TED-Ed

I just stumbled upon this pretty awesome article that talks about a recently new thing for all teachers. It's something all teachers can use and benefit from. It has a lot of great lessons and it has its own youtube channel. It is a part of the youtube/edu channels on youtube and it's videos cover a lot of great information in a short amount of time. It is up to date with new videos added each week, and before the videos are added they are checked out to ensure they are good enough and legit. This is something that is great for both students and teachers all over the world, and is more geared for high school and college level students and teachers. SInce we are future educators, this is definitely something I think we all should check out.


The link to the article is: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/introducing-ted-ed-uniting-the-worlds-great-teachers-and-animators-to-spread-lessons-beyond-the-classroom-142280635.html

Different music blogs

There are hundreds of blogs out there now a days for basically anything you could need or use. While looking at different music blogs, I stumbled across a lot that I think are very useful for musicians, music educators or anyone involved in music. Although a lot of them all have great information, to be more specific The Musician's Way Blog is one of those many music blogs that are really great and useful. The musician's way blog gives it's readers inspiration, practice & performance tips, career advise and a lot more. The blog is attached to their website called Musiciansway. Both the blog and the website are great for aiding to musicianship.

MusTec.net

Mustec.net is a great website filled with a lot of useful information. It has up to date and updated articles, which cover aspects of music technology. It also has different sections on it for music education, music technology, music advocacy, general education, software discussions, hardware discussions, and more. There are so many different parts of this website, it has a lot to offer. I has lists of current live streams that pertain to music technology.  It also has a lot of sites for the collection of freeware, which is pretty awesome. Overall, it is a really awesome site with a ton of information that you should definitely check out, and definitely bookmark for future use. 

Ipad in the classroom

The topic of using ipad's in a classroom is becoming a more thought of and talked about topic today. I found an article/presentation that goes through 102 different ways to incorporate and use the Ipad in a classroom. I think that this is a really great article and it has a lot of different ways to use the ipad in a classroom setting, which shows a more positive outlook on the ipad in a class. I like how every subject can successfully use the ipad in their classroom, so it isn't just for one specific type of  classroom. I like how it talks about music applications and how there are many your students could use to make music, like virtuoso (which is a large keyboard). I think it names a lot of useful applications on it that anyone could really use, or can check out to get for their own personal use also. 

102 ways to use the IPAD in a classroom

Theta Music Trainer

I found a really great music site called Theta Music Trainer. This site is great for music educators, people who want to learn music, incorporating it in a music classroom or for anyone really who wants to check it out in general. This site is definitely a great tool to incorporate in a music classroom because of how much information it has and how much your students can really learn from it. This is a great way to integrate music technology in your classroom. This site helps expand skills in both music theory and aural skills and so much more. It covers fundamental areas in music that are melody, harmony, rhythm, and sound. This site puts learning and training in all musical areas by using game-based approaches, which are both fun and effective. By having a game aspect to this learning it definitely keeps students attention and would make it easy for them to learn these skills. The games also are in different difficulty levels so it's good for really any age. It also has courses in sound & audio, music theory and basic ear training within the site that have different sessions and training courses. It is all free, but if you are a music teacher and want a special music teacher plan which has a lot of stuff in it you can join and there's a fee for those. But, if not there is still the entire site with all of it's offerings for free. 

The music education blog carnival

I stumbled upon a pretty useful online source the other day called the Blog carnival. This is a useful site that many people can use, especially educators in any subject. Being a music education major, I looked for their music education blog. The Music Education Blog Carnival  is a useful blog that has a good amount of posts that have a variety of information and articles within them all pertaining to music. It has things like music in general, music technology, music education, and more. I think it's a good resource to have if you want to look up information and know of different resources within music or other fields. 

Interactivity #5

For my teacher interview, I interviewed a high school (grades 9-12) music teacher who teaches concert band and marching band. He was unaware of what both the NETS-S and the NETS-T. In my follow up e-mail I sent him the information of what they both were and I also put a link to a site that tells him what they are and for further information on it. After he was more familiar with both the NETS-T and NETS-S, he told me that he wasn’t sure why both his district and himself were unaware of these. He said how the school is not very technology savvy nor do they really utilize or encompass really any technology in it. As far as the music curriculum is concerned, the only technologies being utilized are a television, vhs/dvd player, CD player with surround sound, electronic tuners, Dr.Beat metronome, loud speakers, audio systems (used for marching band), and an intercom system. For performances, they use a microphone, soundboard and recording device used for prevention of feedback and to assist with clarity.

            He continued to tell me how he wasn’t sure if or when the school was going to integrate more technology in general in their school or programs. The teacher said how it’s hard to always incorporate technology in a music classroom, especially one for band and marching band. It would be easier to do so in a music technology class or a music appreciation class. He said some technology at times is good to have for a music class, but overall it’s hard to utilize it on a daily or constant basis, especially in his school with they programs they don’t have. The teacher I interviewed said how it would be more beneficial to incorporate technology in a homework setting, and how it is something he had thought of possibly doing prior to this year. Overall, he said how he would like to add more technology in his program eventually, he just isn’t sure when and if it would ever happen.

            After talking to this high school teacher, I wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t heard of NET-S or NET-T. I also wasn’t really surprised about any of his responses. Since I am very familiar of this district, I knew that this was going to be the type of response I would get. I also figured this because Professor Domine stated how most teachers are not trained or are unfamiliar with the NETS. Since I became more familiar with the NETS-S and NETS-T, it makes me want to reach out and try to get more schools in on it because technology is a very important part of education. I definitely think that more schools should familiarize themselves with the NETS.

            As a future educator, I would inform other teachers about NET-T and NET-S through email, speaking to my colleagues, talking to the principals and deans about it and furthering myself to talking to the board of education in the town to make them both familiar and hopefully proactive about NETS. 

Spreadsheet: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkuZwWHCq6ZKdGo5OWJjZi1PdEd3ZkRhc2lfby0yRVE

Great site for teachers and students: Edmodo

Even though its not music related, I found a great technology resource that looks ideal for teachers and students to use. There is a website called Edmodo that allows teaching, connecting, collaborating, and learning. This site is a great tool for extra help for students with things like projects, assignments, or anything really. It's great because it is a resource for them to go to outside of school if they need additional help before something is due or in general. This site is secure and used by many educators and students around the world. There is so much that this site has to offer and it has so many features within it that it makes it very helpful.

             Another great thing about Edmodo is that the students on it love it and they find it extremely easy to use. It says how they really like the ability to post messages to everyone or directly to the teacher if they have a question. I like the fact that students can help each other. Edmodo is safe, secure and doesn't require any student emails. I feel that it is a great mix of social media and a student management system. I think it seems great how useful and beneficial it is to both the student and teacher.

            After looking at features in this site and reading about it, I think that it is a great reference for future educators to sue in any curriculum and it is something I definitely think I could use in my future classroom. Definitely check out this site, it’s a great educational technology resource. You can read about it and all even if you don’t sign up, it is free so if you like it maybe make an account too.

The link for the site it: http://www.edmodo.com/