Assessments!!

As a student, I am always interested in how I am assessed. Assessment determines not only my grade in the class, but the progress I'm making on that particular subject. I have enjoyed the electronic portfolio in the sense that I haven't had to take any tests or quizzes. However, the ePortfolio requires maintenance whereas tests and quizzes do not. I suppose it all depends on the personality of the student. I am a particularly good test taker, but I'm not very good at maintaining long-term assignments. While it is a personal flaw and no excuse, I would still rather have clear source material to study.

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the main subject!

I visited Rubrician.com to see if they had any rubrics on singing, and sure enough they did. It was a rubric for young singers (elementary through high school) that covered all the bases: tone, breathing, sightreading, and musicality. It even had a rubric for recorder performance. These are wonderful things to have readily available for someone like me that has trouble creating rubrics.

Back to talking about this course, though. The fact that this is done all online made it very convenient with my very busy schedule. I am student teaching and don't have a lot of time for other things. The only comment I would make about the course would be to have a better way of showing us how to create the ePortfolio. I think that was my biggest frustration with it. I couldn't wrap my brain around how to set it up. I understand that it was supposed to be an activity in creativity, but you can't tell someone to make a painting and just assume he knows how to use the paintbrushes.

Okay, bad example. It's been a good class. Much thanks to our wonderful teacher! See y'all kids later :)

Web 2.0 Entry

Wikis are cool. No seriously, I love them. Wikipedia is probably one of the more useful things the Internet has brought about. Everyone always says it can't be trusted, but that's baloney. Anyone who's seen the editing forum for one of their pages knows people fight to get the right information posted. The only thing I could possibly compare it to is the King James translation of the Bible. The King assembled 47 men that comprised 6 committees. Each committee translated a chunk of the Bible, which took four years. Then, each of the 6 groups "proofed" each others work. That took another 4 years. The scholars bickered and fought with each other for 8 total years. The King would not authorize the translation until there was unanimous approval from all 47 translators. In the 9th year, 1611, the KJV was published and printed.

That's kind of what Wikipedia editing forums look like. Admins keep users from becoming venomous. For high-profile pages, there are long discussions before something is changed and only veteran users are allowed to change information. Wikipedia has become a viable source for information.

The Voice Thread was... odd. It was kind of like the day after Christmas, when all the family is still over but there's no more feast or presents or football. Everyone's just crowded around a photo album chatting about a whole lot of nothing. Depending on which relatives are with you, it can be an awesome nothing or it can be a boring nothing. Voice Threads seem to be an attempt to widen our perception of community, when really it just dampens it. There's a disconnect in human interaction that is inherent to the Internet. I think it would be a good tool for a classroom, where everyone already knows each other. The Internet should never replace the live presence of real people. Otherwise, what's the point of being alive?

Of course, the great irony of all this is that this blog is for an online course. Not my preference to take this class online, but necessity dictates as such.

==>Daniel

Copyright and Fair Use

Choral directors are constantly running into copyright issues because we are POOR!!! Are we allowed to perform this song? Do I have to obtain rights to perform it? Am I allowed to photocopy it? Will I be set on fire for photocopying it? And so on. Public school choir directors have little funding. It is very necessary to photocopy music for the kids, especially when you (the director) are paying for the music out of your own pocket. Fortunately, most copyright laws can be bent for educational purposes. As long as the choir is not making any money off the performance of the piece OR the choir is also a class full of students, then any prohibition on photocopying does not apply. Makes my life easier :)

Okay, cyberbullying I can see happening, but nettiquete? Really? How about we just call it what it really is: common sense. Of course, my dad would say that the thing about common sense is that it isn't common. Do unto others as your would have them do unto you. If they still bug you, block them. Boom. Problem solved. That encompasses both nettiquete and cyberbullying.

In closing, Surfing the web is a lot like actual surfing. There be sharks in them waters! Y'all be safe out there!

Danny

New Blog!!!

Welcome to my brand new log, everybody. I hope everyone has an enjoyable stay! My name is Daniel (or Danny, if you like). I am a musician. I sing for my supper. I am currently student teaching right now, and this is the last course I need. I cannot wait to be a teacher! :D

I hope to use technology in many ways in my classroom. There are so many opportunities to use it for music. For elementary music, it would save me time to have the music on a projector as opposed to writing it on the board. That would also save my students from having to read my terrible handwriting. Also, I would use Youtube as a resource for free recordings. Students love hearing recordings of the songs they are going to perform. It gets them excited about the piece.

I hope I can learn about the use of technology in an educational context. I know how to use MS Office, but I don't know how to create a gradebook. I always look forward to learning new things, and I hope this class has many surprises in store!

-Daniel