When I started the readings, I was worried about limitations I might find in using the technology discussed this week with my elementary students. After all, my students are young, so therefore limited in ability, and socio-economically disadvantaged, so therefore may not have access at home. For the time being, I cannot assume that my students can either connect to the Internet to visit certain websites, nor can I assume that my students can afford to purchase subscriptions to performance programs.
General Internet Resources
At a recent regional professional development, a high school teacher demonstrated how his jazz band and music history students use blogs. He will embed or link to a piece of music he requires his students to listen to, and students are required to respond to it, usually answering a question. This reduces the time he has to spend playing music for his students in class, and gives the students a more free place to discuss what they have listened to.
If I had time to arrange it, I could do this with my students either as an extra credit or as an in-class / free time activity with my students. My students have access to plenty of technology at school, so would likely be able try it in our building.
In addition, a colleague shared a safe search for students (especially important at the elementary level):http://www.safesearchkids.com/ . It is a search engine powered by Google. There seem to be a lot of ads, but my students have used this during integrated music lessons, and I have felt confident that what they find will be appropriate for their eyes.
Technology for the Music Classroom
My beginning band students' lesson books do have DVD's that accompany each exercise in their book, and I wish I had taken advantage of them earlier this year - the video mini-lessons are fantastic! I didn't introduce the DVD's to my students until it was late for them to really use it. They do, however, enjoy playing along with the accompaniments. Disadvantage of their DVD's - no tempo variations or way to manipulate the tempo!
I would love to give my students access to programs like SmartMusic to improve their beginning instrumental skills. Not only would it give them instant feedback on their performance, I anticipate it would motivate them to practice more than their DVD's. But again, I am limited by what resources my students may have at home. Most of my students borrow their instruments from the school for little or no cost.
I have, however, begun to use technology to record my students and give instant feedback to my students. I have used my iPad to take video and pictures of my students' instrumental playing so they can assess themselves. I have also used the same feature in whole class instruction when 'performing' a song during class. Sometimes, it is hard for my students to take class performances seriously without a 'real' audience - taking video gives them an audience and motivates them to sing / play better. I've even suggested to my students that I could have my principal FaceTime into our classroom to check in (although I don't think he has the technological skills to achieve it)!
In a third grade integration class, the students are writing 'simile raps'. They will be using video to record themselves performing their raps over a pre-recorded beat (found at www.flocabulary.com/warp/beats/). I hope to share at least a few of their videos on my teacher website so that parents can view the work they have done - a 'concert' opportunity that can be viewed online!
Megan - I really can appreciate your dilemma! Your post was very relatable in the sense that you brought to light real difficulties that many music educators face, but you were still working to find solutions and incorporate technology in your classroom which is something I wish more teachers were willing to do. So often we get hung up on what we can't do that it overshadows how we can enhance our classroom with what we do have access to. As far as SmartMusic goes, do you have computer access in your classroom or easy access to computers in the school building? I worked with a school that had SmartMusic only on 3 computers and were able to give students time to work during school hours, or before/after school. This time was also given as a "reward" for jobs well done in the music classroom. I only bring this up because SmartMusic still may be an option for your classroom even if students wouldn't have internet access/finances at home to support individually owning SmartMusic. Thanks for your post!
ReplyDeleteI'm in a very similar situation at my school. The technologies mentioned in this chapter were fantastic to read about. There was a voice inside my head while reading that kept reminding me that very few of my students could actually access these resources at home to reap the full benefits of them. Several of my students have smartphones, but are unable to access many of these online resources because their data is limited. I doubt that even 5 or 6 students in my band class have a personal computer, let alone one with a reliable internet connection at home. There are definitely ways to incorporate some of these ideas in the classroom that require little to no technology on the students' part, but a lot of them lose their benefits when the students aren't accessing them. I am working on getting SmartMusic and a few computers to use in my band room, like Sarah mentioned above. Instead of using valuable class time for playing/chair tests, I can have the students go into the SmartMusic rooms and take their tests to be assessed later. It sounds like you're making the most of what you have. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteMegan,
ReplyDeleteThe sentiments that you seem to have about Smart Music echo many of our classmates. The biggest hurdle to having it seems to not necessarily be the upfront cost, but more the access for students outside of school. The aspect of Smart Music that is most attractive to me is that it makes the experience of practicing a more immersive and authentic event. In short, I believe that it makes students actually want to practice. If this is simply not possible, I think that beginning to take advantage of the CDs and DVDs include with your method book of choice is a good substitute. I know some teachers that even take the quality of the included CDs and DVDs into account when choosing a method book. While there are obviously limitations to this (some of which you outlined) I have found that students much prefer to practice with something supporting them. At the end of the day, I really feel that fairly simple to more cutting edge technologies can make practicing a much more enjoyable and desirable endeavor for our students. Some of the time it is just a matter of taking advantage of it.