Final Blog Reflection

The technology gadget I probably enjoyed using the most this semester was building the website. I think a website will be so helpful in the classroom--especially for parents. No more of the hassle of giving the students announcements or homework that is bound to get lost in the backpack somewhere. How hard would it be to just give students and parents the class website at the beginning of the school year where they will meet their teachers and then it would be safe sailing from there right? I really do plan on using in my future teaching to let students and parents know about upcoming events, announcements, test, quizzes, calendars, syllabus, etc. It would be like my own little blackboard! The students could use my website by posting journals or even taking quizzes. However, I think some more interactive one that will help them learn within MY classroom are using the iMovie, and the garageband for dance composition purposes. Those two really are catered for the performing arts.

Eportfolio

As I was on the wikispaces I saw a cool new gadget that I thought would be useful for teaching technology in the classroom. How fun would it be to have my students create their own dance videos? This website would be great for it too, because it works for all types of computers, and it could be done inside of school! Click here for the link.

The impacts of technology

This is a great website that talks about the influence of technology on art forms. It talks about how we as dance artists and further enhance our own art of dance through the use of technology and how it has impacted us up to this point in the art form. Interestingly enough, it was written for a senior project by a girl who went to University of North Carolina---so she believes in the fusion as well!

Click here for the PDF file.

Final Project

For my final project, I feel like it would be really useful to learn how to create my own music. Dance teachers are constantly using music, and are even looking for the next great song to use in their classroom--it isn't always easy. It is harder than you think to find fun, appropriate music for a high school dance class...so why not create your own right? I plan on using garageband for this assignment, and perhaps if I had a school that had a lab of Apple computers, they too, could create their own music as an assignment, and then create their own piece of movement to the piece of music they created. Now that's what I call incorporating dance and technology--lets get those students creative juices flowing!

dance teachers can do technology too!!!!

Here is a great site that gives dance teachers great ideas of how to incorporate technology into their lesson plans. It also gives further links for other sites encouraging the same thing. Click here to find the site.

Internet Safety

This week, I got to read about internet safety for my class and found it really interesting. My post will be divided into two sections: Analyzing the articles I read, and then talking about my discussion with sister and her thought about raising a family in a world that is increasing with internet dangers.

Part 1

It's interesting because there is good and bad to everything in this world. The internet can be a dangerous place, but it can also be a wonderful place to obtain knowledge. I loved reading the LDS talk about the non-member Derik Fitch who searched "mormons" on his search engine and came across what he had been searching for his whole life! I think the church does a great job using the internet as a tool for good influence--particularly with the new lds site, the new mormon.org website. As a future parent, I want to do everything I can to raise righteous children in the gospel. I think some of the majors things I could do as a parent as well as a teacher is to keep the computer in a public place, install spyware the computer, and most of all help the kids understand how important it is to know the dangers of internet safety.

Part 2

I got to talk my oldest sister who has six kids all under the age of 12....crazy!!! She was pretty savvy when it came to internet safety. She has the computer placed in the kitchen where there is high traffic for the family. She says that they have a special safety on the internet FHE every quarter of the year. I talked to her about how she could blog about the church and share her testimony through her blog and she said that she already was doing that....(successful sister). My sister is 34, has six kids, and lives in American Fork. We mostly just spoke about how much she desires to be good mother and raise righteous kids in the gospel, and one of the ways to achieve that was to keep them safe on the internet. It was a great experience--my sister and always have really great, deep, and rich conversations together.

Apple's iPad for teaching???

So, apple came out with a new product a couple of months ago called the iPad. This blog explains how the iPad could actually be a really great tool for teaching kids. Check it out :)

click here for the blog.

My instructional iMOVIE!!!

So I made a movie and am breaking bounds of my discomfort with technology. The video is about the Modern Dance Pioneer, Alwin Nikolais. Check it Out!

Click here for the movie!

FREE MUSIC!!!

A lot of the time as a dance teacher, you need to teach movement or create choreography that is in an odd meter i.e. 5/8, 7/8, 13/8, rather than 2/4 or 4/4 time measure. It's really hard to find music that is in an odd meter these days. Everyone seems to compose music in the normal 4/4 time measurement. I came upon a site that specializes in odd meter music and it's all free. Check it out dancers!

Click here for the site

Storyboard anyone?

I want to teach my students about Alwin Nikolais, who was a dance pioneer. I know that there are many videos about him, but I want my students to just learn a very small and specific portion of his life, which is why I created a video.

Click here for the link to the storyboard.

wanna learn to dance???

This is a great source for teachers as well as potential dancers! You can watch dance videos here, post your own videos, watch instructional videos that teach you how to dance, get videos for your classroom and much more! Great resource I think!

Click here for the site.

Copyright Laws--good and bad examples!

The video above is a bad example of copyright. Even though I love this show, and want to see the performances over and over again, the person who posted this is violating the law. They would have needed to buy the rights for the music and from the show for this specific performance in order to post this entire performance on YouTube. However, if they would have only done a 10% of the performance, than it would have been ok.

The Video below is a great example of using good copyright because, they only use about 10 seconds from each movie to describe the "ten best movie kisses." However, with the choice of song, they probably would have needed to buy the rights of the song.

Need help with Dance and Technology?

So when it comes to dance and technology, a lot of us dance teachers don't really know where to go! There is a teacher in the dance department by the name of Ric Chitwood who actually teaches a dance and technology class! He teaches dancers how to better utilize technology i.e. video techniques, garageband, etc. He said he often helps out high school teachers, it's just whether or not they ask him for help! So here is his info if you ever need it!

Ric Chitwood:

Dancemuse@comcast.net

My new Website!

I just created a new website about my dance classes. Feel free to check it out. It's not quite finished yet, but hopefully I can work out a few of the bugs with my teacher, Rick West.

Find my website here

Enjoy!

More dance and technology!

This is a great article about a University that incorporated technology into their dancing.

Find the article here.

Enjoy!

Dance Technology Resources!!!

This is a great website that emphasizes the need for technology in the field of dance right here. This website shows you what kinds of dance and technology programs there are.

Using Google Reader, Diigo, and Twitter--Holy Cow.

So....I'm am now an official member of google reader, twitter, and diigo. All three networks I had never heard of before this class, so I'm excited to learn how to use them. Below is my google reader page as well as my twitter home page.

In my own google reader, I am following my fellow dance mates and their posts for the P.L.E. I am also following websites that are relevant to my major and will help me in my future career. In twitter, I am following various technological tweets that may help me in the future and keep me updated.

One of the most influential sites I have found was a human kinetics website for dancers to purchase dvd's, books, etc. for their classroom at a discount price, as well as post what works in their dance class and what doesn't. Multiple intelligences is a huge part of integrated teaching and I think using multimedia is very affective in the classroom and in the learning process.

I added a new gadget!

I guess I was missing a new gadget, so I added a poll. Take it! I love food and so should you!

Me and Technology!

Well....let's just say I'm not the best at technology. I'm taking my first stab at it in this class. I have had a macbook for the past three years and I still don't know how to work it properly! I'm excited to learn more about technology and how it can better benefit me in my classroom. Here it goes!

And here is a link to google!