Sibelius! What a Tool!

Well I am impressed! I knew Sibelius was a good program for composers but I am blown away by how efficient it is! I highly recommend if ever wanting to delve into composition that you head to Avids site and download the free 30 day trial for Sibelius, you’ll be hooked!

I used this program briefly on my last prac but never really delved into quite how much detail it has. I have been using it to compose sheet music lately and keep finding out new and improved ways of speeding up the process. The hotkey design and easy to access instrumentation and transposing aspect is top notch!

Musicians! Teachers! Go here now!

http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html

Pile it on top!

This little post is in response to one of my fellow students Stefania who has wrote a little blog about being up to her ears in work. I feel you Stef, I feel you. It can get pretty hectic to keep up with everything, and I know I have been really all over the place with my timing of blog posts and for that I do apologize, but there are some nights where I have the time to quickly throw a few up and other nights where I just can’t get there.

But the positive in all this stress is that it teaches us to continue to better our time management skills which is something that has really taken a battering for me over my past few years at uni, but I know I am better for it.

We just keep soldiering on!

https://sandriolo.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/im-backkkkkk/

Planning to integrate ICTs

So I’ve come to the interesting conclusion that when I create lesson plans it fairly easy to throw great ICTs into the lesson to help engage my students in the learning.. BUT when it becomes the question of “Create an ICT rich lesson”.. gee it makes me think, or is the word panic.. no lets run with think.

I love creating new ways of engaging my students using ICTs and I feel as though this comes to me naturally, but I gotta say when I am put to the question of planning a lesson with ICTs being the focus, it can be a little daunting to make sure I have created enough originality.

I guess I’ll see how my views on this change over the weeks to come!

My Welcome CD to Parents

Here is the link to my Artifact where I deliver to parents my reasons behind integrating ICTs in the teaching of Music.

http://jesseluque.wix.com/jesse-luque

Getting up to date!

This past week has seen me sitting at my computer coming to terms with new programs to which I haven’t had a great deal of experience with before, but I know are going to be a great use to me in the future. Programs such as Sibelius, Pro Tools and Adobe Premier. Although it was a slow and frustrating start with Pro Tools I was glad to get a chance to flex my technological muscle, knowing that it will aid me in my endeavours towards teaching music in the new age. I’m glad I stuck it out at the beginning as I am now much more confident in using these programs to create new and engaging activities for my classroom.

Music Tech for the Classroom

I stumbled upon this YouTube clip this afternoon while I was doing some research into using creative ICTs for music in the classroom. This is fantastic! The video goes through basically showing off all the new tools educators can take advantage of for teaching music in new ways. Just from watching this and seeing the new ICTs that are accessible for music teachers, I already have a tonne of new ideas for classroom activities flowing through my head. I have experienced using a few of these new ICTs such as the sample pad, but many of these new items I have never seen before.

Just from watching this clip, my excitement to enter the music classroom has increased ten fold, I can’t wait!

Did you know? Nope, sure didn’t.

Although this is a YouTube clip which is seven years old, it really made me think on a global scale just how much technology has become an imminent part of our lives. The information this clip presents really surprised me and I was captivated for the entire length of the video. It was interesting to note that many of the figures presented in terms of internet usage even though were staggering, would now, nearly eight years later, have increased categorically. This Did You Know clip is a must watch as the info it represents can really slap you in the face, figuratively of course.

Peer learning in ICTs

The following post was inspired in response to a fellow students brilliant blog post in relation to peer learning in ICTs: https://sandriolo.wordpress.com/2015/03/14/90/

I too have always been a firm believer of the value of collaborative learning or peer learning. I feel as though learning in a group, particularly with different social/cultural backgrounds can be a breeding ground for success. As is discussed in Stefanie’s blog post, we were exposed to Lev Vygotsky’s constructivist theory very early on in our studies and this is certainly a theory which has stuck with me through my years as a pre service teacher. I for one can see the benefit for peer learning when being introduced to new ICTs in the classroom. I took this approach on a previous Prac in which I introduced students to a notation software program, Sibelius. I had previously taken the students through a basic ‘101’ of the program and there were a few students in the class who were familiar with the program but for the majority this was the first time using it properly. I set the students the task of, through using Sibelius, deciding upon creating music to establish a sense of emotion to match a muted film excerpt I provided them with. The students were allowed to work in pairs or converse with one another. As I walked around the classroom I was delighted with the collaborative efforts I could see. The students were discussing and organizing which musical elements they were to utilize to achieve their chosen emotion and, then they would work through using the notation program together. Now although I hadn’t designed this lesson to be set group work when creating the lesson plan, I was glad that some of the students wanted the option to work together. I am confident that this approach is more beneficial to the students learning than if I was to simply give them all separate tasks and let them battle with the new program on their own.

In this same respect, I feel in this ICTs and Pedagogy course, peer learning is going to be, and has already proven to be very effective and beneficial to all of us studying it.

The Concept Map approach.

Wow, well before beginning my study of this course I can honestly say I never saw the real benefit in creating concept maps. I decided to take an approach which was more specific to one of my teaching areas which I think many people may not see the benefit of using ICTs as tools in the teaching, this being music. Now obviously there aren’t as many bubbles as there would be if I was brainstorming just general reasons for using ICTs in teaching, but, I feel as though these few ideas as to WHAT actual ICTs in music can be utilized in terms of composition, performance and theory can be quite beneficial as well. Once I sat down to create my map in terms of where I might use ICTs in music, I was quite surprised to what I had in front of me. Until you actually put down onto paper where and when you use certain ICTs, you may not realize just how important they are to the tasks being considered, and how you could have ever possibly gone without. I found this activity very useful, and also a bit of a wake up call.

Musescore, a helpful tool!

There are a number of useful music related software programs accessible to teachers and students out there, but one in particular I stumbled across in my first year of studying music at uni which I found highly useful was Musescore. This is a notation software program which allows you to edit, create and analyze musical scores. This aspect on it’s own can be of great use for teachers who want to create scores for musical activities before they enter the classroom, it could also be used to create analysis tasks for students to take home and work on, and of course as it is completely free to download it is a great tool for students to use in composition related activities in which they may need to create a score for themselves. The playback option also allows students to assess their knowledge of the written score elements in their composing. Although the parameters of the program are fairly basic as opposed to more advanced notation software programs out there, it is a great start to get students exposed to composing music for multiple instruments. And as I have already mentioned…it’s absolutely free!

http://musescore.en.softonic.com/