PLN (week 14)

Sorry it's a few days late... Thanksgiving and work have slowed me down!

I actually discovered this over Thanksgiving when we were visiting my aunt and uncle. My uncle helped develop the Morrison Digital Trumpet (or MDT), a brass-style MIDI wind controller invented and designed by Steve Marshall with the Australian instrumentalist James. Morrison.

Morrison Digital Trumpet info

My uncle playing the EVI.

Week 13 PLN

Interesting article... 10 Things Parents Don't Tell Teachers.

Looks like kind of a cool website too: TheApple - Where Teachers Meet and Learn.

Response to Assistive Technology

As future music educators, we need to have a knowledge of assistive technology, both music-related and non-musical. Technology like SoundBeam has amazing possibilities for all students - with or without disabilities. Something that especially appeals to me about SoundBeam is that it provides the opportunity for all students to create music in the same way - through motion. Diverse groups of students (including students with and without disabilities) could work together to create music in this unconventional and very creative way.

Week 12 PLN

Music Publishers' Association of the United States.

Relating to my other post about copyright and fair use, here's a link to the website for the Music Publishers' Association, including a Copyright Resource Center.

Response to Copyright reading

Wow. Copyright and fair use protections are tricky. I always knew they were, but I've never actually seen it laid out as comprehensively as this (and it wasn't even that comprehensive). The reading, Copyright and Fair Use in the Classroom, on the Internet, and the World Wide Web, gives introduction to copyright, fair use, and educational multimedia guidelines.

After reading this, I'm reasonably sure that many of my teachers (a particular history teacher's class leaps to mind) may have not been technically following the guidelines for copyright and fair use strictly to the letter. From what I can understand, using something for educational purposes doesn't necessarily make it okay.

As a future educator, I expect that the issue of copyright and fair use will come up over and over again. This article gives me a little bit of a better idea of what is and is not ethical... however, it even states that nothing is exactly black and white (obviously taking someone else's words and claiming them as your own is plagiarism, but fair use is something else altogether). Even still, it's probably better to be safe than sorry...

Week 11 PLN

Here's a neat little website aimed at the "global choral community." It looks like there's tons of resources available without any sort of subscription or anything.

ChoralNet: The Global Choral Community.

Response to "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants"

I just finished reading "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" by Marc Prensky. For me, it raises a lot of questions, not all of which may have answers.

First of all, where do I fit? Am I a digital native or a digital immigrant? I'm inclined to say digital native, but computers, cell phones, and such haven't always been such an integral part of my life as they are today. I didn't grow up with my own computer or cell phone (as elementary and middle school children today have). I remember when if you wanted to reach someone, you called their house - now it's not at all uncommon for people not even to have home phone lines. I'm very attached to newspapers - printed newspapers, and I dislike doing reading online - if I have an article to read for class, I much prefer to print it out where I can physically interact with the text using a pen or pencil.

Secondly - is it better to be one or the other? Prensky explains both concepts, but I feel like he attaches a stodginess to the digital immigrant - like all digital immigrants are somehow caught in the past, nostalgic for the "good old days." I don't believe that's the case of all digital immigrants, only some. Obviously, someone who has grown up with the "new" technology is going to have different skill sets than someone who hasn't, but that doesn't mean that their skills should be devalued.

I dislike the concept that, as a digital native, I am somehow "unreachable" unless someone is flashing a computer screen in front of my face. I still read books for pleasure (when I'm not doing homework...). I understand how "reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, [and] understanding the writings of the past" could be considered "legacy" content, but to discount all of these subjects as "important, but from a different era" and imply that they are less interesting to "todays students" simply because they are not new is unfair to todays students and assumes that we all place a) equal importance on technology and b) place technology at a level of importance above other things.

I am not anti-technology - far from it. I email daily, use Facebook, instant message, call and text people on my cell phone, listen to music on my MP3 player, etc. However, I think that Prensky is right in wanting to expand the educational use of technology, rather than just switch entirely to a technology-based educational system. We are in a position as educators to hand-pick technologies that we feel can enhance our students learning experiences and increase our ability to facilitate those experiences.