Infusing Wallwisher For Brain-Based Instruction In The Music Classroom

Posted: September 5, 2010 in Calendar, Infusing Mus Across The Curriculum, Links, Media, Presentations, Projects, Resources, Web 2.0/3.0 Resources, Wiki
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Among the plethora of Web 2.0/3.0 resources out there for student/teacher use in the elementary general music classroom, I highly recommend an online “parking lot” cloud app, Wallwisher.

Although initially, Wallwisher’s interface presents refreshingly simple, with users posting short messages (typed in, 160 characters or less) on digital “stickies” to an online “corkboard” wall, for the innovative music educator, the app can inspire and facilitate an abundance of creative, and cognitively sophisticated (bumping into Quadrant D in the Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships Framework) learning strategies for music lessons, projects, and activities. Below are a few project models for utilizing the app in the music classroom.

Rigor/Relevance Framework from the International Center for Leadership in Education

Music Classroom Wallwisher Project Examples:

  1. Student “ethnomusicologists” post “stickies” with names and information data (including instrument audio and video) about African instruments  gathered from cultural arts web sites during WebQuests focused on West African music and dance drumming ensembles (process can apply to any music research project). Student “ethnomusicologists” then, categorize the “instrument stickies” into world instrument classifications. Same process could be applied to students creating “composer trading card stickies” for a Meet the Composers” wall (Quadrants A and B).
  2. Choir students complete definitions of music vocabulary words written (typed) on “vocal vocabulary stickies” posted to the wall, or the reverse, where they write (type) in “vocal vocabulary” words correlated to definitions on teacher posted “stickies”(Quadrant B).
  3. Students post “stickies” with short reflections about a listening of Johann Sebastian Bach’s, The Well Tempered Clavier, No. 1, in C Major, or Paul Winter’s, Wolf Eye’s (Quadrant C).  The possibilities are limitless here.
  4. Students post “critique stickies” guided by teacher posted “leading question stickies” following an in-school local philharmonic ensemble concert,  or their own student performance (Quadrants B and C).
  5. Students post “stickies” with recorder assessment criteria data (things they think make a good recorder player), then, sort the “criteria data stickies” into component categories to develop their own recorder class assessment rubric. Same process can be applied to rubrics for choir and band class. (I’m thinking this one bumps right up and over there into Quadrant D).
  6. Students post 3-2-1 “exit slip stickies” with general questions and/or comments on on “sticky note wall” on the SMART Board as a closure activity following  each music class (posts have to be managed/moderated). Can extend to posting Wallwisher wall  for student use in a school music wiki, blog site, or web site (posts really have to be managed/moderated here!).  Students can also click “stickies” to the wall (using an avatar name), then, do “quick writes” of questions and comments about music class using the SMART Board pens (Quadrant D) in the ink layer mode (I’ve already tried this). The ink layer won’t save the hand written message on each “stickie” on the “sticky note wall”, but the students/teacher can save the ink layer as a .notebook file (Quadrant D).

Wallwisher Resources:

Web Sites With Suggestions For Using Wallwisher in the General Ed Classroom (can translate to music classroom):

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_436f8kscmdc
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/XcfT46klpR
http://blog.simplek12.com/education/5-fantastic-ways-to-use-wallwisher-in-the-classroom/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=648760&utm_campaign=0
http://staffweb2tools.wordpress.com/walls
http://seanbanville.com/2010/06/26/wallwisher-105-classroom-ideas
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/wallwisher

Apps Similar To Wallwisher:

http://linoit.com/home
http://www.edistorm.com
http://www.similarsites.com/sites-like/wallwisher.com

Wallwisher Tutorials:

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/wall
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7CFBFB4BC5B9CDFChttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBn1EVzh6wk&feature=PlayList&p=7CFBFB4BC5B9CDFC&index=2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APHZu4HNhqM&feature=PlayList&p=7CFBFB4BC5B9CDFC&index=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTWoWbWMuvs&feature=related

How To Set Up A Wallwisher Wall:

There are a number of video tutorials about how to set up and use a Wallwisher wall. Here is a popular one:

You can embed Wallwisher walls into student wiki pages. An example Wallwisher wall is embedded in the Wallwisher section of the Infusing Web 2.0 and Cloud Apps page in the MUSINGS WIKI .

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