- Describe
the significance of technology in today's world and people's lives.
Technology is an important part of our lives. Any tool, physical or a system, created to
solve a problem is technology. Thus, our
daily experiences are shaped by technology in many forms; some so commonplace
they are often disregarded as part of the definition. William Bauer describes pencils and
automobiles as technology, but narrows our focus to “computers and related
digital tools that can be used to help humans develop an understanding of
concepts and skills necessary to create, perform, and respond to music” (Bauer,
2014).
- Discuss
the role of technology in general education.
Current students have been immersed in digital
technology for most of their lives.
These “digital natives” use these tools instinctively to interact with
their environment. Most teachers have
spent less time with these same tools, making them “digital immigrants” who may
use technology well, but not as instinctively or in the same ways as their
students. Bauer compares these “digital
immigrants” to non-native speakers of a foreign language. Even though fluency can be achieved, an
accent is usually present in speech. Not
everything is as natural as a native speaker.
Thus, students use technology in their daily lives
more fluently than adults. Educators can
harness this student knowledge by utilizing technology to deliver and
manipulate content. The technology used
should not be used for the novelty, but should be used to actually deliver
content in a better, more natural way than without it. Currently,
students use technology to interact with each other and to find and present
information in their social lives. We
can use these same tools to enhance or change their schooling as well.
- Provide
examples of Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) in
music education.
On page 12, Bauer presents Mishra and Koehler’s
TPACK figure to show his audience the importance of different types of
knowledge in education. The intersection
of Technological Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge and Content Knowledge (TPACK)
can result in using each area of knowledge to impact students in a meaningful
way.
Bauer describes a TPACK music activity on page
15. A music composition activity is
developed for a general music class. The
teacher understands the music theory components well enough to teach beginning composition. This demonstrates content knowledge (CK). The teacher also understands how students learn
and how to best deliver the content to the students. This demonstrates pedagogical knowledge (PK). The teacher also is aware of technological
tools which can help the students use technology to discover and manipulate the
content presented (TK). In this
instance, the teacher uses music notation software to help students notate and
present their compositions. This
activity shows the confluence of these three knowledge areas in a music
classroom to show TPACK.
Reproduced by permission of the publisher, ©
2012 by tpack.org
- Establish
a digital Personal Learning Network
In his article, “Your Personal Learning Network:
Professional Development on Demand” (2010), Bauer describes a Personal Learning
Network (PLN) and outlines the creation process. A PLN can be established by using a RSS
reader like Feedly to subscribe to RSS feeds from Blogs, Podcasts and other
content providers. The use of a RSS
reader allows the user to use one online site to display chosen information
instead of searching each individual site for content. RSS readers and subscriptions allow the
information to come to the user instead of the user looking for the
information. Twitter can also be used to
follow content creators and interact with other interested parties.
Bauer stresses consumption of online material is not
enough to fully utilize a PLN. The
information should be reflected upon and original content should be created and
shared with others in the PLN. This will
allow for more ideas and more information circulated in the PLN.
- Connections
The creation of my PLN was an interesting and
exciting experience. I have used RSS
readers and subscription services in the past, but have not used them
recently. The amount of relevant
information presented was great! I liked
not having to search multiple sites for information.
I have had a Twitter account for years, but haven't used it for anything professional. I wasn’t aware it was being used in a professional manner. I follow local and national politicians, a few news services and a lot of trash (gossip, celebrities, sports, fake news, etc…). I rarely created my own tweets and almost never retweeted anything. After this week, I am looking forward to using this tool to become a better teacher.
References
Bauer, W. I. (2010). Your Personal Learning Network:
Professional Development on Demand. Music Educators Journal, 97(37),
37-42.
Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music Learning Today:
Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing and Responding to Music. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
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