Friday, April 17, 2015
Week 5 Reflection
Of all the assigned reading material for this week, I found chapter 6 to be the most interesting and pertinent to my own life. Chapter 6 is centered on different forms of assessment and utilizing technology for assessment. While much of the chapter felt like an in-depth review for me, there was a considerable bit of information presented that I found to be both new and useful. By far the most useful bit was Flubaroo, which I had never heard of. I can't even begin to remember all of the times that I have wanted to find and/or make a music quiz for a general music class or an instrumental lesson group. Being a free program and allowing automatic grading makes this a truly terrific tool to use for a wide variety of situations and age levels.
Outside of this information, the use of audio and video recording technology is something that has been fairly easy to accomplish for some time now, however that does not take away its usefulness to the music educator. I never thought of having students download Audacity at home to record themselves, and this would indeed be a great way for students to self-assess. Also, programs such as Smart Music track correct/incorrect pitches and rhythms, so this would be another smart use of technology in music assessment. Audio/video recording and programs like Smart Music are especially useful in my eyes because they allow for authentic assessments to be made, especially so in the case of Smart Music.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm also not too familiar with Flubaroo. Writing quizzes is usually quite a task. The idea of actually being able to create and save a quiz that can be reused without having to save a paper hard-copy is awesome! That it can also grade the quizzes and send you results makes it even better. We're getting SmartMusic in my district this coming year. I'll be curious to determine how well it will work for my program!
ReplyDeleteI'm also not too familiar with Flubaroo. Writing quizzes is usually quite a task. The idea of actually being able to create and save a quiz that can be reused without having to save a paper hard-copy is awesome! That it can also grade the quizzes and send you results makes it even better. We're getting SmartMusic in my district this coming year. I'll be curious to determine how well it will work for my program!
ReplyDeleteHi. I concur with you and say that this week’s reading has been the most helpful with regard to assessment. Quantifiable assessment strategies are critical to me, because I facilitate my own music program in school and understand the importance of presenting measurable data to support grades and learning outcomes. I too share your intrigue concerning Flubaroo. I’ve begun working with this program and, so far, have found it to have phenomenal potential as a tool to help grade multiple-choice or fill-in-blank assignments quickly. That Flubaroo computes average assignment scores, average scores per question, displays a grading graph and gives teachers the option of emailing grades and answer keys is extremely useful. I want to grow my music program but without ever diminishing the assessment process in any way. I agree with Bauer (2014) that assessment is not only necessary to determine “whether students have learned what teachers think they have taught, but it also informs the design of instruction and can direct adjustments of the specific teaching and learning strategies that are used over time” (p. 131). We’ve cover quite a bit of material in this course and I have personally been introduced many new web applications that can help me improve student learning in my classroom. I hope to take the Summer to study each program yet more in-depth.
ReplyDeleteBauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing and responding to music. New York: Oxford University Press.