| Technology
has altered in profound and irreversible ways the manner in
which music in taught and learned, just as it has altered in
profound and irreversible ways the roles that music can play
in the lives of human beings. For example, computers, electronic
keyboards, synthesizers, samplers, CD-ROMs, and other MIDI devices
enable every student to be actively involved in creating, performing,
listening to, and analyzing music. It is especially important
that the media and technology used for teaching music in school
include the media and technology used to produce and experience
music outside school.
There
are many ways for teachers to incorporate the use of technology
in the classroom, including having students:
-
compose
and improvise; hearing their compositions and improvisations;
notating their works; and experimenting endlessly with
timbre, tempo, dynamics, and registration
-
make
their compositions available online, as part of international
music education projects
-
learn
to play instruments and record themselves periodically
to document progress.
The
importance of response/evaluation, as one of the four strands
of the Music TEKS, makes it imperative that teachers find
and use meaningful strategies to ensure that students identify
criteria for evaluating performances and apply them to their
own music and that of others. Journals
are valuable tools, enabling students to develop and enhance
their evaluative skills. Additionally, they provide teachers
with a detailed account of their students' work and give them
a means of assessing the progress of an entire class, aiding
them in evaluating their own teaching practices. Students
can apply their writing and thinking skills to their music
education, making the new and often unfamiliar vocabulary
of music part of their everyday language. Creating journals
on a computer can be an exciting way for students to combine
the valuable learning tool of the journal with a lesson in
technology.
Have
each student in your class create a computer file for entries
during the course of the year. Encourage them to record their
thoughts, feelings, goals, and assessments relating to their
progress in music as they would with pen and paper but use
this opportunity to strengthen keyboarding and basic desktop
publishing skills. If the resources are available to your
class, have students record one or more of their performances
or compositions for their journal. If you are unfamiliar with
MIDI and other technology necessary for including music in
students' digital journals, seek out another teacher or member
of your community to collaborate with you on the project.
Involve students in the process of learning the technology
to save music as a computer file, if the tasks align with
their maturity and developmental levels. Discuss the influence
and uses of technology in the music community with your class.
Ask for their input on what new technologies have to offer
them, as young students of music. If the project is a success,
consider creating a website for student music, and investigate
participating as a class in a national project for technology
in music education. Take the time to research university-sponsored
projects created to share student music via the Internet.
Finally,
consider including lessons on how to research musical genres,
traditions, and their cultural contexts online. Help students
learn to save pictures, articles, and sound files, relating
to their personal interests in music, to become part of their
multimedia journals.
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