Final Project: Technology Integration Project

I worked with a lesson plan on a beginner’s oboe lesson with middle school students. The lesson plan is designed for students to learn and play Hot Cross Buns on the oboe individually and in groups. The main goal of the lesson is to teach the students how to play three notes (D, C, and Bb) on the oboe and Hot Cross Buns song by using these three notes. The reason why I chose this lesson plan is that it has detailed procedures and NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards for music content area. Beyond the existing lesson plan, I infused some technologies and strategies for this final project. Now, allow me to lead you into my TechnologyIntegration Matrix.

On the matrix, I organized standards, strategies, and technologies in three columns. There are four steps to standards integration: access, analysis, evaluation/assessment and communication. In addition to the Music NJ Core Curriculum Standards in yellow, I put NETS for Students in green to help the lesson to be more interesting and beneficial for the students.

On the first row, I indicated my educational goal about this lesson: “Increasing student understanding on playing notes on the oboe.” Throughout the four steps to standards integration, I will work toward accomplishing this goal.

The rows 3-7 are an access stage with an opening activity: listening and trying. As the teacher models a simple pattern with three pitches (D, C, and Bb), the students follow the oral and visual instruction to try on their oboes (NJCCCS 1.3.P.B.1). In this stage, the students will smoothly get involved into the learning process. In order to make this lesson more effective, I would ask the students to record their individual three notes pattern playing on the computer by using USB microphones (NETS-S 6.b). They will listen to the outcome only by themselves and self-evaluate their playing in order to fix some problems. They can ask questions to the teacher but there will be no sharing for this activity.

The rows 8-12 are about an analysis. The goal is helping the students to understand theoretical part of the song before they play it. The students will be asked to answer some theory questions about the song, Hot Cross Buns: key signature, time signature, and notes that will be used (NJCCCS 1.3.12.B.2). By infusing technology, I take a further step for the students to analyze the music. The students will use the Finale (music writing software) to put the Roman numeral analysis for each measure (NETS-S 3.d). Once they finish their editing, they will print the music with an analysis and submit it to the teacher.

The rows 13-17 are on evaluation and assessment stage. The teacher will give certain note names randomly (C, D or Bb) and the whole class will play them in unison. While the teacher is conducting for breathing and rhythm, the students will follow by playing them on the oboes (NJCCCS 1.3.2.B.7).This is a good chance for the teacher to assess how the students feel comfortable to play three notes and evaluate the students’ progress in learning. The further evaluation will be not only a self-evaluation but also a peer-evaluation by recording their group playing with a digital camera (NETS-S 1.b). Immediately, I will put the video on a big screen and ask the students to evaluate or critique their playing. They also will discuss how they can improve the sound (Is this a breathing, an embouchure or a fingering issue?).      

The final rows 18-24 are a communication stage. Since they learned three notes in a Hot Cross Buns song beautifully, this is a chance to perform it with confidence. The students will play the song together as the teacher gives them particular conducting cues (NJCCCS 1.3.8.B.2). As they perform the song on the oboes, I will record the sound in MP3 file format by using a USB microphone. I would give this MP3 file to the class and they will use the garage band in order to build up this monophonic single melody to the polyphonic or homophonic music with different accompanying instruments. After finishing their projects, they will post their work on the school website. The students will discuss about each other’s work as a constructive critique on the discussion forum of the website (NETS-S 2.b). This way, I can evaluate students’ improvisation skill and music technology skill as well as their overall performance during the class. Also the students can communicate to each other about their performance and arrangement which will give them a chance to develop a critical thinking skill. 

After infusing some technologies on the original lesson plan, I felt like this lesson becomes more complete with the use of technology. I tried not to overuse the technology, but I tried to put as many technological devices as possible. I like the lesson with technologies better than the one without it. Because of the use of technology, all the access, the analysis, the evaluation and communication parts are elaborated and extended with a successful fulfillment of the original goal of the lesson. Furthermore, I could evaluate the students more creatively by using technology in the classroom. I would like to infuse and use more technological strategies for other lesson plans, because it definitely motivates my students’ understanding and learning.           

Music Ed Technology

If you are a music educator and wonder how you are going to use technology in your classroom, you should check this website. http://musicedtech.com/

This is called, Music Education Technology, "Teach music. Technology will follow."
On the website, it gives you information about sessions and workshops of usage of technology in music classrooms. Especially it is talking that how music composition can be done effectively by using garageband and other music softwares. I think this website and the contact info of Barbara Freedman would help many music educators who really want to adapt music technology in their classroom but have no idea how to.

Interactivity #5

I interviewed a middle school (5 -8) music teacher in Closter School District. For the first question, she was not sure if she has heard about NETS or not. When she rewrote her curriculum this year, she had to use new technology standards, but she is not sure if that was the new NETS. She did not know if her school has begun to implement the new NETS for students or not. She did not know if her state/province has begun to implement the new NETS for students either. For the question, “How will the NETS be used at your school, district, state/province,” she answered “I am not sure”. She also said that her school is a fairly technology oriented school, so she would believe that they would just continue to fund technology. Because her school district is interested in using technology, the transition will be smooth and fair. However, she did not know when her school, district or state will complete the transition.

During the interview, I did not get lengthy answers because the teacher was not that passionate about using technology. I received only short answers and most of them were “I do not know.” It was obvious that the teacher is not knowledgeable about the NETS-S or NETS-T. Her initial reaction to the standards was that she is familiar with some standards, but unfamiliar with the fact that there is such thing called, NETS. I do not know if this school has begun to implement the NETS-S or NETS-T, since she had no idea what is going on. However, the school definitely has a guideline or technology standards to use when they write the curriculum. The school was considering technology in education seriously. I was surprised at the teacher’s responses of “I do not know,” because I assumed that every teacher knows about NETS (at least, I am learning about it in college). It seems technology became more important and emphasized these days. The teacher I interviewed was very young and she perhaps learned about NETS from her technology education class. However, I could understand her indifference about NETS because she must be already very busy with all the band and orchestra rehearsals. She has to put more efforts on teaching students with their instruments. 

As a future teacher I would speak to others within my school about NETS-S and NETS-T with more knowledge and information. I will be able to explain some standards along with my lesson plans and I will try to pay attention to updates of new NETS.      

Google Spreadsheet

Interactivity #4

I chose the “Compose a Phrase” lesson plan because it has clear curriculum goals. There were three main goals: 1) teaching students how to play G and C scales on the keyboard, 2) helping each student to play from the piano book pp.23-51 and 3) challenging students to compose a short notation project using Sibelius software. Also this lesson plan has a lot of use in digital technology such as computers, Sibelius software, digital camera and projector which can grab students’ attention easily. This lesson definitely supports many of NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards.

In my opinion, there was no gap between the curriculum goals, teaching strategies, and technologies used. Because the writer of this lesson plan used each technology on the appropriate teaching strategies, the achievement of the curriculum goals was the natural outcome. For example, she used Sibelius software after teaching students notes in G and C scales. By the time, students were very confident with using these scales and working with Sibelius could motivate students to apply what they learned to the real composition. The usage of electronic keyboards was a great idea, too. It really helps students to play the instrument to remember notes in scales rather than just reading and listening.         

The technologies that were used in this lesson plan were essential to achieve the curriculum goals in authenticity. Without electronic keyboards or Sibelius software on the computers, students would not be able to actively participate in music making. The whole curriculum goals were written based on the use of these technologies. Without these technologies, the curriculum goals would be possible to achieve in 40 minutes as it was planned. Perhaps it is possible, but it would take much longer to achieve it.   

URL of my spread sheet 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AizMSVGMihqtdFgzYkEwVXVfb1BwOUgzdF9EOXl2MEE

Interactivity #3

The group process required by this interactivity was authentic collaborative and all of us worked together to fill the spreadsheet with our personal knowledge on music technology. We came up with ideas and reasonably listed names of technology and websites. I was not familiar with some of technologies and I learned many new sources through this project. The final inventory of our spreadsheet is Karaoke software website by Allison. Through this program, you can sing, record, watch and listen to yourself singing. 

Reading through the list, I was amazed at how many technological supports I can get for music teaching. Some of them inspire me to use them for actual music teaching. For example, Virtual Keyboard website, introduced by Ryan Freid was a great tool for kids to learn the keyboard. On this "virtual" keyboard, there are different sound options like flute, guitar and strings. Children will love spending time on music learning with this program. Since letter names are written on the keyboard nicely, students can learn letter names on the keyboard without a teacher. 

This complete technology inventory can serve my purposes in READ 411 (Language and Literacy). Music has its own literate world with musical vocabularies. Music teachers must test students' basic musical terms and in order to do that, I need a good website to support their study. Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary was introduced by Patricia Bruno and this website will guide students to find the answer whenever they do not know what a certain musical word means. 

This collaboration was good for all of us, because we could share our information on music technology and we learned a lot from each other.  

Interactivity #2



In 1900's, the invention of TV probably made the classroom more fun and diverse, however it is sad to see that this many students had to sit in front of a tiny little Television to figure out what they were talking about. 



Image source: (Pop Rocks/https://e-folio.web.virginia.edu/Q-folio/1/EDIS542/2006Fall-1/cs/UserItems/beb5z_1069.html)

Use of technology in music classroom

Using technology in the classroom opens many doors for young music students.
It grabs their attention faster and easier, proving music is not a boring traditional labor, but an enjoyable game in the world of sounds. If educators use this musical techonology in proper ways in teaching, music class would provide much more fun in learning for our students. We cannot buy all the fancy techonology system for our students, but some are affordable. Technological music products must be purchased in extra care because it is almost imposible to update devices often. It can be one of teacher's required abilities to buy proper device that really help students learning in long term. Digital equipment such as Roland RMP 12 can provide percussion sound both inside and outside the classroom without taking too much room. Music creation software helps students composing with different instruments. Finally, I would like to have a good recording system in my music classroom. Use of technology in music classroom is increased and now it is very hard to imagine a good music classroom without a good music technology device. It helps students as well as teachers.