Introduction to TPACK

Technology should be used to support instruction in the music classroom and not just used for the sake of including technology on a superficial level. As stated in the article, "Integration is defined not by the amount or type of technology used, but by how and why it is used (Earle, 2002, p. 7)." In order to facilitate an organic collaboration between music and technology, students' technology skills need to be further developed. In my opinion this begs the question, who's job will it be to lay the foundation of technology skills that will allow students to apply this knowledge to a variety of content areas?

Public schools educators are put under a great deal of stress to teach the entirety of their curriculum and prepare students for standardized testing. This can lead to an atmosphere of competition for student learning time and a sense of needing to be possessive of one's instructional time. I do not pose this question to be a nay-sayer, rather to identify the need of this instruction perhaps in formal, required technology courses. In addition to public school P-12 education, technology and technology pedagogy should be further stressed in teacher preparation programs, such as it is at Case. Again, this becomes a question of limited instructional time, but an artful integration of these skills in established required courses can serve this need.

In regard to my own education, this essay has made me reflect on my current proficiencies, or inadequacies, in technology. In preparation for assisting the General Music Methods course this fall, I have made an effort to not only present information to students that I believe is important, but to focus on presenting this material in a way that models pedagogical content knowledge as well. Although this is at the forefront of my mind currently, I would not have thought about PCK in the context of technology. Having a weak technological content knowledge and technological pedagogical content knowledge, I look forward to increasing my understanding throughout this semester.

Personal Learning Network

A personal learning network is a practical approach to professional development for music educators. Packed schedules, the lack of musically trained substitute teachers, and budget restrictions make conference/workshop attendance difficult for many public school educators. In addition, music educators are often the only teacher in their field within the building, providing little opportunity for scholarly discourse. A PLN alleviates these concerns by creating a network for the acquisition of new knowledge and global communication.

I believe the most challenging aspect of creating my own PLN will be to limit myself to the number of blogs, wikis, etc. that I am following in order to not be overwhelmed by information. After only a limited amount of exploring I find that it is hard to set aside time to comb through all the new posts that are highlighted on my Google Reader page without getting 'caught' in hours of reading. Perhaps I will need to establish a time slot in my day/week that will be devoted to this task. Also, I will need to work out a system that better organizes my immediate needs at the time. For example, can I prioritize certain topics at a given moment? While researching my topic for MUED 444 I will want to give those posts more energy than the generic music education sites. Is there a way to control my settings to allow this to happen?

Noteflight

http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/bb8630d9e2af728fc7ecfe41c1ea645da91d6133

After spending time using Noteflight I am very surprised I have not heard about this tool before. This program is leaps and bounds better than Finale NotePad and because I am able to access this on my personal computer for free, I imagine I will use this notation program exclusively in the future (aside from Sibelius assignments in class, of course). There were countless times during my teaching tenure at Beall Elementary when I needed to create an Orff orchestration or a short recorder piece and was forced to do so by hand. My budget would not allow for the expense of Sibelius or Finale and this program would have been the perfect solution. In addition to my personal use, I would have created more composition projects for my upper elementary students. I would be interested to know how I might use this program in conjunction with a SMARTboard as well.

I found most aspects of Noteflight practical and easy to use. My only frustration was in regard to selecting the section of music I wanted, whether it be a note, chord, measure, or phrase. I have not found the exact place to click in order to separate these sections from each other. I am sure my frustration will lessen in time as I become more familiar with the program. I appreciate the ability to type the letter names of the notes very much and know my colleagues will as well, as I intend to email the Noteflight link to them immediately.