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.
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TPACK is really an approach to developing teacher's (both pre- and in-service) understanding of how to integrate technology in the classroom. P-12 students usually don't need to receive too much instruction regarding the operation of a technology - a few basic directions and they will most often "get it" and be able to accomplish the task at hand. I'm not a believer in a separate technology class where "technology" is the subject. Rather, it is much more meaningful if a technological skill or understanding is developed in the context of where it is needed to learn or create something.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are thinking about modeling pedagogical content knowledge to the students with whom you are working. It is very important that collegiate music teacher educators try to utilize best practices and are good models for pre-service teachers.