Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this class because I was at the ACDA conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Professor Riley sent us the powerpoint he used in class, however, so I have a gist of what went on while I was away.
It seems like the class mostly learned about copyright information. As a future choir director, this is very important to understand! "Copyright" is defined as "A set of exclusive rights granted by law to the author for protection of their work." A copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. It allows the author to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works, sell the work, and publish the work. If something can be used freely by the public, it's called public domain. Traditional folksongs, for example, are in the public domain. Copyright material may also fall under the category of "fair use." This is a legal defense if somebody were to sue you for stealing their work. Fair use may apply if you were minimally using their work for education, research, criticism, parody, or news reporting.
All of this information is valuable to anybody going into the music as a career!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
February 24 Reflection
Class on this day was very entertaining! We watched Professor Riley's video about kids using garageband to compose their own songs. First, they were split into groups. Then, they were given a topic to write about. They wrote the lyrics and then later put those words to music. At the end of the project, every person in the class had their song put onto a CD. I think it's a really great idea to make a class CD because it gives them something to always look back on and remember.
Our assignment for the week was to do the same thing; we wrote lyrics to a song about winter, put it to music, and send our completed song to Professor Riley. I sincerely hope he doesn't make a class CD, however, because I'd really rather not have other people listening to what I wrote. It's not very good...but it was fun!
Our assignment for the week was to do the same thing; we wrote lyrics to a song about winter, put it to music, and send our completed song to Professor Riley. I sincerely hope he doesn't make a class CD, however, because I'd really rather not have other people listening to what I wrote. It's not very good...but it was fun!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
February 17 Reflection
Although I was not in class on this day, I watched the video that Professor Riley posted on YouTube and was able to not miss a thing! The class learned all about microphones last Friday. There are two main types of microphones, the first being a dynamic mic. The second is called a condenser mic, and these are mainly used for recording whole rooms as opposed to just one person. The Shure SM81 is the "entry level" condenser mic, usually used for live performance recordings. The standard vocal performance microphone is the Shure SM58, and the main instrument microphone is the SM57. The only difference between these two is the SM57 does not have a wind screen.
Another topic that was discussed was IKmultimedia. It allows you to hook small mics onto your iPhone or iPad, which makes these things easy to use in a classroom setting.
Distortion was another main point covered in class. There are four major ways to avoid feedback:
1. Don't point the mic at the speaker
2. Keep the mic pointing at your sound source (which could be your mouth or instrument)
3. Don't hold the microphone over the wind screen. It messes up the sound waves.
4. Keep everything at a reasonable volume.
Friday, February 10, 2012
February 10 Reflection
The most frustrating part of class this morning was the way we started it out. The first fifteen minutes were spent with Professor Riley answering two students' specific questions, leaving the rest of the class to sit and wait for them to be done. I would much prefer individual questions to be asked at the end of class, so that everyone else can leave early if they want to.
Otherwise, it was neat to see the different websites that can be used for classroom purposes. My five favorites are below.
Piano Pedagogy Plus is a great way to teach kids about the different notes, key signatures, intervals, and scale degrees. Each of those has its own game for them to play. It's fun and will be instructive at the same time.
Whack-A-Note is all about learning what notes fall on the staff. Kids are asked to identify the right now by clicking on it as fast as they can! It's a fun and interactive activity that will teach them to read music faster.
Interactive Orchestra gives kids the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of an orchestra. Each section is labeled, and each time you click on a section, you learn specific information about it. There is even a comprehension quiz that they can take after they've looked everything over.
Incredibox is not particularly useful for the classroom, but it is so much fun! You assign a different part to each passing person, and that part cuts off when that person is out of view. Kids would have a lot of fun playing around with the different options!
Isle of Tune is another game simply for fun. You are presented with a picture of a blank space of land, to be filled with houses, roads, signs, etc. that you put down. Each object has a different music sound assigned to it. As a car passes each object, that sound is played. It teaches kids creativity and composition, and they have a blast doing it.
Otherwise, it was neat to see the different websites that can be used for classroom purposes. My five favorites are below.
Piano Pedagogy Plus is a great way to teach kids about the different notes, key signatures, intervals, and scale degrees. Each of those has its own game for them to play. It's fun and will be instructive at the same time.
Whack-A-Note is all about learning what notes fall on the staff. Kids are asked to identify the right now by clicking on it as fast as they can! It's a fun and interactive activity that will teach them to read music faster.
Interactive Orchestra gives kids the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of an orchestra. Each section is labeled, and each time you click on a section, you learn specific information about it. There is even a comprehension quiz that they can take after they've looked everything over.
Incredibox is not particularly useful for the classroom, but it is so much fun! You assign a different part to each passing person, and that part cuts off when that person is out of view. Kids would have a lot of fun playing around with the different options!
Isle of Tune is another game simply for fun. You are presented with a picture of a blank space of land, to be filled with houses, roads, signs, etc. that you put down. Each object has a different music sound assigned to it. As a car passes each object, that sound is played. It teaches kids creativity and composition, and they have a blast doing it.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Google Docs, Prezi, and Glogster
Here are examples of three possible presentation devices:
Google Docs:
Prezi:
Google Docs:
Prezi:
Kids and Technology
Every generation is different. The cliche phrase, "those were the good old days..." becomes applicable every time a new generation is born. Although our generation is upset that the kids these days are growing up with cell phones, laptops, ipods, ipads, etc., we have to accept that this is going to be the norm for the rest of our lives. Very likely, when the children of this generation grow up, there will be some new form of technology for the next generation, which will upset the old generation, and they cycle continues. So what do I think? I think that we should not try and fight the change; technology has proven to be a good thing (as much as it might upset our grandparents). With proper parental advisory, there is no reason a kid can't be a kid if they own an ipod, choose to blog, have a Facebook, etc. As long as they spend time outside and build proper social skills with real people, I'm sure the children will turn out perfectly fine.
When it comes to teachers having electronic communication with their students, I would be cautious. There is nothing wrong with having a classroom blog or the teacher emailing the students information or reminders. However, any kind of electronic relationship that is not professional (like being Facebook friends) should definitely be avoided until graduation from high school. You want the students to respect the teachers and vice versa, so all relationships need to be kept professional.
When it comes to teachers having electronic communication with their students, I would be cautious. There is nothing wrong with having a classroom blog or the teacher emailing the students information or reminders. However, any kind of electronic relationship that is not professional (like being Facebook friends) should definitely be avoided until graduation from high school. You want the students to respect the teachers and vice versa, so all relationships need to be kept professional.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Getting a Twitter
This week, the whole class got a Twitter account. Since there were a number of students opposed to the idea, it was rather chaotic. Once Twitter had been created, we went onto ifttt.com to link our Twitter to our blog. If This Then That is a website that allows you to automate various web tasks.
The directions for linking Twitter to Blogspot is as follows:
-On iftt.com, click task
-click create task
-click "This"
-click "Feed"
-click "New Feed"
-Enter the blog's RSS address here
-click "Create Trigger"
-click "That"
-choose Twitter
-Post a new tweet
-click "Create Action"
-Finally, click "Create Task"
You find the blog's RSS address by either clicking on the RSS icon or by clicking Subscribe to Posts.
I can see how If This Then That would be a huge time-saver as a teacher letting their students know when something new has been posted on the class's blog. That is, assuming that Twitter does not die out the same way that MySpace did. It will be interesting to see which social networking sites stand the test of time!
The directions for linking Twitter to Blogspot is as follows:
-On iftt.com, click task
-click create task
-click "This"
-click "Feed"
-click "New Feed"
-Enter the blog's RSS address here
-click "Create Trigger"
-click "That"
-choose Twitter
-Post a new tweet
-click "Create Action"
-Finally, click "Create Task"
You find the blog's RSS address by either clicking on the RSS icon or by clicking Subscribe to Posts.
I can see how If This Then That would be a huge time-saver as a teacher letting their students know when something new has been posted on the class's blog. That is, assuming that Twitter does not die out the same way that MySpace did. It will be interesting to see which social networking sites stand the test of time!
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