Week 5 Reflection

I found the chapter on instructional design very interesting. Teachers at my school were introduced the concept of backward design during a professional duty day. I only wrote a few lesson plans in this manner because it was not required of teachers and it was more time consuming to redevelop all of my lesson plans in this way. However, it is a very effective way to plan for instruction because it focuses the lesson on the learning standards and objectives and then the type of assessments and activities are planned. This type of lesson planning requires a lot of thought and creativity and it is easy to fall back on the habit of just following the method book page by page or rehearsing the same songs year after year. This chapter has inspired me to rethink and reevaluate my lesson planning.

 I also realized that I could be doing so much more with my students by incorporating technology into my instruction. Constructivism is the idea that students learn by contextualizing, acting, socializing, and reflecting (Bauer, 2014). Students are able to learn in all these ways on a daily basis in the music classroom, even without the use of technology. However, technology is able to facilitate students’ learning in a constructivist manner. Project-based learning is a perfect way to incorporate technology and provide students with “authentic, real-world learning activities.” I have never heard about WebQuests before taking this course but now that I have become familiar with what they are and how they will benefit my students I am very excited about developing my own WebQuests for my classes. Even though the academic teachers get priority over the use of the mobile labs I know I will be able to have occasional use of the laptops throughout the year. In fact I am planning on talking with my Principal about designating one mobile lab for the enrichment classes to share. I was also going to discuss with him the possibility of keeping one computer lab to use as a midi lab and order midi cables for the keyboards but I am doubtful that this will happen. One technology related activity that is mentioned in the book that I have done with my students is to use the interactive whiteboard to play games. I have a lot of thinking and planning to do to create a 21^st century classroom in which students use technology to assist in their creative, collaborative, critical thinking, and communicative skills. This task is a little overwhelming to think about now but I will accomplish my goal by adding one or two technology related activities each year.

Before I add items to my WebQuest project I am going to have to read more about the copyright laws. Bauer’s explanation of fair use, public domain, and creative commons was a little confusing so I will have to investigate further and discover what items fall under each category. It has made me a little reluctant to add web-based material to my project. The author suggests that the best option is to use your own pictures, compositions, and audio recordings in a project. I would like to have my students complete one WebQuest before the end of the school year so that I may observe their reactions and attitude toward this type of project, the interactions that occur during the project, and the quality of their final products. All of this will help me to determine how I may use WebQuests in the future and if I need to revise any parts of the project.

Reference:

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