Standard 2.1 Content Standards & Student Technology Standards
Candidates model and facilitate the design and implementation of technology-enhanced learning experiences aligned with student content standards and student technology standards.
(PSC 2.1/ISTE 2a) |
My artifact for standard 2.1 is a video overview of a unit on sound for video that I developed as a part of ITEC 7445. This unit was designed and built in conjunction with our music technology teacher. The unit was implemented with students enrolled in the music technology course offered through our fine arts department in the Spring of 2016. We now offer a second full version of this course with a second instructor for non-band and orchestra students. The music technology course is centered around Apple’s GarageBand application and is an extremely popular course with students.
Standard 2.1 details expectations for a candidate to facilitate the design and implementation of technology-enhanced learning experiences aligned with content and technology standards. The content of this unit aligns to Georgia’s standards for students in middle school band programs. To be specific, the standards addressed included composing “rhythmic exercises and short melodies using traditional notations which incorporate use of dynamics” and creating “music incorporating expressive elements”. This course tends to focus more on loops and application-specific techniques. Therefore, the ability to address standards not heretofore available within the course curriculum was welcomed by the fine arts department. The content delivery for this unit was a hybrid of technology-based and face to face instruction. Part of this was to work around my schedule and part was a desire to model the effective use of D2L to my fine arts teachers. Teachers in our fine arts department have been slower to pick up on our eClass (D2L) initiative than other staff and this seemed a golden opportunity. The unit was also aligned with student technology standards. Specifically, the unit address NET-S 2a (Interact, collaborate and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media) and NET-S 2d (Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems).
The development of this unit provided a wonderful opportunity to work with the music department which is a department I rarely get a meaningful opportunity to work with. As I struggled to bring my music technology teacher to raise his expectations for students, I found I spent a good deal of time defending my viewpoint to the band department. This debate led directly to the creation of our second set of music technology classes which we rolled out this year. The alignment of standards was fairly simple, but it meant expecting much more out of students than the course had called for in the past. I designed the task itself to require the use of numerous applications and a good deal of collaboration. This contributed greatly to the authenticity of the project. In the future, I would like to involve our drama department to create original screenplays for our broadcast studio team to film and edit and for our music technology students to score.
Content standards are essential to keep teachers and curriculum designers focused on the big picture. By constantly revisiting the standards we also create a safe way for teachers to bring more influence and personality into their courses while still being aligned to other teachers across the state. The standards keep us all honest without restricting a teacher’s freedom of expression. This also make assessment easier and much more fair to students. My music technology teacher was able to use my rubric to easily assess students and, by association, the success of the unit.
If content standards are not always adhered to as dogma by fine arts departments, technology standards are rarely even known. The beauty of this unit was the way in which it managed to align what might have seemed unrelated concepts but also the way in which students were able to harness the power of technology to express themselves in a way that only two weeks earlier they were unaware of. It is my hope that the entire fine arts department will begin to seek out ways in which they can address concepts that may be centuries old with technology that is only decades old. We were able to address two Georgia standards for middle school band that are virtually ignored in most programs. The standards ask students to “compose rhythmic exercises and short melodies using traditional notations which incorporate use of dynamics” and to “create music incorporating expressive elements” and yet these are almost impossible to address in the typical band classroom. The district SPG (Student Performance Goal) scores, which are the county benchmark tests given for all non-academic classes each year, will give us measurable proof that this unit has impacted instruction in a positive way.