TPACK In A Nutshell

As someone who is a more "big-picture"-based learner, I had trouble sorting through our readings for key ideas. But this TPACK article does a great job of summarizing the 7 knowledge areas involved in TPACK and helped me memorize, internalize, and TRANSFER this information. Thank you Wikipedia! I just found this as a useful tool. Don't quote wiki, quote Shulman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Pedagogical_Content_Knowledge

PLN: Antimoon IPA Although the site advertises itself as an english-learning site, the tool I found is much more specific, applying directly to English Diction and IPA. For anyone struggling with diction class, or who wants to learn their American IPA, this is an excellent tool. Especially for future choral conductors or vocal coaches. IPA symbols are the symbols we use to convey exact pronunciation, especially exact vowel sound. On the page, you will find every american IPA symbol, along with a few examples of words containing them, and the option to listen to the proper american pronunciation.

CONTACT LIST!! :)

Hey guys, I was gonna like email everyone, but then I realized I didn't get your email addresses! Lol, but then it just got me thinking about all the ways I could share the contact list with you guys besides email, which I despise greatly. BTW I've friend requested you all on facebook so if you'd like to find someone, check in my friends. Jamie Ellison - 401-742-0687 Becki Walter - 631-273-4433 Robert Pietrzak - 516-712-9742 Jessica Mullin - 862-266-6741 Katrina Fisher - 603-521-0030 Tessa Belkin - 508-971-8797 Adam DePersio - 603-548-7280 Ben Scanlan - 860-818-1618 Gabe Barcewicz - 860-510-3984 Audrey Garcia - 516-209-8640 Kristen Lauria - 860-712-8541 Becky Bernardo - 845-309-6943 Jen Gadaree - 860-389-7403 Scott McKown - 602-361-0526 Constance Zoppi - 860-643-8976 Jess Nix - 860-930-7529 Alex Wallace - 301-357-4572 Mike Papa - 860-641-1768 Justin Seltzer - 860-490-1412 I believe I am missing 1 or 2 numbers. Also, there are obviously errors so please comment any correction to this blog and I will edit the list. For that reason, I ASK THAT YOU DO NOT COPY PASTE THIS CONTACT LIST FOR AT LEAST A COUPLE DAYS AS IT MIGHT BE WRONG

Smalin's Youtube - Music Animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=fvwp&v=6s0Mp7LFI-k

This is a link to one of Smalin's animated videos, which takes any song and graphically represents it in spacial/video format.  This and similar technologies available on the net have helped me not only to learn a song more completely, but to understand the composers' intent as well, since the counterpoint is so clearly graphed out.  With this kind of technology, it becomes easier to analyze a large piece of music, or one that has a wide array of instruments.  A useful tool for ANYONE INTENDING TO COMPOSE in their career

Response to TPACK

Today I will be responding to a reading I was assigned regarding technological, pedagogical, and contend knowledge (TPACK).  

     In a world where my generation is so completely immersed in technology that we are even referred to by Clarke in his article as "digital natives," almost every aspect of life is different than how it used to be.  In the reading Clark refers to digital technology as having "flattened the world," making obstacles such as mountains and oceans much less constraining with a new ability to communicate from very far away.  As a digital native, this is no news to me.   

     As technology is being integrated into our schools, it is, for better or worse, changing the way we are taught and the way we will learn.  Much of the educational technology mentioned in the reading is also very familiar to me.  But there was one example that Clarke used, the Google Lit Trips Project, which totally blew my mind.  I had never thought about taking that kind of technology (google earth) and turn it into a virtual field trip.  The person who originally thought of this idea took a technology and made it, through innovation and uncanny knowledge of teaching, into an educational tool the likes of which the world had never known.  I would not have been able to do that as a music educator; I would never have thought of it.  Which leads me to my next point.  

     I was unsurprised to find in our reading that, overall, music educators used very little specialized music-relevant technology in their curriculums, so much as standard educational technology.  The technology they utilized was mainly for administrative purposes and personal use.  Because of a lack of standardized structure, it makes it very challenging for someone who is not naturally intuitive to try and integrate technology in their teaching.  I too am in this category (the majority) of educators.  It is for us that TPACK was developed and I am positive that I will be implementing TPACK in my teaching curriculum.  

     Since this is a reaction, and not a summary, I will try my best to state TPACK in my own understanding and not how it was defined.  This concept was developed so that those educators with a technological understanding [technological knowledge], a confident knowledge of the content of their field and in their curriculum [content knowledge], and a well-developed familiarity with the ways in which it is taught, learned, and retained [pedagogical knowledge], can productively integrate technology into their class without losing clarity and precision or demotivating anyone or making it more challenging for kids.  Basically, TPACK is the knowledge needed for a seasoned music educator to teach their same class more conveniently with the use of certain technologies without losing any aspect of the educational experience.  

     This was an appropriate and useful reading to prepare us for this semesters' upcoming hardships.  Clark spelled out to us all that we would have to be "adaptively intelligent" in order to built our TPACK, relinquishing "cherished beliefs and [educational] practices that "need to be changed."  This idea is what I have taken the most strongly from our reading.  I am going to do my best, throughout this semester, to remain adaptively intelligent, incorporating all new technologies as best I can into my philosophy and methods of teaching.  

    

TPACK

Today I will be responding to a reading I was assigned regarding technological, pedagogical, and contend knowledge (TPACK).

     In a world where my generation is so completely immersed in technology that we are even referred to by Clarke in his article as "digital natives," almost every aspect of life is different than how it used to be.  In the reading Clark refers to digital technology as having "flattened the world," making obstacles such as mountains and oceans much less constraining with a new ability to communicate from very far away.  As a digital native, this is no news to me.  
     As technology is being integrated into our schools, it is, for better or worse, changing the way we are taught and the way we will learn.  Much of the educational technology mentioned in the reading is also very familiar to me.  But there was one example that Clarke used, the Google Lit Trips Project, which totally blew my mind.  I had never thought about taking that kind of technology (google earth) and turn it into a virtual field trip.  The person who originally thought of this idea took a technology and made it, through innovation and uncanny knowledge of teaching, into an educational tool the likes of which the world had never known.  I would not have been able to do that as a music educator; I would never have thought of it.  Which leads me to my next point.
     I was unsurprised to find in our reading that, overall, music educators used very little specialized music-relevant technology in their curriculums, so much as standard educational technology.  The technology they utilized was mainly for administrative purposes and personal use.  Because of a lack of standardized structure, it makes it very challenging for someone who is not naturally intuitive to try and integrate technology in their teaching.  I too am in this category (the majority) of educators.  It is for us that TPACK was developed and I am positive that I will be implementing TPACK in my teaching curriculum.
     Since this is a reaction, and not a summary, I will try my best to state TPACK in my own understanding and not how it was defined.  This concept was developed so that those educators with a technological understanding [technological knowledge], a confident knowledge of the content of their field and in their curriculum [content knowledge], and a well-developed familiarity with the ways in which it is taught, learned, and retained [pedagogical knowledge], can productively integrate technology into their class without losing clarity and precision or demotivating anyone or making it more challenging for kids.  Basically, TPACK is the knowledge needed for a seasoned music educator to teach their same class more conveniently with the use of certain technologies without losing any aspect of the educational experience.
     This was an appropriate and useful reading to prepare us for this semesters' upcoming hardships.  Clark spelled out to us all that we would have to be "adaptively intelligent" in order to built our TPACK, relinquishing "cherished beliefs and [educational] practices that "need to be changed."  This idea is what I have taken the most strongly from our reading.  I am going to do my best, throughout this semester, to remain adaptively intelligent, incorporating all new technologies as best I can into my philosophy and methods of teaching.
   

My PLN Resource: 8notes Music Theory Tutorial

     After realizing that personal learning networks do not have to be specifically related to my profession, podcasts, wikis, or social bookmarking, I found that I was already utilizing certain useful resources already.  

     This is 8notes, an online Music Theory tutorial that I use to review and to cram for theory tests.  There are 46 lessons, each one accompanied with a step-by-step .gif visual and accompanying aural examples and an explanation of each concept.  

     Something like this  is ESSENTIAL for anyone who isn't doing so hot right now in theory but doesn't have the free time or level of commitment to get a tutor.  It shows and plays examples of everything, and it's just simply the bomb.

http://www.8notes.com/

PLN Reading Response

This reading was extremely enlightening as to how my professors, family, and academic friends in research fields manage to stay educated with current events.  Although this article throws the entire thing into a very high-tech perspective, I was able to learn from the reading how to stay current WITH or WITHOUT a uniform cybernetic PLN.  My father, who teaches Race and Ethnic relations for college students, has been a subscriber (via both mail and email) to numerous sociological journals and magazines for years.  He also frequents several conventions a year, where he associates with fellow colleagues, some of whom whom he cites in his publiciations, and whose publications he hands out to his students.  His bookshelf is filled with books titled quite specifically regarding whiteness, racism, racial priveledge, etc.  I always wondered where he found those books, much less bought them.  I now realize that that shelf is the long-term result of his own, 30 year-old PLN.