Survey

I have completed the course survey and course evaluation.

Internet Safety

READING

• For my #5 article, I decided to read "It's Only Violence" by Brad J. Bushman.
• I learned about scientific evidence that proves some myths about violent media wrong, and the seriousness of violent media. There is a significantly greater amount of violence in media than there is in real life, it causes an increase in aggressive behavior, and it affects everyone.
  
• Learning about his information has helped me come to realize that I need to continue to be educated on the subject, monitor what my children/students are viewing, and be a good example.
  
• I think deciding now to have a strong stand in what I choose to view, specifically to violent content, could have an effect on family members and friends around me. It could make them stop and think about what they are viewing and possibly help them make better decisions in the future.
  

WATCHING

• I looked at the Internet Safety Podcast, PBS, iKeepSafe, and Netsmartz
• I think going through these things has really made me aware of just how careful one needs to be with technology. Knowing these things wants me to inform students of the dangers that the internet can bring about, as well as technology being a possible hindrance to other skills that students need to develop. I need to be always making sure that whatever technology I use is going to ultimately help the students, and to always stress internet safety. This way students will have a positive experience.
• PBS Frontline
• Internet Safety Podcast
• iKeepSafe
• Netsmartz
  

DOING

• I talked to my 15 year old sister about this topic.
• We talked about Elder Bednar's talk, "Things as They Really Are". Overall, I'd have to say that it went well, and I learned more about my sister's views on the subject. Come to find out, she is actually really smart about internet safety. She was pretty cooperative, but wasn't too excited to hear me talk about things that she already knew. I feel like I learned more when I actually shared it with someone and get feedback, rather than just read the material.
  

Project Finished!

This song took a lot of work to put together. However the more I worked on Audacity, the more I liked it. I wanted to create a song that had a complete rhythm of 5/4 so students could learn how to successfuly dance to this unusual time signature. The original song that I used, "Silent Sea" by KT Tunstall, had a 5/4 rhythm in it, but there was a minimal amount of it. So, I figured out how to create a complete 5 beats, and had that playing underneath the whole song that I created. You can listen to it here:

5/4 Rhythm

The technology in my project, the 5/4 song, was necessary for something like this because I would need an accurate, steady beat constantly going so student have a complete understand of how this rhythm truly sounds. Having the students discover this rhythm while learning other dance concepts in a movement sequence that I teach them is that pedagogy and content that is enhanced by this basic song.

Content-Specific Technology Project...Idea.

I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I'm getting pretty excited about this project. I have finally concluded that I will be using Audacity to cut and mix a song. I want students to demonstrate knowledge and skills in the elements of dance focusing specifically on time, a Utah Core Curriculum Standard. Hopefully this will push to develop rhythmic acuity and musicality.

TPACK

TPK, or technical pedagogical knowledge, is knowing how to use technology in general teaching, not a specific subject. An example for dance would be knowing to how to cut and organize music to use in class.

TPACK, or technical pedagogical and content knowledge, is knowing how to use technology for specific methods or strategies. The students here not only use the technology to learn a specific topic, to help them with general development. An example for this in a dance setting would be to have the students collaborate to create a movement combination concentrating on a specific idea (such as head-tail initiation), record it, and present it through video in which other students could make comments.

Video Communication

After much frustration (as you can kind of tell) Chelsea and I finally got Google Video Chat to work!










I was also pretty excited when I got this beauty to work as well:


I preferred both the video messaging on Tokbox and Google Video Chat for different reasons. For a classroom, Google Video would be very convenient in having a discussion with students or parents. Video chat might also work in a dance setting if students had questions on movement and things. Tokbox would probably work better for students or parents that could ask questions or leave a comment.