Module 1 Blog Reflection
This week’s module introduced several ideas on how technology impacts today’s world and how educators can use these ideas in order to enhance the teaching and learning experience. Today, technology is present in almost every facet of life for people living in first world countries. It has impacted the ways in which people work, learn, socialize, and engage in hobbies. This is especially true for today’s youth, who make up the population of the students in grades K-12. Bauer (2014) describes them as digital natives, people who have grown up in a technological rich world.
In considering how technology impacts education, it is important to consider the nature of digital natives as students. According to Bauer (2014, p. 5), “Digital natives thrive in a technology-rich environment that affords them the opportunity to receive information quickly and from multiple sources, to multitask, to utilize their preference for multimedia, especially graphics and video, to randomly access information through hypermedia, to be networked with others, and to quickly receive gratification and rewards”. Knowing this information about students, it is logical to consider how teachers can use technology to engage and motivate students in a way that feels most natural to them. The same content, presented two different ways, can have different effects on students. For example, in teaching a lesson about different orchestral instruments, one can list and categorize the instruments on a chalkboard and point to poster pictures of each instrument, while describing how to play the instrument and what it sounds like. However, with the use of computer technology, one can design a multimedia presentation to be projected on to a screen that includes pictures and audio or video samples of each instrument. I have taught with and without the aid of technology in presenting material, and for some reason, just the presence of a screen seems to draw the attention and focus of my students in.
One part of Bauer’s (2014) description that stood out to me was how digital natives like to quickly receive gratification and rewards. In the example I just gave, the students want to be able to see and hear the instruments instantly. As digital natives, they are naturally more drawn to learning processes where they can make connections and have a tangible idea without having to experience a long, drawn-out process. The issue of instant gratification does pose its challenges. For most high level skills and areas of deep thinking and learning, the process is long and takes patience and perseverance. For example, learning to compose a piece of music the traditional way takes years of study in acquiring playing, notating, and audiating skills. However, today there are many tools that people can use to compose without having any prior music training. Incredibox is a great example of this. Students can easily play with the app and produce a product almost instantly. While there are many possibilities on how the product can sound, some more complex and refined than others, I would guess that most results sound half way decent. Yet, the range of possibilities for compositions created with Incredibox still do not compare to the infinite possibilities that can come from compositions created from thought alone. The challenge of educating with technology is how to take students from the instant gratification that comes from the technology to understanding the processes that go into higher level skills. The use of technology should serve as a learning tool, rather than as an end goal.
In order to effectively use technology as a learning tool, one can consider the TPACK model, keeping the curricular outcome in mind. There is a lot of responsibility on the teacher to continue learning and developing in all three circles. Personally, I like thinking of the TPACK model, because it acknowledges the importance of the content (music) and the teaching. The technology is not to be used for technology’s sake, but only to enhance and work effectively with the music and the teaching. Bauer (2014) also discusses additional constraints on the TPACK model such as physical set up of classroom, quantity and quality of technology available, student demographic, psychosocial characteristics of the students, and the general atmosphere of the school. Many of these constraints directly apply to my teaching situation, in which resources and funding are scarce. The main reasons why technology does not play a larger role in my teaching setting are the lack of equipment and the logistical set up of the class.
Because technology is always changing, and education is always changing, it is important for teachers to be committed to their professional development. Bauer (2014, p. 17) says, “Music educators must be open to new ideas and ways of doing things while also demonstrating a willingness to invest the time and effort necessary to utilize pedagogical and technological approaches if they are to initially develop and continually evolve and refine their TPACK”. The use of a digital personal learning network can help teachers do this on a daily basis. This past week, I used Twitter for the first time in establishing a personal learning network. I currently have mixed feelings about this. Recently, I have seen a shift on social media sites and apps such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from being used to document personal photos and musings, to being used as a source for news, politics, and learning of current events and ideas. I think the instantaneous spread of the latter can be both beneficial and dangerous. While the instant gratification of thumbing through Twitter and coming across many ideas seems preferable to searching through journals and articles, it poses several problems. First, because there is a limited amount of space for each post, the post does not contain all the information to truly understand an idea or situation. I have noticed that there are many articles posted with headlines meant to cause an emotional reaction. Many readers may angrily repost or retweet upon reading the headline without carefully reading through the article. This type of “clickbait” may potentially lead to misleading ideas being spread. In addition, because of the sheer number of ideas and posts, it can be easy to quickly thumb through them mindlessly without actually committing to reading and understanding one in depth. Finally, I have a problem with how the use of the internet distracts me from my daily socializations with my friends and family. I am not sure that using Twitter as a personal learning network works best for how I want to learn as a teacher. I would rather dedicate and commit time that is set aside for my professional development than scroll through posts mindlessly on a daily basis. However, I realize that I am new to this and will give it a chance. I previously discussed how technology should be a tool for learning, and I think this also applies regarding my personal learning network. The technology is simply a tool and the actual learning still takes commitment and conscious effort on my part.
Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
In considering how technology impacts education, it is important to consider the nature of digital natives as students. According to Bauer (2014, p. 5), “Digital natives thrive in a technology-rich environment that affords them the opportunity to receive information quickly and from multiple sources, to multitask, to utilize their preference for multimedia, especially graphics and video, to randomly access information through hypermedia, to be networked with others, and to quickly receive gratification and rewards”. Knowing this information about students, it is logical to consider how teachers can use technology to engage and motivate students in a way that feels most natural to them. The same content, presented two different ways, can have different effects on students. For example, in teaching a lesson about different orchestral instruments, one can list and categorize the instruments on a chalkboard and point to poster pictures of each instrument, while describing how to play the instrument and what it sounds like. However, with the use of computer technology, one can design a multimedia presentation to be projected on to a screen that includes pictures and audio or video samples of each instrument. I have taught with and without the aid of technology in presenting material, and for some reason, just the presence of a screen seems to draw the attention and focus of my students in.
One part of Bauer’s (2014) description that stood out to me was how digital natives like to quickly receive gratification and rewards. In the example I just gave, the students want to be able to see and hear the instruments instantly. As digital natives, they are naturally more drawn to learning processes where they can make connections and have a tangible idea without having to experience a long, drawn-out process. The issue of instant gratification does pose its challenges. For most high level skills and areas of deep thinking and learning, the process is long and takes patience and perseverance. For example, learning to compose a piece of music the traditional way takes years of study in acquiring playing, notating, and audiating skills. However, today there are many tools that people can use to compose without having any prior music training. Incredibox is a great example of this. Students can easily play with the app and produce a product almost instantly. While there are many possibilities on how the product can sound, some more complex and refined than others, I would guess that most results sound half way decent. Yet, the range of possibilities for compositions created with Incredibox still do not compare to the infinite possibilities that can come from compositions created from thought alone. The challenge of educating with technology is how to take students from the instant gratification that comes from the technology to understanding the processes that go into higher level skills. The use of technology should serve as a learning tool, rather than as an end goal.
In order to effectively use technology as a learning tool, one can consider the TPACK model, keeping the curricular outcome in mind. There is a lot of responsibility on the teacher to continue learning and developing in all three circles. Personally, I like thinking of the TPACK model, because it acknowledges the importance of the content (music) and the teaching. The technology is not to be used for technology’s sake, but only to enhance and work effectively with the music and the teaching. Bauer (2014) also discusses additional constraints on the TPACK model such as physical set up of classroom, quantity and quality of technology available, student demographic, psychosocial characteristics of the students, and the general atmosphere of the school. Many of these constraints directly apply to my teaching situation, in which resources and funding are scarce. The main reasons why technology does not play a larger role in my teaching setting are the lack of equipment and the logistical set up of the class.
Because technology is always changing, and education is always changing, it is important for teachers to be committed to their professional development. Bauer (2014, p. 17) says, “Music educators must be open to new ideas and ways of doing things while also demonstrating a willingness to invest the time and effort necessary to utilize pedagogical and technological approaches if they are to initially develop and continually evolve and refine their TPACK”. The use of a digital personal learning network can help teachers do this on a daily basis. This past week, I used Twitter for the first time in establishing a personal learning network. I currently have mixed feelings about this. Recently, I have seen a shift on social media sites and apps such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from being used to document personal photos and musings, to being used as a source for news, politics, and learning of current events and ideas. I think the instantaneous spread of the latter can be both beneficial and dangerous. While the instant gratification of thumbing through Twitter and coming across many ideas seems preferable to searching through journals and articles, it poses several problems. First, because there is a limited amount of space for each post, the post does not contain all the information to truly understand an idea or situation. I have noticed that there are many articles posted with headlines meant to cause an emotional reaction. Many readers may angrily repost or retweet upon reading the headline without carefully reading through the article. This type of “clickbait” may potentially lead to misleading ideas being spread. In addition, because of the sheer number of ideas and posts, it can be easy to quickly thumb through them mindlessly without actually committing to reading and understanding one in depth. Finally, I have a problem with how the use of the internet distracts me from my daily socializations with my friends and family. I am not sure that using Twitter as a personal learning network works best for how I want to learn as a teacher. I would rather dedicate and commit time that is set aside for my professional development than scroll through posts mindlessly on a daily basis. However, I realize that I am new to this and will give it a chance. I previously discussed how technology should be a tool for learning, and I think this also applies regarding my personal learning network. The technology is simply a tool and the actual learning still takes commitment and conscious effort on my part.
Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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