The Future of Technology

From working with educational technology I have mainly learned that technology should be seen as a tool and not a burden. Even though older generations of teachers are weary of using the electronic gradeook, powerpoint, excel, etc. it is applications like this that can make teaching that much easier and more enjoyable. In the end, it really just depends on the amount of time any energy that the teacher wants to put into learning how to use these programs and how to use them to their full advantage.

In regards to the article, I would have to say that Moursund brings up some very obvious yet important points. Most of the information that he discusses are things that we have learned in class and are pretty self explanatory. If anything I would have to say that Moursund did a good job with including facts and statistics in order to back up his opinions. Advocacy is one of the greatest tools that anyone can use, especially people that are trying to promote an idea to others. As a student myself and a future teacher, I would have to say that this article does give a clearer idea of the future of technology in the classroom. When I think about what elementary students are doing with computers now compared to what I was doing when I was in elementary school, the leaps are clearly exponential. There is so much information that students can learn and process, and having technology in the classroom makes all of this information that much more accessible and understandable.

The second posting

This article, researched and written by Kyong-Jee Kim and Curtis J. Bonk, is a very informative and well written article. The study described throughout this article surveyed instructors and administrators in postsecondary institutions, mainly in the United States, to discuss future trends of online education. In particular, the study makes predictions regarding the changing roles of online instructors, student expectations and needs related to online learning, pedagogical innovation, and projected technology use in online courses. For this article the authors basically followed the scientific method, first by researching the information and then conducting a survey in order to collect more data and more viable results. The information was then compiled into different types of charts and graphs, each of these including a detailed explanation of the findings. The end of the article includes a conclusion and discussion section that discusses the results and gives the writers' final insight on the presented information.
Having taken an online course myself (Psychology 131) I would have to agree with the writers on this matter. I received an A for my online course, even though I spent most of the time doing the bare minimum that was required. I do beleive that something does need to be done in order for universities to continue attracting and educating distant and non-traditional students cause eventually someone will figure it out and certain universities will lose a viable and financially profitable plethora of students. I beleive that even though online learning is surely growing, it will soon become a phase that will die out with the return of students to actual classrooms with actual teachers.

The first posting

My partner for the Webquest project is Miss Martha Daniel-Dupree, and our webquest is labeled Feel The Beat! For this project Martha did all the logistical things (links, designs, templates) while I did the research and filled in the nicely placed blanks that Martha designed. In our webquest we teach how to understand basic rhythms and then we include the Final Test in order to see if the student can understand that material. This was a fun assignment that let Martha and I talk about music, something that both of us are highly accostomed to.
I really enjoyed working with a partner on this assignment; not only did it make things easier but it was also nice to be able to collaborate on ideas and work together to create a more effecient and educational webquest. The best part was being able to see the finished product and click all the links and see that they actually worked!! I was glad that I had Martha as a partner and that she was able to use her expertise with Microsoft Frontpage to make sure everything went smoothly.

Second Post

I selected this topic because it is something that I will have to teach after I graduate and start teaching. I beleive that lessons plans, including this one, make the job of the teacher that much easier and less stressful.

SUBJECT
Music

GRADE
6-7

OBJECTIVES
Student will learn specific note names and how to identify these notes on a music staff.

STANDARDS
TEKS 117.33

MATERIALS
Worksheet, projector, computer with Powerpoint, eager students!

PROCEDUES
1) Students will be taught the helpful acronyms Every Good Boy Does Fine, and FACE in order to help them learn and identify the different note names on the treble clef music staff.
2)Students will be taught he acronym Good Boys Do Fine Always and All Cows Eat Grass in order to help them identify and learn the different note names on the bass clef staff.
3) Students will be given an worksheet and be allowed to work together in order to identify note names on the worksheet.
4) Students will be given a homework assignment that will need to be completed by the next class period in order to make sure that all students understand the material presented.

Posting One

The teaching tool that I have chosen is the Grade Book. There are so many different types of grade books, coming in different shapers, sizes, mediums, whatever. Besides the fact that a simple Excel spreadsheet can easily be used as a Gradebook, there are specific software programs that a lot of school use in order to maintain grades and assignments. One of the more difficult aspects of a gradebook is that fact that a lot of older teachers sometimes have trouble figuring out all of the features that the new electronic gradebooks contain. Most software programmers spend a lot of time and effort creating programs that are easy to use and manage so that teacher will be more likely to use their program. This is a positive thing for both the teacher and the programmer; the teacher saves time and energy posting grades, while the programmer makes another sale to a satisfied customer. One of the other important aspects of the electronic notebooks is that a lot of them are web accessible and can be reached anywhere. This gives the teacher the opportunity to work in the comfort of their own home instead of having to spend long hours after the school day is over entering grades in their office. The next two websites contain information on electronic gradebooks and the featurs that come on each one:

http://www.educational-software-directory.net/teacher's/gradebook.html

http://www.gradelog.com/

Presentations 11-2-07

Today's presentations were good as well. Stephen and Heather's presentation had a lot of links and smooth transitions, even though there were some spelling errors that I found quite interesting. Jessica's presentation had a lot of visual pictures and good links, the video was very beneficial, I had no idea that coaches made those highlight videos. It makes a lot of since though; music majors do the same basic thing for college when we apply to music schools. Ryan and Jill's presentation had a lot of neat graphics and smooth transitions. I also like how they were able to incorporate both math and sports into some of their slides and show how these two are definately related to one another. The last presentation I thought was very well prepared but I personally would have gone with a different choice of font color or background picture; some of the slides were difficult to read due to like colors and lack of contrast. Stephen and Kristen did have the only presentation with sound that worked, so good job on that!!

Presentations 10-31-07

So today we saw 3 more presentations, including my own. The first presentation by Nicole and Slywester was very organized and neatly presented. I myself have used the Ebsco search engine before in many of my music classes and have found it very useful and beneficial. I also thought that the video was very interesting and I hope that I will be able to find it on Youtube myself and check out the rest of the video. There were some terms that were not really over my head but just things that I never use in my major so I really did'nt care much to hear about it.
The second presentation by Lauren and Tiffany was one of the best ones that I've seen so far. I did not know that there were so many different websites solely based on child nutrition and basic everyday health. It's good to know that when I have kids they will be introduced to a lot of that material at such a young are and will not have so much to worry about when it comes to personal health and excersice. The DDR videos were also quite hilarious and entertaining as well. It was a good means of implmenting videos into a presentation and entertaining the audience as well.

Presentations, 10-29-07

Today's presentations were good. There is obviously a lot of information online that biology majors could use, whether they become teachers or scientists, whatever. There presentation was able to fully show how you can use all of the Microsoft Office applications to teach biology.
The next presentation by Taneya and Devarous was very informative as well. I had a good idea that videos and cameras were used, but it does make a lot of sense that coaches would use Excel in order to maintain workout records, diets, etc. The football playbook site was also something that I did not know existed; that would obviously be a very helpful site for the beginning coach. Coaches would be able to interact with one another and share new ideas and strategies.

Second Blog

For the multimedia project I made a few slides on music and the different aspects of it that technology has effected. I also found the video clip and added that as well. My partner is Martha Daniel-Dupree, and our basic plan was to split the project in two, complete our slides, and then combine them into one presentation. I spent some time working on it, not too much. Finishing the project was not difficult at all; me and my partner have had everything go pretty smooth while we were working on the project. We will upload the project tonight, for sure. I feel o.k. with it, considering that both of us have very busy schedules. I would have no problem working with Martha again, our mutual association with the Fine Arts made this project that much easier and more enjoyable.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Loren and I am a senior Music Education major. I play the saxophone and am a member of the marching band. I also am a Brother of Kappa Kappa Psi and I am a former Resisdent Assistant. I have about one month left in Commerce before I move to Lewisville so that I can start my student teaching. I am excited to move back to the city, but I know that I will miss my friends here for sure.