Microsoft: OneNote Review

I have heard many good things about Microsoft's OneNote and briefly played with it only to set it aside and forget it since I already used other programs for the same tasks.  Upon a closer inspection of the OneNote for Teachers website, I discovered that I could use the program to consolidate several programs I have been using into one place, making it easier to organize my workspace.   OneNote can be used to organize lesson plans as well as deliver instructional content and other materials needed to run a classroom .  OneNote is flexible enough to allow one to display information in a way that best serves its purpose.  I quickly set up a bulletin board that I could display as students enter or exit the room while keeping lesson materials in folders for specific classes.  This bulletin board can also be shared with students and parents so they can  keep a copy for referencing while away from the class.  For those who do not have and Office 360 account, the page can be exported as a PDF and printed to distribute hard copies.

  I used the Mac version of OneNote and it seems like some of the features are missing.  I was not able to transfer my files to Word or export to Blogger.  I also downloaded OneNote Clipper but I cannot get it to work as of yet.  I am not sure if it is an issue with my computer or a platform issue, but some of the usability feels a little limited.    Overall I like the usability and versatility of OneNote and I look forward to seeing if I can figure out how to work around the issues I encountered.

Productivity and Professional Development

At this stage in our journey, we have come full circle.  Education is fundamentally changing and it is nearly impossible to ignore the amount of technology that is available for teacher development and student learning (Bazan, 2016).  This course ends with a discussion about using technology for productivity tasks.  This is probably the area teachers are the most comfortable with because most productivity tools are not specific to the music discipline and much of it is readily available on school campuses.  Evidence seems to suggest that music teachers tend to use "technology primarily for administrative tasks" (Bauer, 2014, p. 9).

Both Bauer (2014) and Bazan (2016) outline many of the productivity tools that many of us use every day.  While I agree that technology can make it easier to manage a music program, I have to remember that one of the purposes of technology in education is to make things easier for the students and parents.  For example, calendar programs are very popular planning and scheduling tools.  I use them a lot and I keep a detailed calendar of events for my students on the school website as many teachers do.  However, many of my parents prefer that I give them a list of events that they can pin on the refrigerator or family bulletin board.  While the school website calendar allows people to export their own schedules in list mode, the parents were extremely grateful to receive a printed schedule in list mode.  They even prefer it to paper calendars because the list format takes up less room.  The  analog solution seems to be the best option for this group of parents.   Calendar programs are helpful in this case because I only need to make one calendar and generate all the versions I need.

When I first started teaching, it felt like a golden age of professional development in California.  All you had to do was turn in a written request to your principal and you could practically go anywhere for "professional" development paid for by the state.  During that time I got to participate in conducting symposiums and band director conferences all over the state and even one in Texas.  While those days are now over, Bauer (2014) described how a person can set up their own professional learning network (PLN) without any geographic limitations through the implementation of technology.  Using both formal and informal online learning platforms, teachers can stay informed and trained on current teaching and learning practices.

I have been lucky in my current teaching positions that I have been able to work with teachers that not only use technology-based instruction in their classrooms, they are also willing to share their practices with other teachers.  I am also fortunate that technology enabled me to participate in a master's degree program based half-way across the country with more convenience than participating in a program from a local university.  The best part of the process has been getting to work with instructors and fellow students whose perspectives can be very different from my own.

Bauer (2014) asked the readers to evaluate their own competencies based on the TPACK model and develop a plan to address areas that need improvement. For me, my areas of strength were Content Knowledge (CK), Pedagogical Knowledge (PK), Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), and Technology Knowledge (TK).  I feel that I have improved in the areas of Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) and Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) but further development is needed here to bring together the elements of my TPACK.  I no longer feel like my technological life is as separate from my musical life as it once was.

Part of my plan to develop my Professional Learning Network (PLN) is to hone my Feedly sources down to the ones that are yielding the most relevant results.  I also plan to expand my network and gain insights from other experts in various fields.  I find that confining myself to music and education sources can limit my professional development.  Business and consumer technology are other areas of interest that can bring new ideas to my PLN. 

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, CA: Oxford University Press.

Bazan, D. (2016). Technology assisted music teaching & professional development [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learn.kent.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-5641932-dt-content-rid-52157291_1/courses/14924.201660/Week%207/Lecture/index.html

Music Creation Project - "The Eyes Have It"

Here is the song I wrote for the music creation project.  The song is based on the science-fiction short story by Philip K. Dick.  The story is a light-hearted play on figures of speech in the English language.  At its core, it is a story about paranoia during the Cold War in the 1950's.   The main character in the story finds a book on the bus and begins to read it.  Taking all of the text very literally, he is frightened by the figures of speech and idioms found in the novel.

My singing leaves a lot to be desired but I did try to remain true to the original story.

Technology and Student Access to Information and Music

There is a fundamental difference in the way students now acquire and interact with information than when I was a student.  I saw the beginnings of the changes when I started teaching 17 years ago, but I never imagined things would change this much.  Bazan (2016) referenced two icons from my youth; the mix-tape and encyclopedia.  Technology has transformed the way we interact with information and music.

One thing I remember about mix-tapes is how permanent they were.  You had to plan the tracks so you did not run out of space in the middle of a song. Then you broke the recording tabs on the cassette so no-one could erase the tape by mistake.  You were basically committed to the tape unless you recorded the entire cassette again.  One trick I learned was to record audio only tracks on a video cassette because the sound quality was better and you could make six to eight-hour mix-tape of party music, eliminating the need to constantly change cassettes, records and even CD's.

 In contrast, modern playlists are dynamic and ever-changing.  A person can add, delete, or rearrange the tracks on a playlist as needed.  In addition, playlists can be as long or short as needed.  for example, my home stereo has a jukebox feature so anyone with the corresponding app on their phone can add their own music to a temporary queue.  It is like selecting a song in a diner's jukebox only you are not limited to what is in the machine.  This is a great way for students to share music from their devices in a classroom setting.


Students today use the internet to get information instead of using reference materials like encyclopedias (Bazan, 2016).  While this may seem like anecdotal information, this fundamental change also affects how students acquire and listen to music today.  One thing I noticed from my technology use inquiry project was how quickly students move from one technology to another.  Bauer (2014) described several technologies for acquiring music, including CD's, DVD's, music downloads, and streaming services.  However, most of the students I interviewed do not use physical media like CD's anymore, and even music downloads are in decline because streaming services like Spotify and sites like YouTube and Vimeo are such a convenient option.  Owning music is not as important when one has on-demand access to their favorite music.

One thing that records and encyclopedias represented was control of information.  Publishers curated, organized, and published information and music distributed using these traditional methods.  The high price of some records and encyclopedias made them status symbols for those who could afford them.  Internet access has made information and music easily available for little or no cost, unlike traditional media.

However, I have noticed that some of my students try to engage in other activities when we listen to music examples.  Whenever I use recordings, I have to remind students to pay attention and focus on the listening example.  I did not have as many issues with this until the past few years.  It seems that today "sitting and attending to music exclusively to music may be rare for most people (Bauer, 2014).  This week I learned of several ways to use technology to help guide my students' listening experiences.

Digital music makes it convenient for teachers to integrate recordings into class activities (Bauer, 2014).  Bauer also described how teachers can use digital recorders and DAW's to show students visual representations of music events.  In addition to using listening maps and charts, students and teachers can use infographics to describe musical events.  Google forms can also be used to create quizzes that can serve as listening guides for students.  Vizia is a free web-based application that enables teachers to embed questions in YouTube videos to help focus a listener's attention.

Here is some information on using infographics:

http://www.p21.org/news-events/p21blog/1971-infographics-a-digital-tool-for-deeper-learning-

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2016/08/3-powerful-chromebook-apps-for-creating.html

Here is a Link to Vizia:

https://vizia.co/

References 

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, CA: Oxford University Press.

Bazan, D. (2016). Technology assisted music teaching & professional development [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learn.kent.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-5641935-dt-content-rid-52157209_1/courses/14924.201660/Week%206/Lecture/index.html

Using Technology in Backward Lesson Design and Project-Based Learning

My first experience with backward lesson design was actually in high school band.  My band director would outline the rehearsal schedule starting the performance day and work backward to the first rehearsal.  He would set monthly, weekly, and daily goals giving us clear direction of what needed to be learned and when.  The instructors in my teacher education program also emphasized backward design in lesson planning.  Bauer (2014) described backward design as "approach in which the teach begins with the end in mind."  Almost every sequential task requires some preconceived idea of the desired outcome so backward design is a kind of natural process.

Bazan (2016) indicated three basic steps in backward design; identifying essential understandings, develop assessments to check for understanding, and then creating lessons that emphasize the essential understandings.  Backward design requires that teachers prioritize what is taught and focus on enduring understandings (Bazan, 2016).

 

The National Core Arts Standards were developed with enduring understanding and provide established curricular priorities that unify all arts education (NCCAS, 2014). 

If backward design is such a natural occurring process, why does it still need to be discussed in educational forums?  Some reasons may be that classroom materials like method books and literature drive instruction in many classes, teachers have established routines and have taught the same way for years, and backward design takes time (Bazan, 2016).  I think well-designed method books are created with backward design in mind; however, somebody else designed them and they may not align with one's particular needs.  Doing your own backward design gives you ownership of the material that is taught and allows for more differentiated instruction.

Established instructional routines and the time involved in backward design create some resistance to change for many teachers.   Technology is one way to promote changes in lesson planning.  Integrating technology does not necessarily mean that we need to change proven methods, but instead technology can be used to improve what is already occurring in the classroom.  There are many software applications that can help with backward design and make modifying lesson plans relatively easy.  I used to keep a binder of lesson plans and used a planning calendar to track progress, but now all my planning is accessible by a computer, which makes modifying lesson plans faster, freeing up time to focus on aligning my existing coursework with the essential understandings.

Another concept from this week that has been around for a long time is project-based learning (PBL).  I remember doing projects as far back as elementary school.  Technology has created new opportunities to engage in real-world learning activities such as WebQuests (Bauer, 2014).  Since performing ensemble classes are activity centered environments, it seems that PBL is integrated into the normal class activities.  Personally, I am reluctant to add projects to an already busy schedule simply for the sake of doing things differently.  However, backward design and essential understanding provide a pathway for integrating enrichment PBL into the existing curriculum.  Rather than trying to think of new projects, which would be a lesson driven approach, the key is finding a topic that I normally teach using direct instruction and use PBL to assist the students in "constructing their own knowledge" (Bauer, 2014).

A WebQuest is based on constructivist principles, utilizes inquiry and critical thinking as the basis for instruction, and does not have to be technology based (Zunal, 2001).  However, using available resources, including technology, is a part of backward design (Bauer, 2014).  Bauer stresses that PBL activities should also emphasize communication, collaboration and be "grounded in the real world" (p. 164).  Using teacher-curated internet resources, students can explore and discover aspects of music in a manner that is "creative, innovative, [and] experiential" (Bazan, 2016, p. 10).  As a teacher, I encourage my students to listen to and watch exemplary models of performance.  I could use a WebQuest to guide my students to sources and encourage then to listen critically to style and nuance.

References 

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, CA: Oxford University Press.

Bazan, D. (2016). Technology assisted music teaching & professional development [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learn.kent.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-5641934-dt-content-rid-52157118_1/courses/14924.201660/Week%205/Lecture/index.html

NCCAS. (2014). Home | National Core Arts Standards. Retrieved August 3, 2016, from http://nationalartsstandards.org/

Zunal. (2001). Welcome to Zunal.Com. Retrieved from http://zunal.com/xhelp.php