Course Reflection-Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts

In reflection of this course in Integrating Technology into the classroom, there are many things I have learned in developing my technology skills, including creating blogs, wikis, and podcasts, as well as how I can incorporate them into music making in individual, as well as group settings. With the web becoming a means of collaboration, as well as communication, it allows people to work together in an online forum to create something together that one person may not have been able to do alone. I have learned to incorporate technology into my class, as well as my lessons. I am having my Music Appreciation students finish a podcast assignment about their favorite music group. They had to research the material, create a script, record, edit, and upload their project to Podcastmachine. com. They also are using a Google form in order to evaluate their group performance in the creation of their podcast. In this regard, I have information to improve the assignment in the future as well as help my younger students adapt to using technology in more ways. Band students are creating recordings of their own, posting them as an mp3 file on Podcastmachine.com, and evaluating their performance, as well as get comments from others. This will help my students learn to perform at a higher level. My ELT students are creating a wiki page for the school, where I facilitate the means for them to create. It has taken about three weeks; however, the content has improved, as well as the student’s ability to work with technology in a new way.
Student achievement is important at our school as our school is one of the schools in our state that has not made AYP in the past two years. Our Students with Disabilities population is large enough to be a subgroup. We are using technology to help these students achieve by having them practice using Study Island to improve their reading and comprehension skills, software for reading and comprehension, and programs such as Kurzweil to assist our readers. Some teachers are creating podcasts for our students to refer back to when an explanation or review is needed. In this way, our students can use their phone/mp3 player as an educational tool to help them achieve in their classes, as well as on the tests that seem to drive education now. Students let me know of other host sites for podcasting, wiki page creation, as well as the applications in Google that will take time to learn to use. These will be areas that I work on in the future. One of my students that have a history of low achievement is having trouble creating his podcast. I had to teach him to work on one thing at a time, and not worry about what comes next in order for him to be successful. He will edit and upload his project tomorrow. He did not think it was work, as Dr. Thornburg stated, just “fun” to do. (Laureate, 2009) In this regard, technology can assist our students, and provide teachers with another means of refreshing their memories away from school using portable media.
Two goals which I am setting for myself are to create blog sites and wiki pages for my students to upload and create their own musical recordings, and to create podcasts for my curriculum that the students can refer to from their home computer. In Social Media in Plain English, the author creates a community where discussion, evaluation, and improvement are created in a community.(Common Craft Show, nod) The School site software our school system uses for our web pages, will host mp3 files. I can add short lessons for developing their musical vocabulary in their ability to read rhythm, which is half the musical language, and staff systems for pitch, the other basic language element for reading and performing music, which will be posted for their review at any time. I can create an online library as well as refer my students to other experts via their web pages. Many musicians are now offering online lessons, where you send a video or audio recording where they can assist you to develop your skills playing the instrument. This takes geography out of the picture, and opens opportunities to study with some of the best players and musicians online. Creating a site where my students have access to these online experts is another goal that I have for my students. The more I can expose my students to professional musicians and players, the more they will be able to learn from them to develop their skills to carry them as far as they choose to pursue it. There are many more opportunities; however, these two goals are a super place to begin to work toward.


DVD: Laureate 2009, “Bringing the Fun into Teaching with Technology”
Common Craft Show (n.d.). Social media in plain English. Retrieved November 7, 2008 from http://www.commoncraft.com/socialmedia

Link for podcast Evaluation

Hi,

Please fill out this form for me concerning your podcast.  Thanks!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHB0YV9OS1VLbTRzQURCYlRPMDhZU0E6MA