Concept Map "with a twist!"

The Harlem Renaissance

I find that my students are constantly struggling with making historical connections between music and history.  Often times, intriguing stories will draw their attention to particular details to aid in making those connections; however, I feel there is still a large gap missing between students linking the two.  In order to fully understand how music is created and the lessons learned from the music notation to lyrics students must first understand how music relates to history and not only the historical impact of music on culture, but culture on music.  Each year my 4^th and 5^th grade students learn about Blues, Jazz, and Swing.  I hope that this concept map will aid in showing students how music, art, and literature each played a huge role in the development of the Harlem Renaissance thus enabling students to understand the scenes behind the music.

My inspiration for this concept map came from this WebQuest which listed a bare concept map model.  After reviewing this model, I began to find several ways in which this concept map could enable my students with a clearer understanding of music and history.

Reflection on Glogs

Reflections:

 

1.        Given that Glogs have the potential to create extensive cognitive load, what deliberate efforts did you make to reduce cognitive load in your Glog? Do you think you succeeded?

Knowing that a glog has the potential to overload cognition of material, it is important that the content is free of redundancy, offers connections to one another in addition to the relationship in placement to one another, all facts present in Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning.  As we have learned, the working memory can only simultaneously process a limited amount of information; therefore it is important that each experience have meaning and hopefully connections to prior schema.  Glogs offer the opportunity for a wide variety of learning possibilities, which is good to ensure you are reaching each learning type through multiple intelligences, but dangerous as you could possibly overload working memory.  I worked hard to ensure that the material presented was both interesting and provided connections to familiar topics in addition to learning new material; unfortunately, I am not sure I succeeded 100% as I feel there is a huge variety of information available as well as the need for a pleasing look to the page.  Part of what I enjoy about my job, is experimenting with new ideas.  I have created a glog on instrument families and felt great success, possibly due to the fact that it was geared for a younger grade level.  As we work with older grade levels, I find that the material is more complex and therefore perhaps a variety of options for learning could be present.  I won’t truly know the impact of my glog on my students until I try it out.

2.       Do you think that Swisher (and Mayer) would consider a Glog one piece of multimedia, or a collection of separate multi-media elements? Why or why not?

       I think that Mayer and Swisher would consider a glog as several multi-media elements even though they are included on one source due to the fact that glogs can easily contain video, graphics, text, audio, and documents all on the same topic on the same page.  Mayer and Swisher both focus on the importance of cognitive load and this type of “overload” are not supported by the following principles:  mulitmedia, modality, redundancy, and coherence principles.  They feel concise and keeping to the facts are best.  I feel that Swisher and Mayer would consider glogs by each media content.

3.       Defend or refute the following statement: it is entirely likely that almost every Glog ever made breaks all six of Mayer’s multimedia principles.

I would say that yes, this statement may present a good argument as the majority of the what Mayer states, involves concise information that is full of meaningful learning, does not duplicate the same information with different forms of media, and avoids the glamour that sometimes is needed with a “digital poster” to make it important for learning as well as visually pleasing and interesting to look at.  This goes against the mulit-media, modality, redundancy, and coherence principles.  I feel that in order to really defend Mayer’s support for media learning through sources like Glogster, you would really need to stretch the meaning of what he is discussing with dual coding.  The only possible way of refuting this statement is through split-attention theory, which really isn’t enough to refute an entire statement.

4.       Defend or refute the following statement:  Even if a Glog breaks most of Mayer’s multimedia principles it can be still used to facilitate a more complex understanding of topics than many other multimedia representations.

I can defend the above statement because I feel that each student learns differently.  Through Glogster, educators have the power to offer a wide variety of options for learning that will reach out to each learner in a way that is meaningful and will impact student learning.  I do believe that there is merit to Mayer’s modality principle and that a glog is a great example of providing maximum cognition through the visual channel and the auditory channel, which is one of few examples that could support glogs from Mayer’s multimedia principles.

5.       Glogs are very popular in K-12 classrooms. Why do you think they are so popular with teachers and students.

I feel that this form of media is new and exciting for both educators and students.  Students are able to easily access information to learning outside of the classroom in an interactive fun way that actually puts the student at the drivers wheel.  This concept is exciting for both the student and the teacher.  I feel that program is also easy enough for the student to create their own unique work of art that teaches or depicts their version of a concept or topic.  There is a multitude of information at the student’s fingertips online including graphics, videos, interactive games or activities, assessments, and projects, to name a few!  This “one-stop-shop” idea is great for allowing students the ability to enhance learning in one place rather than spending time hunting the internet.

 

Constructed Glog - Get to know the Teacher!

I created this Glog from original material as a "Getting to Know the Teacher" or "Meet the Teacher" and included information about the music classroom as well in aid of providing a "one-stop" location to find out basic classroom information covering the beginning of the school year.

Web Inspired Glog

Using media from the web, I created a glog that can be used as an icebreaker homework assignment to prepare students in the music class for an exciting day of sound experimentation.  The glog features video clips that gradually break down sound as vibrations, then sound waves, and finally how that translates to music or sound through YouTube videos.  I've also included a preview into the sound experiments that we will be working through in class.  In addition, I've included a visual image with details on identifying sound waves with definitions in the form of text.  For fun, I have included an interactive activity with sound waves from Quaver's Marvelous World of Music.  You will need to create a free account, go to the map, and finally lab to find the QSynth and play with an oscilloscope.  Lastly, students can participate in an online quiz to test their understanding of sound waves.  The answers are provided to aid in instant feedback.  This lesson is followed up by an instrument creation project and moves us into learning about pitches high and low and notation.  Perhaps I will have students in addition to creating their instruments, create a glog that can be linked to a class glog for online sharing!

Swisher Article - Differences Between Videos and Still Images

What is the difference between video and still images in classroom instruction?

 

Now that I have had the opportunity to create both an instructional digital story and a digital video (which still contains many still images), I begin to see Swisher’s article and discussion on multimedia theory elements coming to life.  Now that school is out of session, I found that creating a full video was a little difficult without my resources readily available, but chose to use GoAnimate.com; a fun website that has been wildly popular with my students in video instruction.  I was able to splice in video from Go Animate with MovieMaker. 

I find that the video instruction has more of an impact on learning due to the entertainment factor; however, with both modes, I feel that the coherence principle is effective as Swisher states, it puts “focus on key elements and mentally organizes them in a way that makes sense”.  The videos are great ways of presenting the basic facts while the teacher then elaborates with hands-on activities and may delve further into the concepts to ensure each student is fully grasping the information.   The digital story focuses on the connection of graphics and narration, while a video puts the main focus on narration and delivery. I feel that one would be more appropriate then the other depending on the concept.  When teaching a song with movements, a video would make more sense.  Or perhaps demonstrating the proper technique for music, while a digital story makes more sense when working with the learning basic music theory. 

In order to avoid the redundancy principle, I found that limiting the animations and focusing on the pictures of notes was vital for the students’ ability to transfer the concept into long term memory.  Music is a visual language in itself and requires pictorial representations in order to understand.  I felt there would be too much interference if I shot a video of myself with a whiteboard or Velcro board of the staff and music notes.  I felt that students could possibly focus on other things, perhaps what I was wearing, verses focusing on the facts.  Perhaps this could fit in with the temporal contiguity principle as the need to focus on graphics and narrations work well in the music world.



Instructional Video

 

This video is intended for students in 2nd or 3rd grade music class learning intervals on the staff to aid in note reading and solfege pitch identification.

 

AGE: 2nd/3rd Grade

Topic: Music / Staff-Intervals

Wonderful Instructional Videos on Note Names - Week 5

Great Music Instructional Videos!

     The student’s I am working with on this particular lesson include those at the age of 3^rd grade and up in a general music classroom.  These videos are preferable for older aged students as they focus on learning note notes of the staff.  This is a concept that isn’t expected of students in K-2.  Each video focuses on different elements of the staff; however, both reinforce the concept of notes on lines and spaces.  I would pause the second video after the treble clef discussion with 3^rd and 4^th as this is only required of 5^th grade students.  What I like about these videos in the visual aids and simplicity in which the instruction is presented without overloading the students right away.  What I find that most instructional videos are lacking is in the inclusion of intervals.  In order for students to gain a better understanding of the music they are reading or singing, they should be able to realize if they are singing steps, skips, or leaps.  This transfers to easier note reading as well as the ability to sight read or sing solfege pitches.  Just for fun, I’ve included two additional videos that include a very short video with song to explain a little historical facts about how the staff was created and a catchy tune to aid in memorizing the note names from my favorite music program and website, Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music.  Students seem to learn best when they make associations as well as when they are able to put a song to the text, which is seen often in the world of music.

Kids Music Workshop - Reading Notes on the Lines and Spaces

Guitar Games.net - Part 1 - Reading the Staff with Woody

Quaver's Marvelous World of Music - Notes on the Treble Staff Song

Quaver's Marvelous World of Music - Guido creating the staff