According to Bauer, "evidence suggests that most music educators are not making extensive use of technology, particularly for instructional purposes" (Bauer pg. 20). When I first began this course last week, I was under the impression that, in order to include technology in the music classroom, one needed a hefty budget. Bauer went on to state that, "many of the music educators want[...] to utilize technology with their students, but indicated inadequate budgets and facilities were obstacles they needed to overcome" (Bauer pg. 21). I have felt this true since I began to teach music a couple of years ago. I have been told by my administrators that we must incorporate technology into our classrooms. However, I have always asked myself, "How am I supposed to use technology in the classroom when they don't give me a budget?"
It is hard to incorporate technology in a music classroom when you do not HAVE the technology readily available. I have one computer in my classroom that is hooked up to a doc-cam and a projector. I have previously thought how nice it would be to have a computer station in my classroom with music composition software available for the students to use. Most compositions softwares I am familiar with have been programs you have to pay for such as Finale and Sibelius. I am also familiar with MuseScore as well because I don't have the money to purchase Finale or Sibelius for my home computer. So if I must compose on a computer (most times I do it on paper), I use the free program, Muse Score. However, I find that music compositions programs such as Finale, Sibelius, and MusicScore are incredibly time consuming and confusing. I opt to compose on paper because it is so much faster and less about the "where is this button?" and more about the composition itself.
All of these things combined made me think it was impossible to include music technology in the classroom other than maybe adding a SMARTBoard to my room. However, I was introduced to incredibox.com this past week. It is a very simple and free program that my students would definitely be able to use successfully. You may dress up to 7 "dudes." Each outfit represents a "loop" and once the dude wears the outfit, he starts singing the loop. You can play with the controls - have only a few of the dudes playing at a given time and then have them all come in together.
This program has really opened my eyes to the possibility of including technology in my classroom. With my one computer, we, as a class, could come up with a class song. The students would have a very easy time learning exactly how to use the program. It would be a great way for my students to experience composing with technology while not having to worry about the theory as well as the "where is this button?" stuff you have to deal with when using Finale, Sibelius, and MuseScore.
In addition to learning about this great tool, I had to sign up for many different accounts online for my class. Using social media for my classroom isn't something I have really ever thought of before. I have been a member of blogger.com for quite a while, however. I follow many elementary music teacher blogs because I find they post lessons online. For example, Amy Abbott has a wonderful blog that she updates often: http://www.musicalaabbott.com/ If I ever need help with a lesson plan idea or need something fast, I find that utilizing the resources these teachers put online can be very helpful!
The first account I had to create was a feedly.com account which would send all the new updates of my favorite websites to one place. This would cut down a myriad time that goes into clicking on each website individually. This is very helpful when I wish to save time. I have been trying to find ways to cut down the amount of time I work on things for lesson planning because I spent a lot of time doing this. I feel this will be helpful to manage all of my online resources when creating lesson plans for the week.
I also had to sign up for my first Twitter account. I must be honest, I am not a fan of Twitter. I have managed to avoid signing up for a Twitter account until now. I am personally interested in seeing how this will help out in an elementary music classroom. I know that it would be helpful to create a Twitter feed for high school students and parents to follow regarding updates to the music program. But for elementary, we tend to stay away from the use of social media when communicating with our students and parents. So I am interested in seeing how this will play out.
I also signed up for the Google Plus UF Digital Music community. I haven't used Google Plus much to be honest with you. I actually haven't use many online "communities" much in regards to my profession. In my undergraduate music technology course, I had to create a tumblr blog in order to communicate as a professional musician and found that I never used it. I learned some things about music technology in my class but I really am not understanding how to take that knowledge and integrate it in an elementary music classroom. Bauer states that, "teaching is complex, necessitating the skillful application of sophisticated knowledge and skill that can take years to acquire" (Bauer pg. 22). Taking a one semester course in my undergraduate years in college taught me a lot about music technology. Without years of training, however, it is hard to make sense of it in terms of integration. However, I like the ease of the Google Plus community. It's very easy to follow what is posted to the community and is a great way to interact with other music professionals in the field who carry the same interests in music technology that I carry.
I have learned a lot this week in regards of how to incorporate music technology in my classroom that goes beyond my computer, doc-cam, projector, powerpoints, and www.youtube.com. I have found that, if I dig deep enough, I will find many resources that will enable my students to learn music through technology. I don't need to have a hefty budget in order to incorporate the technology into my lessons.
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