As I listen and read through the lecture and readings this week I see how technology has made a huge impact on education especially over the last two decades. As a high school student in the late 1990s, I saw the beginnings of what was possible in technology in education. The overarching theme of this weeks readings and lecture is that education has changed from what it looked like 20 years ago. There are so many more opportunities to reinforce content with the use of technology and it is our job as educators to learn this technology and use it appropriately in the lessons that we teach our students. The important perspective that I appreciated this week is that at no point did it state that we should lessen the content we teach. It is quite the opposite, the readings and lecture suggests that we change how we teach it so that the students develop a deeper understanding of the content through the use of technology prior to moving on to new content.
There are a number of ideas outlined in the readings and lecture that relates to my previous understanding of this week’s topics. For example, in my History of Rock and Roll class I use Youtube and a speaker system constantly as visual and audio technology but as the textbook states, these technologies have become commonplace because they are “specific…, stable…, and transparent…,” (Bauer, 10). Bauer states that the use of recent technologies often makes teachers nervous about using them because they are often used in different ways, they are constantly changing, and it is often confusing how the technology works. I can often relate to this because I find myself being nervous about trying any new technology mainly because I am unsure about how it works. The other concept I had a disjointed understanding of prior to reading this chapter was his concept of “Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK)” (Bauer, 12). Prior to Bauer describing the Venn diagram of TPACK (Figure 1.1), it was obvious to me that a teacher must have “Content knowledge,” “Pedagogical Content Knowledge,” and “Technology Knowledge” (Bauer, 12). However, Bauer’s explanation of “Content Knowledge,” “Pedagogical Knowledge,” “Pedagogical Content Knowledge,” “Technology Knowledge,” “Technological Content Knowledge,” “Technological Pedagogical Knowledge,” and “Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge” expanded my knowledge of how I should understand and implement content and technology in my classroom (Bauer, 13-16). The final concept that relates to my previous understanding was introduced on the “Adopting Technology” slide of the lecture. It explains the different reasons why someone should use technology in the classroom. These paths of adopting technology in the classroom relates to the way that all good teachers think of technology. All good teachers will engineer solutions when necessary, all good teachers will find more efficient ways to use technology when necessary, and all good teachers will find it necessary at some point in their career to use technology because it is there and it makes teaching a concept easier.
The two applications introduced this week through the Professional Learning Network that I see as most useful for my musical practice and performance, teaching and student learning, and to music education in general is Feedly and Twitter. The reason why Feedly is most useful for me is because I see the research capabilities of this website. I can use this website if there is an aspect of my teaching I need more information about prior to presenting to my students. I find myself directly using it with my History of Rock and Roll Class when there is something that happens in the music world and I can share it with my students. With this being said, I see the value in Twitter when it comes to sharing the information I find on Feedly. I see myself making a “History of Rock and Roll” group on Twitter where I can post information about what is happening in the music world. For example, I wish I would have known about Feedly over the last school because of the deaths of many of the music legends I could have shared with my students.
References
Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
I absolutely agree that technology has come so far in the past twenty years even when I graduated high school in the early 2000s and also into college. The resources that are available today for education is so different and give us endless innovative & creative strategies for our classroom. I'm almost jealous of kids today that have these technological tools available to them but at the same time its adds hundreds of possibilities to enrich our curriculums.
ReplyDeleteFor my Jazz in America unit, I also use Youtube which works out so well because it gives the kids a chance to not only experience the music audibly but visually seeing live performances connects to them on a whole other level.
Great post, everything was well said!