Summative Post for ICT in Education

"Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time" - Chinese Proverb

This is the main principle that I have learned from taking the course ICT in Education. Over the course of first term and still today, I feel that this course has sparked my interest in how I can integrate technology into my classroom in creative ways.

I've always had a passion for technology and especially games, but I always kept these ideas separate from technology. Why, you ask? I never thought that I could integrate the two together because of the ideas that were drilled into me in my elementary education such as "video games will rot your brain" and "computers are distracting children from reading books."  Today, I do all of my reading on my tablet computer and download my textbooks to it if I can.  And, I have to give credit to Pokemon and Mega Man X for helping me learn how to read as a child.

It's necessary to be teaching kids today how to use the most modern technology so they don't have to be teaching us how to use it.  Smartphones and tablet computers have become such powerful devices and it should be our job to teach kids to use them beneficially.  If we as educators decide to ignore technology when teaching, we are only harming our students for the future.

ICT has taught me the importance of having a class website. Not a single one of my teachers in my childhood had a class website.  Most families own a computer or have access to one nowadays, so I will communicate through a website in the future.  It will be a great way for me to organize myself and interact with parents as opposed to trying to reach them by phone and sending out news letters which could potentially get lost.  You can't lose a website if you bookmark it!

ICT has also taught me how to use a SMARTBoard.  When I was in high school, I was afraid of the SMARTboard.  I think this is a big problem with teachers and technology today:  fear. Fear of breaking it, fear of looking stupid... it's understandable.  This is why we need to educate children today to use technology so they can get past the point of being afraid of what it can do. This is also why courses such as ICT are offered at teacher training institutions.  I was unaware of the many features that a SMARTBoard has and now I am eager to have one of my own (if I'm lucky) in my classroom someday and explore it's capabilities further.

ICT has allowed me to realize that we now live in a digital world where everything is online at your fingertips.
The education system has to make a transformation in how we deliver knowledge to our students to prepare them for the future.  My goal is to make students comfortable with computers, tablets, eReaders, and more.  I want to teach students to write music through programs such as Finale and Sibelius and teach them to appreciate music through Naxos Music Library and Youtube.  Technology should not take away from learning and creativity, but help nurture and develop it.

The Power of Music and the Brain As Shown By Bobby McFerrin

Music and the cognitive processes that take place when playing/listening to music has always been a subject of interest to me.  I found this TED video a few years back called Bobby McFerrin Plays The Audience:

http://www.ted.com/talks/bobby_mcferrin_hacks_your_brain_with_music.html

And he does exactly that! By just simply jumping on the floor after aurally showing the audience what the first few notes were, they could sing a whole two octave Pentatonic scale in less than two minutes.  Their brains recognized the pattern that Bobby showed them.

Despite differences in languages between people, we all have something in common and music really is a universal language as shown in the video.  Music can unite people of any race.

This video has a great message behind it for educators: we do not need to give our students loads of instructions and tiny details, but rather we should just trust that they will figure it out.  Bobby only sung two notes at the beginning and the audience sung a whole scale without trouble.

"The best way to teach someone everything is to teach them nothing" - Anonymous

Wii Music: A Fun Introduction to Music Education

During the Christmas holidays, I came across Wii Music at my partner's parents house.  They had never played it before, but I thought I'd give it a shot since I'm a huge music geek and I love video games.  I never thought I would find so many educational qualities in one game!

Wii music focuses on creative aspects of music making such as arranging music. You can play over 60 virtual instruments with Wii Music! There is a mini-game that teaches you to conduct, using the Wii remote as a baton. I was amazed with the endless features this game offered.  The one thing I really liked about Wii Music was how interactive it was, and it really gets you in the middle of virtual music-making.  There was a mini-game for everyone; even as I continued to progress through the game I found it challenging as I moved to higher and higher levels. It was visually and aurally attractive.

Another great motivator in the game was the "high score" system.  I played this game for three hours straight trying to beat my one high score in the "Pitch Perfect" mini-game.  Who thought ear training could be so fun?

Here is a link to an article about how a teacher used Wii Music in her classroom:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29127548/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/teachers-invite-wii-music-classroom/#.UQXs1x1hQRc

I cannot wait to investigate this game further.  I think it has tons of potential and can be a fun tool for music educators!

Khan Academy: How I Learned To Do Math

Khan Academy is a wonderful gem that I stumbled across while studying for my mathematics exam last semester.  Whether you're a student parent, educator, or all three, you will  be able to make great use of it.

Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that strives to provide free, good quality education for everyone. It contains a library of 3800 videos that cover mostly science/math topics.  Khan Academy is a great teaching tool and students can watch the videos from any computer.  I plan on using Khan Academy in my second teachable subject area (mathematics) when I go student teaching in 5th year.  The information in the videos is interesting and presented in a clear and logical manner.

There is a feature for teachers which allows them to input their own classes and monitor their student's  progress.  I would recommend Khan Academy to any future or current math/science teacher that I know.

Here is the link:
https://www.khanacademy.org/

Response to Ken Robinson: School Kills Creativity

Ken Robinson's video "How School Kills Creativity" was a great video and I agree with a lot of what he had to say.  Thinking back to my own experience in high school, most of my academic assignments were very structured and my teachers left little to no room for creativity.  How do teachers expect their students to mature and grow if they cannot be creative?  The only way I was able to express myself in high school was through music class where I was able to be creative through playing the clarinet.  But, just because I am saying this does not mean that every music teacher leaves room for creativity.  There are numerous music/band teachers out there that structure their music classes like any other academic subject; they can tell the students to play loud, but the students don't understand why they are playing loud. 

As a future music educator, I want my students to love music and to love learning to make music.  Music is itself a form of creativity.  Even though my students will be reading musical notes off of a page, I want to teach them to make music out of these notes.  I feel so fortunate to be a music educator because music is a subject that can help develop independence and creativity in everyone.

Audacity: Free Audio Editor

I came across a free music editing program while putting together an audition. I figured I'd share it with everyone!

The program is called Audacity.  Some of its features include recording live audio, converting old tapes into digital recordings or CD's, the ability to edit almost any type of audio file, cutting, copying, and splicing audio, changing the speed and pitch of a recording, and so much more!  At first, I was amazed at how simple it was to use.  Did I mention it's FREE?!

I find a lot of the features very similar to GarageBand.  But, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how  you look at it) I am a PC user and do not have GarageBand on my PC.  When I downloaded it, I also downloaded an ad-on which allows you to convert WAV files into MP3.  The program has advanced layering and mixing tools, but I have no idea how to use those.  Maybe you do?

Audacity can run on a PC, a Mac, and even people who use Linux can use it, as well.

I think this program is extremely useful for music students as well as music teachers.  I will always use it from now on to record auditions (with a good microphone attached) and I can see myself using it in the music classroom to record rehearsals and performances.

Here's a link to the website where there is a free download:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Thanks for reading!

Without My Smartphone...

I've come to realize that with today's modern technology, it can be extremely easy to take what we have at our fingertips for granted.

These are all of the things I would not have experienced today without my Smartphone. Keep in mind today was an average school day:



Without my Smartphone, I would have had to photocopy 25 pages and spend $5.00 instead of using the phone camera which was more environmentally and wallet-friendly.

Without my Smartphone, I would not have had a calculator in my math class today.

Without my Smartphone, I would not have been able to reply immediately to an email which gave me a great future opportunity.

Without my Smartphone, I would have not received the push notification (reminder) that I had a doctors appointment.

Without my Smartphone, I would not have been able to look up the word "Praxis" from my chair at school.

Without my Smartphone, I wouldn't have had a flashlight to see where I dropped my Toonie.

Without my Smartphone, I would not have been able to communicate quickly with group members for a project.

Without my Smartphone, I would not have had access to a map/GPS while lost in Brandon. (Yes, I got lost in Brandon)

Without my Smartphone, I would have lost my eBay item I bid on (and won) today.

Without my Smartphone, my overall organization would have been completely chaotic.