Thats All She Wrote

This will be my last post of my adventures in TPTE. To say the least it was a interesting class with great people. Throughout this month I learned of many different Web 2.0 tools that I can use in my band class. Especially any tool that uses pictures is a great to use for memories for the students as they grow in band since we take a lot of trips for performing in marching band and concert bands.

Blogs and wikis are a great idea to collaborate with students to have them share school related information. I will have a band website when I do become a director to keep students up to date on everything that will be going on within our program.

So all in all this class just showed me some other tools I may be able to use. However the reality is that I could get a job were there is no computers or internet connections but being aware of the possibilities is resourceful.

Thank you Dr. Obannon for allowing us music kids to be in this tech class to finish our degree. Hope you have a great summer!

Wikis

Wikis are a collaboration website where as long as users have a pbworks account they can add information and work on the website together. Working on the site was very straight forward and easy to work with my classmates. In class we made a resource wiki that is Music and Art based and this class and another class has been working on it this whole month. We added photos and a navigation bar for pages and added music resources students or teachers may find useful.

I learned that wikis are very efficiant and can be used with students to have them make their own wiki. they can add information as they learn throughout there class. The memory in the wiki saves everything so it will be very easy to grade fairly on a students work.

Above is a link to our music wiki.

Blog About Blogging

Yes! A Blog about blogging that is exactly what this blog is! So blogging is basically updates from an author about whatever they want to write about. So its almost as a computer journal, but the world can see it! So I have already mention that i am indeed an experience blogger. I do not have a blog about my self right now because, well I have a Facebook. Before in high school I was a complete nerd and joined in different role-playing games on Xanga (older blog site). Also I am the web-mistress for an music education organization at University of Tennessee. That particular blog site is actually through this blogger site, and you can view it here.

Lastly, my feelings for blogging...Well I warn you they are not good. I first off want to say is that I do have a Facebook, and many more accounts with my information on it. But I do not think it is safe or wise to put SO much information on the Web about yourself. Maybe I have watched to many movies but I am very careful of what I share on the Internet. I try to put just the bare minimum that I would even tell a stranger on the street. I think Blogs are great for maybe people who are traveling to let their friends know how they are but one still must be careful. Information sites about a certain topic are fine though! Its just my problem lies with personal information on the web.

Movie Maker Live!

This was my hands down favorite project of the class! Above you will see my use of Window Movie Live Maker in order to give you a second look into my life. This program is great to put little movies together for students to tell a story. Or Students can use this tool to tell their own story. This tool can be used for student presentations as well as study guides.

Using this program is alot easier then photoshop, I think. There isn't buttons that are difficult to understand or anything. Everything has a very simple way of producing a video. All I had to do was upload the files I want to use and then customize them to my liking. Creativity is unlimited so anything is possible to make with this program. With this program you can use sound clips from music, pictures, and recordings of a video or sound you have done yourself. So any videos can be created using a digital story and it can look super great as well as being very entertaining.

Animoto

Spreadsheet-Example

A spreadsheet is another name for a worksheet. This can be made using Microsoft Excel. I have to admit it is super hard for me to understand this program, no matter how many directions I have. However I fought my way through it and created a demo worksheet above. This a a good idea in theory for students to interactively take a quiz and get imediate results. However in a band class setting it will be super hard to take test like this especially when band classes can have 100 or more students. Although I can use this for any sub-music classes I will have to teach such as music theory or general music.

Google Forms

Inspiration 9

This is a diagram for the instruments that are used in orchestra! Today in class we were asked to use a program called Inspiration 9. Basically this is a really cool program that allows the user to make diagrams for anything you can think off. At first it was definitely an overwhelming load of information, but after our Professor explained the basics of using the tools the program was no harder than microsoft word!

I have seen many projects were people have used Inspiration to make diagrams for all types of presentations and they have all looked very well done. So, I was excited to use this program today. I came up with the idea of orchestra and its instruments because its the only "band" setting that uses them all. This will be a very helpful diagram for all grades in the schools since orchestras are not very common in the schools.

Glogster!

Smilebox!

Customize a photo collage

Smilebox is a program on the internet that is great for making creative keepsakes with pictures as well as news letters. Sarah and I was assigned this website for our presentation. We created a account that we could both accessed but fast realized Smileboxes downfall. The only downfall to Smilebox is that the designs create under your account does not save to the account. It saves to the computer you are using. This is obviously a problem if you made a newsletter and would like to update it but your design is saved to your "school" computer and you are at home wanting to update the newsletter. However; that is only a small gliche in the fact that the site offers a lot!

Smilebox is very organized showing what designs they have and how many pictures can fit in the layouts. I love this site for its efficiency and simplicity to use. Also this site is would be very beneficial for any class to create a slideshow, or a collage of the students. This site can make certificates with pictures, newsletters to parents, and a scrapbook. Over all any subject can use this site to showcase their class to parents and connect to their students.

Digital Scavenger Hunt-Music Syle

Picasa



Google Presentation

Wordle

WebQuest

Today we worked with a site called WebQuest which I have never heard of. WebQuest works much like any online sites, where students are encouraged to collaborate and problem-solve together. This type of learning is very hands-on and engaging for the students. The WebQuests sites is a very useful tool for any teacher to find activities that can be used inside there classroom. During class we did an activity that involved evaluating certain WebQuest that pertain to our area. Each role was different and was suppose to look for a different characteristic of the sites. My role was Technophile. The other evaluators were Altitudinist, Efficiency Expert, Affilator.

As the Technophile my job was to look at the sites layouts and color schemes and basically see if it was visually appealing. I found out quick that if it was not visual appealing that it did not matter what the information was, It was not a good site. The Efficiency Expert made sure everything was organized in a way information was easy to attain for the reader. The Altitudinist looked deeper into the content and made sure everything was spelled right to using higher level thinking information. Finally the Affilator made sure the activities were best for students working together in groups, as well as being educational and relating to the site.

The "roles" that each member of my team are really things I must look at for each site I find that I want to put in front of my students. I realize that just because it looks good does not mean that the information is good and efficient or even stimulating. Overall I though this project was a great one because it gave us a chance to be a critic and learn how to evaluate what a website should look as well as how we should plan our own educational websites when we make them.

Website Evaluation - Arts Alive -Music

Arts Alive website is from the National Arts Centre in Canada. This is a great site for all the arts including dance, theatre, and art! However; the best resource for this site is the music portion. In the music site portion the tabs are music resources, instrument lab, great composers, and activities. The other two tabs is information on their National Arts Centre Orchestra.

The evaluation sheet was a great tool to fully explore this website. This really helped me figure out if this site would be acceptable for students use. The evaluation had everything on it from who made it to why they made the site. All valuable information one needs to know if a website is creditable.

I like this website because it is vibrant and looks fun to use right from the beginning. The information on the composers are super in depth and students would benefit greatly from this information! There is also a really cool instrument tab that has all the instruments in an orchestra where you can see them virtually and her a recording of it. This can be useful for young children who are trying to decide what instrument they want to play. As well as knowing how they should sound (which is a great help for younger children).

Also the really great characteristic of this website is that is not made in the United States! It is from Canada! This shows children music is music everywhere. I love it! The whole site is funded by different Canadian organizations that support the arts. Sadly, there is one downfall and that is...I do not know if this site has been updated since 2008. The copyright at the bottom of the page does say 2011, but the last tour or concert dates posted was for 2008. So I do not know if this organization is still going strong. Although we can still use the site for its great resources and information!!!

Check it out! You can just check the picture. I promise you will learn something! Have a great day!

First Post!

Hello world!

Welcome to my first post for this blog. Fortunately I am an experience blogger from my years in high school! I would by no means call myself a technology expert (because I am certainly not!), however; I do know my way around the Internet/computer world.

This blog is specifically about exactly what the title says! Adventures of TPTE This acronym stands for Theory Practice in Technology Education. So luckily for me, by the end of this class I will have a strong hold of how I can integrate Technology into my classroom. This will be a challenge since I will become a music teacher, but it CAN be done! I have used technology all my life as well as in college and sometimes specifically for music! So I am excited to learn new things about technology and the Internet this summer to better prepare me in teaching my soon to be students. Technology is changing every year. Newer programs are coming out and people of all ages are jumping in to the fun. They way I see it; I think music is fun, students are becoming more involved with technology and they think its fun, so it is to my advantage to incorporate it into my daily class!