Emerging Technologies for Elementary Music
In my classroom I currently have one computer and an interactive whiteboard (IWB). In my first two years of teaching I used this computer and projector mainly as a presentation device. This year I have been using my IWB more often and have seen great results. My students were fully engaged in lessons and students who do not normally speak out or like to participate were coming up to the board to answer questions or play review games. I was still teaching the same content that I had done in the past, but now I was able to engage more students and have a better outcome by using the IWB. I would like to have more devices in my room so that students could compose songs together or individually. We could also do more independent research on composers or musicians. There are several other lesson or new ideas that I would like to be able to incorporate individual devices with, but my school does not currently have that option. This coming school year our 4th graders are supposed to be getting 1:1 chromebooks, so I am hoping that once those get here I will be able to start using them in music!
In a 21st Century Classroom my top three elements would be: (1) students developing problem solving skills, (2) establishing an atmosphere where dominance by a few individuals is not tolerated (Cennamo, pg. 113), and (3) effective student collaboration. I want my students to feel like they are contributing to the task at hand and have the ability for their voice to be heard. I think it is important for students to learn how to problem solve and work together, whether that is in a group at one device, or working together online with individual devices.
Like I said before, in my classroom we currently only have one computer to work with. This means I would need to have my students working in groups and rotating through different tasks. When students work in groups I think it is important to assign roles to students such as researcher, recorder, or reporter (Cennamo, pg. 113). This will help keep one student from dominating the work and will allow each student to participate and have their voice heard. Giving students prompts to research or talk about will help them to collaborate with others in their group. In order for students to develop problem solving skills they will need time to practice and reflect on problem situations that arise that they can attack and solve on their own while working with their group to achieve the task.
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post from a music teacher perspective. I think you have some great ideas to make the most of your technology resources in the classroom. I enjoyed reading about your top three elements for a 21st century classroom. We picked similar skills. Problem solving skills would be very important for 21st century learners. What are you thoughts on promoting problem solving skills? Have you experienced success with promoting problems solving skills in the classroom? That could be very exciting and influential in the music classroom. I find that more and more students are missing problems solving strategies. You brought up an essential skill that is very absent from the classroom today.