Integrating emerging technologies in teaching Ugandan traditional dances in K-12 schools in New York City

Abstract

Schools in New York City have made attempts to embrace and support the strand of ‘making connections’, which is laid out in the New York City Department of Dance blueprint for teaching and learning in dance for grades PreK-12. Accordingly, some schools have integrated Ugandan traditional dances into the dance curriculum, and dance teachers have employed emerging technologies as part of instructional methodologies in teaching these dances. Anchored in the theoretical framework of constructivism and the idea of concept and realisation in constructing dance knowledge, this article reveals how the author employed emerging technologies and online platforms such as ipads, smartboards, ipods, iphones, audio recorders, YouTube and wikispace in teaching Ugandan traditional dances to: reconcile contextual and content knowledge in the classroom; engage students in reflective and interpretive analyses and deconstruction of dance songs and movements; give feedback to and receive reflections from students; and explore issues relating to learning to dance, learning through dance, and learning about dance. The author further divulges how dilemmas that relate to re/presentation and appropriation of ephemerally, culturally and contextually celebrated, embodied and defined dances imposed limitations on execution of technologically mediated class activities.