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Module 7: Musical Assessment and Professional Productivity

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This week we focused on how technology can aid teachers with assessment and productivity. We read about assessment and used google forms to create a quiz. We utilized google docs to create a newsletter, google slides to create a presentation and created events on google calendar. I felt like everything we did this week was practical and useful for teachers. Assessment is one of the most important things we do as teachers. Teachers must find ways to assess through both formative and summative means. Formative assessment includes both formal and informal elements and is given to students throughout the learning process. Summative assessment is typically given at the end of a unit, chapter, semester or entire class. This type of assessment helps teachers and students determine if the learning goals have been achieved before introducing new material (Bauer, 2014). In order for assessments to be effective they must be both valid, meaning the assessment aligns with the learning outcome ...
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Module 6: Instructional Design and Technology

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This week we focused on integrating technology into our instructional design. We read about how people learn, backward design, differentiated learning, project-based learning, and copyright law. We experienced creating a google site and began our WebQuest projects. I really enjoyed the content this week since much of it was new, but also accessible. Learning is a process that spirals over time. The idea of Constructivism is that learning is: Contextual, active, social and reflective (Bauer, 2014). The portion that most affects my students is that of contextual learning. The school I teach at had five years of music teacher turnover before I came a year and a half ago. Those five years were damaging to the students emotionally as well as musically. The students not only did not gain new knowledge, they went backwards in their musical understanding. Building on what students' know is a powerful tool, as long as they have something to build upon. Technology can aid in catching stu...
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Module 5: Responding to Music with Technology

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Spotify playlist with scanning code. This week we explored how music technologies can be utilized in responding to music. We explored this by creating a Spotify playlist, exploring the software program Music Ace, creating a Diigo account and reviewing online resources and learning how to look at music software with a critical eye. Music listening is the most common way people interact with music (Bauer, 2014). Through the teaching of listening, not simply hearing music, we can help develop students into lifelong music listeners (Bauer, 2014). Our musical background and experience determine how we respond to music and what music we prefer listening to. Since people generally enjoy music they are familiar with, we have a special job during early elementary and middle school years as music teachers. These are the ages when students are the most open-eared towards new music (Bauer, 2014). Music teachers must help students develop the language to describe what they are hearing, ...
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Module 4: Performing Music with Technology

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This week we read about how music technology can be integrated into musical performance, both in the context of teaching and learning as well as in public performance venues. We also experimented with editing a sound clip and remixing music using the program Audacity. Bauer emphasized the fundamentals of music performance in our reading. These include: Technical and motor skills, expressive skills, aural skills, notation and reading skills, and presentation skills (2014). Students must first master the psychomotor skills necessary to perform on their instrument. These skills involve both perceptual and motor skills (Bauer, 2014). Students must not only learn to process the information relating to reading music and transferring it into expressive music-making, but they must also learn to master the physical demands of their instrument. In order to acquire the skills necessary to students must learn how to practice effectively. Research has shown us that practicing for shorter amou...
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Module 3: Creating Music with Technology, Composition

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This week we focused on creating music, and the ways in which MIDI and digital audio fit into this process. The readings out of “Music Learning Today,” gave us basic information about analog and digital audio recordings as well as a deeper understanding into how to best facilitate the learning of composition and improvisation. We explored these ideas by learning how to use the DAW, or Digital Audio Workstation, Soundtrap , and composing an original song which combined loops, MIDI and digital audio. The fact that 80% of students do not participate in secondary music education is a crisis for music educators. Music education has not remained as relevant as it should. Since 1994, the National Music Standards have included composition and improvisation as a part of what students should be understanding about music (Bauer, 2014). Within the traditional choral, band or orchestra classroom, these skills have not typically been included because of the push for performance-based c...
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Module 2: Creating Music with Technology

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“Creativity takes place over time, and most of the creativity occurs while doing the work” (Sawyer, 2012). Creativity is a process, not simply a stroke of genius. There are many different models outlining the creative process. Sawyer (2012) listed eight stages to the process: Finding the problem, Acquiring the knowledge, Gathering related material, Incubating, Generating ideas, Combing ideas, Selecting the best ideas, and Externalizing the ideas. Creativity is at the top of Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive complexity. So many pieces need to be in place within the domain of music before the creativity associated with improvisation and composition can be developed. That is not to say that teachers and students can not work on skills associated with improvisation and composition, but the ultimate goal of Kratus’s model may not be achieved during the school years. The final level on the model is Personal Improvisation and involves a musician developing their own unique form of improvisatio...
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Noteflight Review

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This week we were tasked with exploring two different music notation programs. The first was MuseScore and the second, Noteflight. This was my first experience with both programs and I enjoyed working thought the assignments while thinking about the possible applications for them in my classroom.  Noteflight is a free, online notation system. It is accessible on any web browser and offers an easy pallet design for notating and editing your score. With limited notation software experience, I was able to easily begin notating my arrangement after watching two short videos about the program. I think students would catch on very quickly to the format of Noteflight as well. There are some limitations to this program, mostly related to more advanced composing. If you are looking for a program to save multiple scores and want the flexibility to add instruments or want to do mixing, then you might consider another program. It also does require internet access, which is an issue for...
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