Content of the Course: A Few of My Favourite Things: Part Two

 

 

Let’s take a look at some other useful devices in teaching such as Nearpod, Socrative and Kahoot! These three devices are not traditionally used for music teaching but are innovative ways of introducing technology into the classroom in a very interactive way.

Nearpod, Socrative and Kahoot! are programs which engage the class by encouraging them to participate and answer questions through a dialogical approach using computers or IPads. Nearpod allows for non-prescriptive, open ended questions whilst Socrative and Kahoot! use prescriptive answers. These methods of communication between teacher and pupil are particularly beneficial for the students who do not wish to speak out loud in the classroom due to stammers or confidence issues. Socrative allows the user to convert the results into a pie chart so that the learning leader can identify gaps in the learners knowledge that can be revisited in future lessons.

The aesthetic design of Kahoot! feels as though it might be aimed at younger learners. This may be a disadvantage if the learner group are HE or FE. Another weakness of using quiz based applications is that the task requires the teaching room to be equipped with computers for each learner. Thankfully my teaching room does provide this however it would be difficult to adapt the lesson if the environment did not contain computers.

 

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Overall I have enjoyed learning about the variety of ways one may present a lesson to the class through use of these programs mentioned in Parts One and Two. For a music lesson, these applications above are not immediately useful but would be good for a fun 'side dish' to the main lesson. The tricky task for teachers is knowing when and how to use these applications in the most effective way to aid and not to blur the content of their lessons. Computer applications are good elements to compliment a lesson but a good balance in teaching methods is desirable.