TECH+507

I must admit that when I first watched the video on setting up a wiki, I was extremely nervous! I am not technologically savvy, so the thought of having to design my own 'webpage' was very intimidating initially. I realized very quickly that it wasn't like setting up a webpage; the template is already there and all I needed to do was begin working!

After watching the videos, I searched for wikis in my content area- music/choir. Since I am the only choir director at my school, it was not necessary for me to collaborate with other teachers. One of the students in my TECH 507 class is a theater teacher, so we exchanged a few ideas about the arts. Seeing a live example of a choir Wiki was the most helpful thing I did! By looking at other Wikis, I realized what worked well, such a creating hyperlinks that open in new tabs. I also realized what did not work well, such as disorganized pages that needed to be subdivided.

Once I decided what pages I wanted to include, inputting the information was extremely easy!! I was very surprised! There was a little bit of a learning curve to achieve a well organized first page; however, after the initial page, I used the same ideas. Once I started putting the information into my Exercises page, I decided to reorganize it to make it user friendly and progressive with each exercise. That part was VERY time consuming, as I had to create customized links with my settings through musictheory.net.

Even though it was more time consuming than I anticipated, I am very pleased with the result. This wiki will definitely help the problem-solving process; my students will be able to reinforce what they are learning in class, and even see lessons through the eyes of another teachers, like the Khan Academy concept. I know that my hard work and time invested will help not only myself in the class time spent with drills, but also my students' boredom. They don't always get excited about the beginning of the year because it contains theory reviews. Next year, I won't have to lecture as much. My students can do work on their own time, and hone their knowledge and skills as vocalists.

Finally, even though my wikispace is intended for my choir members, I plan on showing it to the band directors at my school and offer for their students to join as well. Thank you for the opportunity to use wikispaces to not only integrate technology into my classroom, but also develop better musicians!

Mrs. Stephens