Final Project Reflection

This post is a reflection for my final project for m Tie-542 class at National Louis University. For my final project I created a WebQuest meant to be used for 8th or 9th grade students. The WebQuest task was for two students to work together on a project called "Sign the Next Amazing Band". In this project students learn that they have just received a new position in a record company and there job is to search out new and young talent and pick a new band to pitch to the president of the company. The students will gather all the information they can about their group and develop either a Power Point or Keynote presentation that will persuade their boss (the teacher) and the company employees (the class) that their band is the next big thing.
Although I found this project difficult at first, I started to get into it and really enjoyed creating it. In fact I feel like this WebQuest would go over very well with my kids and plan on implementing it, and sharing it with the other teachers at my school. The most difficult part of the project was the actual set-up time that was necessary in Dreamweaver. Finding the right resources and all of that wasn't that difficult. After looking at some other WebQuest online as well as some of my classmates I feel that there are a couple of things I could do better. The first thing that I feel might make it a little more appeasing to the eye is if I would have added a few graphics when appropriate. I also think after reading it over a couple times that I could of laid it out a little bit better so that it would have read a little more smoothly. I do feel though that for my first WebQuest it wasn't that bad. I look forward to creating some more. Hope you enjoy!

Web 2.0 Application

I recently stumbled upon a new web 2.0 Application I thought would be very useful to my teachers called Quizlet. Quizlet is a great application that allows it's users to create Flashcards easily. It's a great tool because not only can you just create Flashcards but you can also easily create flashcard sets with as many questions and answers as you want, import questions and answers from your computer or other websites (or just type them in directly). You can also cut and paste questions from other peoples' flashcard sets to make your own and Invite friends to share your flashcards via email, Facebook, or MySpace. You can also do One-click look up of official dictionary definitions, and other users' previous answers.
One of the best features of Quizlet is you can create a group so your friends or classmates can study together. You can also discuss answers with your group via live chat. Another great feature is that you can get notified when group members post new study sets, you can edit and improve sets created by other group members, and a great feature the groups can be private or public. Here is a link where you can get look at a video tour.

This is a great site and a great teacher resource. It comes in handy in a lot of ways in the classroom, and is a great way to study with your students on upcoming test or math equations, formulas, scientific method. I hop you all find it to be as useful as I have.

A Favorite Resource list!

A really well organized resource list on the web can be very helpful to any classroom teacher. One of my favorite internet resource list is called internet4classrooms.

This website has all kinds of resources for classroom teachers in it. The best thing about the resource depository for me is how well it is organized and categorized. The site does a great job of covering all the grade levels K-12 and also categorizes the resources for the different subject matters. The site even gives teachers lesson plans for internet related activities as well as some helpful sites for parents who want to work with their children.

Some other great things about the site is the many fun learning activities that it has for early childhood teachers. I have found that many early childhood teachers feel that they don't know how to utilize computers in the classroom with their students. This website offers many fun activities that my kindergartners can't get enough of. Another great feature of the sight is the links listed for exceptional children. There are some great lessons and activities for those students who may be gifted, have autism, and for students who have ADHD. As teachers we all know how a site like this can be helpful when trying to differentiate learning to all of the students in the classroom. The value of the information on this site is exceptional and the accessibility for teachers is a must have.
I almost forgot my favorite feature which is a extensive internet reference list for teachers to use in their classrooms. The list includes links for online dictionaries, thesaurus, and almanacs.
This website is an amazing resource for any teacher and can help spark a teachers own creativity. If there is one place I always recommend my teachers go if they are looking for ideas it's internet4classrooms.

Criteria for Web-Based Materials

Throughout the last few years that I have been involved with using the computers in the classroom with my students, the question that has often been raised by my fellow teachers is how do we know that sources and materials on the web are legitimately correct. This can be a tough question to answer so after some research of my own I have come up with some important evaluative questions to ask oneself when determining the authenticity of a web-based artifact.

The first question one needs to ask ones self is: By what authority is this page posted?
which could include looking for several things:
Is there an author? Is the page signed by him? If so, is the author qualified or an expert? If not, you may want to ask who is the page sponsored by, and are the reputable?
Look for a header or footer for validation of affiliation.
Look at the domain for clues like, .edu, .gov, .org, .net

The second question to ask would be: Is this information accurate?
Is the information reliable, and is it error free?
Does the page list an editor or someone who checks the information?

The third Question to ask: Does this page display objectivity?
All pages on the web are made for a reason. Read carefully and find out what that reason is. Is the page trying to sway your opinion one way or the other? Is the page trying to portray one particular view of information, or does it remain objective?

The fourth question: How current is this page?
Is there a date on this page, and if so how recent is the date?
Do all the links on the page work and lead to viable information?


The final question: What is covered on this page?
This is a very important question. What is this page about? Is the information on this page in-depth and thorough? What information does this page have to offer that other sources do not? Also, what is the value of this information?

Even when going through these questions I always try to tell my teachers and students to never rely on just one source for the bulk of your research. It is always important to collect credible resources, and compare them with each other to obtain full knowledge of a subject.

Webquest

Webquest. Sounds like such a interesting name, but Webquest are essentially electronic scavenger hunts done on the web. Ideally this fun and exciting tool for teachers challenges students to use internet resources to answer a very specific question. It challenges the students to use higher order thinking skills and teaches them how to gather information from many different sources to come to a educated answer to a question. In the beginning Webquest were a little more difficult for teachers to create and use in the classroom, but in recent years many great websites have been created where teachers can share their Webquest ideas with each other. One such website I would like to share with everyone was created by eMINTS teachers.


My favorite thing about this website is that it offers teachers examples of Webquest along with rubrics for grading, and has them categorized by grade level and subject matter. Not only does it have several subject matters but it even has Webquest for the fine arts as well. Which we all know is close and dear to my heart.
Another great feature this site has to offer is that you can submit your own Webquest to the website to share with other educators. I believe this is so important because not only can you take great resources off of this site, but you can also contribute back to it.
The eMINTS website also provides a short list of great resources for other Webquest websites.
One of my favorite Wequest on this site is called "Radio Days". Radio days is a Webquest where the students are being asked to research old radio programs from the 1930's and 40's, and create a new radio show with a script and everything in the same way as they would have back then. The Webquest is laid out beautifully and includes the standards that apply to the assignment. I find this website to be a great source for teachers and one that will be used over and over again by myself for great Webquest ideas as well as good outlines for my own Webquest. Enjoy!

Just How important are Internet Resources for the Arts?

As i sit here pondering how to begin this post, I look at my tittle and can't help but laugh to myself a little bit. Just how important are internet resources for the arts in education? I laugh because they are, at this point anyway, the most widely used resources on the planet. In fact, internet resources are so widely used by the arts community that I would say the question should be: Why has the internet become the most important resource for the arts? The answer to this question is simple. The internet provides resources for Arts teachers in a quick, easy, cheap, and easily shared way. Obviously in the day and age we live in, internet resources are not just important for Arts education, but for every person who now lives on this planet. Which brings me back to my first post in this blog where I talked about how the Arts, throughout history, have always been a reflection of the environment and time in which they are in. Therefore it is the same with the use of internet resources. The entire world around us is tapped into the internet on a daily basis looking at news, stocks, social networking, and yes reading journal articles rather for entertainment or for professional reasons. The internet has become our single most important resource for information there is.
Earlier today I was reading a article that was written by a group called ARTSEDGE. This group is associated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The name of this article was appropriately called: Weaving a Future for the Arts in Education Through Technology
This article, which is now over ten years old, discusses how interactive networking technologies are going to change the face of Arts education in three different ways. First, by creating a place where ideas could be shared rapidly. Second, greater access to Arts materials and artifacts. Third, the ability to use Arts applications that allow students to create artifacts and collaborate on those artifacts with students from around the globe. I found this article to be very interesting especially because of when it was written. Ten years ago the Arts Educational community was already predicting what has now come to pass. The internet has become the place or people to share Arts educational ideas and philosophies. Take this blog for example. There are thousands of highly qualified professionals who blog about educational ideas all over the globe now. Creating a network of professional guidance on virtually any subject involving the Arts community. We also now have access to Arts artifacts on a seriously amazing level with the creation of sights like Youtube for example. I was teaching a trumpet lesson to a student the other day and was trying to explain the concept of Miles Davis' use of space in his playing. I was struggling to explain this the way that I wanted to and all of a sudden it hit me..... Let's let my student watch a live performance of him right now. After we watched the video together, which by the way took all of thirty seconds to find, I realized that as teachers we are living in a truly amazing time for education. So much information is available quite literally at our fingertips. We also have new applications that allow our students to create their own artifacts and collaborate with other students in creating them. One example might be garageband. I have personally had students who created a musical loop on Garageband, converted it to a Mp3, and email it to a friend who took the mp3, put it in Logic Pro and then laid down vocals on the loop, and email a final product to me. Now that's technology working along with the Arts to create something that would not have been possible ten years ago. The crazy thing about that scenario is that one of my students didn't know how to do it so they went home looked up a video tutorial on Youtube on how to create a mp3 in garageband. Just how important are internet resources for the Arts? This may be the biggest no brainer ever!

Technology and Ownership

This past Friday some of my students premiered a music video at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The kids had spent the last month or so, creating a music video from scratch. They wrote their own music with a program called Logic Pro for Mac. They came up with the beats and the melodies themselves, and recorded it via USB keyboard. They then wrote lyrics and created a seriously deep, and personal song about some of the problems in their neighborhood seen through their teenage eyes. That in it's self would be any music teachers dream but they didn't stop there. They story booked out different scenes and sequences and then performed a seriously professional video shoot. THEN, they took everything and edited it, discussed different artistic ideas, and created a high quality MUSIC VIDEO!
To be honest it hadn't really hit until the night they presented it at the MCA, but I found myself becoming witness to a total transformation in my students. They went from being nervous, shy, and apprehensive, to being well spoken, wide-eyed and eager to tell people about their video. Then all of a sudden it hit me. One of the greatest things that technology brings our students in the arts, is a sense of ownership. A pride in themselves to display their expressive ideas. One of the most enduring qualities that the arts has to offer us as humans is the sense of self that one can recieve by expressing our deepest and most sincere feelings to our fellow man. Technology now makes that possible on so many levels. Not only can it help you create an artifact, but then technology can be used to spread that artifact all over the world.
Today I attended the Eight grade graduation luncheon. I showed the music video the kids made to their parents, classmates, and staff. I was amazed at how many parents and students wanted copies of the music videos for themselves. One of my students was standing next to me when a parent asked for a copy. He smiled and said, " You better get that now, because the next one will cost you!" We all had a laugh, but I remember thinking to myself how right he was. I know that he has the confidence to do something like that on his own now, and maybe potentially a build a career. Technology does so many things for us, but maybe the most important is how it allows us to connect with each other. How it provides a vehicle for our expression, and how it can motivate us to continue to express our most intimate feelings.

Why is technology so important in the development of the arts?

Hello every one and welcome to my blog. I would like first to thank any of you who end up reading this material, which will be a mixture of teaching strategies and my personal opinions on the subject of technology in the arts. I hope you find this material helpful and insightful.

For my first post I would like to discuss why I feel like it is important to use technology in the development of the arts. The answer to this is simple. The two are now interwoven into the other. In fact, a common misconception among those individuals not active in the arts is that technology has just recently been interwoven with the arts. This however is not true at all. Ever since the dawn of time when man first began to separate themselves from the other animals by creating artifacts of self-expression technology has gone hand in hand with the arts. Take music for example. From the creation of the Lyre to using certain size ram horns as wind instruments, to the major technological contribution of the piano, technology has always fueled the creative spirits of artist. The fact of the matter is this is really not a new subject. It has come to the forefront in recent years because of the widespread use of computers. Because technology has become more and more affordable, the use of them throughout the world has grown at unbelievable rates. The creation and worldwide use of the internet has also brought this topic to the forefront.
Up until recent years, much of the responsibility of how to make use of the newest technologies fell upon the artist themselves. The artist would have to research and experiment with the technology and develop their own personal thumbprint so to speak. This is of course still true but because of the use of the computer many artist are exposed to this technology at an early age. Within the last ten years computer classes and multimedia arts projects in schools has risen at alarming rates. Because of this we have seen the computer become a major technological tool in the creation of all the arts. In fact it doesn't matter what category of the arts we are talking about, knowing how to use the computer to enhance or create artifacts of self-expression is inevitable.
To me one of the most important uses of technology right now is not necessarily in the creation of these artifacts, but rather the exposure that technology can give to the artifacts of self-expression. The use of the internet has made it possible to expose artists artifacts on the world wide level. Before the internet many artistic communities were regional and could only be spread around to other regions by travel. Now a independent movie maker can publish their movies on iTunes and make it available to anyone on the globe. Knowing how to use this technology has become part of the artistry of the artist. Because of this it is necessary for the artist to be more than just a creator of artifacts of self-expression. It calls for all artist to be innovators in marketing on the internet, as well as schooled in the different tools there are availiable to them.