Post #2

I attended a high school in Baltimore County that is widely known for its strong music program.  Not surprisingly, I had plans to go to college and pursue a degree in Music Education.  In order to prepare for the rigorous audition process and theory screenings, I enrolled in AP Music Theory my senior year.  Because of the strength of the program at my school, the Music Department had its own Music Technology Lab and had received a grant for a SmartBoard.  A SmartBoard has the appearance of a white board, but it is touch sensitive.  Normally, a computer is connected to a digital projector, which then projects onto the SmartBoard.  Using this method, you can touch an application icon on the SmartBoard and it will open on the screen.  On the first day of class, this wowed us.

Our teacher, Mr. Engel, was young and enthusiastic about the subject, and we, a small class of 11th and 12th graders all preparing for college auditions and theory screenings, were excited to learn.  Mr. Engel was a fan of using instructional games to test our knowledge.  The SmartBoard became his technology of choice in these situations.  He would have two or three of us face the SmartBoard, and then he would open a document showing musical staves and prompting us either to fill in key signatures, natural, melodic, or harmonic minor scale patterns, or to identify chord inversions and chord progressions.  At first, we hated this game, because it was timed and there were a lot of tricky musical "rules" and patterns to remember.  After a while, we got the hang of the game and began to really enjoy testing our own knowledge.

I thought that his integration of technology in the format of a game was a great use of the SmartBoard.  The technology did not overshadow the material - it enhanced it.  Using the SmartBoard in a game setting allowed us to be more comfortable when approaching it in other situations in the classroom.  The best part about the SmartBoard Theory Game was that Mr. Engel saved our attempts so that we could examine and correct our mistakes as a way of studying for actual tests in class.  If we had played this game on a white board, we wouldn't have been able to come back and examine where we had messed up and where we had succeeded.  I thought that this activity was very worthwhile and would consider implementing a similar lesson plan in my classroom in the future should I have such technology available to me.

Jessie Wilson