feel that these surveys of music educators must tell us something about the nature of music technology: that it is not yet user-friendly, and its usefulness is not readily apparent. It also tells me that music technology in the classroom is not valued by the people that provide the money for music software, computers, CDs, etc. etc. etc..

As the article states, technology should not be acquired just because it is "cool". It must also have the benefits that any good textbook must have: it must also be useful and beneficial to the student. As state departments are looking at budget cuts to music programs, every element of music education, including music technology, must have a transparent use. This means that every educator must be extremely knowledgeable on each piece of hardware and software that comes through the teacher's classroom.

In my understanding, TPACK is the integration of technology, pedagogical approaches, and the overarching element: the content of the subject matter. In this case, it is music. The focus on subject matter and content is, to me, the most important aspect of the TPACK. When the focus is shifted to content, the technology suddenly becomes less threatening.

Of course, as the article states, every element of TPACK is important. For me, the clearest way to think about the concept of the TPACK is in terms of its usefulness for developing a curriculum with meaningful content. For example: if a middle school music class has an assignment to compose a piece of music using basic 1-5-1 chords with the use of a piece of music software, the thrust of the lesson should not be on using the technology to struggle through a composition with a lot of frustration and hang-ups. That, in my opinion, would shade a student's view of composition for at least a while, if not a whole lifetime. The point of the lesson should be based on the composition process that will lead to a meaningful relationship with music in the students' minds.

I am relieved that 96% of students aged 9-17 are acquainted with technology using social networking sites. I am also relieved that many school-age students seem to be better than I am at navigating the web and finding information. This is a powerful argument for the use of music software in schools. If students are able to figure out how to use the software faster than even the "technological immigrant" teacher, the content of the lesson can be easily reached.

Bicycle Built for Two reflection, part 2

I feel that Noteflight could be an extremely useful tool for music educators. I found myself naming chords as I was notating them. When I felt fairly comfortable with the software, I thought about the quarters in the left hand of the piano part differently than I would have had I notated the music by hand. One reason for this is that I did not have to worry about the direction of stems or the formation of the notes themselves. The software was doing that part of it for me, so I was free to think about the notes within the chords. The most useful part of the software for me was that I was able to check the accuracy of my notation by listening to the chords go by in the context of the music rather than struggling with piano technique. If I had printed the music, it would have also been easier than notating the music by hand. This is because the printed version of the music would have been much easier to read than the hand notated version I would have created by myself without the help of a computer. For a student who is learning about chordal progressions, Noteflight simplifies the creation of a piece by eliminating the human variable of unclear notation. It is also useful (and faster) for developing a feel for writing chordal progressions.

Bicycle Built for Two reflection

http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/c0820b4a3088164a7f9e5d283460a4c94461688b

Noteflight is the first music notation software that I have ever used. My initial reaction to Noteflight was that it was not intuitive. I had to watch the help videos two times before I felt comfortabl e enough to try copying Bicycle Built for Two. My main frustration with the interface was that I felt like I had to sift through tons of information before I was able to find out about what I was struggling with. My first problem was with the tempo text at the top of the page. I felt that I should have been able to click somewhere on the top left page to type the text, as in a Microsoft document. When I discovered that I had to go to a tab on the right hand side of the screen (the score tab) before I was able to click on the top left blank part of the page, I was frustrated when I wasn't able to type the text the first time, since the software only gave me one chance to type before I had to go back to the tab to "tell" the software what to do with it (again). Once I figured out that I had to use the tabs for almost every detail except for the notes themselves, I felt more comfortable. The first eight measures took me almost an hour to figure out. Once I was through copying the first eight measures of the piece, I was less frustrated with the software and I was able to go through the rest of the piece fairly quickly. I felt reasonably competent with the software by the time I was done copying the piece. A shortcut that I found useful was to use shift+note name to notate a chord.