Semester Overview

Overall I have learned quite a bit. Even "simple" things to most people, like using word and excel to the extent we did in class, were extremely useful to me. I did not find the google groups section of class to be very useful. The finale section was extremely useful for me, because I do not find finale to be user friendly on its own.

I thought how nearly all projects were explicitly spelled out on what needed to done was great. The final teaching presentation is a bit open ended but the rubric is specific enough to still make it fair. I thought the specific nature of the assignments was one of the best aspects of the course.

As far as what I would like to see, I would like more on the software like office, maybe include an outlook class because many schools used outlook based email. Other parts of office would be interesting too if they are useful to educators.Things like garage band and windows equivalents would be good to explore more. Podcasts should have a bigger focus because I see their importance, but it is important to teach software used by the majority instead of the minority, but ideally both. I would also like have spent time and learning the hardware side of technology. A lot of this software is great but if you can't get the hardware to display/run the software what is the point? I felt like social media is something that didn't need to be taught, as the vast majority of people seem to be fluent in that. Even I seem to understand social media.

I believe the course was useful and would take another like it if covered topics like the ones I described above. We'll see if I am this happy with it when I finish my teaching presentation! :-P

Final Teaching Presentation

      To be completely honest, I am a bit worried about the final teaching presentation. I have been able to keep up with the course so far but for some reason I have a bad feeling about this one. It doesn't seem as clear as to what exactly I need to do to accomplish it. It is not lack of instructions, more on my end of wondering how to start. I am sure it will work out, but with how busy work is plus the due dates for everything else this semester starting to collide I am hitting that wall just before the end. 

Podcasts

I decided to use audacity to make an audio podcast. There were resouces out there to show people how to use audacity to make enchanced and video podcasts. However, this being the crunch time of the semester, plus having to be away at a practice inspection for work for a week, I decided to stick with the tried and true audio podcast to make sure I could get it done on time.

I definitely appreciate how useful podcasts can be, especially video and enhanced podcasts. I look forward to trying to see if I can incorporate them in my classroom when I get a teaching job.

Podcasting!

I am anticipating this will be the most difficult of the "mini" projects yet. Not only with the size of the project but with the "good luck" for the windows users. I posted a link in the discussion forum that Terry set up that may be helpful. It goes through step by step audacity instruction and seems to follow some pretty easy steps for doing the podcast. I will be attempting it this way this weekend. 

Spring Break is over!

I have been way out of the school mode even before spring break started due to a trip i had to take for work. I am looking forward to started back up. The prospect of doing this website project without having seen it in class is a little intimidating, but that work trip couldn't be missed.

Time to start the catching up for all classes!

Powerpoint Fun

    The powerpoint project was on a similar difficulty level for me as the excel project. The only quirk I had was making the animations work on timing to show automation on one of my slides.

   I am in a very good place right now in the class. The last few weeks have raised my confidence. This class is turning into one of the most useful I have taken so far in my graduate work as far as real life skills. I hope this continues in the rest of the semester.

Terry's Screen Capture

Forget my suggestions below, Terry's Screen capture does it all!

Help with math and links!

I posted this on the discussion board as well. There is an example at the bottom of this link that may help those who forgot their math do the final GPA forumla!

http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/Articles/beginners_guide_grades.htm

And for those like me who just want the darn forumla for the GPA:

=SUM((R2*2)+M2+H2)/4

Please keep in mind that you will have to change the cells to however you have your sheet done up.


Poster Tomas on this forum I found makes linking super easy as well
http://www.proz.com/forum/windows_operating_systems/123458-excel%3A_how_to_link_between_different_sheets.html

Excel Project

I have been working on the Excel project for about 30 min now and it is going okay. I remember excel in older versions of office and it used to be much more miserable. I don't remember them having things be so user friendly. There are still quirks that make my had explode but that is mostly not knowing how to use it because it doesn't fit the scheme in my head for how it should work. Let's hope the rest of the excel project doesn't get worse!

The differences between the Mac presentation and the PC application was not nearly as large as the word differences. This I was thankful for. It saved me a lot of Advil consumption.

Overall everything is fine, the blood pressure is at relatively healthy levels while working with technology. Here's to improvement!

Microsoft Word Project

    I worked on my Microsoft word project this afternoon. While it was challenging for a ditigal immigrant living in a world where most of my peers are digital natives, I was pleasently suprised at how it went. It was time consuming but very enlightening and I learned quite a bit from a one class blitz on Microsoft Word. The instructions on what the project needed were very clear which helped focus my efforts and avoided confusion.

   With the Finale Project Midterm coming up I am a bit aprehensive about completing it as smoothly as the Microsoft project. I generally don't find Finale nearly as easy to navigate as Word, but Terry's expereince with the quick help on the forums encourages me that I will be able to do well on it. The only real issue I have right now is a printer problem at home and most machines at UB don't have finale to open it. Off to fix my own printer!

Week 4

     As the video I posted before with the giraffe suggested, the technology game is always a struggle. However, I am happy to report that this week I actually had a mini breakthrough and I am excited about it. The ability to import tiff files into finale has huge implications for vocalists. Personally, I always found it frustrating to try and learn a vocal piece without an accompanist. More chromatic pieces were especially tough. The two semesters I took voice lessons in undergrad I would have the voice coach play the accompaniment while I recorded it so I would have something to go off of. This may be simply because of my own musical weakness but I find it very helpful to have to musical context of the accompaniment.

     The only problem is that it is hard to find stuff in .tiff format, but there are plenty of very simply file converting programs out there that can change PDFs into tiffs. The ability to scan into finale to create tiff's off of paper copies also helps.

     When I mentioned this idea to Terry he suggested then importing it into smart music so you can check yourself and actually set up the accompaniment to follow you.

     I am doing a Broadway Revue Concert with a Valentines Day theme on the 17th and it has been a bit annoying to learn the music. I am going to try the techniques with the .tiff files to help myself out. I love finding real world applications of what we learn in class!

Digital Citizenship

     Since there are no "digital citizenship" teachers and there are very few schools with computer teachers per se, it falls upon the subject matter area teacher to handle what was missed. To ignore it doesn't help the students and to use things like blogs, you tube, wikis, and other technological aids without teaching the students about the dangers and pitfalls is setting them up to get burned.

     Many of us may find it annoying that we have to teach this kind of stuff that "isn't in our subject matter." I happen to be one of them. However, like I said above, if we are going to expose them to it then it becomes incumbent on us to make sure we give the students the full picture on the use of technology. This can seem daunting, because of all the technology that is out there, but to balance the massive amount of time that digital citizenship can take up, I would recommend covering the applicable parts based on what piece of technology we are using. If we are going to post original essays on a composer on a blog, I would cover the importance of citing everything not of their own thought, and that they understand that even though their post may be original, if it is based off another copyrighted book, it still could be a violation. The idea is to balance digital citizenship without it taking over the class. Covering the parts of it that directly relate to the piece of technology being used would the best bet.

      Violations in our lives are all over the place, many of which I hadn't previously thought of as violations until I read the "10 myths of copyright." Examples are you tube videos of bands covering copyrighted songs and music teachers copying sheet music for use.

      One thing we could do to help inform the school community is talk with parents during the open houses they have at the beginning of the year. As part of your discussion mention the pieces of technology being used  by the students in your class and give them the  same information you ave your students. That way the parents are aware as well. A letter home with the student would work in the same fashion. 

We all know this feeling. As we start this semester tackling how to make technology our friend, we are bound to experience the following. Don't worry, it turns out well. :)

After missing last week due to work, I came in this week hoping I wasn't too far behind. Turns out I was able to jump right in(pardon the pun). I have been using gmail for years but never went into any of the other features of google other than google earth, which I use extensively for my job, and google translate, which I use for my vocal work. I can see the use of having a google calender to post assignments for students online. It allows them easy access to assignments should they forget or copy them down wrong. Google Docs is an excellent took for posting class notes for students who miss class due to illness. It is much easier than trying to get individual groups of notes out to every sick student. I am still in the "absorption" phase of all the apps we were introduced too so I am anticipating that in the weeks to come I will find uses for each one of them once I digest them. 

Sometimes I am still amazed Finale is still in business because I have never found their products to be user friendly at all. I am hoping this semester will change that with formal instruction. It was unfortunate none of the computers in the lab were prepared for student use of finale, given the trial version and the fact many of them were not even showing normal notation. This was what I mentioned in my Digital Native/Immigrant response regarding technology actually making things harder. It can be a massive help and when it works it can't be beat. However, unless it is prepared, checked, and ready, it can actually hinder learning. I spent much of my time trying to simply get the software to use normal notation and missed many of the excellent tips Terry was mentioning and got none of the in class project done. I could have hand drawn it and run off 17 copies for the class faster. However, I am optimistic that in the next few weeks things will even out as the quirks get worked out of the system and I learn how to operate it better.

For my fellow grad students who are already teaching, here is a musical way to settle down an out of control ensemble or class:

Hello! Everyone should be able to add this now :)