Tech Standards and Lesson Plans

Tech Standards

After reading the Technology Standards in the NJCCCS, my first thought was "are schools going to start having a mandatory technology class?" Improbable but not impossible.  And thinking back to my class last semester, Democratic Teaching, I remember trying to make lessons that included cross disciplinary standards.  So I guess every one of the standards could be implemented in an existing classroom.
For me, being in the music program, I would utilize of the communication portion of the standards and find away to interact with music classrooms in different countries, with different types of music.
When going on job interviews and looking into schools that I would like to work at, I think it would be great to work for people that were like the ones from Chatam High School.  I think it's important to be forward thinking, especially in education. (maybe even ahead of the game a bit if we want our students to be current when they graduate).  If I want to try and do things in my classroom, like try and interact (live) with another class around the world, I would need to be working with people who understand that we, as educators, should be looking for better ways to do things.

Communication and Collaboration

I decided to think of a lesson based on the NJCCCS 8.1 Educational Technology. C. Communication and Collaboration  and environments support the learning process and foster collaboration in solving local or global issues and problems. The CPI is 8.1.8 C1 (8th grade), participate in an online learning community with learners from other countries to understand their perspectives and global problems or issues, propose possible solutions.

What I understand this to mean is that this standard wants students to be able to talk with other students around the world on specific subjects.  This will help kids understand different perspectives that people have around the word and therefore ready them for a global workplace. 

As I said in an earlier blog, I think it would be great if we can have an online interaction between two music classes around the world.  I would have the students talk about typical rhythms and melody found in there culture and perform them for each other.  Also I would like the students to get insight into how the music came to be.  Music can be a great historic indicator of a culture because the musicians are influenced by the society the live in.  Politics, economics, geography, these things help shape an artist's work.