Admittedly, I've purposely steered away from seeking out new technology to enhance my choral classroom. It's not that I am adverse to new ideas or am not technologically savvy, but rather the environments that I have been teaching in lately have not afforded me the time to teach how to use new technology, nor do I have the resources available to try new technological projects. However, now I am in my first year of a new job at the Pensacola Children's Chorus, and one of my early goals is to add a more rigorous educational component to the curriculum. Since my first graduate-level class at the University of Florida on music technology, it seems inevitable that my choral classroom is going to become more high tech than I previously thought.
I began my work for Module 1 with the reading from Dr. Bauer's Music Learning Today. I was immediately struck by the quote by Arthur C. Clarke that opened the first chapter: "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke (1984, p. 36)" (Bauer, 2014, p. 3). I found this quote ironic, since as Dr. Bauer explains further, most of my generation has grown up surrounded by technology, so oftentimes the bigger surprise is when the technology stops working altogether! But the quote served as a wonderful introduction to the possibilities of incorporating technology in the classroom that are defined in the first chapter of the book.
The concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) was new to me, but after reflection, it's simply something that all teachers do but not necessarily by definition. PCK is the combination of subject knowledge with the ability to teach that content to learners (Bauer, 2014, p. 14), and when I thought about it, the teachers I strive to be like are ones who know their stuff yet also know how to skillfully teach it. Expanding this concept to incorporate technology (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, or TPACK) makes logical sense: it requires one to learn the technology, evaluate its usefulness, and figure out how to use it to enhance curricular goals.
Keeping this in mind as I worked on the assignments for this work provided a valuable framework to evaluate certain tools, technologies, and technological concepts and their usefulness toward curricular or professional goals. For example, I really enjoyed discovering Incredibox, an online loop-based composition platform with multiple preloaded sounds that you can mix-and-match or turn-on and turn-off as you please. (My composition was called "The Whistle Song.") I found that this would be a wonderful and engaging way to educate young minds about the musical concept of form by creating compositions that explore various types of structures (e.g. ABA, strophic, rondo). It takes what can be a dry concept and makes it fun and engaging.
I also would consider using Incredibox as a pathway to the elusive musical concept of improvisation, one that is seldom covered in a choral classroom. An easy way to perform vocal improv is by repeating a phrase over and over, similar to looping in the recording world. By having the opportunity to experience different loops through the online platform, I suspect students would begin to develop a bank of ideas that would lend themselves to creating their own improvisations.
I also explored Padlet, an online bulletin board of sorts that allows a user to post thoughts, pictures, links, and videos for either private use or public viewing. At first glance, it seemed similar to Pinterest, yet Padlet is really about creating the posts yourself and not "pinning" them from another board. To me, Padlet seems most akin to Evernote, which I have dabbled with in the past. Over the next several weeks, I'm interested to discover the differences between Evernote and Padlet and how Padlet might be useful in the choral classroom.
This week I also dusted off my Twitter account to create a Professional Learning Network (PLN). It's very interesting to consider Twitter as a tool for professional learning, since tweets are so often quoted in primetime news stories and are used as platforms to push an agenda by celebrities through politicians. I have never been a huge fan of Twitter, but I'm going in with an open mind to see how I may be able to engage others with my insights and observations as well as being inspired by the posts of others.
Overall, I've found this first week of diving into music technology really beneficial. Since it is my first class in my online masters program, I feel like it was a good way to jump back into the realm of studying, analysis, and academic reflection. I'm excited for the weeks and work ahead!