Technology Standards - Oregon 2C

Oregon 2C states that students will: Engage with learners from other cultures to develop cultural understanding and global awareness.


This upcoming year my school implements Chinese Mandarin for all students K-5. There will be weekly visits to each classroom by a native speaker. Each student and all teachers are provided with a Rosetta Stone account. We have found a sister school to pair with and have already established some communications via our principal. My school is watching my lead with this implementation because they believe, and I agree, that music is global and reaches beyond borders. Even though Western and Eastern music may be very different, there will be many opportunities to share via technology and celebrate our differences and our similarities. Skype will be a key component. The school in China has 3000 students and they begin everyday outside silently doing Tai-Chi together. That alone will be powerful to watch and for our students to ask questions about. I also hope to share with their music teacher some songs that we can share back and forth. These can be recorded via Garageband and easily shared as a file in Skype or thru email. We are going to purchase some Chinese instruments, and my hope is that the Chinese students will be able to help us learn to play some simple melodies. The instant feedback, child to child, will be powerful beyond words.

Tool Choice #5 - ePortfolios

I looked at several ePortfolio websites and decided to try a 30 trial version of Pupil Pages. I found the interface very basic and limiting, especially compared to how cool we can make our blogs look. I acted as a student trying to post my original compositions. I added a category and labeled "compositions". I was able to create 2 pages and added mp3s of tunes I had ready to go on my computer. When I added images, I started seeing the images override each other. My bio picture got changed to match one of my pages and that was extremely frustrating. This does not want to make me pay for this after 30 days. I will research other options so I can present another tool for my students to create ePortfolios. I am excited to think about them being able to upload their original compositions and share with the world. They can keep the page active as they move through grade levels and add more compositions and delete others from view by "archiving" them. They could add pdfs of the sheet music so others could try playing their tunes. I could leave comments for each composition if I was sure that no others would see my comments. Here is my sample page on Pupil Pages. You will need to enter the demo16258 as my username.
http://www.pupilpages.com/welcome.aspx
username: demo16258

When I finished my master's degree in 2007, my final assignment was to create an ePortfolio by writing the HTML code from scratch. Here is what I completed:
http://home.comcast.net/~jamescc2/portfolio/index.htm

Tool Choice #4 - Avatar

This Avatar was created from a website called Voki.com. I found the interface to be simple and easy to use. It offered several choices for face, background, sound effects, etc. I chose to type in the text, rather that using a mic or my phone which would have used my actual voice. I am curious if I could create a recording in Garageband or Audacity and input that into the Avatar. I think this could be very effective with students who tend to lose focus or drift away from listening to me. There are so many fun options intended to really grab the attention of the listener. It really makes me want to invest in a more powerful application for a fee. Maybe I could find one that could imitate my body movements and thus teach students a dance to a song we are performing?

Update on July 31: I just now edited my Avatar by first making a recording in Audacity. It was really easy to get a great sound and edit out what I didn't like. Then I uploaded the file to Voki and re-published my Avatar.

Technology Standards - Oregon 6B

Oregon 6B states: Students transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.

As educators, we hold high hopes that our students will be able to take things that they learn and apply them to new situations. Playing an instrument is based on building blocks, basic concepts that build upon themselves toward more and more difficult layers. Once I learned how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on one instrument, I began to see how easy it was to do the same thing on many other instruments knowing that several things remain constant. I see my students applying this same thinking to technology.

One opportunity for transfer occurs when students navigate on the computer. Several of the buttons and processes in software programs remain constant and most programs allow you to "undo" an action, so students see no reason to pause when deciding whether or not to click on something. Much of the Internet using similar constant factors, such as drop down menus, image maps, hovering over something to see the description, etc.

I am very curious about current and future hardware technologies for music. Most all students understand that such tools require power of some kind and immediately go searching for a power button. They understand that sound must go through some kind of output such as headphones, built-in speaker, or connecting it to an amplifier. My questions are, 1) Do they understand that there are most likely menus and sub-menus to change the settings in some fashion?, and 2) Do they understand that there might be other applications for trigger inputs, or interfacing with computer software?

I am seeing more and more technologies coming available at reasonable prices. I hope to invest in as many as we can afford for my classroom, especially those that support children with adaptive needs. I would hope as we acquire these new tools, students will do exactly as Oregon 6B states: transfer knowledge.

Tool Choice #3 - Screencasting

Jing. What an unusual name for a tool. I was expecting to choose something with "screen" in the title, such as ScreenFlow. But I chose Jing because it is free and I was surprised at the high costs of the other programs available. It's true that Jing may be limiting, but it is simple, easy to use, and allows users to quickly create screen captures or movies (5min. max). It is available from a company called Techsmith, who offers other more advanced programs for a fee, hoping you will upgrade. Installation was easy on my MacBook. For PC users, I do read that you will need a program called Microsoft .Net Framework, which may take several minutes to install. The strange thing is that it saves the movie as a flash file. I had trouble finding simple applications to open the file. I would prefer a .mov Quicktime file instead. The more advanced programs that cost money allow you to choose various formats. You can also upgrade and pay a fee to use your webcam and toggle between it and your screen. The other downside is that you cannot edit your movie, which could prove time-consuming as you redo things over and over.

In the classroom, I could use it to teach songs in different languages. I could have the sheet music on the screen and talk thru the lyrics with correct pronunciation. Then I could sing the song so the students could hear the melody and lyrics, while pausing to comment and point out trouble spots. Another application could be teaching students how to edit in Garageband. I could show how to adjust loops, add effects, change pitch, etc. I'm sure I will find other uses once I start making them available. My students will come up with some great ideas as well.

Tool Choice #2 - VoIP

My partner Naomi and I decided to investigate VoIPs, specifically Skype. I had used Skype a few times before for sharing my children with family across the country. I had never tried it in the classroom. I was especially interested as my school prepares to integrate Chinese into our curriculum. The first surprise was how different my old version was compared to the new version we installed on Naomi's MacBook. Once I updated my version, we were off and running. We had to move my MacBook to the other side of the room to avoid feedback from the mic. One amazing thing we figured out was the ability to attach files and send them back and forth. She sent me a pdf and I sent her a mp3. I can see all kinds of possibilities in the classroom. When we Skype with our sister school in China, I can attach a pdf of the lyrics to a song we can sing together. We can attach photos as well of our communities. The other amazing thing with Skype was the "screen share" option where you can show a photo, a document, whatever without actually sending the file itself. This eases up the upload/download time, plus you may not want the other person to be able to keep the file. It might avoid some copyright problems with lyrics and music files.

Naomi and I were also interested in Facetime, an app for iPad and iPhone. It is supposed to work on MacBooks with 10.6.6 and higher, but mine is only a 10.6.2, so I was unable to try it. I had really wanted to try multiple friends at the same time. That would be helpful for the music teachers in my district because there is very little time to meet together and Facetime could be a way for all of us to share ideas, sing songs, teach dances, etc., all in real time. Skype offers that in the premium version, which costs $4.99 per month.

Technology Standards - Oregon 1B

I respond to 1B from the Oregon Technology Standards, which states, “Create original works as a means of personal or group expression.” I have 4 Macbooks in my music classroom. I use one for my group instruction and the other 3 are setup as stations on the side of the room. I rotate students in grades 3-5 so that they can all have time using Garageband, a program for creating original compositions using loops and recorded material. Unfortunately, the class sizes of 28-30 make the rotations very time-intensive, so that each student is only getting 20 minutes of access every 6 weeks. This is not acceptable when it comes to creating original works where students need to create, revise, edit, and finalize. Even if students have Apples computers at home, it is very difficult for me to email them their large files. I need to find a web-based tool for creating original works. I could use the mobile cart with 30 netbooks and even open up access to all students K-5. I have 30 piano keyboards, so perhaps I could use USB cables to connect them to the computers via MIDI. One thing is clear in that all students should have equal access to materials to create original works. If digital composition is my preference, there must be technology out there for all students to benefit.

Tool Choice #1 - Virtual Storage

I chose to investigate “Virtual Storage” as a means to simplify taking files with me as I move between home and two assigned schools. I am curious about ways I can provide files for student and parent access, especially large audio and video files. Right now, I have a blog where I create password-protected pages for students to practice at home. For an upcoming concert/event, I will be upload music mp3s, sheet music pdfs, etc. If students can remember the password, their parents can help them access these files from home. This has worked relatively well, however I use the same password for all students K-5, so for example a 1st grader could go to the 5th grade page and listen to songs for the 5th grade concert. Yes, I could setup different passwords for every grade level, but it also creates multiple pages on my blog, which increases problems with navigation. About a year ago I heard about a free program called Dropbox and downloaded it to my iPod Touch, but never used it. Yesterday my table colleagues and I spent some time using the tool and uploading files to a shared folder. We were able to see changes to the folder happening in real time. We were able to easily access each other’s files if we have the appropriate file to open them. I can gather emails for parents and sort them by grade level, invite them to access the one specific public folder I have created filled with sheet music and audio tracks. This will be very beneficial for large video files of past concerts that I can provide for parents without burning numerous DVDs. I see all kinds of possibilities!

Chapters 1 and 2

One of the first things our new principal did to get to know the staff was to ask us to assign ourselves into one of four compass points. The four points described what type of person we were and how we approached something new. I placed myself into the “West” category, describing one who wants to know all the details before diving in. These chapters made me think again about those compass points in that I believe we sometime purchase and start using technology before some important questions are answered. Too often teachers are provided technology with very little training. Too often the technology fails because it was not tested rigorously before being implemented. I very much appreciate the simple matrix the book provides, so that teachers and administrators can make informed decisions about what to purchase, how much, and when.  

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This is a blog created for my TINT class "Web Tools For Teachers".