Google Sites

Program information site

This week I had to create a website! I'll admit to feeling slightly uncreative and a little frustrated by the process. I certainly will not be making any money in the website design field anytime soon!

My site was created to be an information resource for teachers, staff and parents concerning our upcoming spring music program. This is a big deal at our school and quite the celebrated event! This is a basic design that probably will not be used in reality. Unfortunately there are several steps to go through in order to actually implement this sort of thing in my organization. Here I have created the basics and will explain what I might also add to the site if  I was allowed to do so.

Page one is the general info page. A three month calendar gadget is perfect because this is about how much time the whole school is aware of program preparation. Of course I am preparing much earlier, and in future sites could easily provide updates throughout the year. I would love to begin with my earliest ideas and allow staff, student and even parent input!

Page two lists the actual program and a countdown gadget to the day. Again this could be utilized during the year as adjustments are made to the program. Often I will tentatively plan to use certain songs but then a class or a student will really shine with something new and/or unexpected so I will adjust the program accordingly.

Page three deals with specifics that classrooms will need to know. I send out emails and usually paper memos but these things get lost of overlooked. Having a webpage would be a great resource for this type of information. Classes could also provide feedback and ask questions as needed.

As our organization begins to implement technology I can see this tool being a great platform for our students to interact with the internet. I would love to add pictures of students actually practicing and provide updates on props and set design. It would be helpful to take it truly public to serve as promotion of for the program. I will definitely keep this tool in mind for next year and see if I can make a go of it "officially" with my organization!

Concept Map

This week I developed a concept map for a music class I might do with either my older elementary or middle school EI students. I will admit it was a little difficult because we spend a lot of time with picture communication or symbolic communication in what we do. However, I did like the idea of creating an overall picture of the project as a point of reference for my students. To have a diagram like this could be useful in providing a place to look back and check work; to make sure we are on task and completing the necessary steps to successfully do the activity. I chose to do a song-writing task and have organized the map with the two major divisions in the task - music and lyrics. We would first discuss the song topic - this may be a title, a theme, or even a style the student would like to use. The first main component of our writing would be music, which includes the rhythm or beat of the song; harmony, which involves the chords; and melody, which provides music for the lyrics. The second main component is the words. This side is divided between the chorus, which repeats a main idea several times; and verse, which generally is the part of the song that tells the story. I would use the map as a reference point throughout the lesson, drawing students' attention back to check for all aspects of the song, to problem solve when having difficulty generating ideas, and to assess the final product.

I do like how the concept map provides a picture of how complicated the process of writing a song might be. Just be looking at it I realize that I may need to put more effort into developing the musical portion of my song because there seems to be more parts to it. I also can see how the chorus is a simpler portion of the words. I would probably want to start with that to get my process started. Seeing the longer chain for the verses might encourage me to think about my story and how I will develop it over the course of the song.

Screencasting

ooThis week's project was more fun than I anticipated - and easier as well. My screencast shows use of an app for my computer that creates music with use of a grid and the four elements: earth, wind, water, and fire. It is simple to use and provides a great experience for my students. In addition to just having fun using the computer and engaging in a successful and productive activity, students practice attention, patience, listening, and executive function when participating in this task. I could use this screencast to assess a student's ability to follow directions or to provide a short activity for the classroom if I was unavailable.

Enjoy!

Side note: I redid my original screencast. The first one was very large and I couldn't upload it. What you have here is the shortened version. I would provide a short example for the student  before having them create their own. I also would record the projects so each student could listen to their own a well as their classmates' and talk about the differences in each. We also could discuss what sounds they enjoyed the most and why.

Maps and more

This week I am making a Google Map and creating an assignment with it! My assignment is for hypothetical students, as my students would not complete an assignment like this. My idea for this lesson comes from the problem I noticed with many of my older EI students. When we would talk about current music and artists they seemed to have little to no idea about anything outside their realm of existence. This idea is to partly address that issue and hopefully provide a broader world view for them. One of the things we have talked about is how different people, places, and things influence and affect the music we listen to and the musicians we enjoy.  My assignment idea is to have students locate people around the country that they know and make music. This might involve Facebook contacts, family, friends who have moved away, and people they have heard of. Another addition might be places where famous musicians grew up or went to school.
My map includes several people I know via Facebook and LinkedIn, who are either directly involved in making music or have kids in school music programs. Follow up to this lesson might include finding out what exactly these people are doing with music, sharing songs and concert dates, or talking about what might influence the music based on location.



View Who's Making Music? in a larger map

The second part of our assignment was to look at some of the business uses for Instructional Technology and discuss how they could work for me. One section that caught my attention was when talking about Project Managers and Instructional Designers. I could see the teacher as the project manager - solely responsible for all the aspects of instruction: planning, developing, teaching, assessing...It occurred to me that if Instructional Designers could take on some of that responsibility the teachers might be freed up to give students more attention therefor making their jobs more fulfilling and effective. A second area I think I see coming to education is the "better, faster, cheaper" idea. It seems to me the business model is fast approaching education and I think we would be wise to jump on the bandwagon - it may be what saves education. It will change the way we think about evaluation, budgets, accountability; maybe all aspects of education. In the long run however, it may allow us to continue to do what we do. Just utilizing web-based training could save time and money, and provide a challenge for designers to provide high quality instruction.

Podcasts and HPI

     Our task this week was to find and report on an educational podcast. I was surprised to enjoy this assignment because I am a "music in the car" kind of girl - but - I really enjoyed listening to several episodes of BAM radio network's "K-12 greatest hits: the best ideas in education." I found it by searching for "education" under podcasts on iTunes. You can search by the title to find it specifically. It is a great collection of topics and each episode is under 15 minutes. Some of the topics covered in the episodes I heard included: leadership, finance, behavior, early childhood, and personal teacher development such as decision fatigue, professionalism. I could actually see myself continuing as a subscriber and listening on a weekly basis.
     I'm not sure how I would use podcasting in my job. I do think, much along the lines of some of the other technologies we have explored, I could use a podcast as a way to link up with other music therapists and share sessions. Because my field is an auditory one, I could envision using the technology to record and broadcast a set of sessions with a particular goal, for example: working with a specific speech and language goal using music. Maybe by connecting with other therapists we could record a session and then a discussion of the technique and the results. It would be interesting to try.

Human Performance Improvement
      Part two of our assignment is exciting to me. Hopefully I can avoid my soapbox here, but this is something needed in education in my opinion, and I think it's coming (or is here already) anyway. Education feels more like a business environment all the time and because we are a public entity, the public wants to get the most bang for their buck. I did not realize such a field as HPI actually existed but I welcome it. Our organization is currently under review by the Future's Group. This is consulting group made up of past education professionals that comes into your organization and reviews it from the top down. They take tours, visit programs, interview staff, and make cost cutting and efficiency recommendations. It has been a stressful season to say the least, mostly because people naturally expect the worst and we already feel we are as cost effective as we can possibly be. I have been all over people trying to encourage them to promote  themselves and what they do; and to look at this as an opportunity to show what creative programs we do have. To me, the idea of human capitol is what we need to be emphasizing here. We can no longer say that everything is fine and what we do still works. I say if there is a more cost effective way let's find it before someone else does!  Of course one key to it working well is for administration and employees to be able to work together. This seems to be very difficult in the education realm. I have been union president for the last 2 years, a role I will not continue, and I believe major changes on both sides need to occur to truly take public education to a better place. HPI could be a way to keep public education alive and kicking but it requires a change in thinking on both sides of the aisle. I think it's worth exploring and pursuing.

Embedded items

This week we have to embed several items into our blog. I think I may have done some of this before so hopefully it will be an easy assignment! (insert hope here)  Let's begin with an image:

Snoopy is often my muse so it's only appropriate to use his pic here!

Simple if it works correctly! Next is a video. I was torn between a clip from Cheers I recently used with a student. We are working on a power point presentation of Kelly Clarkson that he will present to various classes using switch technology. We created the power point utilizing alternative communication and Tony will run the power point with technology that allows him to change slides by activating a switch with his head. Tony has very limited physical abilities but has a great sense of humor and communicates with adapted devices very well. He particularly enjoyed this clip of "The Kelly Song."

On the other hand a proud mom always like to show off! My son marches for "The Big Red Machine" and if I do say so myself - they are pretty great!

The Big Red Machine

He plays trombone, by the way...

Finally - Google Maps

View Larger Map

I'll be traveling to Paris this June with above mentioned son and his French class! This is a life long dream of mine and we are very excited! Plane trip aside, it should be a fantastic adventure.

Okay - time to see if all this works...

Week 5 photo week

This week's assignment was interesting. I enjoyed reading the chapter and dealing with the scenario for our assignment. I think this type of circumstance will become more common and the better we get at dealing with it the better off we will be.

As for the photo sites: flickr was pretty easy to set up. I used to have a photo bucket account years ago but that one was no longer active...again my lack of keeping up with technology proves troublesome for me! I hope to utilize my photo account more regularly; I have a habit of taking pictures but never doing anything with them. It is easy to lose pictures when you operate that way.

my flickr account

The writing assignment involved a scenario where technology was provided for a 7th grade class, both at school and at home. I had to speculate why it might not have influenced teaching interventions and how to remediate the problem. The following is my solution...

In this scenario some obvious possibilities for minimal effect on instruction exist. First of all there may not have been enough training, for teachers and students and possibly parents, to make the experiment a success. It could be that this program was simply “announced” and put into place without input from the people involved and there may not have been any specific guidance as to what was supposed to happen with the technology. Perhaps the teachers were not encouraged to use the computers innovatively but they simply became another tool to complete homework or write papers. Secondly, I could see from a home view, the use of these computers being considered supplementary or a great opportunity to have internet for a year. While the use could have been limited by policy, it is easy for the internet and computers to become a leisure experience rather than an educational tool. Parents and students without motivation or knowledge of the potential for learning may not be able to utilize laptops and internet access for this goal; and if the work was not getting done in the home setting, the teachers would need to continue using a more traditional method of instruction. Finally, and more than likely, a problem could occur in the resistance of the people involved to the intervention.  Throughout the chapter “resistance to change” is mentioned in nearly all the scenarios. In this case it appears to be a “top down” change and the teachers may not buy in for that reason. There also seems to be a concern about teachers being replaced by technology and naturally they would resist embracing increased use of technology if they felt their jobs were being threatened.

I feel the main issue that needs to be addressed in this scenario is the resistance to change. The first way I would remediate that is with some advanced planning and making sure that all participants understood the vision as much as possible. I think change and integration of technology is inevitable and at some point we all are going to have to accept that to a certain degree. That doesn’t mean that we should just throw people in to the mix without preparation. The teachers in the example probably have various degrees of computer skills and if their skills were on the low side and they did not have adequate training, they would naturally default to a comfort zone. In addition, I feel the families involved would need some serious training and would also need to buy in to the experiment. It may be better to ask families to participate and involve those that can and will commit to the idea, at least initially. Perhaps if the first year was successful for those who participated then a more extensive project could be launched for subsequent years. I definitely think, with technology, slow and steady change is going to be better accepted and more successful for most people.