Blog Reflection #8

I have learned some new things this semester.  As I stated in my ePortfolio, I am taking away the use of social aspects. Blogs, wikis, & ePortfolios are a great way for students to interact with each other outside of the classroom. I have read many of these tools but never thought of them as something that can be used for teaching. Especially in music. I don't know that I will keep using this particular blog, but I have thought about creating my own blog on a topic of interest to me.

Blog Reflection #7

I created a lesson plan that used Google's blogger and YouTube.  In the lesson plan students had to go to the class blog and click on the link. This took them to a webpage call Eric Whitacre Virtual Choir. I created this lesson because in the video, Eric Whitacre created a choir of people from all around the world. Each individual recorded their voice part and uploaded it. Then all the voice parts were placed together thus creating a virtual choir.

Kids learn so much differently now than when I was in school.  Information is available to them almost instantly. They don't even have to go to the library to pick up a book now.  Some are available through media such as iTunes, Kindle etc. I think we have to focus on that for education now.  A lecture class doesn't teach kids of today.  (It didn't teach me before which is why I have chosen online classes for the majority of my education for the past two years) We should focus more attention on how to teach outside of the traditional classroom.

Blog Reflection #6

I created a Jing video to demonstrate how to record voice tracks in GarageBand. This is so the student and teacher can listen to the students performance of their solo.  I think this is a great tool for a music student to be able to hear their voice and critique the song they are singing. I originally used Jing in my last ETEC class and have since used it several time to show friends how to use different applications. It’s really a cool tech. 


http://screencast.com/t/7QaQUpAqVB

Reflective Post #5

I was very surprised when I did the mapping activity. I chose the allaboutexplorers.com site and at first glance thought it was a valid site. It was when I started digging deeper that I found that it wasn’t quite as good as I thought. Mostly based on the link search in google. I have used the internet many times for research in the past. Knowing what I know now, I might rethink some of the sites I use for any project. I will also do a thorough search of the history of any site I use from here now on.

I began using the internet when I went to college. Until this class I did not know ways to research websites I used. Although I didn’t have any problems, I could have used incorrect information to write my papers. The implications of that for students of today are they will start to believe that everything on the internet is correct. They might think that all sites are valid references.

During this weeks activities I signed up for Delicious. This site is a great way to keep and organize my bookmarks. At home and at work I keep a lot of bookmarks that I need constantly. However, I use two different operating systems. At work we are windows based and at home I use a mac. My mac bookmarks go to all of my iOS devices but my windows bookmarks are stuck at work. I’ve found times when I need something from work and I couldn’t do anything because I couldn’t remember the website. Now with a site like Delicious I can keep both sets of bookmarks in one place and have access to them on any computer. The site is also useful if I need to borrow someone else’s computer to look up a bookmark. 

Reflective Post #4

I think I relate more towards the AFL should be a part of effective planning of teaching and learning. I don’t believe in teaching just to teach. I think AFL has to be a huge part of the planning process in order for learning to happen.

Portfolios are something I haven’t had much contact with. This is mostly because I was a music major and our portfolio is mostly a catalog of music and performances. I do think they are a really useful tool. Students can use them to look at and see where they have come. Something they might have believed at the time may have changed over the course of the portfolio creation. They are also useful to see what you’ve done during the course of the portfolio. I am excited to see what my portfolio will look like at the end, just to see what I’ve done and what may have changed.  

Reflective Blog Posting #3

Wikis are a really awesome way to help a group of people stay connected, whether it be a particular subject or just socially. I work for a church and every year we plan a youth choir tour. When I was trying to come up for an idea for my wiki, it hit me, this would be a great way to have parents and volunteers for the choir to post their thoughts and ideas about the trip. That way everyone has a say.

The advantage is a group of people can stay in contact with each other and they can be kept in one place. The only disadvantage I see is bad information. This has been my problem with Wikipedia. There is sometimes still bad or wrong information added to the site. The digital natives could help engage them because they can be created to help create discussion.

One of the Web 2.0 tools I liked was the one we used last week. Concept maps. I really thought they were a great way to take an idea and create a image to help connect the information. 

Reflective Blog Posting #2

AACE - Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education http://www.aace.org/ - I chose this one first because I came across it in my last ETEC class. It provides publication, conferences, multiple resources, and a Global University all with the intent to further learning and research on educational technology.

AIT - Agency for Instructional Technology -http://www.ait.net/ - This is another sight I came across in a previous class. This particular agency also has the goal of furthering learning and research on educational technology by providing many publications as well as videos.

My definition of Educational Technology is technology that is integrated into education in a way that is effective and does distract learning. It goes in hand with my philosophy because I believe that technology has to be useful in the classroom.