Excel spread sheets, Power Point presentations, Web quest, internet research, wikis blogs, podcasts, and more can be used to help students have a deep and meaningful educational experience. All of the programs and resources can be used quite effectively to enhance constructivist/constructionist learning theories.
Spread sheets help students collect and analyze data as well as produce non-linguistic visual aids. Power Point provides students with professional looking artifacts that can then be used for assessment purposes as well as learning tool. WebQuests were one of my favorite new discoveries this week. I found a WebQuest at http://webquest.org/index.php that pertained to my discipline choir. I had been thinking this entire week how could I build a technology based project for my choir students, when I came across this WebQuest http://tli.jefferson.k12.ky.us/EDTD675Projects/Waiters/WaiterWQ/concert.htm .
The teacher basically planned a project that had the students construct a concert, from choosing a theme, to researching the appropriate music to fit the theme. They also were instructed to consider their performers needs considering their level of ability and their age before choosing songs. They also had to design a program with program notes which provided an assessable artifact. The teacher also provided a list of resource links and even wrote out how the students should process through the project. She gave her students a well organized project with a clear objective that encouraged analysis, problem solving, investigation, invention, and decision making. All of these tasks are part of “Generating and Testing Hypotheses,” included in this weeks resource from the book “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works” chapter 11(Pitler, 2007).
References:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.\
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I loved the link you gave for the webquest. I plan to share that site with the music teacher at my school. At a faculty meeting were just discussing how technology could be implemented in her music classes. I'm sure she uses some but, I think this would be an excellent idea. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGayla
Thank you for the webquest link. What an awesome idea to have your students crete their own concert. You could have them go as deep as creating invatations if you wanted to include some aspects of Language Arts into your lesson. I always like tp pull in aspects of other subjects when ever I can. This allows the students to already feel connected to the lesson without you putting a lot of preview work into it. Will you be doing this with your students?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that there are a lot of resources out there that can help students to have a deeper knowledge of what is being taught. The resources that you listed are great resources that can be effective when it comes to the two learning theories. I can only imagine how hard it would be to incorporate technology into your choir class. I know that is a very difficult concentration to incorporate technology. That is great that you were able to find a WebQuest. It is amazing what you are able to find on the internet.
ReplyDeleteBonnie,
ReplyDeleteI love WebQuests as do my students. It is a great way for student collaboration. I looked at the one you found and I love the idea! I think it would mekr your students have a better understanding of what all is involoved in a concert.
I noticed they are to develop a program. Have you considered having the students create the advertisement for the concert (besides the program)?
I believe as a whole technology gives us the tools to make our job easier and more productive plus ways to engage and motive students in the learning process.
Gayla,
ReplyDeleteAlways glad to be of service!
Arielle,
ReplyDeleteI do plan to use this webquest. It gives the students an outlet for their opinions on music and their creative abilities. It will also help me out with concert ideas.
dedison,
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to fit technology into choral discipline, my field is very performance based and we spend much of our time rehearsing for concerts. However, students must also be taught to read music and be assessed on their abilities and there are other standards that must be met during the year. Where the problem comes in is time.
Joy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. I have already used your idea of creating an advertisement. There was an article in a recent In Tune magazine that went through the steps of writing a press release. I had the students do just that, each one wrote a press release for our Disney Spectacular spring show. Some were quite good. I let them write them up in any format they liked, but the ones done in publisher were the best. I would have loved to have spent time in the lab with everyone so they all could collaborate and use the same format, but due to time constraints it was assigned as homework.