Interactiviy 5

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AverQgXi7bnLdFNGYkluWjA3QXVFN2lYZk5pMTgzTUE&usp=sharing


The teacher I interviewed teaches in a lower-middle class high school in northern New Jersey. She is the band director and teaches band as well as general music classes and other after school ensembles. When I first asked her if she knew what the NETS standards were, she looked puzzled. Then after I told her they were the technology standards, she knew what they were. However, she does not know about the specifics. She knows that they require the school to integrate more technologies into everyday lessons in conjunction with the NJ standards but did not know what they entailed. When I asked her if her school had begun to implement these new standards, she said yes, although very hesitantly. She said they are trying but running into many road blocks. She does not think the whole district has begun to implement them, however; only at the middle and high schools. When asked if our state has begun to implement the new standards, she said yes but also added that she did not know how effectively they were doing it.
In her school, the main way they are implementing these standards is by providing every student with an iPad to use in class and at home. The teachers now incorporate these iPads into their everyday lessons as much as they know how.  The challenges they are facing are that the teachers do not know all of the apps available to them and how to use them so they need to be taught this and become more comfortable with the technology. Also, funding is a very large problem. They had the money to buy the iPads and now do not have enough because of miscalculations and other unforeseen circumstances.
I was not at all surprised by the teacher’s answers. I actually did not expect her to know what they were completely. I did assume that she would at least know about them, which she did. As a future educator, I would speak to others mainly about how we can integrate this standards and technology smoothly instead of it feeling like an add on. Also, what other ways can we incorporate technology other than just piads, computers, or smart boards. Students use computers and tablets at home all the time anyway. We give them assignments that they use these things to complete. How are we truly integrating technology if we’re just having them use the iPads or computers to take note on or finish assignments? We need to dwell deeper than the obvious use of the technologies and then bring them into the classroom.

Music Apps

Music Apps for your phone and tablet are very useful and advancing every day. We no longer need to carry around a tuner or a metronome because there are apps on our phones for that and they work really well. Anytime I'm practicing or rehearsing and need a pitch or a tempo, I just pull out my phone and have it right there. There are also apps that teach you how to play piano and guitar. These can be very helpful to learn the basics on the go. It is more efficient than taking the time to use a book or get lessons. It is a good starting tool. Also, there are apps like shazam which tell you what song you are listening you, who it is by, and who is performing it just by putting your phone near the speaker. This is very helpful when you don't know what you are listening to but like it and would like to get it later. Additionally, there are other apps that are very helpful for teaching. They make apps that have fingering charts for all the instruments, apps for music theory practice, and apps that emulate the sound of certain instruments. These can all be good homework ideas or just practice tools. Additionally, there are apps that to record yourself speaking or performing, and they might not be the best quality, but they will be a good reference to hear yourself playing. Lastly, there are apps that allow you to splice and alter tracks right on your phone and save it as an excerpt or share it. 

Interactivity 4

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AverQgXi7bnLdFNGYkluWjA3QXVFN2lYZk5pMTgzTUE&usp=sharing

I chose this lesson because it integrated technology more than any of the other lessons I found. Usually music lessons just use a projector or a smart board for visual aids; They don't actually integrate technology. This lesson had students use the technology themselves. By using a projector, the visual aid was there but they also used a computer and Sibelius, which is a music notation program. This lesson plan met part of the standard. The standard incorporated many different parts of music like harmonic structure and meter, but this only covered rhythm. This isn't a problem, however because all of these concepts cannot be taught in one lesson. Rhythm would be the first of these that you would teach. I do think the lesson could have gone farther to cover meter in this lesson as well and just added an extra day to it. I don't believe these technologies are essential to this standard but they are incredibly helpful. Students could receive handouts and they could hand write their compositions out on manuscript paper but the technology make it a lot more efficient. Also, by using Sibelius, they get to hear their composition before the whole class plays it. They are also learning how to use a computer while doing this, so they are learning more than one thing in one lesson.