2/10/08

Pg 193 #3

Discuss how technology might help in assessing musical performances. Do you think that the presence of technological apparatus in the general music threatens th authenticity of the task, why or why not?

I believe that in some cases technology helps and in some cases it doesn't. I don't agree with Brophy in the previous chapter when he claims that students will be distracted by a recorder or camera in the room, because I have been in a situation where both have been used and the authenticity was not altered.
In my student teaching placement, a camera was positioned in the back of the room almost every day, and once the students settled down, usually after a minute, they forgot it was there. Also, a tape recorder was used after nearly every lesson to record the group compositions that were created. Not only does this tape provide a chance for the teacher to go back and listen to the composition, but it also gave the students a chance to hear themselves and analyze their own performances.
This was a middle school situation, so I believe that the students were old enough to handle this type of technology in the classroom. I also believe that elementary students may have a harder time with such things as a camera in the room. In that case however, the assessment will usually be of a more simple nature, such as did they sing the right interval or not (sol-mi). Rather than in the middle school, when the students were playing 2 or 3 minute compositions.
Nothing can replace simply watching and listening, and nothing should ever replace that. As with all types of technology, if we take them too far they lead to problems such as lack of social interaction. However, if all else fails and the teacher just cannot remember whether one of her students sang that one note right, she has the resources to go back and check.