Technology Assisted Music Learning Development, Module 1

This week's objectives were as follows:

•  Describe the significance of technology in today's world and people's lives.
•  Discuss the role of technology in general education.
•  Provide examples of Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) in music education.
•  Establish a digital Personal Learning Network

The first three objectives are the same objectives as in the textbook for this course in Chapter 1 (Bauer, 2014). Therefore, they were covered in one of our reading assignments this week. What I found most interesting in this reading was the discussion of the nature of teaching; the fact that there is no prescribed method of teaching any subject, and certainly not music. Inclusion of technology in teaching music, therefore, remains an ineluctably continuous evolution of process and acquisition of content based on a ever-changing audience, setting, and access to tools. Bauer states that

Teaching environments are contextual and always changing. Recipes or algorithms for teaching, step-by-step approaches that are guaranteed to work for all students, in all classroom environments, and at all times, simply do not exist. Instead, skilled educators constantly adapt and adjust classroom activities "in the moment" as they monitor and react to the ongoing dynamic of the teaching-learning process. (p. 10)

Continuing in this vein, Bauer (2014, p. 12) introduces us to "Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK)" as developed by Mishra and Koehler (2008). In general terms, TPACK represents the overlapping of technology, teaching strategies, and content knowledge as they are applied in everyday teaching. For the music teacher, Bauer states the following: "Due to the protean nature of technology, an essential component of TPACK is a disposition of adaptive expertise for the integration of technology into music teaching and learning" (p. 16). Although I believe it is true that technology continues to evolve at an exponentially rapid rate, the environment of teaching in public schools in the U.S. remains in a constant state of flux in many aspects, and music itself remains perdurable, perhaps even in the larger sense of seeking meaning in life. A persistent state of transformation remains axiomatic when discussing TPACK.

The fourth objective, establishment of a digital personal learning network (PLN), has been a tool that I have needed for some time. When I first began this assignment, I followed the steps listed. I reached the step of reading an article by Bauer (2010). I used this article as my step-by-step instructions of how to establish my PLN. However, when I reached the point in the article in which it describes using Google Reader (p. 39), I learned that Google Reader was discontinued. So I went in search of an RSS reader for my iMac. The three that I attempted to use would not work on my preferred browser (Firefox), so after reaching a high level of frustration with this assignment, I posted a question on the ‘General Discussions’ board asking which RSS reader others who use Macs are using. Dr. Bauer, our professor, pointed me to Feedler. Indeed, if I had continued reading the instructions included in the course materials provided, I would have immediately found the statement that since Google Reader was discontinued, he recommended that we use Feedler.

Unfortunately, the approximately three hours per day for three contiguous days that I spent trying to resolve this issue before I learned of Feedler caused me to become behind my appointed homework schedule for the week. In other words, it was quite a bit of wasted time during a week during which I had no flexibility. Needless to say, I chastised myself for not reading all of the directions before beginning the assignment.

Once my PLN was established, I found myself addicted to the veritable plethora of information at my fingertips. Again, I found myself spending an inordinate amount of time perusing various topics, websites, and blogs. I reverted to my former severely un-self-disciplined self and ignored professional and personal responsibilities. After my discussion with Dr. Bauer on Sunday afternoon, I remembered that I am capable of self-discipline when I wish to be. Nevertheless, the remembrance came just a bit too late.

Typically when I write blogs for coursework, I ponder and incubate during the course of the week’s work, jotting notes of ideas that I want to explore further in my blog and such. Even though I did have that discipline of blogging for coursework in the back of my mind during the course of working through assignments this past week, it was far less formal that it typically is, and the resulting product is not what I wanted it to be. I’m sure that my blogging assignments will improve after my experiences this week.




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References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York: Oxford University Press.

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2008). Introducing technological pedagogical knowledge. In AACTE (Eds), The handbook of technological pedagogical content knowledge for educators. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group fr the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.