Reflection of "Survey of Emerging Technologies" Course

The course that started this entire blog is "Survey of Emerging Technologies," an on-line course I took this summer.  I took the course, as I really wanted to learn more about Web 2.0 Applications, because I do not feel confident on the internet, nor do I harness all the possibilities that are out there.  I have to say that initially I was nervous about blogging, but it is really easy and fun.  I have thought of so many different things that I can blog about and blogs that I want to view, that this is slowly becoming a new addiction of mine.  Prior to this class, I had a Facebook Account and e-mail, I surfed the internet, but did not really use all the capabilites that are available.  I am impressed, overwhelmed, and curious.  The more you learn, the more you want to learn.  There are so many other Web 2.0 apps that I now want to experiment with and use, and their functionality and purposes are useful to me as a professional teacher and also for my own personal use.  This is only the beginning and I am excited about what I have yet to learn with my new confidence and willingness to explore.

Web 2.0 Apps in a Professional Setting

There are so many Web 2.0 Applications, I do not even think that I reviewed a fraction of them.  They vary in functions and their purposes are all different, but they are all designed to help people in some way.  I looked at Twitter a little more in depth, as I have always been interested in Twitter.  I found that it will give you news that is local or national or global.  You can learn about traffic jams in your area, shopping deals, celebrity news, job positions, and the list continues.  You can access it from a mobile phone or a computer, which is very handy.  I could easily use Twitter in my own professional setting, whether it be through searching for a new job, staying connected to my colleagues, sending tweets to students with upcoming information, assignments, or performance dates, the possibilites are endless.  There are a lot of Web 2.0 Applications that I could use for my professional development.  I think that the more I use the technology that is available, the more I am staying current with teaching trends and my students.  They use technology so much and are well rehearsed in several applications, I can use it in my classroom and life to have a common connection with them and engage them in my class and in learning.

Reflecting on Web 2.0 Tools

There are a lot of Web 2.0 tools out there that we teachers can use and embrace within our classroom.  For example, I have never really navigated through and used Wikipedia a whole lot, until recently.  It is a user friendly, free on-line encyclopedia.  I like that the information is current, unlike when people would purchase  a set of encyclopedias and within a relatively short amount of time, they would be outdated, due to information evolving and changing.  I also like that the website offers a dictionary, library, quotations, textbook, images, media, and even news sources!  This is an impressive site with a lot to offer anyone doing some research.  I also reviewed Go2Web20, which has several tools, applications, and tags.  I really like that you can go to Offisync and work together with someone in real time on a document, or go to Beacon and create real time web applications.  It can also connect you with world events, through Bantora.  There are also apps available to check out flight times, book event tickets, sell tickets, work on photos, and there are even business apps.  Thirdly, I looked at Schooldiscoveryeducation.com, which is a website for educators.  It has many similar web apps available through the site, and in addition is offers games and lesson plans.  While this was a good site, I was not as impressed with it as I was with Go2Web20.  The same can be said for Webreferene.com, which hosts popular Web 2.0 apps also, including Wordpress, MySpace, Twitter, and Flickr to name a few.  I also liked the site, but was still more drawn to Wikipedia and Go2Web20, I guess that it just depends on personal preference.  Overall, these sites offer a lot of great connections to Web 2.0 applications, connecting people and encouraging collaboration through the internet.  They are great resources for teachers and is just another way to connect and engage students in their own learning.

Blogs to Follow, Technology Evolves

Technology never ceases to amaze me.  In recent time I have learned about blogs, created my own blog, and now I have subscribed to other blogs.  This could become an addicting habit of mine.  As I have been working with this blog and learning about it, I have been thinking about other blogs that I could create and other blogs I would be interested in subscribing to.  In the music education classroom, or any classroom for that matter, I could see blogs being very useful.  It would be a way to communicate with parents, students, other teachers, and the school community as a whole.  Teachers could post assignments, what they are working on in classes, important upcoming events and dates, and so on.  There could be links to school web pages and connections to other teachers and classrooms around the country or the world.  The internet trully opens the world up and brings it to people, from the comfort of their own computer in their own home.  Amazing!

Some Blogs to Share

While learning more about blogs and technology, I came across a few blogs that I can share.  The first is "The Offical List of 100 Music Education Bloggers," which was started by Dr. Joseph Pisano.  He was interested in creating a diverse community of music enthusiasts to keep the music conversation going.  The list of blogs he has is extensive, covering many topics in music education and reaching people everywhere!  This was started in January of 2009 and has certainly snowballed into something huge!  He also has a blog, MusTech.net, which is more of what he is teaching and doing at the present time.  It is a more personal blog to him, whereas the other blog is more sharing a community of bloggers information.  I also found another interesting blog, MusicEd.about.com, which was created by Espie Estrella in 2005.  This blog has everything, offering teachers information overviews about instruments, theory, history, musicians, even lesson plans.  This blogger is also a follower of Dr. Joseph Pisano.
I am discovering more and more that there is a wealth of resources and information available through Web 2.0 and I am merely scratching the surface, but it certainly makes me curious and want to do more!

An Idea for the New School Year

I took a class this summer that inspired me in the Music classroom with some GREAT ideas.  One I would like to share for the start of the school year is as such: work out with the principal or higher powers in the school, that every morning as the students are walking into school, music is playing over the PA system.  It should be the same song or type of music every day for a week and then the following week a new style of music and song selections.  This music can play while students are walking into school and getting their materials, then before the morning announcements start, the music teacher can tell the students what the song title was, who the song was by, and a little information about it.  The music can be themed from week to week, change with time periods in history, whatever, teachers can be creative, but it is yet another way to expose students to music of all different genres.  It can even be correlated with other content areas, for example if the art department is studying Romantic period art, that era of music and composers are listened to.  For another example, if the English teachers are studying short stories and poetry, folk songs can be played.  The possibilites are endless and eventually, all the teachers can work together to tie the various content areas together from one classroom to the next.  What a great way to also build staff cooperation and team building!  Schools that have done this have also found it to be calming to students and it has created a smoother flowing morning.  There are less disruptive problems and less disorganization in the hallways, as students have a tone set by the music that they hear.  It is certainly worth a try, or at least I think so.