|Using Keynote to teach ukulele to young students|
|A screenshot from Sibelius Groovy Shapes, for lower schoolers|
3) Technology should make your life easier, not harder. Of course, just like any new teaching technique or other professional development area, it will take time and work to learn how to use and integrate a new piece of technology into the classroom. However, if more class time is spent on technical difficulties than learning, perhaps it's not the right method for the task. For example, my middle school World Music class created a wiki through Wikispaces. We spent most of one class period learning how to use the wiki and perform effective research on the web. After that, the students used their computer time well and rarely had trouble with the technology (effective research was another matter!). After that success, I used a wiki in my GarageBand class for the students to post their completed projects. It turned out that the skills that were easy to learn in the context of a more "academic" class were confusing and time consuming in a music creation class. We spent way too much class time figuring out how to use the tool that was supposed to make class easier, taking away from the musical experience. Now I know about SoundCloud and other sites specifically designed for this kind of use, so next time I teach GarageBand, we'll get that wasted class time back and kids will not feel frustrated that their hard work isn't being shared properly.
|A partial page of the Middle School World Music Wiki, created by a 6th-grader|
5) Knowledge is power. We are still in the very beginning stages of learning how technology affects the brain, learning, and community. It is so important for teachers and parents to stay informed without panicking when a study shows that brainwaves change when kids look at a screen, or that early technology use negatively impacts handwriting, as these are just tiny pieces of the entire puzzle. Technology will not go away, but it will transform more quickly than we can imagine. Already, we're talking about how much more open and interactive the iPad can be for many educational applications than the laptop, and who knows what the next innovation will be. Our kids are growing up in this world and we can't stop them--we can only serve as temporary guides on their journey. I don't want my kids or anyone else's going out there alone!