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| Photograph From: the printshop For MAC |
In a study done by William Bauer Sam Reese, and Peter McAllister (2003), “The purpose was to determine if a one week technology workshop could be an effective means for the professional development of music teachers in using technology for instruction.” The subject of the study was 203 K-12 music teachers from 19 eastern and Midwestern states, all enrolled in a university summer technology workshop. This group consisted of general, vocal/choral, and instrumental music teachers. In summary there were thee gauges of efficiency, “Teacher knowledge, teacher comfort, and frequency of teacher use”.
As this article is not directly referring to children but to adults and their learning of knowledge to teach children a new medium. This speaks to their comfort to teach, and frequency of use to teach with the new technology these teachers could learn. I asked a relatively neophyte, yet extremely qualified music teacher if given the opportunity would she infuse technology into her teaching? Her response was overwhelming exciting. “First, because I do not have a room to call my own it would make it very difficult for me to place students in front of computers I’m not familiar with. Next, the district would have to provide software which children could use to create music.” “However, do you realize how cool that would be if I had my own room and the software? she responded. Se went on to rave about a site called http://www.PianoNanny.com/ it teaches piano on the net and best of all it’s free. Teacher knowledge is there, teacher comfort is there, however, frequency of use is missing from the equations. As students need stimuli, so do teachers. I would say when the external environment is not fed upon there is a loss of the natural stimuili!
Integrating multimedia into the classroom is based on the premise that technology will enhance actual student learning. In addressing this article Donald J. Leu, Jr., questioned the teachers’ complaint of not having enough time to integrate technology within their curriculum framework. Stated clearly, the question becomes: “What will it take to remove stagnation (“old trends”) and allow teachers to obtain professional development so that they can ultimately advance (move forward) and incorporate the use of technology in the classroom?” The nature of reading and writing is rapidly emerging from the traditional usage of textbook, pencil, pen, and paper tools, to using the technological tools embodied by the Internet, digital imaging, graphics, and animation mediums. Donald J. Leu Jr. proposes various strategies for teachers to learn his method of using the Internet to enhance students’ skills and overall levels of achievement. The obvious advantages of using the Internet Workshop program for learning becomes two-fold: it enables the children to teach themselves and provides a vehicle for social interaction with their peers and teachers.
I personally find this subject area significantly essential in creating a foundation for a child’s success in today’s school, and also, for providing a solid foundation for a child as a future employee of society. The learners of today have many requirements including, interactive thirsts and needs, which must be diligently watered and taken care of. Using iPods, interactive whiteboards, blogs, digital stories etc., in the classroom will not only satisfy their thirsts and needs, but will also provide and promote two-fold integration of social camaraderie amongst their peers. Essentially it is time for educators to recognize the need to focus on integrating technology as an instructional tool within the classroom curriculum. As stated above, using the Internet Workshop program for learning provides a two-fold advantage. At the outset, it enables the children to teach themselves and come together socially with peers, and it also enhances the teachers’ ability to integrate technology into their educational practices.
John Allison critiqued the many different views that virtual reality methods/teacher tools had on the profession of teaching history. Some history teachers do not feel that the technology of today will really make a change their “traditional” and “customary” profession of teaching the past. In order to induce this change, history teachers will need to have a tool which will help them provide a more engaging, dynamic, learning environment that will infuse and immerse their students into this technological learning age. The objectivity and the need for the immersion of the past with the reality of the virtual world, has to be defined in such a way that the history teachers themselves would be able to see the realism as it is presented in the technological medium of fact based textbooks and narratives by historians.
Computer generated simulations are only one of the many resources that history teachers can use to teach about artifacts from many moments in time. This study directs us to the web-based path on which students will be able to travel the world via a virtual three-dimensional space. A history teacher, who teaches using virtual reality, can actually reshape the minds of this generation of students by giving them the ability to virtually relive the historical events from the past. One argument this study presents is that history teachers need to make themselves more aware of the designs and development of the virtual element. With all virtual teaching has to offer and the incalculable amount of possibilities this avenue of educational teaching can give to the profession and students, it should be given high priority. This study finalizes it’s thoughts by injecting the need for virtual model environments to be utilized in order to meet the educational needs of the present realities by connecting easily with the past. There is also a need to enhance the socialism aspect of this concept, by bringing the students into the virtual world of learning. History educators should give more thought on how to use these tools now available in the present, for teaching the past on all levels.
Peter R. Albion, (2008) discusses the changes in the WWW in schools and challenges if the Web 1.0 and 2.0 are truly practical for teachers in education. In part Albion, (2008) delivers the information, “Many educators have come to accept the idea of the Internet as a participative medium rather than a mere source of information.” With this stream of thought and willing acceptance, more and more teachers are trying the social media platform and social bookmarking. Because these tools are a part of our everyday lives it has become the responsibility of educators to join in and train the children of today with the tools they are so familiar with!
This study further introduces the fact that Web 2.0 tools are now becoming an integral complement to educating teachers as well as children. Just as we teach children to write about real life experiences, teachers teach through the experiences they have had in the real world. As stated by Albion (2008), “Where teachers have little or no experience of specific practices in the real world, they face particular challenges in designing authentic activities for classroom learning.” In summary, the study explains that while the task of implementing Web 2.0 tools can become a challenge, it has now become a necessary component for the future!
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