Technology in Education:
TAGUL
Tagul is a great way to make Word Cloud art. You can input a list of words, decide how many times you want to repeat words based on their importance, and then the program will insert them into a variety of images provided. The picture above is my brainstorm about what a music student is hopefully bringing to the music classroom. This tool would be relatively easy to use with students, perhaps at the beginning or end of the school year, or with a substitute who wasn't comfortable teaching a music lesson. Click here to read my blogpost about Tagul. Below is a Tagul about the various components of Orff-Schulwerk:
THINGLINK
.Thinglink is a tool that can be used to create multiple links on a background image. It is ideal for providing additional information to diagrams, or maps, or really anything you can think up. I used Thinglink to link the musical theme for each character from Peter and the Wolf with their name and instrument. Although I was able to embed my Thinglink eventually, I difficulty getting Weebly to embed my project. In any case, you can also view my project by visiting my Tech Tac Toe Thinglink blog post. I wish I could recommend Thinglink without reservations, but since it will not allow you to view your project fullscreen without upgrading, I wonder if there is an easier website to work with for creating and using interactive images. If I had more time with my students, having them create a Thinklink about a musician, or a specific piece of music would be a nice research project.
QR CODES
QR Codes can be used in a wide variety of ways for both teachers and students. I used the website qrstuff to create seven QR Codes, one for the musical theme of each character in Peter and the Wolf. I envisioned students to use their iPad to scan the code, then listen to the theme and determine which instrument and character it belongs to. For example, here is Peter's QR code below:
Because I like SMART Notebook and use it consistently in the classroom, I made a file with a separate "Who Am I?" slide for each character, and imagined printing these out and putting them around the classroom in stations. Students could scan and listen to all seven examples with a partner, filling in their answer about the instrument and character associated with each theme.
All seven characters are mixed up below. Can you tell Who's Who?
Below is an example of a worksheet students could fill out as they traveled through the classroom:
Students could use this tool easily to create a QR Code with one of their compositions, for example, and send it to their parents. This might be a nice "gift" for a holiday...If you would like to read more about my experience with QR Codes, visit my blogpost on QR Codes.
TRENDS IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
Please click on my Prezi below to learn more about TED and TED Talks.
DIGITAL STORY
My digital story on iMovie is called, "Super Saturday". Click the arrow below to watch!
WEBQUEST
If you would like to view my Webquest project with Brenda Latzke, go to our website Blues School to learn more.