Educational Technology Philosophy Statement
I believe that learning is the most effective when it is fun. I believe learning becomes fun when it is able to hold interest and engage the learner. I believe that technology has always been the vehicle for this kind of learning.
Music and technology go hand in hand. Just like the ever changing landscape of technology, music is ever evolving, ever growing, ever moving with the times. A truly effective 21st century music program cannot exist without using new and innovative technological advances to instruct and create.
I am excited to try out new technologies in my classroom. With the right connections, video conferencing via the web could connect my fifth grade choir in Kansas to a children’s choir in India, allowing us to share performances and maybe even musical ideas. Using the Finale music notation software on the Smart Board will allow me to compose with my students, and even allow them to come up and manipulate notes. Karaoke Revolution is a game right now that I believe has great potential. I have no idea of knowing what it will evolve into in the next five years but I would like to see it geared more towards becoming a serious singing instructional tool. For now, though, I still plan on using it as it is to give students a good visual representation of pitch and basic music notation. For that matter, Dance Dance Revolution would be an equally effective tool to establish beat and rhythm using movement. The internet is continually becoming a wealth of instructional software. There are websites to help students develop perfect pitch, learn simple and complex intervals, music theory, and more. Youtube.com and Songza.com are two websites where students can access performances of famous opera and classical singers that have been unattainable for years.
With so many different new ways to learn about music notation, performance, and history, no conscious music teacher these days has an excuse for their students not learning. I hope to continue to grow in my musical abilities and I believe technology will help me do just that. How could I rob my students of that very opportunity?
