Part 1:
Preparing to Use ICT in Teaching

a. Aims and Objectives

The teacher's aim for the sake of this case study is to develop work in:

• Key Stage 4 music, composition and arrangement of a piece for an instrumental ensemble.

In this case the learners are Year 11 pupils in a mixed gender comprehensive school, preparing a variety of composition pieces. As we meet the teacher, he has previously taught the main area of work through a variety of methods, and has always been keen to have pupils work on practical examples of composition and arrangement using computer technology.

Specifically, over a two-four-week phase of his programme, the teacher wants the pupils at this point in their learning to be able to:

• Take a pre-composed piece, or piece of work they have composed themselves and input it to the computer using a composition package, or compose directly to the package.
• Using the composition package and the MIDI sound source, change the instruments and sounds used to output the piece and save a variety of versions of the piece.
• Using the composition package and the MIDI sound source, comment on the effect of changes in terms of:
  • Balance - volumes and stereo effects
  • Texture
  • Timbre
  • Flavour
  • Mood
  • Pace

Questions for Consideration

• How do you currently deal with this area of work in the classroom?
• Do you use pieces composed by pupils, or would you prefer to start with pupils experimenting with pre-recorded examples?
• What difficulties and benefits would you expect to encounter and derive when using computer based technology for this kind of experimentation?

Keep a short record of your responses to these questions for discussion with your mentor.

b. Deciding Whether to Use ICT