School 2.0

I visited the School 2.0 website and spent time learning about it. The site is intended to initiate discussion about what schools might be like in the future (or currently) with the use of the technology tools that are available. I looked at the Learning Ecosystem map right away and was impressed with how well-thought it was. While it did not appear to be very user-friendly, watching the tutorial made it much easier to understand. It was interesting to watch clips of educators who are currently using this 'model' and to see how the various buildings and departments became interconnected on the map. It demostrated the concept that technology can break down walls and expose learners to more diverse school experiences. In one video, a teacher stated that our job as educators is not to teach students material, but instead to teach them to learn, asserting that technology is a vehicle for this. This thought resonated with me as I continue to think about making music education more 'contemporary', given the amount of music technology my students currently have access to.

Clearly, in these economic times, one challenge for school districts is to be able to acquire these technologies with the amount of funding available to them. I think that school districts could approach this challenge by thinking differently about budgeting. Perhaps some type of technology negates the need to purchase something else, like textbooks or visual materials. As I continue to learn more about technology , I hope it becomes more available as mainstreamed materials, instead of 'special purchase items'.

I like the School 2.0 site. I also envision it having a database of lesson ideas that range a variety of curricular areas, media clips of some of these ideas in use, and thought on how to use different types of technologies in the classroom.

Yong Zhoa podcast

As I listened to the podcasts, I have to admit that I struggle to find a balance with all of the new technology out there. The Youtube video we watched frightened me a little bit as a parent, given the amount of "screen time" it indicated that children get prior to entering college. My first instict has always been to limit the amount of screen time my own children have, and hope that my student's parents do the same. To much screen time, in my opinion, can limit a child's creativity and make them less inclined to be productive.

On the other hand, I did like some of the points that Dr. Zhoa made about where education is headed and how we need to change our thinking about what school should be like. Using technology as a tool can teach children life skills, such as decision making and creativity. I am still processing the discussion about limiting access to technology by filtering what our students are able to experience on the internet. What is the solution, then, to the issues of innapropriate material, cyber-bullying and the like? The discussion on gaming technology and and how that can be used to teach curriculum made me think. I have used that concept with my music classes as a means of teaching instruments of the orchestra on kid-friendly websites. But then, does that compare with being able to look at, listen to and touch a real instrument in my classroom? And does technology take the human element out of the picture to a degree? I can think of several people that I have known, particularly in college, who spent many hours in front of a computer, but then didn't know how to interact well with people or be productive in any way (like showering?).

I am rambling a bit, but these are thing I think about, especially with young children at home. I have to say that I am both hopeful and fearful about many of these things and wonder how we can find balance as parents and educators.

Collaborative Project

As an assignment for my online course, I was asked to consider what I might create as a collaborative project. It would be interdisciplinary, thus students could work on it in different "subjects" during their day and focus on the various types of concepts. My idea is for students to create their own musical instrument. It would have to play various pitches (perhaps the pentatonic, or 5-note scale) and be user-friendly. Students could touch on elements of sound in their science curriculum, write about their instrument for an ELA experience and compose and on it and notate for a musical experience. The kids could research how different types of instruments were developed through history and relate it to how their instrument evolved as they were creating it. The abilities to problem solve and think creatively would be developed during this project. The result of this project would be that students would have a functional instrument that could be used creatively and could reflect upon the experience of making it.