Technology Integration Plan

My lesson plan is about critical listening in music and how even something as universal as music cannot be taken for granted. The lesson plan is intended to be used for high school students, and is based around Ann Sharp’s philosophy of a “community of inquiry,” where participants dialogue with each other, raise questions, and form conclusions. The goal of this lesson is for students to learn to think critically about the role of music in different communities, and how their ideas about music should be flexible and open to revision. One of the ways in which students will do this is by researching how music is used in contexts outside of their own culture. Some of the key questions for students to think about are the role of music in culture and community, the importance of music, what makes music “high” quality or “low” quality, whether or not the way music has evolved today is productive for our society, and how music can be used to communicate.

The first row of my matrix is about how students will access the information necessary for them to begin the process of dialogue and research. In order to facilitate discussion about music, the teacher will begin by presenting a lecture about different kinds of music. The lecture will include video and audio presentations of different genres of music and the different roles it plays in various communities. This will be followed by a class discussion of the music, centered around questions such as: Why were some genres familiar and others were not? What qualities of the music enable you to recognize it as music? What were the different functions of music? After the lecture, discussion, and listenings, students will break up into small groups, where they will use computers to research different genres of music. They will be required to come up with a list of at least 3 qualities of music that are common across different genres, and 3 qualities that differ.

In the second row of my matrix, students will begin to analyze and evaluate some of their findings in their research and dialogues. In order to answer some of the questions raised in class discussion, such as the qualities of music and the function of music in different societies, students will do their own personal research to do individual written assignments about these topics. Because their assignments will need to include specific examples of music, cultures, and artists, they will need to use the computer and the Internet to research and put together their data.

The third row of my matrix focuses on the communication of ideas about music and the different findings of students in their individual research. This will include a class discussion of what different students found in their research, as well group presentations. The group presentations will need to be done using software such as Powerpoint or Keynote, so that students can present their findings in a visually clear and impactful way. The presentations will include the students’ reactions to different musical styles, and their individual and collective responses to specific pieces or cultural uses of music. 

The fourth and final row of my matrix focuses on the students’ final production of what they have learned through class discussions, their own research, and their group work. Students will be divided into small groups to do their final presentations. Each group will be assigned a different genre of music from a different culture. Groups must do a presentation about that music, as well as a short musical performance. Groups will have the choice of performing a song from that genre, or composing a song of their own that they believe to be representative of that genre. If they choose the later, they must specify the different musical elements that they used to achieve this. In their presentations, students will choose at least 3 different works of music to present. The music must all be from the same genre or culture, but can be contrasting to each other. Students must explain why they chose those particular songs, and describe the elements of each song. They must give examples of how those songs or that genre of music functions within a particular culture or society, and whether or not they believe that function to be a productive or necessary function. In their presentations, students will be encouraged to use all the technological resources available to them. Students can perform their music using instruments in the classroom such as an electronic keyboard, and in their presentations, they can include audio clips, pictures, music videos, and more.

Link to matrix

Record Players and Music Technology

Today, the most popular and easy to access form of music is digital music. With mp3s and CDs, it is now easier than ever to bring your music collection with you wherever you go and play it from your phone or iPod. Music can be shared instantly, and you have the luxury of purchasing that one favorite song from an album without having to buy the entire album.

            However, one of the first advances in music technology, the record player, is currently experiencing a renewal in popularity. It was initially replaced by CDs and then mp3s, but now more and more artists are also making their music available on vinyl as well as CD and mp3. Popular stores like Urban Outfitters are now selling both vinyl records and record players. So what is it about records that make this “old” technology still relevant?

            My dad recently took it upon himself to restore his record player, which had been his back when records were the main music technology.  He explained to me a lot about how it worked, and it sparked my own interest in this technology. Since then, I’ve been building up my own collection of vinyl records and have really come to appreciate this technology. I acquired a lot of records from an old teacher of mine who was moving, and also found many in thrift stores and used bookstores. I also purchased some albums from more contemporary artists who made their music available on vinyl.

            There are two main reasons that I enjoy the record player for listening to music. One, the sound quality is better – even though older records may be scratched or there is more static and background noise, the sound you get from them is so much more authentic and, in my opinion, better, than music that has been digitized. Even though digitized music may be clearer, I feel like it loses some of the quality and realistic sound that is preserved in vinyl recordings. The other reason I like listening to records is that is forces you to listen to an album in its entirety. I think some of the effect of music is lost when you skip around songs and listen to a few but never hear the album as a whole, as it was intended to be.

          I think that talking about records and possibly using a record player in the classroom would be a really innovative way to talk about the history of music and technology, as well as spark discussions among students about the way we listen to music. It could also be a way to connect with older students by using something that is currently experiencing some popularity and that they may also be interested in.

Music and the iPad

One popular technology that is becoming more frequently used in classrooms is the iPad. At first, I thought giving students iPads was a little extreme and an expensive use of resources. However, as a recent iPad owner myself, I have come to see that this technology does have many valuable and educational uses, especially in my content area of music.

I personally use my iPad often at school in my musical studies, and I have come to see many opportunities for using it in the music classroom. One of the ways in which I use my iPad is during masterclasses. As I listen to each performance, I am able to quickly and easily look up the score on imslp.com for the piece that is being performed. I’ve found that having easy access to the score helps me to get so much more out of the masterclass, because I am able to follow along with the music and see exactly what the teacher is talking about.

I also use my iPad for my personal study of my repertoire. Using imslp.com, I can quickly look up different editions of a piece and compare them. Even though I don’t use the iPad in place of paper sheet music, it is a good way to carry around a library of music easily for travel. If I need to study my music and am not able to bring all my books, the iPad lets me carry around all my scores in one place.

I also use my iPad for some of my classes that require me to print sheet music every week. Instead of wasting paper and ink to print examples that I will only use once for the class, I pull up the PDF on my iPad and use that instead. With iBooks, I can easily store all the PDFs in a collection for a particular class.

With apps such as YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes, I can also look up and listen to many different recordings on my iPad and also pull up the music and follow along simultaneously as I study the score. I can also share music and recordings with others quickly and easily. Other apps such as metronome apps, tuning apps, and keyboard apps are also useful for practicing. Basically, you can carry around all the resources you need to study a piece of music in this one technology.

For schools that are fortunate enough to have the resources to use iPads in their classrooms, I think it is a great investment. Particularly for the music classroom, it provides many different features all in one technology. It saves on paper and ink, and can be useful for students to look at many different pieces of music and access recordings quickly, and store everything in one place.

Roland Fantom-X8 Keyboard

The Roland Fantom-X8 keyboard is more than just a keyboard. In fact, it is listed as not just a keyboard but a Workstation Keyboard, because of its vast capabilities that go beyond a regular electronic keyboard. I am fortunate enough to own one of these, and the technology available through it is amazing. Check it out here!

Just a few of the features listed on the website: 

• 128-voice workstations with an 88-note Progressive Hammer-Action Keyboard
• Seamless integration of audio and MIDI using gorgeous new ROM waves and sampling with realtime timestretch capability
• 8 stereo audio tracks integrated with internal MIDI sequencer
• Color LCD screen - a first in a workstation keyboard! 
• 3 MFX processors, plus dedicated reverb, chorus and mastering processor
• USB port 
• PC card slot for backing up samples and data with up to 1GB capacity
• 4 Line outputs (2 stereo or 4 mono), stereo Line input and 24-bit S/PDIF I/O

The Fantom-X8 offers many features of an electronic keyboard, such as weighted keys, input/output lines, a metronome, and recording capabilities. However, it goes far beyond this. The soundbank is the most extensive I have ever seen on a keyboard, and you can re-create the sounds of any instrument or sound effect imaginable. 

One of the most useful features of this workstation is its recording capabilities. You can record a song and play it back through the keyboard, but then you can edit it, layer it with other tracks, and save it, much like you would do through a computer program. 

The Fantom-X8 also features a color LCD screen, which makes navigating all of its many features a little easier. My personal favorite feature is the option to switch the keyboard to functioning as if it were a grand piano:

This feature allows you to choose from dozens of different piano sounds, but it also has the ability to lower or raise the lid of the piano on the screen, imitating the effect of closing or opening the lid on an actual piano. As a pianist, this option provides me with a great alternative to practicing when I don't have access to a piano. Although playing on a keyboard is never quite the same as playing on a real piano, this comes the closest! 

Even though I have had this keyboard for a few years now, I still feel as though I have barely scratched the surface of its capabilities. Every time I use it, I discover some new feature. If you look at the first picture, you can see that on the right there is also a drum pad (the orange square buttons). This is touch sensitive and can be programmed to record drum tracks, and is the next feature that I want to explore and become more familiar with on this workstation. 

This workstation keyboard is one of the most innovative and powerful keyboards available, and is a wonderful technology not just for pianists but for any musician interested in exploring music through audio and recording technologies. Although it is not quite the same as working on a computer, it provides many of the same capabilities along with something I thinks is very important - the ability to play along on the keyboard while working, allowing you to interact with the music on the instrument at the same as recording and editing. 

Music Notation Software

One of the most useful music technologies is music notation software. For centuries, composers had to write down all of their compositions by hand or with the use of a scribe. Music notation makes notating compositions much easier by allowing you to notate everything on a computer rather than by hand. You can also use an electronic keyboard and hook it up to your computer, and have the software notate what you are playing on the keyboard.

Two of the main leading notation softwares are Finale and Sibelius. Users are usually split between those who are devoted Finale users and those who are devoted Sibelius users. While both programs offer similar features, the layout is different and users may simply prefer one over the other. For me, it is simply a matter of which I used first and became used to, which was Finale. I think for many people it is simply a matter of which program they are more familiar with. I would encourage students and musicians to try out both for a little while before deciding which one they prefer.

Both Finale and Sibelius offer a free 30-day trial of the program, which can be quite useful in determining which software you prefer to use. The software can be downloaded from their websites:

Sibelius: http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html

Finale: http://www.finalemusic.com/

Because I am a Finale user, I will speak to some of that program’s features. However, many people I have talked to have said that Sibelius is easier to use and more intuitive. I have found that Finale can be sometimes time consuming when you need to select each tool before using it. However, this also gives you more freedom to place markings more specifically. So there are positive and negative aspects to both programs, and I know some people who actually use both. The main feature of the program is being able to enter in musical notation and markings for a score. The program has the option of adding in many details, such as dynamic markings, articulation markings, etc. You can also play back what you have entered in so you can hear how it sounds. I would encourage students to download the free trials of either program and play around with them. Sometimes it is easier to hear your composition if you can have the notes played back to you after you enter them in, and it is easy to change or delete notes. Finale and Sibelius are great tools for both amateur and professional musicians, and musical notation programs of some sort should definitely be something that students are introduced to.

Using Google for Music Students

One of the technologies that I discussed in my technology autobiography was Google. I still believe this is one of the most powerful tools of technology available to us, especially as educators, because it can lead to so many other useful resources and discoveries. Something that I have been discovering more as I teach in my private lessons is that because students have access to such personalized technologies like smartphones, iTouches, and laptops, they tend to want to explore things on their own and through technology. I try to incorporate this into my lessons by encouraging students to look up music on Google for themselves. Aside from watching Youtube clips of songs they are working on, which I also encourage, I want students to learn how to use Google for their own personal discovery and enjoyment of music.

I teach both piano and guitar, and for my guitar students, one of the biggest challenges I have faced is their lack of motivation. Of course, I experience this with my piano students as well, but it seems to be more from the guitar students, which caused me to try to figure out why this was the case. After talking with several of my students, I came to realize what one the problems was. Many of my students were being forced by the parents to learn an instrument, and so they chose guitar, wanting to learn all the pop and rock songs and play only chords. Many of them are not interested in learning music notation, theory, or more classically-oriented music that requires the technical skills of fingerwork and picking. But of course, for many of their parents, this is what they want their child to be learning – and then they can learn the chords. The even bigger challenge is that many of the guitar methods books have the same approach, introducing music reading, theory, and melodic material long before they touch on chords.

What I’ve found to be a good method in response to this issue is to teach chords to students along with the other material from the beginning. This keeps their interest and allows them to make connections between the chords in the pop songs they want to learn and music theory. When they learn chords, I also have them choose their own songs to learn along with their lesson material. I show them how if go to Google and type “-insert song title- guitar chords” they can find easy chords and tabs for almost any song, print it out, and try it on their own. It’s been very rewarding as a teacher to see how excited some students about this discovery. I had one student come to his next lesson with four or five songs printed out that he had found and started learning. I also encourage my piano students to look for familiar songs they are interested in learning, and I’ve found that taking advantage of technology to point students in the direction of learning and discovering on their own gives them some independence to make their own choices and have a say in their learning.

Two of the sites I often use for students:

http://www.makingmusicfun.net/

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/

Collaboration Canvas

The canvas that I chose to remix was about the changing ideologies of race, culture, and demographics. For my content area, I added a specific element of culture, music-making, to this topic. I thought that this would be a good way to bridge these two different content areas by taking the broader topic of race and culture and choosing one aspect of that to focus on. The original canvas included some additional links about issues of discrimination, which I would explore through musical stereotypes and the political aspects of certain music. In the image gallery of the original canvas, there were several images of people from different cultures. When creating my image gallery, I used pictures of people from different cultures as well, but ones that included their instruments. The original canvas also focused on demographics, and I thought that a good way to explore this through music would be to talk about how the demographics of where you live and the cultures you are exposed to affect your musical choices and awareness. One of the images in my gallery shows the musical preferences of different demographics, which I thought would be an interesting study that combined elements of both units. Overall, my goal with this remixed canvas was to use my content area of music as a way to explore a more specific aspect of culture, race, and demographics, and to use the topic of race and culture to explore different music of the world and how it affects culture.

Link to canvas:
http://www.play.annenberginnovationlab.org/play2.0/challenge.php?idChallenge=2651&mode=view#network6

Teoria

As a teacher, there are many ways in which we can encourage students to expand their musical knowledge outside of the classroom. Particularly if you find yourself in a large classroom setting, or with a limited amount of time and/or resources, technology on the web is a great direction to point students in for extra help. I know that as a student myself I have sometimes utilized such resources in order to better understand something I was learning in class. 

One such resource is teoria.com, which is a music theory website. On this site, you can read about different tutorials to help explain music theory, as well as find exercises to help practice music theory and ear training skills. These exercises are one of the most helpful resources on this site, because they facilitate what often happens in class. However, what happens in class may leave many students feeling left behind or as though they still need more practice. By using the web exercises, students can move at their own pace and repeat something as many times as they need to.

For example, when I was first working on rhythmic dictation, I found it hard to do in class and would lose my place in the dictation and end up not being able to write down anything. Because the teacher didn’t have time to help everyone individually, she often didn’t check our work and just moved on to the next topic, not realizing that many of us weren’t able to do the exercise. So in order to help ourselves improve, my friend and I would sit down outside of class and practice doing the exercises on Teoria that were similar to the ones we did in class, and it helped us enormously. There are some skills that really do just require repetition and practice, and unfortunately class times and sizes do not always allow for this. Making students aware of outside resources like Teoria can be a great help for them to practice what was done in class and improve at their own pace.

Unit Plan Canvas

My unit plan is about barriers in communication, specifically explored through the arts. What I wanted to do was make connections between a similar theme in music, film, and literature. These arts are all connected - for instance, the lyrics in a song can be compared with the words of a poem and the dialogue of a film, or album artwork can be compared with the visual images of film - there are many possibilities. 
In creating my canvas, I wanted to show how the Pink Floyd's song "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" was connected visually to their film "The Wall." I did this by including images from their album cover and film cover, as well as the music video for their song. I made two galleries, one for Pink Floyd and one for Robert Frost and "Mending Wall," because I wanted there to be some visual representations for both subjects. 
For additional reading, I included a link to an in-depth analysis of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” the full text of Frost’s poem “Mending Wall,” and some writings on “Mending Wall.” I also included the link to Pink Floyd’s film “The Wall” on IMDb.com because I thought it would be useful for students to read about the film in the same way they would for any other movie they were interested in. I included a link to The Beatles’ song “Eleanor Rigby” because this is an additional song that I would explore later on in the unit as a picture of isolation.


Link to canvas:
http://www.play.annenberginnovationlab.org/play2.0/challenge.php?idChallenge=2221&mode=view#network6

Alternative Ways of Music Making

In one of my other classes, I learned about some valuable technologies for non-traditional music making. Two of them, AUMI (Adaptive Use Musical Instruments) and Skoog, were developed to give children with disabilities a way to make music as well. The technology that I saw on these different websites was incredibly encouraging to me. As a teacher, one of the most important things to me is that my students enjoy music making. Many teachers push their students towards memorizing pieces and entering competitions, learning notes and theory, but for me, that isn’t what I feel the priority should necessarily be. Because I’ve had many students who are taking lessons only because their parents are making them, I want to help them grow to enjoy the experience, even if it wasn’t their choice initially. Even though that is a different scenario than what some of these technologies were developed for, my philosophy of music making is still the same. It should be accessible to everyone, not restricted to traditional instruments and music notation. I believe those are important, but if they are restricting or excluding someone from the experience of making music, then I believe alternative ways should be explored.

The Skoog is a box that can be plugged in a USB port. It is soft and squeezable, and students can use any part of their body to touch, twist, push, or tap the Skoog to create music through the software in the computer that it is hooked up to. Because it is so versatile, it accommodates students with a wide range of physical and mental disabilities, allowing them to create and respond to music through their own individual movements. The AUMI software is an interface that also allows music to be produced through movements and gestures. One of the descriptions on the AUMI website that I really appreciated said, “This is an entry to improvisation rather than ‘hitting the right notes’ or playing set pieces of music. Instead, the software uses music as a way for participants to express a range of affects, both by themselves and in response to, or in conversation with, others.” I think improvisation and expression can unfortunately sometimes get overlooked in traditional musical instruction, but these are integral to music making. Especially for those without formal music training or with disabilities that make playing traditional instruments difficult, these different music technologies make it possible for them to still express and experience some of the important elements of music, such as communication and expression. I would look for ways to implement these technologies in a classroom, whether it be to assist students with disabilities or to just help students experience music in a non-traditional way and engage them in exploring new ways to improvise and express themselves through music and technology.

Skoog: http://www.skoogmusic.com/

AUMI: http://deeplistening.org/site/adaptiveuse

Technology & Pedagogy

I chose the lesson plan “Mending Walls: Barriers in Communications” because I thought it started out by making a great connection between a song by Pink Floyd, “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” and their movie “The Wall.” I think this is a good example of incorporating two different forms of media, music and film, into a lesson. The main teaching strategy used is group discussion. I think this would be effective for the main goals of the lesson, because much of the unit is centered around discovering meaning, making interpretations, and comparing ideas. However, I think that there should be included some aspect of a lecture or presentation on the part of the teacher, because each student is coming from a different understanding of the background of the song and the film, or may have no previous knowledge of either. Setting up some sort of common ground of a basic explanation of the song and the film may be helpful before embarking on the group discussions. The technologies required would be the CD or mp3 recording of the music, a CD player or mp3 player and speakers, the DVD or recording of the film, and a movie projector to play the film. I think that these technologies support the goals of the lesson well. On their own, the technologies do not carry as much pedagogical significance, as they may be viewed as technologies for every day use, but used in this way they become an important supplement to the instructional goals. Rather than just reading lyrics or discussing a movie, students are able to actually hear the song and watch the film. Part of the unit involved reading Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall,” so I think that making the distinction between only reading and reading lyrics while listening to a song provides variety in the instruction. Overall, I believe that the goal of discussing the concept of barriers would be effectively achieved through group discussion centered around listening to songs, reading and watching film.

Link to spreadsheet

Balancing the Use of a Smartboard

For the past few weeks, I have been observing and helping to teach in a music classroom in an elementary school. The teacher that I am observing and working with does a great job of integrating technology into her classroom. The primary technology that she uses is the Smartboard. What I like about the way that she incorporates the Smartboard into her lessons is that she does it in a way that complements rather than takes over the lesson. Instead of having the Smartboard and all of its features and innovations distract or overshadow the goals of the lesson, the teacher uses it as just another tool to help her accomplish those goals. For instance, she sometimes uses it to simply display a picture that has to do with the song the students are learning, so that they have a visual aid in the background to look at. Other times, she uses it in place of a whiteboard, to record student responses or write new words on it. When the occasion is appropriate, the teacher uses the Smartboard to show slides or play music.

Because this teacher only has each class for 40 minutes once a week, she has many things that she needs to accomplish in a small window of time. What I think is particularly effective about this balanced approach in using the Smartboard is the fact that because it is simply a supplement to the lesson, the transitions between the use of the technology and the other classroom activities are seamless. She has everything already set up before classes begin, so that she can maneuver quickly around the different tabs on the Smartboard without wasting time. She also knows exactly how to use it, so that even if it goes to sleep or shuts down during another part of the lesson where it isn’t being used, she can get it started up again while still talking and remaining in control of the class.

What I really appreciated about this teacher's use of technology in this classroom is that she enables the students to participate a little bit in using the Smartboard. I think that this is important because it gives the students a chance to experience this technology that they may someday be using, and it is something that is exciting and a privilege for them. For one of the attendance exercises that she does, the teacher chooses a student to keep a tally on the Smartboard of who sings back correctly to her when she does roll call. The student gets to stand in the front of the class at the Smartboard with the stylus, and the teacher lets the student choose from the color palate in the program which color they would like to write with. I thought that this was a creative way to involve students in using technology and also in the activities, giving them the opportunity to have a fun leadership role. Overall, I found this teacher’s use of the Smartboard to be a great example of a balanced and effective approach to using technology in the music classroom.

Using Technology in the Music Classroom

As educators, I think that it is important to recognize that nearly all of your students probably use technology in most of their daily life. Because of this, teachers should strive to find ways to incorporate technology in the classroom as a way of meeting students where they are and finding ways to relate to them. One of the ways students use technology is as a main source of communication. One way to capitalize on this is by choosing to use some form of technology to remind students of assignments or to supplement class materials. This can help you greatly in communicating with students outside the classroom and in keeping them in touch with what they are studying.

Another way to use technology specifically in the music classroom is in composition. When I was in high school, I did a lot of work using GarageBand, as well as doing some studio work on my own using a Yamaha MO8 Keyboard/Workstation. I used GarageBand and Finale to notate my music, and the MO8 to either make recordings of music I had already studied or to work on compositions for specific instruments or projects. I have observed several music classrooms where they used either GarageBand or Mixcraft as part of a lesson, and taught students how to use these programs to create their own pieces. I think this is a great way to encourage students to use technology in their music making. It is great to see students playing around on their instrument either on their own or with others, but with technology students can also learn how to record the songs they make or notate them so that they are preserved.

Teachers can also use music technologies to encourage students to experiment with different sounds and ideas without the restrictions of Western notation and the previous knowledge it requires. In the traditional Western form of music, the emphasis is on notation and composing for a specific instrument. But with some of the new technology that is out there, such as touch pads or keyboards that light up and use other visual cues other than music notation, music can be more accessible for all students, not just those well-versed in notation and theory.

History of Technology in Music Education

The radio made music accessible in every day life, with the power to educate and introduce people to new and varied music.

Youtube and the Classroom

           Something that I’ve noticed in the past few years of my education is the growing use of Youtube in the classroom. I think this has been one of the most influential and useful innovations in education. I don’t even remember Youtube being used that much in my freshman year of college, but I’ve noticed its use growing more and more as I’ve reached my senior year, and not just at the college level, but also in public education and in my own private lessons. The things you can find on Youtube are endless – music, TV clips, how-to videos – you name it. As teachers, this is something we should capitalize on. Not only does it help us to expand our own knowledge, but it also allows us to present information to students in a new way. I know as a student myself that often it is easier and more engaging for me to watch a video clip than to listen to a teacher lecture. Showing Youtube videos in class is a great way to get students’ attention as well as break up the flow of information.

            For my content area of music, Youtube is especially helpful in discovering multiple recordings of the same piece. It’s extremely valuable for me as a musician and performer to have free access to different interpretations of the same piece of music by musicians around the world, both amateur and professional. Youtube has changed the way we listen to music. Instead of having to go out and buy a recording, you can just look up the song instantly and hear it. This does have its drawbacks, because often the quality is diminished or the content may be incomplete. But overall, it’s a great way to expand musical knowledge. I know for me personally, I couldn’t afford to be constantly buying new recordings or albums every time I needed to learn a piece or wanted to listen to a symphony. The other great aspect of this is that there is a visual component to the performance. You can watch an orchestra performing a work, instead of just hearing it, and you can see the different instruments and the conductor’s expressions. One of the other ways I’ve seen Youtube videos used for music is having the score as the video so that you can follow along with the music. My music history teacher has used this in class before, which I’ve found greatly increases my attention and adds to my understanding of the piece, especially if I’m hearing it for the first time.

            As an educator, I think it’s really important to recognize all the valuable opportunities that Youtube presents and take advantage of it. I’ve even used Youtube in my private piano and guitar lessons to show students new songs. I’ve also used it to further my own education – I only took about a year of guitar lessons, and the rest of my knowledge has been self-taught, and Youtube has played an influential role in that. For visual learners like myself, simply seeing someone demonstrate something instead of reading about it makes all the difference in the world. In the future, I hope to incorporate Youtube into my classroom. One thing I want to be careful about, which I have learned from watching other teachers make this mistake, is making sure that I know how to use the technology beforehand! It’s very distracting when a professor puts a Youtube clip in a powerpoint and then begins to lecture, only to find that the link is broken, or wasn’t embedded properly in the powerpoint, and so they either spend too much time trying to get it work, or skip it altogether. Either way, this detracts from the lesson. So that is something I want to be careful about, not just for Youtube for other technologies as well – making sure that I know what I’m doing before I get up in front of students to teach. But other than the technological issues that may come up with any technology, Youtube is a valuable resource for teachers – both in the classroom and in furthering their own education.

            

Technology Autobiography

The three most influential technologies in my life so far are my cell phone (in particular my iPhone), Facebook, and Google. The cell phone has played a huge role in shaping my life and the way I communicate. Especially with texting, it’s enabled me to communicate more quickly and efficiently. Like some of the users in the video, I’ve found that texting is often easier and preferred than talking on the phone. It’s improved my relationship with my family; because I no longer live at home and we as a family are not big on talking on the phone, texting has been a way for us to stay in touch. Now that I have an iPhone, I use it for almost everything I need on a daily basis - and while I don’t want to be so attached to a piece of technology, I’ve become more and more dependent on it simply because of its convenience and all-encompassing features.

Facebook has been a part of my life for several years, and for better or worse, it has definitely shaped it. One the best things about Facebook is that it has allowed me to reconnect with many old friends that I’d lost touch with, and to keep in touch with friends as we all went off to different colleges and with family members who live far away. I also find out a lot of information through Facebook – either by posts shared by my friends, or updates from pages that I’ve liked. However, one of the negative aspects of Facebook is how much information is really shared on this website. I constantly check my privacy settings and really try to evaluate what I share or post, because I find myself seeing things on my news feed or on people’s profiles that bother me because I feel that it’s too much information – home addresses, check-ins (where you can see exactly where someone is at the present time), phone numbers, etc.

I put Google as the other influential technology in my life instead of the Internet in general because I realized that I mostly use the internet to find out information. Whenever I have a question or want to find something out, I immediately google it (made even easier with my iPhone). Google opens up a huge range of possibilities where I can find so much information on any subject. One of the ways I use Google is in my private music lessons. I encourage my older students to explore music on their own and learn independently by googling the lyrics and chords for popular songs they like, or looking up music on youtube. However, while I think Google is a wonderful way of finding out information quickly and concisely, I also think that it can hinder people, particularly kids growing up not knowing anything different, from learning how to research in depth on their own and knowing how to spot incorrect or misleading information. I’ve also seen a tendency developing in myself to gloss over information, looking for the main point or answer and then neglecting all the details. I’ve become less patient, because Google allows me to get an answer to instantaneously. I’ve found that it’s harder for me now to focus on reading a textbook, because I just want to get the main idea instantly, the way I do when googling something.

Many of the young people in the video mentioned their various technologies as being a necessity, and a tool to facilitate communication. I find myself using my technologies in this way as well – and I consider it more of a necessity now than I would have a few years ago. Some of the users in the video mentioned that technology made them better learners, or that they used it for learning everything. I personally am not at that point yet - I still prefer to read a book, and learn better by taking notes and doing things by hand and printing things out. However, I think technology does aid my learning in many ways, giving me a different perspective and helping me to access information quickly and easily.