BP8_Links to Comments

Follow this link to see my comments on Dana's Blog post about podcasting with GarageBand.













Follow this link to see my comments on LaKeshia's post on Khan Academy.

Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario (RILS)

Composing and Sharing through Edublogs
Brief Overview
Students will create a musical composition entitled "Pachelbel Loops", based on the 8-note pattern used in Pachelbel's Canon in D. The composition will be shared with classmates as well as a person in the music industry for review, and adjusted to make a final mp3 and blog post.

Target Audience
8th Grade Electronic Music Class

Materials
Computer Lab with Acoustica Mixcraft installed
Edublogs account

Objectives
At the end of this scenario the learner will be able to:

• Create a musical composition with specific parameters
• Apply specific musical terms and concepts to their composition
• Analyze other songs to compare the use of the same melody/bass line
• Evaluate classmates' compositions and offer suggestions on style, transitions, or effects
• Synthesize suggestions from teacher, classmates, and expert to construct or adjust their compositions

Procedure

• Introduce Pachelbel's Canon in D by playing the piece
• Play video Pachelbel Rant (edited) for students demonstrating the use of the melody and bass line throughout history, including current popular music
• Discuss musical form "theme and variations"
• Create a Mixcraft project entitled "Pachelbel Loops"
• Using the musical typing feature, record the following whole notes into the first track - CGAEFCFG
• In the second track, improvise and record a melody using half notes that complement the bass line
• In the third track, improvise and record a melody using quarter notes that complement the first two tracks
• Choose a style/genre for the composition
• Add a beat from the loop library into the composition
• Change the voice of tracks 1-3 to preferred instruments
• Adjust the tempo to your preferred speed
• Adjust audio levels and add appropriate compressor effect
• Mixdown to mp3
• Post to student blog (on Edublogs), post entitled "Pachelbel Loops Draft" - include mp3 and 2-3 sentences describing the style of your piece along with any challenges or successes you had in improvising or creating your project so far.
• Comment on at least 2 classmates' blogs - give positive feedback and suggestions to consider for improvement
• Read comments (including teacher and guest musician), go back into project and make adjustments
• Create new blog post entitled "Pachelbel Loops Final"
• Write a paragraph about the journey throughout the composition, and include the following: Style/genre used, Tempo of the piece, Struggles you had throughout the process, Comments or advice you received

Web 2.0 Tool

Edublogs is a blogging tool that is secure, controlled, and easily monitored by a teacher. Student pages are connected with one another for easy viewing, commenting, and collaboration.

Social Participation/Social Learning

Students will interact with one another via Edublogs. Upon listening to a classmate's composition, students will comment on the work, offering positive comments and suggestions for improvement. In addition, another adult in the music industry will also listen and comment on student work, offering practical advice for students to improve on.

Making Connections

The learner will be using previous knowledge of the application Mixcraft, musical form, and special effects to create this new project. The knowledge that will be attained from this project includes a new form (theme and variations) and making tempo changes throughout the composition. The relevance to the target audience is that they will have a better understanding of how music is created and produced an will also have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the music they listen to. The target audience of the project will be local (through sharing with classmates) as well as more global with the inclusion of a music industry  representative.

Create/Produce

The end products from this RILS are an mp3 and blog post about the student's composition. These products will be shared through their student blog.

Assessment

Reflection

Students will reflect on their project by creating a blog post including an mp3 of their composition and a paragraph describing their journey they went through in creating it. As an educator, it is necessary to review blog posts, comments, and final products to evaluate the success of the RILS. Upon reviewing student created products, the educator can adjust the RILS to better differentiate for the next time the RILS is presented.

PE5_Edublogs

I'm two days into really exploring Edublogs and I've discovered so much more! First, I have already found a solution to one of my previous issues in my last blog post. I mentioned how much time it took to link students' blogs together - now I see that I can change the privacy status of the blog where it is still private except for people who are logged in to Edublogs.

There are other options, but I feel this is the best option for my students. After all, the student links are not currently posted anywhere, and only classmates (or anyone I invite) can access their sites. There is also an option to post Edublog links to the Edublogs directory to broaden the student's audience if we choose to do so in the future.

A feature I've just discovered an am excited to try is embedding. It is very easy to embed video, quizzes, polls, and slides into a post. I tried embedding a survey into my technology class blog, and I was able to do it very quickly. I found an online survey, poll, and quiz generator called BooRoo and created a free account. Next, I created a quick poll to see what style of music students prefer to listen to. From there, I was able to get an embed code, which I copied and pasted into the HTML editing mode (which is just a click of a tab, even on Blogger), and published. When someone responds to the poll, they instantly see the results of the poll thus far. This is the survey I created - go ahead and take it!

What style/genre music do you prefer to listen to?

Rock

Rap

Pop

Alternative

View resultsVote Now

Create an online survey quiz or web poll

Rock0%

Rap0%

Pop0%

Alternative0%

Other: (Please specify)0%

Create an online survey quiz or web poll

I hope to use this feature in my RILS project with my students as a way for them to quickly respond to a classmate's post without necessarily having to make a comment.

PE4_Edublogs

The Web 2.0 tool that I am using for my Relevant Innovative Learning Scenario (RILS) is Edublogs. Edublogs is a safe and secure blogging tool to use in schools. Because of the education content that is on Edublogs, this site is typically not blocked by schools, making it an easily accessible tool to utilize in the classroom. I am in the learning stage of Edublogs, trying to figure out all the ins and outs of the site. Since this is the first time I am using it, I created and set-up each students' blog myself. With an educator account, a teacher can create as many student blogs as needed. As I created each account, I had the ability to make myself a co-administrator of the blog so I could manage inappropriate content or simply change the settings within each blog.

My educator dashboard allows me access to every student's blog.

The next step was particularly time consuming for me, which was linking each blog together so students could view, comment, and critique each other's blogs. I think that because my school has a premium account, any site I create is private; therefore I had to go into each student's settings and add every student as a subscriber, THEN create a link for every student's blog under their "links" category. I also had to check their "discussion" setting to make sure comments were enabled and automatically approved. I'm not sure if there is an easier way to accomplish off of that. In the future, after I create each blog, I will have the students adjust their own settings to save time. In order for my RILS to run smoothly and timely, I wanted to make sure the blogs were up and working properly.

Part of the discussion settings - the default was set to have to approve every comment before posting.

Now that every student's blog is up and running, we can focus on the purpose of the blog - to act as a portfolio of student's musical compositions and for classmates (and maybe eventually the world) to listen, comment, and critique.  I can't wait to see the results of this RILS!

BP7_Schoology Video

BP6_Link to Erin's Blog

Click here to see Erin's post (and my comments) about Prezi.  It's a great alternative for creating presentations.

BP5_Link to Dana's Blog

Click here to see Dana's post (and my comments) about Diigo.  It's a great post about how to use the site.

BP4_Taxedo

Tagxedo is a tool that creates word clouds and groups them together.  What makes Tagxedo different from other Web 2.0 tools (like Wordle) is that these word clouds can be placed into shapes and pictures.  The words in the cloud are various sizes based on the frequency the word is used in the text.  To create a Tagxedo, take words from a source (document, web page or text box), add the colors you like, select the font(s), choose a shape (or upload your own JPG), and voilà - you have a Tagxedo!

I was able to quickly make my own Tagxedo by using Full Sail University's Education Media Design and Technology page, copying the URL into the webpage selection box.  I imported the Full Sail logo, and Tagxedo put everything together.

I could see using this tool in the classroom a few different ways.  It could be a unique way to display vocabulary words in the shape of the subject being studied.  It would also be interesting to create a Tagxedo of a research paper or speech to see keywords that are most commonly used.  Another way to use Tagxedo could be to display responses from a poll.  Really, there are so many ways this tool could be used in the classroom.  I am excited to use this with my music students to demonstrate vocabulary terms!

PE3_iMovie

Ta-da!  My first lynda.com training completed!  At first I really didn't think this would be beneficial.  After all, if the training is nearly 3 1/2 hours, it must really be covering basics very slowly (it did state it was beginner level too).  Even though the first 45 minutes was a bit redundant for me, the remainder of the training was invaluable for me.  I can't wait to view other lynda.com tutorials to learn more about the awesome programs I received in Full Sail University's Launch Box.  If I can only find the time now!!!

PE2_iMovie

Before watching the lynda.com tutorial on iMovie, my method of inserting audio was very different.  After creating my video, I would import it into GarageBand, create or edit the audio, then import the GB file back into iMovie.  Now that I've learned more about the audio features of iMovie, I've discovered that I'm only increasing the amount of work that I'm doing.  Many of the audio features included in GB are also in iMovie - ducking, fade ins and outs, adjusting clip volume.  Even the same music samples from GB are also available in iMovie, which is a huge "DUH!" moment for me - I shouldn't doubt the ease and convenience of the iLife suite!

PE1_iMovie

I recently started a lynda.com tutorial on iMovie, and I have to say I am truly amazed at everything it can do!  I have used iMovie for years and thought I knew enough about the program to accomplish what I needed to do - boy was I wrong!  While it's true that I already knew a lot about the basics of the program, I am learning some really neat tricks and tips to make my videos even better!

The first trick I learned while watching the tutorial was how to organize my clips better.  As I am creating more videos in both my personal and professional environment, it will be very beneficial to label my clips and include keywords to more easily identify them to use later.  There is also a people finder feature that will also help me in organizing and finding my clips with ease.

As you can see, there are pre-set keyword filters, but you can also create your own.  I am looking forward to start using this feature in iMovie!

BP2_Schoology

A Web 2.0 tool that my school has recently started using is Schoology.  This is a web-based virtual learning environment whose format is very similar to Facebook.

In Schoology I create classes and add students.  From there, I can post assignments, documents and handouts that I use in class, and create discussions.  Students can upload work to me via a dropbox within the program, which is a great way to keep student work in a central location.  I can also grade assignments and return them electronically to students.

This is my main page when I log into Schoology, where I have my recent posts, a calendar of upcoming events, and a list of my courses.  I have found it very valuable to post videos, especially YouTube (since they are blocked at school) for my students so they can watch them at home.

A great feature on Schoology is the ability to see the analytics of your page or class.  The image above is the data for my music technology class, which has 16 students.  Having only had these students for the past 2 weeks, it's pretty amazing to see how many hits there have been to the class page.  I also have the ability to view the data of a particular student to see how much he or she is participating on Schoology.

Another plus about using Schoolgoy at my 7-8 middle school is that my students are pretty excited about using it.  They enjoy interacting with me through discussions and posts that I put up, and I feel like I'm making connections with students who wouldn't normally feel confident about speaking up in class.

BP3_Google Screen Shots

I've always thought that Google was pretty amazing, but I've discovered that I've only scratched the surface in discovering everything that Google does.   Today I updated my iGoogle page by including tabs on the side.  This organizes my web browsing even better because I can have a tab for every subject I need; for example, Full Sail Online, my Challenge Based Research project, and my personal schoolwork.  Now I need to take advantage of my Lynda subscription and watch the Google training!

BP1_Welcome to my blog

Welcome!  I'm Alison, and I am currently working on my Master's degree in Educational Media Design and Technology at Full Sail University.  I am beginning my 13th year of teaching music at Nagel Middle School in Cincinnati, Ohio.  I plan to use this blog as a means to discuss my professional interests, which are teaching, technology, and music.

In trying to come up with a "catchy" title for my blog, I was trying to think of a song that would encompass the topics I plan to blog about, and Technologic by Daft Punk immediately came to mind.  Here are some of the lyrics:

     Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
     Trash it, change it, mail - upgrade it,
     Charge it, point it, zoom it, press it,
     Snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
     Write it, cut it, paste it, save it,
     Load it, check it, quick - rewrite it,
     Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
     Drag and drop it, zip - unzip it,  
     Lock it, fill it, call it, find it,
     View it, code it, jam - unlock it,
     Surf it, scroll it, pause it, click it,
     Cross it, crack it, switch - update it,
     Name it, rate it, tune it, print it,
     Scan it, send it, fax - rename it,
     Touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it,
     Turn it, leave it, start - format it        

To me, these lyrics epitomize 21st century thinking and learning.  Through this blog I plan to share tools and ideas to enhance teaching and music education.  I hope you will consider following my blog and check out the song!