PLN #3

This week on the Music Teachers Blog, I found a post about conclusive evidence that has been found showing that participating in music actually makes children smarter.  Professor Susan Hallam of the U.K. has shown through her research that over time, children can actually improve their IQ scores by and average of seven points, versus about four points through drama education.  If anyone's interested, the article can be found here.

This is great news for music educators everywhere seeking to justify their programs to fiscally-desperate administrators.

MIDI

I thought these two articles combined were the best readings yet.  I actually enjoyed reading about MIDI, probably because of the way the information was presented.  For me, MIDI is a relatively new concept in terms of actual application: I have known about MIDI and heard it used, but never actually looked into using it personally.

The fantastic thing about these articles is that they didn't just recommend MIDI's use in the field and supply some "novel" ways to use it.  Instead, they actually delved into the nuts and bolts of how MIDI actually works, which captured the engineering side of my brain and kept me interested with concrete facts rather than abstract generalizations.

I think that the application of MIDI in the classroom setting opens up many avenues for creativity and innovation, both on the part of the teacher and the student.  I will definitely look into how my future job can best benefit from the use of MIDI and see to it that I am at the very least knowledgeable in both theory and practice.

PLN #2

While reading through classmates' blogs, I came across Ryan Huch's post about a blog questioning the musical validity of Guitar Hero (and similar video games) and whether or not we as teachers can latch on to the fever-like nature of modern games for educational purposes. I myself have wondered if we can adapt current "musical" video games in order to retain students' attention while still sneaking valid educational tidbits in there. Ideally, someone would create a video game that was designed specifically for music education yet still retained some of the widespread appeal that the mainstream video games enjoy. I remain convinced that the synergy of video games and educational concepts is one of the most promising pedagogical strategies on the horizon.

Week 4 Reading

I thought this week's articles were fairly informative.

The creative thinking and technology article's content was not at all revolutionary to me. However, it wasn't the content, but the thought process that it provoked that mattered. After reading this article, I started thinking about all of the different ways that I can integrate technology into my future teaching career in order to seamlessly adopt the TPACK strategy. In short, this article was good for its provocation more so than its specific content.

The Vermont MIDI Project article was fascinating. What a revolutionary way to incorporate composition, improvisation, music theory, performace practice, distance learning, and collaboration! This is an absolutely fantastic project, and I can only hope to be involved in something a fraction as good, let alone start such a venture.

PLN #1

This week I read an interesting article about "Rule-Free Teaching." The main idea being communicated was that students don't really need a list of rules and regulations in order to be productive and civilized in the classroom. Mr. Michael Peters, the instructor for CWRU's Vocal Pedagogy class, actually mentioned something similar to this in class the other day. What he said and what the article is saying is essentially the same; the only rule that really needs to be established is mutual respect. The author of the rule free teaching article, Joel, splits this into two segments- follow directions, and do nothing that interferes with the teaching and others' learning.

I think that this is a wonderful concept. Teaching with a minimal rule set allows for there to be less enforcement and more time for music-making and education. In the process, it eliminates all of the loopholes that students will inevitably try and find in the established rules. If at all possible, I would like to adopt a strategy similar to Joel's once I am teaching.

Music Notation Software

This week's articles were actually fairly interesting. As I read, I found that in addition to the obvious features of programs like Sibelius or Finale (music notation, transposition, composition), there are many other uses for these types of programs that the music educator can and should take advantage of.

Of special interest to me was the idea of creating new or different parts for pieces currently being performed. Having been one of the "this is too boring/easy" students, the thought of being able to add some more difficult parts for the more advanced students in the ensemble is an exciting one. If there is anything that the music educator can do to even the learning gaps between students or keep everyone involved, it should be given strong consideration.

PLN

The concept of a Personal Learning Network (or PLN) is fairly perplexing to me.  As far as I have been able to grasp, a PLN is basically one's ability to keep current on relevant news.  In that pursuit, I have opened an account with Google Reader, a glorified RSS feed organizer.  So far, I like the interface quite a lot.  It is organized very similar to a stratified email inbox, so it is quite easy to find exactly what you're looking to read.  In hopes that I can stay informed not only on global events but also specifically to education and music topics, I have subscribed to "So You Want To Teach," "NPR," "Music Matters," and PBS' "Learning.now."  I really like all of these blogs/feeds, because each shines some light on a different facet of the educational world, and NPR's postings keep me informed on the world at large.

TPACK

Dr. Bauer's article on TPACK (Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge) identified the relationship between the components of said acronym.  I thought that most of the ideas/concepts highlighted were mostly common sense from an educator's point of view.  In short, the teacher's knowledge of technology and how it can assist his/her subject matter knowledge and the knowledge of how best to go about teaching students about a myriad of subjects leads to a more effective teaching strategy.  Dr. Bauer did caution that while technology is readily available in the the classroom, it is rarely utilized effectively by "non-native" users.

Basically, it is noted that younger, more "current" generations will generally be more adept at the implementation of modern technologies into everyday life, especially education.