How do I combat some of the disadvantages I see within my district? How do I close the gap on gender stereotypes that surround different music classes and technical knowledge? How do I create an environment that welcomes students with special needs and allows them to not only participate, but thrive. This brings social inclusion to the forefront. For an educational institute to make this type of interaction and personal expression available for students would, in my opinion be a great asset to any program. iPads and multiple programs have greatly enhanced the common person’s ability to produce and combine music and create an entire song or track all by themselves, but inevitably the human way is to gravitate towards each other and share these experiences (Dorfman, 2013 pp.
Alternative ensembles have been popping for several years now and I believe these to be an excellent addition to music programs. It may never be “the right time” to start a whole new approach to teaching music in my practice, but I can see that the demand is growing especially for students who are interested in music, but not in the traditional form. Many of the examples from this book have stated the same thing the observed teacher has often had a statement about adapting as the class moves along and I think that is a big take away I have from this. This scenario only scratches the surface of some of the issues we face in certain schools when it comes to integrating technology with our lessons.Īs a music teacher I have learned that I need to be innovative and never get too focused on plan A. I know other music educators have had similar experiences when trying to implement new technology. My students and I were capable of completing this assignment, but my space just was not conducive to that type of lesson. After my third very frustrating attempt at using iPads in the music classroom I opted not to waste any more time on it. My access to it was quite limited and when I was able to reserve it, the students had a hard time completing assignments because of the wifi signal in my room. My first teaching position was in a rural school in Montana and we were thrilled to have one iPad cart to use amongst the entire school.
This is not true for a large portion of the educational population and for teachers who want to introduce more technological measures into their teaching. Many of the observations described took place in idyllic circumstances or in districts that have access to the technology described and students who have some amount of technological basis to begin from (Dorfman, 2013 p. There are several social issues that need to be considered as we continue to add more technology to the classroom. As we finish up this course, I feel that the final chapters of the Dorfman text are quite inspiring and a great send off to readers.