Reflections on Module 7

Another fantastic week of new information. 

This week changed gears a little bit,  focusing on assessments and ways in which to improve productivity in an administrative way. 

In regards to assessments, maybe I was missing something but not much of the Module information provided had anything to do with the discussion of assessment.  The text dealt with administrative topics mostly, and though the discussion post did get us all talking about how we assess, there was not much background information on it provided.  Many of the key concepts in relation to assessment I luckily have been exposed to before, in my creativity class which discussed concepts like validity and reliability, and other classes covered formative and summative assessments.  Validity is how well a test actually measures what is claims to measure, and reliability is the degree to which a test obtains consistant results.  Formative assessment is a way of continually monitering student progress and providing ongoing feedback, while summative involves the final, or partial assimilation of knowledge obtained, generally via benchmarks.  The idea of performance based assessment, or as the text described in an earlier chapter, project-based learning, seems to fit the music education field quite nicely. 

Moving onto the administrative side of the learning from this week, I was very pleasantly surprised (again) with the amount of information I did not have, and how easy it was to get caught up to current practices.  Thankfully many techniques are already in use, but both the text and supplemental material gave numerous suggestions on ways to improve my current strategies.  For instance, I use Facebook, but had never thought about creating a closed group.  Using a website with an imbedded calender to keep all student and parents regularly informed, and using Google in ways I did not know existed.  Google forms for creating easy and quick assessments, presentations, newsletters, etc are just a few of the ways I did not know the full capabilities that Google could offer.  The assignments that involved exploring these possibilities in addition to the calender have opened my eyes in many ways to possibilities I had never previously imagined would be so easy to implement.  Marketing in these formats as well as with social media is something I have explored, but not to the depth presented in this Module. 

I really enjoy how this class has opened my eyes to many things I had never known about before, and to new ideas of working with the tools I already had in more efficient and productive ways.  It might take awhile to get all of this set-up , but I look forward to the challenge. 

Now it is time to finish the last few assignments for this course, my WebQuest and E-Porfolio. 

Reflections on Module 6

This week, though interesting and exciting, has me slightly concerned.  I (and the rest of my class) learned about WebQuests, a way of utilizing the internet to help facilitate learning of a topic through student led exploration of an open-ended question, thus prompting them to contemplate on a deeper level a the topic. As a results this leads them to a more thorough and well-rounded understanding in which the student(s) come up with an answer or a product that has no particular right answer or possibly not even defined beforehand.  We are now tasked to come up with such an assignment via a website that we create largely from scratch. 

Learning about the building of website on Lynda.com utilizing Google Sites seems fairly straightforward and not incredibly difficult, though it will take some time.  Coming up with an appropriate topic is making my head spin though.  So many of the references explored within this module indicate that one should start small, with something that could be completed in roughly a few short days.  Most of the ideas that I am exploring seem that they would be much more intensive, and take a longer time to explore and discover.  A topic I believe I have focused in on revolves around having students explore numerous ideas on how to produce a good clarinet sound, and what that should sound like, with them comparing their own sound to their new idea they wish to emulate to facilitate the direct future private lessons will take.  This idea is not yet fully formed, and I hope I have not bitten off more than I can chew with this project.

This whole project leaves me feeling a little wary, and though I understand the projects specifications, I can only hope my final product  gets close to reaching its full potential.

The text and other content from Module 6 explore topics including: Creative Commons, copyright, 21st century skills, project-based learning, backwards design, differentiated instruction, and constructivism.  Copyright is a topic that I have not had much experience with, and the ideas of public domain and fair use have always exists as fuzzy concepts for me to wrap my head around.  The resources presented in the module helped clear up much of this, and at the very least gives me a way to move forward.  Creative Commons is something I knew nothing about at all, and I am amazed a the type of resource this can be for me in the future. 

Backwards design is something I've latched onto since a previous class at UF focused on it in detail, and I think it is a wonderful strategy to employ on a regular basis.  21st Century Skills standards, in addition to technology standards, are something (due to not teaching in a public school environment fro a number of years) that I had no idea existed, and is yet another wonderful resource.  I am skeptical of educational systems and standards placing TOO much emphasis on 21st century skills, resulting in lack of attention in other areas that would help maintain a high level of educational success in students, but that is a huge topic that is probably best left to its own blog.  Constructivism is something that is growing on me as I get more experience with it, and to that end, the idea of project based learning, or essentially as I see it, learning by doing, should be a fundamental aspect of all education.  Finally, I had never truly taken the time to think deeply about how using technology could enhance the educational process through differentiated instruction.  Reaching all of our students using whatever means necessary should always be one of our goals, but once again I find myself being presented with such an obvious set of techniques/beliefs that I cannot understand where I missed picking them up in the past and feel like I have not been living up to my potential as an instructor and also feel like my students have been missing out.  This is probably going overboard, but to a certain degree, I cannot help that this is how I feel. 

A lot of eye-opening information this week, and I am just hoping that I can be equal to the task as this course starts to wrap up.

Reflection on Module 5

This week we as a class learned how to evaluate instructional software, as described by the text and then through an assignment.  The biggest issue I had with this project was in sifting through the countless resources that were provided to choose just one.  I was having so much fun exploring different programs and applications that I almost did not have time to narrow it down enough to explore one thoroughly enough for this assignment, but I believe it turned out well.  Though through the exploration of all these countless programs I learned about so many more resources that I had no idea even existed.  Being able to analyze these into the categories the book describes, tutorial, practice, creativity, games, and the various software types has greatly enhanced how I view music software (Bauer, 2014).

Something completely new to me this week was the social bookmarking aspect.  The value that this will have for my life, not just my music performance/education profession, is profound.  I was still just bookmarking sites with my browser, always unhappy I could not find it on other computers and devices in addition to becoming very cluttered despite every effort to get organized.  Now I have this tool that not only can I set tags to quickly let me navigate to certain sites, but I can highlight information, set sticky notes to remind me about things I thought about the last time I was at the site, and share this information with others in addition to having others be able to share with me.  I love this!

I had the opportunity to review other people's Audacity remixes, which was a joy!  So many great ideas and talented people exist within this class, and I love learning from them.  I was slightly surprised there were so many people that discusses having troubles and frustrations with the program, for I found it to be very simple and intuitive.  Even those individuals had neat remixes, but it was nice to finally feel confident where others were struggling.  I was not trying to take pleasure in their struggles, but it was a nice change from previous weeks.

Finally, we discussed the issue of responding to music as presented in Chapter 5 of Bauer's book.  Through both the reading and discussions this week, many avenues of responding to music were discussed such as listening and videos and discussion, but it was the approach of certain individuals that stood out to me.  I have never spent too much time focusing on this aspect of music education, for it seems so ingrained into what learning about music is to me, that I never explored it as much as I should have to find different avenues to present it to students.  The ideas of visual listening maps is so simple, yet I have only done it through verbal discussion, which I completely realize was not as effectual.  Many ideas expressed this week helped to remind me of ideas and strategies that I may have forgotten, or not utilized to their fullest extent recently.

This was another wonderful week.  I love this class, and hope it continues through the finals weeks.  Being more than halfway done already, I am already feeling a pain of regret that this learning experience will end, but I am being given countless new and useful strategies that will help me in the future.


Bauer, W. (2014). Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.