Lesson 8

Wow, I cannot believe we are in our last week of classes! I have gained so much valuable information, resources, and knowledge throughout this educational technology class. As we discussed at the end of class last week, it's a shame that I took this class as my VERY LAST CLASS! How useful it would have been at the very start- but I'm glad I have some exciting and new ideas to use in the following school year. Educational technology is here to stay, and we should be sharing resources with one another that can improve our teaching and student learning as often as we can.

This week I will be sharing my thoughts on the security of our computers within my school, as well as "netiquette" (network etiquette). The security of our school's computers is crucial! We have important, private information on these computers about each of our students as well as colleagues. Fayette County Public Schools has an incredible technology department that takes care of these issues for us, throughout the school year. I appreciate how accessible they all are whenever I have a computer issue. We are asked to change our passwords to log into our computers multiple times a year. The program will notify us if our password is too "weak" or if it is "strong". We are expected to log out and shut down our computers every night when we leave. Our district also provides updates and such that prevent viruses and keep our computers safe.

Our school has a computer lab as well as laptop carts that can be used within the classroom. Students are taught throughout the year the importance of using passwords to protect their personal information. I think that it is awesome that we teach our students at a young age the importance of computer security because they will carry that with them throughout their lives. Eventually our students will have their own computers and they must understand that their private information could be at risk if they do not take the full precautions necessary to prevent viruses, worms, malware, or any threat to their computers seriously. We must teach them that as an adult, people can have their “identities” stolen easily! We pay our bills online, enter in our social security numbers, passwords to our emails, photographs, documents, and much more. It would be an utter nightmare to have these items altered or stolen from us. It would take months to clear all of this up!

I also read the article on “netiquette” this week. Basically, the article reminds us that although a majority of our interactions and communications with people is through our computers these days, we must remember that we are still dealing with people! It is incredible important to teach our students at the kindergarten level that what we say, do, and place online can stay with us forever! As we all know, cyber-bullying is a huge issue these days. People hide behind online “identities” and bully other people. There are serious consequences to these actions now that cyber-bullying has had some let shed upon it. Even if students are not bullying others, we must remember that our behavior online should remain professional and appropriate, just as we would act in our real life interactions.

Week 7

As a special area music teacher, my educational software that I use is different than the kinds that are used in regular education classrooms. Sometimes this can present itself as a problem because I do not have a support system to ask questions to or help by bouncing ideas back and forth. I was so excited when I began a music educational technology class last year at the University of the Cumberlands because it was just what I needed. A chance for me to be challenged, supported, and stretched to better use technology within my classroom and within my lesson plans, daily. My main learning and teaching objectives for using educational software within my music classroom are to create engaging 21st century lesson plans, especially when learning about music from past centuries. Also, with teaching every single student in the school, educational technology allows both my students and myself to maintain organization.

During our music technology class, we learned how to use a music software program called Finale. This program can do so many amazing things, I doubt we even scratched much of the surface, although I know we learned a lot.

In my music classroom, I use Finale in so many different ways. For example, if we are doing a lesson on elements of melody and high and low pitches, I can hook up my Finale software on my computer to the Smartboard. Now, the students can see on the large screen each note, which is more engaging and also easier than in our books most of the time. Finale allows for the music written or uploaded into the program to play, with a choice of hundreds of different instruments as well. So, if we are about to do a melody activity on our classroom xylophones, Finale will play the music with a xylophone voice. The lesson becomes even more exciting when each note in the selected melody lights up as the music progresses. Not only are students hearing the melody move up and down, they are also following it and making a connection.

When I need to write a piece of music for my chorus, DRUM rhythm ensemble or even just a regular lesson plan, Finale allows me to connect the software to my electronic piano and play the music as the program writes it for me. What an incredible time saver! Fellow musicians would agree and understand what I'm talking about.

Another awesome example of educational software that I use daily within my classroom is my Classroom Performance System (CPS). This software consists of 32 student remotes and a sensor that is wireless. The system is designed for students to input answers to a test, assessment, game, exit slips vote through using their remote. Each student is designated a remote number for accurate grade keeping and data collection. Teachers can also allow students to choose remotes at random if the activity benefits from them remaining anonymous as well.

CPS has allowed me to track student grades, progress, and data patterns in a more efficient and accurate manner. With 27 different classrooms, inputting grades by hand takes up a ridiculous amount of time, and doesn't allow for instant feedback as well. As a special area teacher, I only see my students once every three days, so instant return on quizzes and tests is crucial. The students enjoy tracking our classroom scores, comparing to other classrooms and competing for better scores, and also creating graphs and study guides with our data and scores as well. Not to mention they love using the remotes rather than paper and pencil. In a class like mine, we have a limited amount of time together, so organization and efficiency is key.

As with any electronic tool or software, there will always be challenges! Teachers must always have a plan 'B' when it comes to technology. There have been countless times we have been in the middle of a quiz using our CPS remotes and the wireless internet on my side of the building goes out, leaving us with a frozen computer screen and useless CPS remotes. This can be very frustrating, so I have learned the hard way to always have paper and pencils on hand. Technology can be a blessing, but sometimes a curse if it doesn't work or save your work properly. Some things are just out of our control. Successful teachers are flexible in moments of mini-crisis throughout the day. I have learned my students remain flexible and easy going when I keep my nerves in control :)

Week 6- Webquests!

This was week was a change of pace in our educational technology class. Rather than explore several websites and tools online, we became familiar with and developed our own webquest. A webquest is an online lesson for students at any age level. Teachers create an engaging journey that allows students to learn more about a topic in a fun way. Webquests can be set up as an independent exploration, or in my case, designed for a group.

This week I designed by first webquest, called "Musical Instrument Adventure". The URL for my webquest is http://questgarden.com/author/members.php . This webquest is aimed towards 2nd and 3rd grade students who are learning about instrument families, and the instruments which belong to those four families (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion). Students will be split into "exploration teams" of four, and will assign one person to be an expert in their instrument family. They will work together and take turns exploring the websites I provided, and once they are done, will fill out an information chart to organize their thoughts and findings.

I enjoyed creating my webquest this week for several reasons. The first reason is that it truly caused me to focus on the lesson itself. The webquest host site I used is QuestGarden, and the process for creating the webquest was VERY tedious. But- it was great! There were so many "check points" where you really had to reflect on what exactly you were trying to get across to your students and to other teachers as well. Several times I went back and made changes to my webquest, trying to make it better, clearer, and more fun.

The second reason I enjoyed creating a webquest was because it is a completely different teaching approach for me than what I am currently used to. Being a special areas teacher, I do not see my students every day and very rarely allow them to work on their own. This is mostly because with our short 30 minutes of time together, I try to fit in a lot of music, a lot of performing, and a lot of hands on activities. This webquest is hands on- but in a totally different way! Students get to work together and take turns trying different virtual instruments, discussing their findings, etc. It will certainly feel odd at first not having "control" over the lesson (as if I do now! ha!).

The third reason I enjoyed creating this webquest is because we do not have orchestra instruments in our classroom. The kids have no access to actual orchestral instruments until they are in 4th and 5th grade, yet they are required to have knowledge about them. This webquest allows them to look at virtual instruments in 360 degree views, listen to the instruments, read about them, play games matching their sounds to the correct instrument, and much more. These website resourcs allow them to develop a knowledge base that absolutely could not come from a cd, movie, book, picture, or lecture.

I had some struggles this week as I designed my webquest. Being that it was my first one, I wasn't super confident in what I was doing. However, as I mentioned earlier, the GardenQuest site literally walks you through the design process, step by step. Although I had help, I still had to research and double check each thing I was doing and adding to make sure it was the right fit for the webquest.

Overall, I am excited to use my webquest this coming school year, and very eager to see how my students react to them as well.

Lesson 5

This week was interesting because we learned and investigated a wide range of websites, videos, and resources available to students and teachers. One important thing I learned this week that Visual Literacy is very important in schools, and needs to be something that is discussed among teachers when planning a unit. I think many of us are using visual literacy within our classrooms, but maybe aren't aware that it is what we are doing and not fully engaging our students into what visual literacy can offer our students as well.

The video of Martin Scorsese sharing how visual literacy is important in education these days was very engaging and useful! I was touched mostly by how as a child he became intrigued with imagery and films, but wasn’t even able to afford to see movies in the theater. He still found a love and passion for film despite his circumstances. This helped me realize that as teachers, we may the only open door to students when it comes to technology, visual literacy, music, and so forth. The classroom may be the only place they are stimulated and exposed to certain things which may eventually turn into a passion for them. As teachers, we must be willing to learn new lessons to teach, and new tools and resources to use with our students so that we do not hinder their learning experience. One way to become a better teacher is to better understand certain things. For me, this week I feel as though I have a better understanding of what visual literacy means.

I found a definition of visual literacy that I really liked; "...the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading.". This was found from the wiki we were to investigae, found here: http://visual-lit.wikispaces.com/What+is+Visual+Literacy%3F. If a teacher is not sure what visual literacy is, this would be a great place to check out because there are links to activities and sites that provide information.

Students at a very early age can understand visual literacy. I shared an example in my discussion post on visual literacy of how I use visual literacy with my elementary music students. Prior to beginning a song, I often start with a photo or image that is connected to the song. Sometimes I have to research and find one, but most of the times there is an image provided in the teaching series I use to open the lesson with observations from the students as well as discussion. I have showed a picture of a mother holding and rocking her baby. The students would share with me their observations about what the mother is doing, who is she holding, and what kind of song would be be singing? The students would share with me that she is holding a baby, and maybe rocking the baby! This would lead to what do mothers and father do when they rock a baby? This is a great way to opening the door for students to understand how to interpret an image and why it is important. Visual literacy allows students to investigate and think outside of the box on their own. It is important that we provide them with the opportunity to do so!