Shehan-Campbell, P., "Songs in their Head: Music and it's meaning in children's lives,"

           So this article I found titled “Songs in their Heads: Music and it’s meaning to children” was pretty interesting.  It was also very, very long which was a little annoying but that’s beside the point.  It spoke about whether or not children are natural musicians in a sense or if music must be taught.  I think back to when I was a child and I feel that now I have no place even attempting to sing a song unless it is as a form of torture to who ever is around to listen to it.  Regardless before I hit puberty there were many people out there that said I could really sing and sing well at that.  No one ever really took the time to teach me how to sing it was just something I did because it was fun.  But not really voluntarily either.  We had a music teacher who we would go to once a week in my elementary school as a class and she would let us use instruments and eventually she gave us lyrics to sing to while other children played the music to the beat or she played her piano for the class.  So one day she randomly picked me to sing a song with a girl in the class and oddly enough I remember the song was a whole new world from Aladdin (that is scary).  I ended up singing this song and everyone really loved my voice and so on.  The teacher wanted me to be in the choir but there was no chance you would have caught me singing in a choir so that definitely did not happen.  This however I considered to be a fairly positive experience for me with music and it was also important for my self confidence and just enjoyment.

            Thinking back to as far as I can I always loved songs and tunes would constantly be imbedded in my head for full days after just listening to it once.  I would walk around and hum or whistle a tune all the time and I still do.  Not so much hum but I whistle a lot and I can keep a tune very well also.  Plus whistling isn’t as painful for anyone who is around me to listen to so I’m safe with that.  Now I don’t know if any of this would classify me or any other child as a musician or anything but the point is that song has been in my life for a long time and I think that most children learn through song and benefit from it.

            When I was really young I remember my mother and I always sitting together and playing a record or two on the player we had.  Most of the records were from Italy that my mother had brought over with her when she came to Canada and having that exposure helped me to keep a closer connection to my culture.  We also have tapes recorded of me singing into the recorder many of the songs my mother and I would listen to.  Now thinking back on this it is a little clearer how a program like song child can be beneficial for children.

 

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Current Mood: horny

 

The CAD program was something I had no clue even existed.  Reading the chapter gave me an opportunity to learn about something new.  From what I gather the CAD program is a design program that people use to that sounds somewhat similar to some of the programs used to edit digital photos.  I know that the programs I have used have the ability to rotate photos and edit them to do what you want.  Only the CAD is used for design not only for editing.  Either way I knew nothing about it before this point.  To be quite honest I am horrible with digital cameras as well.  What I mean by that is that I am the person who takes thousands of pictures and they are forever stored on my memory stick until my camera is full.  Then I am obligated to scroll through pictures from the past three years, decide what I want to keep and what I should delete.  Finally once I finish that I have to decide whether I want to download the pictures and put them on Facebook (which I never use anyways) or drive over to Wallmart and look for parking for half an hour before I finally get inside and go through the process again.  I make it difficult I guess but I just find it easier to bring a roll of film in to get developed.  Regardless it is my own fault.

So I got off topic there.  CAD is a cool program where people can design things like houses, cars, pretty much anything they like and do what they want with it.  “They were designed in the early 60’s” and needed some simple programming ideas to make something like a circle appear.  This has all changed today and CAD is now a great tool for design and technology providing a visual aid to the user of what they are creating.  It is a tool without using tools.  It gives a virtual example of what is being created without wasting material or manual labor.

This is a tool that would be useful for some children who are interested in design and working with new objects.  I feel it would best be used in a design classroom in high school rather than in elementary school but I am sure with a little more knowledge of the program there could also be a use to it at that level.

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Current Mood: busy

Venturing into Games 

The world of video games is a place where I have spend endless hours both as a young boy and as an adult.  When I was a child it was all about Mario Brothers and Tetris.  Nintendo was the greatest video game console ever created.  It was simple but still to this day it is so much fun to pick up the old system and play some Duck Hunt or Blades of Steel. 

Many people would say that playing video games is a waste of brain cells but I disagree.  Video games teach problem solving skills to children.  It is true that some children spend way too many hours glued to a video game and lose out on the opportunity to play hind and go seek with their friends outside in the fresh air or read a good book.  In the end they are still getting some very useful learning from video games. 

I personally will hope to incorporate video games into my teaching practice.  It was interesting to read about sites like Games2Train where teachers can “construct quiz games.”  This is the type of learning that children in today’s education system will be interested in because it involves the sort of thing they enjoy.  Video games and technology are going to become primary teaching tools one day.  If they are used properly and combined with a good physical education as well children will have the chance to learn quicker and be more interested.

The text explains different aspects of learning that I found to be interesting also.  For example the Psychosocial Moratorium principle is a great way of looking at games such as the Sims in a positive way.  It gives children an opportunity to “take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered.”  Children have the chance to play a game that asks them to manage a society all on their own.  The children can create their characters and build their world around them.  They have to get a job and make friends.  The character can even have a pet and go on dates.  All of this is done with no risk.  In the end if something goes wrong you can just restart and fix what you did wrong the first time.

This turns out to be a good learning experience for children and this is only one example.  We expect children to use their imagination and creative thinking through play.  When children have the opportunity to play video games they can become the character they are using.  This is another aspect of creative thinking and learning that can be gained through video games.

As you can see I am a strong believer of video game use for learning and allowing children to enjoy themselves and not even realize they are learning while playing. 

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Current Mood: horny