5th) Electronic delivery of lectures

Electronic delivery of lectures

Instead of having in-class lectures, electronic delivery of lectures provide more opportunities for students who live in suburban areas or those who are unable to attend lectures due to various personal reasons to participate in real-time lectures. Softwares designed for electronic delivery of lectures have been widely used in different areas because of their ease of use and convenience. As Justin Reich and Thomas Daccord (2008) stated, there are ten ways to enhance lectures with PowerPoint: 

1)      Include visual evidence in your lectures with images of art, artefacts, and architecture.

2)      In discussing authors, include audio and video clips of them reading their work, which can be put directly into PowerPoint.

3)      Include charts, graphs, and figures to supply statistical support to an argument.

4)      Show a sequence of maps that demonstrate change over time.

5)      Compile short examples of student writing to critique or edit.

6)      Sum up the essential points or questions of a lecture in an outline slide.

7)      Use charts, diagrams, and matrices to help students see relationships among ideas or information.

8)      Use portraits or photographs so students can see pictures of the people you discuss.

9)      Include cartoons or funny illustrations to inject humour into your presentation.

10)   Use slides with titles and subheadings to help listeners follow the argument in longer lectures.

With the advantages stated above, such use of technology has become popular among teachers, professors and presenters.  Teachers can upload the PowerPoint presentations on the internet portal and students will be able to download them onto their personal computers for revision. 

Effective use of I-Conferences can also enhance the electronic delivery of lectures. As Judy Lever Duffy, Jean B. McDonald and Al P. Mizell (2005) pointed out, for teachers, conferences offer a way to open communication lines and discussions between students and among educators. Teachers can interact with colleagues across the globe to share ideas. And, their own students and students connected to the internet anywhere in the world can join together to work collaboratively. … And because conferences provide asynchronous interaction, differing time zones or constraining classroom time schedules do not interfere. Students can check the messages posted in the conference whenever class time allows.”

With such technology in use, students all around the world will be able to receive the online lectures as long as they have internet access. By using I-Conferences, educators will be able to set up a discussion board and allow students all around the world to participate in the discussion. Thus, students will have more opportunities to exchange ideas and learn from their peers. 

The usage of Skype or MSN with visual and audio support will be able to link teachers and students from different parts of the world. This will make it possible to share performance techniques and allow immediate feedback from peers or mentors. Although the outcome may not be as good as in class teaching, it is still considered a good alternative in circumstances described above.

Last but not least, email is another popular tool in teaching accepted by many. As Grabe (2004) mentioned, “email is an internet access system for sending, receiving, and storing messages. It was one of the first internet applications, and it remains the most frequently used.” Teachers and students can use email to communicate with each other and exchange information. Grabe (2004) also stated that, “among the more common email projects are exchanges of correspondence with other students to learn about the collection and integration of data from many different locations, and projects that involve sharing student-generated literature or newsletters.” In addition, virtual space in our email account is able to offer us well- organised and easily accessible storage.

References:

1)      Reich J. and Daccord T. (2008), Best ideas for teaching with technology, M.E. Sharpe, New York. Pg.3 – 32

2)      Duffy J. L., McDonald J.B. and Mizell A.P. (2005), Teaching and Learning with Technology, Pearson, USA. Pg. 231 – 238

3)      Grabe M. and Grabe C. (2004). Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. Pg. 190 – 200

4th) Music Teacher

Music teacher in the classroom

There are different types of ICT that can be introduced in music teaching in a classroom environment. One of the ICT tools commonly used is video recorder or pen recorder. Such tools are commonly utilised in classroom to record students’ performances.  Students will have the opportunity to listen, evaluate and analyse their own recordings, generating ideas to improve their techniques and performances. I have conducted a survey, by interviewing my peers and teachers, gathering their opinions on their perspectives regarding video recording in performance study. The results showed that many of my interviewees have high regards for such method and concurred that this is probably the fastest way to self-improve in performance study. 

Electronic whiteboard is another potential ICT tool in enhancing music learning in a classroom environment. The usage of electronic whiteboard provides many advantages over the conservative teachings on a black or whiteboard used in a classroom. As Judy Lever Duffy, Jean B. McDonald and Al P. Mizell (2005) stated, “As you write on an electronic whiteboard, a built-in scanner records the drawings or text in the colours you are using. The recorded digital image is then displayed on a monitor. Furthermore, the recorded image can be saved edited, or printed out. The image can then be erased from the electronic whiteboard, and a new computer file can be opened to capture and record new images. Once saved, whiteboard information can be included in other documents or placed in an electronic archive for you or your students to access for review.” According to the quoted statement above, electronic whiteboard will be able to enhance learning because students will be able to find the notes that have been saved.  It has been a common issue during the past decades that students were too preoccupied in attempting to copy or renumerate the teachings in the expense of brainstorming and truly comprehending the contents of a lecture. With such a breakthrough technology available in the classroom, issues regarding difficulty of students in keeping up with the pace of the lecturers or missing out on key points of a lecture will be addressed. This will promote more interactive participation of students in the classroom, triggering the interests of the subjects among pupils, providing an instant warm feedback to the teachers, thus benefiting every single soul in the classroom, including the one delivering the contents of the lecture.

References:

1. Duffy J.L., McDonald J.B. and Mizell A.P. (2005), Teaching and Learning with Technology, Pearson Education, USA. Pg 104 - 126

3rd) Musicology

Musicology

The term “musicology” can be divided into two categories: historical musicology and systematic musicology. As Henkjan Honing (2008) has pointed, “historical musicology is concerned with the history of music, arranged by epochs, peoples, empires, countries, provinces, towns, schools, and individual artists using historiographic methods. Systematic musicology is concerned with the investigation of the chief laws applicable to the various branches of music, aesthetics, the psychology of music, music education, and the comparative study in ethnography and folklore.” According to the quoted statement above, it appears that a link between musicology and research can be easily drawn. The areas of musicology are based in theory research, history contexts research, and musical analysis, (Tim Crawford and Lorna Gibson, 2009) hence guaranteeing a role for ICT as a promising research tool.

Database is one of the applications that can be very helpful for musicology students in their research. As Mark Grabe (2004) stated, “database applications are designed to assist the user in storing, organizing, and retrieving large amounts of information.”  Musicology students are able to sort the database based on their research after completing a new chapter or subject. On top of that, the internet provides a rich source of information for students working on their researches. In comparison to the more conservative method of information retrieving, i.e. paperbacks and textbooks, students these days are able to access first-hand information from the net hassle-free. All that is required is a laptop and internet access. Musicology students can search for different journals, scholar articles, and other information by using different kinds of search engines. 

Wiki, blogger, flikr, and wordpress are places that allow musicology students share perspectives and a portal to exchange ideas. Students have the options to express their online contents publicly or to keep them private. By blogging, students are able to write their reviews based on the information they have found, attached relevant pictures and even share the music they analysed. Students are also able to design their blog, which will promote creativity, and provide critical/constructive feedback on their peer’s posts. 

References:

1.       Honing H. (2008), the role of ICT in music research: a bridge too far. http://emcap.iua.upf.edu/showEmcap/publications/Honing-2007b.pdf

2.       Crawford T. and Gibson L. (2009), Modern Methods for Musicology: Prospects, Proposals and Realities. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=uani7DPZn24C&printsec=frontcover&dq=ICT+and+musicology&source=bl&ots=5g0k6S_24M&sig=kr7_6o8B3cKKt6fBZtMaQPX1Pa0&hl=en&ei=piegTfL7N8yHcZzC5PkB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&sqi=2&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=ICT%20and%20musicology&f=false

3.       Grabe M. (2004), Integrating technology for meaningful learning, Houghton Mifflin Company, USA. Pg. 80 - 124

2nd) Composition

Composition 

It is common sense that students who learn and perform music need to be able to read and annotate notes on a score. It is also a given fact these composition students are expected to learn the theories of good composing skills and the structural formulation of music. This will be obviously a challenge to a beginner in composing a well-structured composition without sufficient efficient and practice. The introduction of ICT in the composition classroom will be able to aid beginners in learning and increasing the efficiency in their music composition. As Katerine S. Cennamo, John D. Ross and Peggy A. Ertmer (2010) stated, “Multimedia software – both stand-alone and online – is available to support this early music development, with some designed specifically to address the national music standards." There are numerous websites available to provide musical games and activities for young children and beginners, e.g. Morton Subotnick’s Creating Music, Kids Music Stage, and Music Games. Students can enhance their musical knowledge such as musical instruments, forms, structure, and repertoire by playing such games. 

“GarageBand””, a software easily accessible by many, can also help students in developing their composing skills. GarageBand is a popular software provided by Mac OS X and iOS and is well known to many music students. This application provides an opportunity for users to create music irregardless of their musical backgrounds. The description of this software by Dan Schmit (2011)– GarageBand software turns your Mac into a recording studio. It includes hundreds of instruments and thousands of pre-recorded sound loops that can be adjusted and enhanced to create original songs. The musically inclined can add their own guitar, keyboard, and vocal tracks.

Another example of well-accepted software in music education is “Sibelius”, which has helped many students in developing their composition skill. As Katerine S. Cennamo, John D. Ross and Peggy A. Ertmer (2010) stated, “For a complete lesson resource, packages from Sibelius (e.g., Groovy Music, Starclass) contain lesson plans, recordings, and related resources for helping young students learn about music notation and complete developmentally appropriate compositions and arrangements.” Sibelius has helped many students in composing more efficiently and enables students to listen to their composition while composing concurrently. 

I have asked my mentor’s opinion regarding the differences between GarageBand and Sibelius and according to her, GarageBand is suitable and appeals more to young beginners. This is because students only need to choose the instruments and different genre of music that has already been provided by GarageBand, rearrange the order of the instruments and the staff notation will appear at the bottom of the page. On the other hand, Sibelius is more suitable for advance learners because students need to apply notes on the staff notation and arrange the desired form, structure, and tempo of their music on Sibelius.

References:

1.       Cennamo K. S., Ross J. D. and Ertmer P.A. (2010), Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards – Based Approach, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, USA. Pg 473- 486.

2.       Dan Schmit (2011), Atomic Learning: GarageBand, http://www.atomiclearning.com/garageband

1st) Performance

Performance 

YouTube:

The site describes itself in such way: 

Founded in February 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch, and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. (YouTube, 2011a)

According to the timeline provided by YouTube, this site was found in February 2005 and the number of users increased exponentially, with a highest record of 2 billion views a day. 

Users will be able to share their videos on this site. As Julia Davies and Guy Merchant pointed out,

users of the site can choose to:

1)      Watch videos

2)      Respond to videos by leaving a written comment or rating

3)      Respond to videos by uploading another video

4)      Watch videos and report them as offensive

5)      Select any number of videos and embed them into other sites such as blogs and wikis

6)      Upload videos to the site – making them public, private or available to selected YouTube members

7)      Subscribe to particular users’ videos and be alerted each time that user uploads a new video

8)      Participate in “Test Tube” and upload new, experimental (alpha) video software and YouTube applications

9)      Produce profiles of themselves, look at others’ profiles

10)   “Friend” people and send email via YouTube

By using YouTube, there is numerous ways that can help enhanced performers’ technique, knowledge and, in general, sense of music.

• ·         Video clips that were recorded by different musicians around the world can be searched from YouTube. By watching these videos, we can learn various techniques used by different performers and the different approaches to music, i.e. different expressions, dynamics and tempo.

• ·         We can also share our performances on YouTube and gain comments from peers or people all around the world. Constructive comments from around the world with different cultures are able to aid our personal development.

• ·         There are various types of musical genres that can be discovered from YouTube. Sharing such music with peers can definitely trigger discussions and gain insight about the cultures behind the composition of such pieces.

• ·         It is very easy for us to copy the internet links from YouTube and paste them onto our blogs or wiki to share. We can also save them as our ‘’favourites’’ and this will make it very convenient us for to access when required. Issues such as forgetting the titles of the music or the exact internet links will not be a concern.

• ·         Due to the publicity of YouTube, it will be easier to gain popularity by uploading our performance video clips on YouTube. If we are virtuoso instrumentalists and uploaded our videos constantly, interested users will be able to subscribe to our list. This will benefit the performers in terms of confidence and acceptance by the public. Such fanatic followers, even from the virtual world, will definitely help in the publicity and acknowledgement if there are future plans of performing in front of real-life audience.

References:

1)      YouTube (2011a) About YouTube. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/t/about_youtube

2)      YouTube (2011a) Timeline. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/t/press_timeline

3)      Davies J. & Merchant G. (2009), Web 2.0 for Schools: Learning and Social Participation, Peter Lang Publishing, New York. Pg.53 – 68