Project 3 Reflection

In contemporary dance, we often have technological challenges with music. As dancers, not only do we need to cut music for performances and competitions in order to make it fit the parameters of our dance - we often need music that fits to our choreography as we don't always just create dances that fit with the music. We are also fairly concerned with using unique music that facilitates emotion without the use of words. This requires the ability to use technology to cut music and create music tracks. This is a problem that I and many other dancers face on a regular basis. At BYU, we take our music to Troy for his expertise. When I was in high school, I had to use a terrible program on a PC that literally took me hours to use. With our lives as busy as they already are, we need something more time effective. Luckily, Garageband is the solution to my problem. It has the ability to cut and create music tracks. The only downside is that it is only for Macs (which I don't have).
So, for my project, I decided to teach myself how to use Garageband by working on campus computers and going through the tutorials online. I created a rubric for my future students to follow and did the project myself to create an original piece of music as evidence of my work.
Through this project, I luckily learned how easy it is to 1. teach yourself a new program with tools from the web 2. cut and create music quickly with the ability to add loops, change tempo, etc. in order to create realistic pieces of musical art.
Thanks for a great semester!

The Finale!

This is the final blog post....for this class that is. It definitely will not be my last blog post. :)
Question 1: One of the first few weeks of class, we all had to create a personal learning network. This has become very helpful in allowing me to contribute to some domain of knowledge. From my google reader PLN, I have been able to access important documents, etc. that have been helpful in multiple dance classes throughout the semester. So while I have not added much to the domain of knowledge that exists on the internet, I have used technology to contribute to the domain of knowledge in my everyday classes.
Question 2: Even though we stopped commenting on the blogs of those in our group, I have often still looked at their responses to learn from their experiences. I use technology to collaborate with others mostly through the use of email as well.
Question 3: Technology will be used in my classrooms mostly for feedback purposes for my students. I want to have my students videotape themselves and learn from watching their own dancing. But it can also be used when they write their semester research paper as they find their own PLN and learn from others in the field of dance. They are going to need to learn how to put together videos of their best work, by using movie programs as well.
Question 4: There wasn't a week that went by that I did not learn something new. I did know some of the things that we went over, but not as in depth as the assignments allowed us to go with them. I think one of the things that hit me the most was the importance of teaching technological etiquette to our students. Overall I also learned that if you just do a little searching, things will come fairly easy. You just have to put in the effort first. Technology has so many resources that are easy to use if you take a little time to figure it out.
Question 5: I kind of answered this in question 3, but I will use movie making and filming, I will also have my students create a PLN to learn to network in dance and I will definitely use a website in my classroom to help both myself and students stay organized. Etiquette, safety, and copyright will always be implemented as we just use technology, and as a dancer, I will forever be downloading videos or ripping dvd's to help in the learning process of my students, since dance is such a visual art. :)
Thanks for a great semester.