Field+Based+Activites+Reflection+TF+II.C

This activity actually started back in May of 2012. I had just been offered my current position, and got the email from Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) reminding everybody that the deadline for submitting proposals to present at the 2013 Convention was May 31st at midnight. Feeling confident on the heels of my school's TMEA performance just a few months prior, and the offer of my new position; and, wanting to impress my new boss, I decided to submit a proposal for technology in the elmentary music classroom. I hastily threw a proposal together, and to my amazement three months later, I recieved notification that it had been accepted. I was going to present a session at the biggest gathering of music educators in the world. Oh my!

I had presented a number of elementary music technology sessions over the years, so my idea was to combine the best activities into a one-hour session.

Williamson & Redish (2009) cite a study by CDW-G that revealed that while 85% of teachers used technology for administrative tasks, such as email, attendance and grades, less that 50% had ever used technology to support instruction. This seemed to be especially true of elementary music teachers. After collaborating with elementary music teachers in my previous district, and compiling list of activities using technology that they could incorporate into their lessons, I began to develop my the outline for my session, taking care to avoid the pitfalls cautioned by a Washinton Post article (Welsh, 2008), the document included lessons that were child-centered, rather than teacher directed. Once the basic session was ready, I had to fine tune the presentation.

I encountered quite a few unexpected roadblocks. I decded not to use my personal laptop becaue the battery is inadequate. When I installed Audacity on my school laptop, it was a new improved version which looked a little bit different. The same was true of iTunes. Converting files to mp3 was not as simple as it used to be. As it turned out, it was fortunate that I ran into these problems, because some of my instructions would not have worked, since they were for the earlier versions.

Finally,once at the convention, I discovered that the convention hall did not have WiFi. I could purchase WiFi for my presentation, but attendees might not be able to participate as I had hoped.

Jim Moulton, in a blog featured in Edutopia (2007), points out that much of the tecnology in public schools is largely unused. I found that to be the case in elementary music classrooms, where the constraints of large classes and short time periods make it difficult to implement child centered technology rich lessons. My goal was to show teachers student-centered technology rich activities using resources that were free or very low cost. I think my presentation was successful in doing that.

References:

Moulton, J. (2007). How much does your school use its technology pool?: Chances are, not enough. Edutopia: The George Lucas Educational Foundation.

Welsh, P. (2008, February 10). A school that’s too high on gizmos. //The Washington Post//. Retrieved from []

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). I//STE's technology facilitation and leadership standards: What every K-12 leader should know and be able to do//. Eugene, Or: International Society for Technology in Education.