Final Thoughts of the Semester

Well, my first semester in the PhD program has come and gone. It was a pretty tumultuous time. I learned a lot, did A LOT of work and had a great time. Tech trends in music ed was a great class. I am sure that the tools I learned will help me to meet the needs of my students more in regard to technology. And, I will be able to do some fun things, like make iMovies with photos from field trips and events, etc. or podcast recordings from concerts and even assignments. I just received good news that we are finally getting a computer lab for the theory program in my school and I am excited to see that come to fruition as well.

My final project was practical. Some students of mine play in a string quartet and they needed more music for an upcoming wedding, so I arranged "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera for them. I look forward to giving them the arrangement in the next couple weeks. Maybe we'll record it and upload it on their website!

Anyway, I will be back with more tech musings next semester, I'm sure. I can't wait to learn how to use insert flash images on my website...

Time Flies This Time of Year!

Well, it is amazing how December always sneaks up on me. I think I'm ready for it, but classwork, papers and performances take over and then I wake up from the dream sometime in January!

So, back on track...the adventures in technology this semester have been terrific. I am excited about podcasting. Eric and I are working on some new recordings and I can't wait to get those up online. www.surveymonkey.com turns out to be a great resource for research studies - you can design a survey in detail, post it online, surveymonkey collects and sorts the data for you - wow! That has made my life easier this semester. And in music tech we are just learning how to make flash files. I am looking forward to designing a more elaborate website with these tools.

Final thoughts on technology for today - it is a love-hate relationship! Technology can be so useful, so streamlined and so creative, yet it can be time-consuming and frustrating when you are stuck troubleshooting, looking for 'a needle in a haystack'. I wouldn't trade it in, but sometimes it wears me out - like December!

iMovie is a blast!

Our latest assignment for Tech Trends was to create a movie using still images found on the web, and to include an audio track. Enter iMovie - this program is terrific. It was so easy to use. I decided to have an autumn theme to my movie - being inspired by the chilly temperatures and leaves falling in my neck of the woods (LI). I found about 20 different beautiful pictures with a fall theme and saved them to my desktop, later transferring them to iPhoto. I selected a recording of a piece by a nordic composer Erna Tauro, entitled Autumn Song. I used wiretap to record it from the Naxos site and then I edited the length that I wanted through Audacity. I transferred it to iTunes and was ready to combine it with the images in iMovie. I enjoyed working with the images and I tried to use different timing for each clip, as well as different angles of zooming in. I really was able to work with the audio track to see where timing and images felt right. I loved this assignment.

I can see where this type of knowledge would come in handy with my job. With permission of my students' families, of course, I could take pictures or videotape a performance of the West Side Fiddlers or my chamber orchestra and then compile them into a movie. This could be used for admission to festivals, or simply as a memento of the year. I could also put together a movie of pictures from the year and then have my students compose their own audio track to go with the video. Really, there are many possibilities. I am looking forward to developing more ideas about this.

My First Post

So far I am loving the class Technological Trends in Music Education. I didn't really know what to expect when I signed up for the course. But, now I am learning how to build a website, how to use programs like photoshop and audacity, and soon we will be podcasting. All of it is really useful to me. Now I have a place for my students to go and listen to recordings we have made. Also, I can help them with editing and compiling their own recordings. I am excited to figure out more ways to use technology in the classroom. I have used blogging with my theory class, but maybe now I can expand that to the orchestra as well. We'll see... Right now I am just excited to learn more about technology!