This lesson plan teaches students how to use Garageband to create a podcast about the life of an American Composer. As discussed in the Horizon report, mobile apps and tablet computing is a fast growing trend in education. I designed this lesson to utilize popular music apps and iPads so that students would gain valuable experience with this emerging technology.
I believe the students will benefit in multiple ways from completing this lesson. They can apply the knowledge gained to create other podcasts on topics of their choice or future classroom assignments. They also will be learning about American music history through a way that they can relate to as a 21st century learner. Podcasting creates a fun twist on a research assignment and the students are more likely to remember the information because they are more actively involved and engaged when modern technology is being used.
This lesson directly applies to AECT standards 1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, and 4.4 because students will be designing a podcast which requires them to utilize audiovisual technologies (iPad) and manage researched information. From this assignment, I learned how to use Scribd, embed a document, and received more practice using google docs (I usually use Word for writing documents). In preparing for writing the lesson, I learned a lot about the Garageband app because I had to make sure everything I wanted the students to do would actually be possible using the mobile version. The more I learn about Garageband the more amazed I am about the capabilities of the app and its seemingly infinite uses for teaching music. I plan to teach this lesson this school year, and I am really looking forward to it!