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This week’s assignment focused on looking at trends in technology, and how those trends affect the field of education. The assignment began by introducing the 2012 Horizon Report, a fantastic resource which discussed a variety of current technological trends, as well as trends which are on the “horizon” (pun intended). I was most interested in the discussion of the most current trends, which included mobile apps and tablet computing. Because the technology is new, its implementation is still evolving, and it was useful to have as a resource examples of creative ways that the technology is being implemented. As a music teacher, I was particularly interested in the way tablet technology was used to teach conducting. I was reminded of the Nintendo Wii game “Wii Music” which teaches concepts such as rhythm, harmony, and even conducting, in a game format so that even young children may be exposed to these core concepts. Recently, I also purchased a new music notation program, Notion, which is available for PC and Mac platforms, as well as a version for the iPad. The computer-based program has the standard set of features for music publishing, but also has its niche in that it can be utilized in a live performance environment. As I read the Horizon Report, I found myself thinking about new and exciting ways that up-and-coming technologies such as gesture-based input will be used in current music technology. I suspect the next several years will continue to yield exciting advances.

The main project of this week’s assignment was to create a lesson plan. My current work in education is not in a traditional classroom setting; however I was able to adapt the assignment to work primarily in a studio teaching setting. I found it to be a productive exercise to rethink how I would present material using technology as a primary means of instruction. After some reflection, I’ve concluded that for my teaching style and subject matter, technology would primarily serve to speed up the learning process, although potentially at a cost. For example, there is much that can be learned by transcribing a solo using nothing but one’s ear, an instrument, and a pencil or notation program, so I hesitate to implement software that can convert audio to MIDI in the early stages of the learning process. Similar arguments have been made regarding the use of calculators in the math classroom, and it has been interesting to see how that argument has evolved as the use and availability of calculators have become so ubiquitous. It will be curious to see the level that technologies such as mobile apps and tablets become a regular, or even mandatory, part of modern society. As a result, my lesson plan incorporates technology as a supplementary, rather than primary, means of instruction. Here is a copy of my lesson plan, embedded using Scribd.

This lesson plan conforms to the AECT standard 1: Design (1.1 Instructional Systems Design) and Standard 3: Utilization (3.1 Media Utilization, 3.3 Implementation and Institutionalization) in that the lesson is designed to use available resources including (computer software and hardware) to facilitate the learning experience through the use of media (sound and video), and can be implemented in a traditional or studio classroom setting.