Module 6

The reading of Module 6 was perhaps one of the more engaging activities this week for me.  Copyright Laws, Assistive Technologies, Creative Commons, Sequence of Backwards Design and National Education Technology Standards for Students were among the most stand-out topics for me.  Since  copyright issues being handled in the courtroom is a common practice, I always thought that there had to be some form of official documentation to prove ownership of copyright.  However, according to the reading this week, when you create a work you automatically own the copyright to it.  I learned that the range of assistive technologies extends from "low tech" to "high tech" and both can be used with students who have disabilities and that the intricacies surrounding the legalities and structure of creative works meant to be used and shared was interesting, especially following the copyright section. After reading the sequence of Backwards Design I realized that this is the way I was taught to design lessons and I did not realize there was anything "backwards" about it.  Most thought provoking in the text for me however was the NETS-S position on music education that just using technology in the classroom is not enough.  They state that students need to use the technology to analyze, evaluate and explore.  Though we are discussing the possibilities of including technology in the classroom, I can honestly say that I have not thought about the National standards for technology as a subject area.  This leads me back on the fence about having separate music technology classes so that all standards can be addressed.

This week, we were also challenged to propose an outline for a WebQuest Project. I decided that the title of my WebQuest Project will be “Careers in the Modern World of Music”. The setting will be for a general music classroom and the intended grade level is 8^th grade students. Students will give a live report of five careers available in the current music industry for the evening news.  They will be instructed to not include the careers of an actual performer (singer or musician).  Students will have three days of class time to complete the tasks.  Students will be arranged in research groups of four.  They will be referred to as, “the music news crew” and will have the task of reporting live
 on the evening news regarding the current job opportunities in the music industry.  The first part of the project will be centered on accumulation of knowledge.  The second part will be focused on assembling the information acquired individually and arranging it together in a logical order as a team. The final part of the project will be to compose the paper and “sketch” the final presentation.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across an article regarding new music technology that was very interesting and I would like to share it this week in my blog. Just click on the link below to read the article.

 "A piece of technolgy that Makes Listening to Jazz Better"