Though the previous weeks in this class have been eye opening and interesting, there can be no doubting that from my previous posts, this week has served to be probably the most useful and most enjoyable at the same time.
The text focused on ways to promote technology in helping student performance. The interesting thing that was pointed out was that this could be through helping them attain skill and knowledge. Though as a performer and educator I cannot deny that I am well aware of how background knowledge and time spent away from the actual skill of practicing can undoubtedly help performance, I have never looked at it as a performance task in itself. I found that to be a unique outlook on the methodology to improve and enhance performance. From videos and listening of great performers, it does enhance performance, I just never looked at it from that direction before. Other points that caught my interest were things like interactive white boards (which I have never had the privilege to use), using online tuners and metronomes as opposed to physical ones, and SmartMusic. I had no idea how far SmartMusic had come in the past 5-10 years with the ability to not only intelligently accompany a student, but provide exercises, feedback, and tracking for parents and teachers. I am very jealous of anyone who has this now, and I hope to see how I can incorporate this into my own private clarinet instruction. The discussion this week revolved around this premise, and it seems many are either in my corner where we did not realize all the things we were already doing because it was just natural, yet at the same surprised at how much we could yet do, or segment of the class who appear to already have all of this down and are implementing it regularly to the ability they are able. My hat goes off to all of them.
I also spent more time watching and learning from Lynda.com videos, to the point I felt I have been immersed into a full blown sound course. I might not be able to run sound support for my unit yet, but all the knowledge is their now to get started and learn with some hands on application! So much information regarding both the setting up of a sound system and gets mics set-up, to the integral stages of making a recording sound professional in the editing stages with software. Evening knowing about the different categories of DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) was new to me and will be very useful in how I proceed in establishing my personal/professional setup. Furthermore, though I have used Audacity in the past, I can be honest when I state I did not really know what I was doing, and the course on Audacity was fascinating! I had no idea how much versatility and power the program had, and I cannot wait to dive headlong into the program for my work and instructional purposes. The remix assignment that we had to accomplish was just a blast, and I could easily see myself getting lost in the workings of Audacity just about as much as I already know I can get lost into my newfound PLN (Personal Learning Network).
Finally, we all reviewed each others assignments from last week, compositions constructed on Soundation. I was amazed at the level certain students were able to bring their compositions to, and it made me feel a combination of letdown of my own abilities and encouraged by the knowledge that the program has more to offer than I originally gave it credit for. Still not sold on using it over GarageBand or other applications, but it is worth another try seeing the pieces some of my classmates came up with.
This was a positively fun week of learning and exploring music technology!
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Reflections on Module 3
Once again, very interesting information being presented in this Module, though I found myself at one point very frustrated. I shall start with that aspect in this reflection, and finish on a "good note."
As a class we were introduced to Soundation, a free to use could-based internet Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). The reading from the text and the lynda.com videos that were watched helped put into perspective what a DAW is (most of which I already knew, at least with a novice's experience). Bauer (2014) offers a nice succinct definition that DAWs "are capable of handling MIDI, digital audio, and loops, allowing the user to record audio, sequence MIDI, edit, mix, add effects, and master" a music production. With such a loft amount of capabilities, I would expect even a free version to be able to accomplish most of those tasks with relative ease. After having used GarageBand, and Apple program, I found Soundation lacking. Similarly to last weeks experience with notation software, but to a greater degree due in large part to the greater complexity of what these programs are meant to offer, I felt disappointed in the program we were meant to learn and use this week. I will once again concede that in part it may be my unfamiliarity to Soundation that makes me feel this way, but especially being able to compare in to another program that I feel I am only beginning to understand (GarageBand) I find it limiting and difficult to use. One exception to this view is its cloud-based sharing functionality. That I find very useful, but in comparison to many benefits that GarageBand has instead with relation to: loops to choose from, ease of manipulating the sounds produced, ease of MIDI controller input, and others, I think I would choose GarageBand over Soundation except in scenarios in which budget prevented the use of GarageBand. Even comparing Soundation to the program that was used to demonstrate DAW capabilities in the lynda.com video (I think it was Logic but I could be wrong) it seemed to lack the power of other programs. When thinking educationally about the affordances and constraints of such programs, I would also vote for ease of use if at all possible. If anything, seeing how much easier GarageBand appears to be (in my opinion) makes me want to explore it further. I say all this mostly because each time I come up with a "problem" or just something I would like to try, it is much quicker to accomplish it with GarageBand due to its ease to be able to figure it out on your own with minimal exploration of the program, or more websites devoted to the program allowing for more chances to find the answer when doing an internet search.
The text and videos also gave explanation as to how sound works in relation to MIDI, digital audio, audio file types and compression. Some particulars I already knew, including terms like frequency (pitch- high or low) and amplitude (loudness) with lynda.com going into more depth about wave forms. Digital recording terminology like sample rate (how many times a sound is sampled per second also measured in frequency) and bit depth (essentially referring to what degree of dynamic range can be measured) were very new to me, and the videos helped explain these in very visually easy to understand methods. I particularly liked the explanation on how wave forms can accentuate or cancel each other out, which is something I have always known, but never mentally translated into audio recording and mixing. Seeing different cables (balanced and unbalanced cables was a completely foreign concept to me) and seeing diagrams of signal flow seemed simplistic but that is exactly what I needed at the stage of prior experience I have with setting up a sound system (which is not much).
The text also delved into composition and how to incorporate technology in an educational setting. Both the use of notation software and DAWs can aid this process, but the text makes very clear that a careful examination of the affordances and constraints must occur, for though technology can help reach students like the "other 80%" (part of our discussion this week on reaching music students who are non-traditional in that they do not take part in a performing ensemble, therefore needing to learn about music in another medium), technology can also sometimes replace necessary skills and knowledge making it almost too easy to create music instead of learning foundational music skills like theory, form, and performance techniques, in particular taking over the requirement for audiation skills. Taking careful stock of the TPACK (discussed in Module 1) to ensure the technology does not become the focal point is key.
So, in summary, this week was partially frustrating, but for the most part it was very functional and sequential information that was presented to me this week, helping to build my foundation and hopefully comfort in all of this in the future.
Bauer, W. (2014). Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
As a class we were introduced to Soundation, a free to use could-based internet Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). The reading from the text and the lynda.com videos that were watched helped put into perspective what a DAW is (most of which I already knew, at least with a novice's experience). Bauer (2014) offers a nice succinct definition that DAWs "are capable of handling MIDI, digital audio, and loops, allowing the user to record audio, sequence MIDI, edit, mix, add effects, and master" a music production. With such a loft amount of capabilities, I would expect even a free version to be able to accomplish most of those tasks with relative ease. After having used GarageBand, and Apple program, I found Soundation lacking. Similarly to last weeks experience with notation software, but to a greater degree due in large part to the greater complexity of what these programs are meant to offer, I felt disappointed in the program we were meant to learn and use this week. I will once again concede that in part it may be my unfamiliarity to Soundation that makes me feel this way, but especially being able to compare in to another program that I feel I am only beginning to understand (GarageBand) I find it limiting and difficult to use. One exception to this view is its cloud-based sharing functionality. That I find very useful, but in comparison to many benefits that GarageBand has instead with relation to: loops to choose from, ease of manipulating the sounds produced, ease of MIDI controller input, and others, I think I would choose GarageBand over Soundation except in scenarios in which budget prevented the use of GarageBand. Even comparing Soundation to the program that was used to demonstrate DAW capabilities in the lynda.com video (I think it was Logic but I could be wrong) it seemed to lack the power of other programs. When thinking educationally about the affordances and constraints of such programs, I would also vote for ease of use if at all possible. If anything, seeing how much easier GarageBand appears to be (in my opinion) makes me want to explore it further. I say all this mostly because each time I come up with a "problem" or just something I would like to try, it is much quicker to accomplish it with GarageBand due to its ease to be able to figure it out on your own with minimal exploration of the program, or more websites devoted to the program allowing for more chances to find the answer when doing an internet search.
The text and videos also gave explanation as to how sound works in relation to MIDI, digital audio, audio file types and compression. Some particulars I already knew, including terms like frequency (pitch- high or low) and amplitude (loudness) with lynda.com going into more depth about wave forms. Digital recording terminology like sample rate (how many times a sound is sampled per second also measured in frequency) and bit depth (essentially referring to what degree of dynamic range can be measured) were very new to me, and the videos helped explain these in very visually easy to understand methods. I particularly liked the explanation on how wave forms can accentuate or cancel each other out, which is something I have always known, but never mentally translated into audio recording and mixing. Seeing different cables (balanced and unbalanced cables was a completely foreign concept to me) and seeing diagrams of signal flow seemed simplistic but that is exactly what I needed at the stage of prior experience I have with setting up a sound system (which is not much).
The text also delved into composition and how to incorporate technology in an educational setting. Both the use of notation software and DAWs can aid this process, but the text makes very clear that a careful examination of the affordances and constraints must occur, for though technology can help reach students like the "other 80%" (part of our discussion this week on reaching music students who are non-traditional in that they do not take part in a performing ensemble, therefore needing to learn about music in another medium), technology can also sometimes replace necessary skills and knowledge making it almost too easy to create music instead of learning foundational music skills like theory, form, and performance techniques, in particular taking over the requirement for audiation skills. Taking careful stock of the TPACK (discussed in Module 1) to ensure the technology does not become the focal point is key.
So, in summary, this week was partially frustrating, but for the most part it was very functional and sequential information that was presented to me this week, helping to build my foundation and hopefully comfort in all of this in the future.
Bauer, W. (2014). Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Reflections on Module 2
As I started into this week I was not sure exactly what to expect, for though I had been excited about last week's learning, I was honestly feeling a bit overwhelmed about the PLN (personal learning network) still. That feeling may not have changed by this point, but I am finding a new way to manage it, at least within my mind. The fact that there will be more information than I know what to do with, process, and have time to sift through is not likely to change, and I needed to just accept that fact. After doing so, it was easy to move on and whenever an opportunity would arise for me to peruse my PLN, I knew it would always have very interesting information to provide to me. There seemed to be a focus on practicing this week. Through Feedly and the Digital Musicking group there appeared to be a constantly influx of new articles and "research" on structure to practicing from the physical methods to mental conceptualizations and whether certain long held beliefs actually work. Fascinating information, though I cannot say I found anything that held definitive proof to sway me into believe certain methods are more effective than others.
Onto the actual course content for the week, much of the reading was centered around the creative aspect of music, which was reminiscent of the Music Creativity class that I took with University of Florida only roughly one semester ago. What was different about this approach was that the text outlined and narrowed down not only the poignant areas to focus on in terms of curricular activities and outcomes (Bauer, 2014, p.47) but also offered possible technology integration solutions through Chapter 3. Bringing up both composition and improvisation (improvisation being the focus of reading for this Module) examples of activities to facilitate learning (often with technology) of musical creativity was a nice overview of techniques that I have thought about before but not necessarily in the context of using technologies affordances. An interesting point was made regarding that these activities help promote audiation, being able to hear sound in one's mind without the reality being played.
A large portion of the class this week in discussion covered our value interpretation of the Kratus "seven-level sequential model for the development of improvisational abilities" (Bauer, 2014, pp. 52-3). I feel that it was a worthwhile discussion, if only to help us focus in on the model. I cannot imagine anyone not finding value in these levels, as they seem very educationally sound in terms of proper scaffolding of learning, just giving specific examples of how to proceed in terms of improvisation. Having these specific were helpful to many in the class, myself included, due to other side of the discussion question from this week that revolved around why more teachers do not include improvisation within their classes, and the resounding answer from most that it is because of lack of skill on the part of the teacher with improvisation, and lack of training on how to teach it. This model provides a nice framework to overcome both obstacles.
This week I learned a little more detail about MIDI, giving me more background knowledge that may come in useful later in the course.
Finally, I spent time learning about free notation programs. Free! I honestly did not know such a thing existed. I have used Finale mostly in the past, but in both my prior teaching experience and a an Army musician, I can wholeheartedly relate to not always having a budget that will facilitate the purchase of Finale or its counterpart Sibelius. Of the two that were explored (MuseScore and Noteflight) I much preferred MuseScore (as a free downloadable program), for it had the most similarities to Finale in my opinion. I realize I might be expressing some biased here however. Though not quite as intuitive as Finale (some functions require more in-depth processes than Finale) MuseScore is something I can see myself utilizing in the future. As for Noteflight, I might enjoy it more if a upgraded and could use the MIDI capabilities, but otherwise it does not seem like it is a complex enough program to arrange or compose with ease. Perhaps this might come with more familiarization and experimentation, but I personally doubt it. I found myself getting frustrated with the program often and not being able to easily find solutions for the issues I was having while attempting to learn to navigate the program, in direct contrast to MuseScore. One element I do recognize as unique is its web-based delivery that does make it appealing for score sharing purposes.
Once again, an interesting week in the class, and I look forward to the next!
Bauer, W. (2014). Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Onto the actual course content for the week, much of the reading was centered around the creative aspect of music, which was reminiscent of the Music Creativity class that I took with University of Florida only roughly one semester ago. What was different about this approach was that the text outlined and narrowed down not only the poignant areas to focus on in terms of curricular activities and outcomes (Bauer, 2014, p.47) but also offered possible technology integration solutions through Chapter 3. Bringing up both composition and improvisation (improvisation being the focus of reading for this Module) examples of activities to facilitate learning (often with technology) of musical creativity was a nice overview of techniques that I have thought about before but not necessarily in the context of using technologies affordances. An interesting point was made regarding that these activities help promote audiation, being able to hear sound in one's mind without the reality being played.
A large portion of the class this week in discussion covered our value interpretation of the Kratus "seven-level sequential model for the development of improvisational abilities" (Bauer, 2014, pp. 52-3). I feel that it was a worthwhile discussion, if only to help us focus in on the model. I cannot imagine anyone not finding value in these levels, as they seem very educationally sound in terms of proper scaffolding of learning, just giving specific examples of how to proceed in terms of improvisation. Having these specific were helpful to many in the class, myself included, due to other side of the discussion question from this week that revolved around why more teachers do not include improvisation within their classes, and the resounding answer from most that it is because of lack of skill on the part of the teacher with improvisation, and lack of training on how to teach it. This model provides a nice framework to overcome both obstacles.
This week I learned a little more detail about MIDI, giving me more background knowledge that may come in useful later in the course.
Finally, I spent time learning about free notation programs. Free! I honestly did not know such a thing existed. I have used Finale mostly in the past, but in both my prior teaching experience and a an Army musician, I can wholeheartedly relate to not always having a budget that will facilitate the purchase of Finale or its counterpart Sibelius. Of the two that were explored (MuseScore and Noteflight) I much preferred MuseScore (as a free downloadable program), for it had the most similarities to Finale in my opinion. I realize I might be expressing some biased here however. Though not quite as intuitive as Finale (some functions require more in-depth processes than Finale) MuseScore is something I can see myself utilizing in the future. As for Noteflight, I might enjoy it more if a upgraded and could use the MIDI capabilities, but otherwise it does not seem like it is a complex enough program to arrange or compose with ease. Perhaps this might come with more familiarization and experimentation, but I personally doubt it. I found myself getting frustrated with the program often and not being able to easily find solutions for the issues I was having while attempting to learn to navigate the program, in direct contrast to MuseScore. One element I do recognize as unique is its web-based delivery that does make it appealing for score sharing purposes.
Once again, an interesting week in the class, and I look forward to the next!
Bauer, W. (2014). Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Reflections on Module 1
This was a very interesting week to get started within my current class at University of Florida, Technology Assisted Music Learning. In Module 1 there were many topics covered to get myself and the rest of the class introduced to the topic, and I quickly found that this was not to be just a class about teaching me software that could be useful in teaching, but how to truly build lessons out of a combination of using my Content Knowledge (knowledge about music), Pedagogical Knowledge (knowledge about education), and Technological Knowledge (knowledge about technology). This combination of overlap between the three areas should produce a "sweet spot" in which the most effective learning of a subject matter with the right tools (possibly technology) is taking place, and is referred to by Bauer (2014) as TPACK, or a "well developed Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge off which to plan lessons. I have heard of similar thinking in the past with content and pedagogical knowledge overlapping in order teach something specific in which the educator has more knowledge, such as music, but I honestly had never heard of combining technological knowledge into this mix. Outside of this are the contextual factors, like the environment etc. In the case of music education, I can see this as the teacher's ability to plan a lesson on composition utilizing their content knowledge of what that entails, in addition to applying appropriate pedagogical knowledge that is appropriate to the students' age and level of expertise, and incorporating technology such as GarageBand or notation software to help guide the student learning without the technology getting in the way of student learning in countless ways such as by being having the lesson become more focused on the software than the compositional process.
Another point brought up by the reading in the text this week that seems related to the above was a breath of fresh air, helping me to realize how grounded this author is in the subject. This was mention of carefully weighing the "affordances (benefits) and constraints (limiting factors) in relation to learning outcomes and the classroom context." (Bauer, 2014, p.10) In a method the author describes as a "cost/benefit analysis" a stock must be taken of how much the technology actually is helping the learning process, which I believe in this age where technology is so prevalent in our lives it has become easy for education initiatives to have been brought forth to almost force-feed learning to students through technology, whether it is the most appropriate methodology or not. The text also pointed out that it seems many teachers would love to use technology more, but are not familiar enough with either the software (both in terms of knowing what is available and in knowing the inner workings of each program/hardware that is available to them) and/or how to effectively incorporate said technology into their learning in such a way that it enhances what they are doing as opposed to being a hassle. (Bauer, pp. 9-10) The statements made by Bauer that many educators that see the value in incorporation of technology into more effective music learning because of those reasons and instead using technology for more administrative tasks sounds so much like me it is almost embarrassing. Technology is everywhere and I wish to utilize it to it's fullest extent, but I feel like I am at a loss in terms of the background knowledge required to get started. I look forward to this class to help me overcome these struggles.
The thing that stood out most to me this week however was the use of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) to help with both research and collaboration between others to quickly find the information I wish to seek as a music educator. The article by the same author as in the above paragraph William Bauer (2010) was quite overwhelming at first, primarily with the amount I did not know about the subject. I had never heard the term Folksonomies or Really Simple Syndication (RSS), and having to get started using an RSS reader to compile websites and blogs and videos and anything else I could find seemed daunting. After only a few short days, compiling my PLN does not seem as difficult as keeping up with it in all its various forms, from Feedly (an RSS reader) to Twitter (a site I had never subscribed to before) I feel inundated with information that I will never have enough time to process and absorb it all. I know that this is probably just a factor of it being new to me and I will get used to it, but it still seems like a lot all at once. Despite my misgivings, I cannot deny the fact that I have found countless resources at my disposal for countless subject related to music education from a myriad of different source utilizing my new-found PLN, and a part of me worries that I may get too sucked into the web researching all these wonderful ideas rather than trying to use them.
Finally, the first assignment of using http://www.incredibox.com/ was a blast and helped to give me something tangible to both learn about and explore the educational implications of. Such a simple compositional tool that students would love that has so many educational possibilities is a great item I can stash away in my educational "bag of tricks."
Summarized, this was an extremely enlightening week, that has filled me with promise that I will be a highly well-rounded music educator when it comes to use of technology incorporation by the end of this course, and I cannot wait to see what the next Module has in store for me and the rest of the class!
References
Another point brought up by the reading in the text this week that seems related to the above was a breath of fresh air, helping me to realize how grounded this author is in the subject. This was mention of carefully weighing the "affordances (benefits) and constraints (limiting factors) in relation to learning outcomes and the classroom context." (Bauer, 2014, p.10) In a method the author describes as a "cost/benefit analysis" a stock must be taken of how much the technology actually is helping the learning process, which I believe in this age where technology is so prevalent in our lives it has become easy for education initiatives to have been brought forth to almost force-feed learning to students through technology, whether it is the most appropriate methodology or not. The text also pointed out that it seems many teachers would love to use technology more, but are not familiar enough with either the software (both in terms of knowing what is available and in knowing the inner workings of each program/hardware that is available to them) and/or how to effectively incorporate said technology into their learning in such a way that it enhances what they are doing as opposed to being a hassle. (Bauer, pp. 9-10) The statements made by Bauer that many educators that see the value in incorporation of technology into more effective music learning because of those reasons and instead using technology for more administrative tasks sounds so much like me it is almost embarrassing. Technology is everywhere and I wish to utilize it to it's fullest extent, but I feel like I am at a loss in terms of the background knowledge required to get started. I look forward to this class to help me overcome these struggles.
The thing that stood out most to me this week however was the use of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) to help with both research and collaboration between others to quickly find the information I wish to seek as a music educator. The article by the same author as in the above paragraph William Bauer (2010) was quite overwhelming at first, primarily with the amount I did not know about the subject. I had never heard the term Folksonomies or Really Simple Syndication (RSS), and having to get started using an RSS reader to compile websites and blogs and videos and anything else I could find seemed daunting. After only a few short days, compiling my PLN does not seem as difficult as keeping up with it in all its various forms, from Feedly (an RSS reader) to Twitter (a site I had never subscribed to before) I feel inundated with information that I will never have enough time to process and absorb it all. I know that this is probably just a factor of it being new to me and I will get used to it, but it still seems like a lot all at once. Despite my misgivings, I cannot deny the fact that I have found countless resources at my disposal for countless subject related to music education from a myriad of different source utilizing my new-found PLN, and a part of me worries that I may get too sucked into the web researching all these wonderful ideas rather than trying to use them.
Finally, the first assignment of using http://www.incredibox.com/ was a blast and helped to give me something tangible to both learn about and explore the educational implications of. Such a simple compositional tool that students would love that has so many educational possibilities is a great item I can stash away in my educational "bag of tricks."
Summarized, this was an extremely enlightening week, that has filled me with promise that I will be a highly well-rounded music educator when it comes to use of technology incorporation by the end of this course, and I cannot wait to see what the next Module has in store for me and the rest of the class!
References
Bauer, W. (2010). Your personal learning network : professional development on demand. Music Educators Journal. 97 (2), 37-42.
Bauer, W. (2014). Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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