There are many tools that are centered for a particular age group, but some resources are helpful enough to incorporate ideas for both early childhood educators and secondary educators. Teaching is an ongoing process; we are always running into new ideas to incorporate into lessons. As future educators, it is important to be alert of new tools in order to create an interactive and fun classroom in the future.
Finale is a tool for students with a great interest in the field of music. It allows students or educators to create their own MP3 or composition. I really liked that the tool had a follow along guide to show the students what part of the composition was being played at that moment. The tool also gives a lot of instruments for the educator to choose from that are preinstalled in the program. The negative side is the price because it will cost the educator 300-600 dollars for use. This would require some type of funding that is not always available in the changing economic standing that educators of today must face. Teachers can use this at a basic level of nursery rhymes for young students, or they can make it very advanced for a music class. However, the educator creating this must have a music background to make the tool most beneficial because of the huge learning curve and the complexity of the program. This class presentation was interesting because of all of the sample pieces we got to listen to and see being used. Teachers can use this to explore the more creative side of lessons, such as songs for steps and processes to help students remember things. Students are able to use this to demonstrate understanding, while presenting in a fun and interactive new style.
Prezi is a tool that is much easier to use because it is less complex with a very minor learning curve. This program resembles a lot of the features of our well known Power Point program. Teachers can create themes and fonts that make the presentation more interesting and inviting for the students. Students can also create presentations for class assignments using this tool. Prezi allows an unlimited amount of space, so teachers are able to keep their lessons and make minor changes each year to the presentations. Prezi allows you to create pathways for the viewing of the information, which is a fun way to go above and beyond the usual Power Point slides. Prezi also gives you samples to use, which is helpful to new learners who wish to create the most beneficial presentation. However, be careful not to get too carried away with the pathways and motion. This can be very distracting and cause the students to lose focus on the importance of the information. Educators can use this to create flow charts. The presentation was great because we got to see a sample Prezi that actually was about our own majors. This site gives you templates to follow. Teachers can go to www.prezi.com to create fun and interactive lessons, and hopefully this helps teachers step out of the comfort zone of Power Point. Teaching is all about learning new things and expanding on ideas, such as Power Point, which are too often boring and overused.
There are also other versions of Finale that have less features, more focused on getting a general feel to what a simple song would sound like and helping your own music playing ability along. A little look at the website never hurt, the Finale I showed you isn't the only version you can use. I really should have said that much at least. But anyway, you have a good perspective, keep on thinking.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I can see that the source has many other uses, but I think that using this tool does require some background knowledge for the educator. Most of the class got the feeling that this tool would be too difficult for most of us to use, but it is important for us to consider other uses of the tool.
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