The Blair Finch Project
SAMR & TPACK
We aim for above the line.
☝︎ higher level thinking ☝︎
Add a few "tricks" to your IWB page.
How can flipcharts and/or your projector make your life a little easier? Adding a media file to a flipchart is a simple way to organize your background tracks so you're not looking around for those CDs. Using an interactive xylophone can make sure all your students are on the same page with xylophone set up and hearing what the melody will sound like. Simple software tools will allow you to zoom in, rotate, and erase objects in your flipchart, and students can do all tricks at the board as well! Try the magic tunnel to help your students with vocab. The Augmentation level is a more engaging, active way to make your lessons stronger, but don't stay at this level all the time. Push your lessons into the higher levels as well.
Annotate a score or sound poem in Preview or Notebook
The subsitution level is the one we're most comfortable with, and there's nothing wrong or bad about being at this level. Using Preview to annotate scores or take notes is a simple, paper-less way to present material the whole class can focus on together. Notebook and ActiveInspire offer easy-to-use software that can make your visuals look good in no time, and can save you the hassle of searching your room for that poster you made last year. One thing to remember about Substitution, however, is that this is a basic level of using technology and will not push your students to redefine their learning, and yet it is a great way for you and your students to get familiar with basic tech tools.
Share the performance with other classes and let them leave some constructive feedback.
At the Modification level, lessons are starting to look different in your classroom. Technology is now transforming your lessons to be more authentic, meaningful lessons than they could be otherwise. This step often involves the element of feedback and formative assessment, such as an interactive gallery walk where students can view each others' performances or work and leave immediate feedback that can be used to push the project a step further. Collaboration can be a very effective tool in the creative process of editing and adjusting work, and tools like Aurasma, Edmodo, Soundcloud, and Skype Edu can offer possibilities for students to have their work assessed and changed for the better. Without technology, this would not be possible.
Global publishing - sending authentic performance tasks out into the world
Redefinition is the highest level of tech integration. Without technology, these processes and products would not be possible. Educators live for the Redefined lessons, when everything comes together and students have a meaningful, authentic learning experience to share with the world. These are the lessons that you never forget, and when you truly feel validated as an educator. In the music world, this often includes a level of global publication, but is not limited to that. One example is a project where students create backstories for their musical characters: normally they will research and present their characters' motivations and backstory to the cast but it often ends there. Why not record those explanations and have your playbill come to life with each actor telling their stories to the world? With an app like Aurasma, it's not hard at all. Now student work is authentic and meaningful but also being sent out into the world as a real, authentic product for others. This is a hard level to reach, and teachers striving for it in every lesson can burn out quite easily, but as educators we need to find ways to make students' work shared with the world to better it in some way. Technology can aid this in ways previously inconceivable. Here is a blog with some other examples.
