Multimedia Tools in Education: A Reflection on My Journey

Throughout this course I have really become excited to use the new technology tools that I have learned! I feel like I have gained so many cool ideas for using technology with my students in taking this class! I liked the fact that I could explore the technology that I was familiar with but hadn't really used in my classroom, and also learned new pieces of technology to use with my students. I feel like I have grown in my comfort with technology that I have used before, such as FlipGrid and Google Drawings. 

My Favorites:
This class also allowed me to dig deeper into some technologies that I had been introduced to but never used. One of those was EdPuzzle, which I absolutely LOVE! While I was a bit intimidated by this application when I was first introduced to it, once I played around with it for my assignment, I was able to use it to create an introduction to the recorder for my students. I LOVE being able to use EdPuzzle to enhance videos for students, because I can now not only add to students' learning experience in my classroom but also provide a resource for students who are absent. Our district has recently approved e-learning days on snow days, which means that we will be planning more online lessons for students, who have access to Chromebooks 1:1. This assignment was the perfect opportunity for me to design something that I could actually USE for my students this year!

Some of my favorite tools to use from this course in addition to EdPuzzle were Adobe Spark, Screencastify, and Soundtrap. I LOVED creating the podcast assignment using Soundtrap! I will definitely use this to create more podcasts of stories for students! Check out my podcast below of Drummer Hoff, by Barbara Emberley! 

I also enjoyed my experience learning how to use Screencastify. In this assignment I struggled for an idea of how to use Screencastify and ended up creating a screencast of how students can access Google Classroom. In our class discussion I discovered a new idea of using Screencastify to help students create a composition using Chrome Music Song Lab. Thanks to Ryan Henry, my fellow music educator, I learned how to record a screencast of creating a composition in Chrome Music Song Lab, which I will DEFINITELY be using with my students this year! Thanks Ryan Henry for your ideas!

In this course I was also excited to learn how to create a video book trailer using Adobe Spark. Earlier this summer, I had taken a class on Adobe Spark through our district, and, like many introductory tech classes, had gotten a brief introduction to the technology and some overall ways to use it. This was a cool application that I had been interested in using, but, like many other pieces of technology, completed my class and then let it be until I had to use it again. So I appreciated that I had a chance to use Adobe Spark to create my video book trailer for a project in this class. Finally I had a chance to really explore the Adobe Spark video side of this technology! While I did have some issues with the application shutting down in the middle of creating my project, I liked the final project that I was able to create. Since I already have access to this application through our district, I was able to use it again to create a video for our Veterans Day celebration coming up. 

A third project that I am proud of is my music newsletter. I created this as part of the Share Your Story assignment. I have been thinking of ways to improve my communication to families, and this was the perfect way to do that! I have sent out communications before in Remind, through email, and through my music website, but never felt like parents were being updated on things going on in class. In creating this assignment, I found a nice resource of templates to create my newsletter, and designed a newsletter that I feel like I can continue to use throughout the year. I am so happy to finally have something that I can ACTUALLY use for parent communication! During this week I also had the chance to use Padlet more, which, like much of the other technology, I had been introduced to but never really found an application for. I liked having the discussion posts available on Padlet, as it was easier to view and comment on posts. I would consider using this as a discussion platform in the future for some of my classes, but really liked having our discussion posts available for this class on Padlet.

Overall I feel like I learned many cool ways to use technology to create artifacts to help students. I liked being able to apply the technology that I was already familiar with, like FlipGrid, but also explore new areas of technology, like AI and virtual reality. I had no idea that FlipGrid had added a new AI technology to its application. Not sure how much I will use that but it is still pretty cool that this is now a part of FlipGrid.

Technology Challenges:
Of course like many great things, technology also has its downfalls. A project that I am very proud of which I created in this course is my read aloud podcast of the story, Drummer Hoff, by Barbara Emberley. I loved the final result of what I created, and definitely have some ideas to use for future stories that we are reading in class; however, after completing this project, I did try to use Soundtrap to record a class podcast of the story Leaf Man, and could not get the sound to record properly in our classroom to be able to hear all of the students. I was a little disappointed after four or five tries with different classes, so I am still working through that to see if I can use that in class in the future. In the mean time, I guess I am on my own for that one!

While I liked using Adobe Spark, I don't really like its limitations for videos. There are only four layouts for the slides, and I feel like if you add too many slides or text then the application goes into overload. I am not sure if this is my browser or the other background applications that we have a firewall with, but it says that it is supposed to work with Chrome browser, yet I had several problems with it shutting down during both of my video projects. Not sure how much more I will be using this program. Maybe switching to WeVideo soon??

Of course these are minor hurdles that I have experienced in my use of technology so far. I'm sure there will be others, but for now the benefits outweigh the obstacles. For now, I am hooked!

Favorite Projects:
The artifacts I am posting are my favorite ones that I created in Multimedia Tools in Education. I hope anyone who views them enjoys them too and can learn something from them, be inspired by a new idea, etc. I loved the fact that the class was flexible, and gave us many different options of technology in the classroom. I am excited to continue my journey through more technology classes through St. Francis! Who knows, maybe soon I will be able to actually get that technology endorsement?

Graphic Design in the Classroom?

Why might incorporating graphic design into the music classroom be valuable?

This week's readings provided several examples of how to incorporate graphic design into the classroom to benefit student learning. As I thought about the different types of learners that I see in my music classes, certain points stuck out as to me as to why graphic design would be valuable in my class. Graphics can appeal to a multitude of learning styles that we see in our classrooms every day. The most obvious is the visual learner. But having students use graphics in the classroom also can help the kinesthetic learners, who learn by DOING, by having students work on creating their own graphics for projects. Students who become stressed with lots of words or auditory information, can more easily process the information from a graphic, which presents information in a simple, to-the-point manner. While most of the projects we do involve graphic representations of music notes, I suppose I could find a way to have students add graphics to their compositions, and produce a video of their compositions instead of just an audio recording. 

How might we better support the learners in our classrooms?

Knowing that students learn in multiple means, such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, by providing activities such as bell-ringers or projects where students can create their own graphics, students who need hands-on learning opportunities can benefit from creating graphic visuals. Using graphics to introduce an idea can help visual learners understand information more easily by providing less visual distractions. Since students retain 80% of what they see and do (Wyzowl, 2019), students with multiple learning styles would truly benefit from the use of graphics in their lessons.

Teachers can support the learners in our classrooms by presenting material using infographics and allowing students to demonstrate learning through creation of infographics. Infographics can be used to demonstrate understanding of factual information, play games, spur classroom debates, or add to presentations. This provides multiple means for students to demonstrate understanding of concepts.

How would I use this in music?

While I am struggling to think of how I could have students use additional graphics in my classroom, I could definitely introduce musical concepts through graphics in my presentations. Much of what we already do in music uses graphic representations of notes through icons. These icons are then transferred to plain black dot notation, another graphic representation, and then finally the actual music notation. 

For students, we use most of the graphic representation in our music compositions, where students are using music notation to represent their sounds. Last year the 4th grade students used graphic representations of music notes in a Google Slide to notate their music compositions that they had recorded in FlipGrid. In 1st grade students used graphic notation in Chrome Music Lab to compose a melody on top of a rhythm. I am hoping to extend the graphic compositions to 5th grade this year using SoundTrap to represent musical loops. As far as infographics, I would probably have 4th graders add to their music compositions by inserting a graphic into their presentations.

The Power of Visual Communication Infographic, (Wzyowl, 2019). Retrieved from https://www.wyzowl.com/infographic-the-power-of-visual-communication/.

EEND 677 Introduction

I am excited to begin this new technology course on Multimedia Tools in Education! I currently teach general music to elementary students in Kindergarten through fifth grade. This is my sixteenth year teaching in Indian Prairie School District 204. I have taught elementary, middle, and high school grade levels of students, but I truly love teaching elementary. I love being able to explore lots of different styles of music, at many different age levels. 

I always loved music, but it wasn't until I had been out of the music field that I learned to appreciate it. I started out in music at the University of Illinois, but struggled to find its place in my education. So I decided to step back from it for a bit, and earned my degree in Health Administration. I worked in the health insurance industry for a few years and realized that something was missing. I eventually discovered it was music. So I went back to study music education, and earned my Bachelors and Masters of Music Education from DePaul University. Since then I have continued to pursue professional development opportunities, but was NOT very excited to pursue another certification, especially one in technology. How could I use this in music? 

After earning my degrees, I decided to pursue my Orff certification from Vandercook College of Music and DePaul University. I discovered World Music Drumming through Will Schmid's World Music Drumming workshops, where I have met some of the most wonderful people on the planet! The World Music Drumming philosophy uses drumming and multicultural music to teach social & emotional skills such as RESPECT, COMMUNITY, LISTENING, and TEAMWORK. I have used it at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and absolutely LOVE it! 

Over this past year, I have discovered some very cool technology resources to use in the music classroom. While it has taken me awhile to incorporate some of these tools, I am finding them more and more beneficial to enhance student-learning. Some of the cool tools I have discovered and been able to use in my classroom include PearDeck, FlipGrid, Google Chrome Music Lab, Google Classroom, Remind, and Kahoot! I have found a VERY cool technology tool called "flipped learning" that I plan to use this year with my students, after learning about this in my Flipped Learning Class (check out the link if you have never heard of this!) I have posted some additional links to other favorites of mine on my site; however, I am always looking for new ones, so don't hesitate to leave me a comment with some new ideas! 

Personally, I live in Aurora with my husband and three kids: seventeen, fourteen, and six, who keep me entertained and barely sane!