Nice to meet everyone! My name is Stephanie Kwok, and this is my second MET course thus far. I am a teacher for the Vancouver School Board, teaching grades K-7 P.E. and Fine Arts (a crazy, but very rewarding job!). I’ve been exploring the use of technology with my students in STEM and my peers in our school’s Tech Committee, and am always excited at new ways to integrate tech into teaching, which brings me to the image shown above.
For my image, I have chosen a screenshot from the GarageBand app – an app through which you can create/compose your own music on computers, smartphones, and iPads. As part of the Music component of Fine Arts this year, I taught my classes how to use GarageBand on iPads and had my students work together to compose songs. Students quickly became fluent in their understanding of how to use the app, and those without a musical background were also able to do well in the project.
However, this unit really got me thinking about how we essentially bypassed all processes of musical notation with the app (reading, writing, and understanding musical notes). Similar to how traditional reading and writing processes are being changed by technology, it seems that musical notation and composition is also being affected and transforming as well.
