Technology Assisted Music Learning

Assessments.....they are used in multiple facets of humanity. Employees are, in most cases, assessed on their job performance on an annual basis to let the employer know whether or not the employee is accomplishing what they are hired to do. In the state of Missouri (where I live), automobiles are required by law to be assessed for safety every two years to ensure that unsafe vehicles are not on the roads putting lives in danger. In the classroom setting, assessments are used before, during, and after learning to assess what students know and what they have learned. This knowledge is used to design instruction, design assessments, and to verify the validity of a teacher's curriculum and lesson plans. In the music education world, the vast majority of assessments are done through performance. In elementary general music, we have students move fast or slow to a song about The Tortoise & The Hare  to assess their learning of the difference between fast and slow. In 5th grade ban...

As we are nearing the end of the Technology Assisted Music Learning course, the focus is now shifting from learning about different types of apps and websites to formulating learning projects for our students using technology and the world wide web. As we are doing so, I spent a great deal of time this week looking at an online form of learning called WebQuest. A WebQuest is an online learning module which directs students to different links and facilitates directed research about a given topic. A WebQuest consists of five main sections: introduction, task, process, evaluation, confusion, credits. With the introduction, a teacher can give a narrative or an informational paragraph about a topic to gain the attention of the students. In the process, guided activity using web links to informational pages about the topic give students direction to complete prompts such as writing a short essay, creating a timeline, collecting examples of videos or audio clips, and many other possibilitie...

Technology is a widely-used medium which drives our society more and more each day. We as teachers can greatly benefit through learning new teaching strategies with technology, but we also use technology everyday for pleasure which can aid in the learning of our students. Spotify is a great resource for quality recordings, and the library is the most expansive I have seen of the online streaming services. I usually like to share reference recordings with my students to help them understand the music better and to hear the best possible example of it. Spotify playlists are a great way to share these recordings, and this is a medium which students are already using! In keeping with using technology to aid in student learning, this week I discovered and reviewed a GREAT music theory software which students can use interactively to learn about theory. My students will love this! There are many prescribed content syllabi already created, but I as the teacher can customize my own curricu...

This was an exciting week in the Technology Assisted Music Learning class! In continuing to look at various digital audio workspaces (DAW) to use in creating and performing music, this week's DAW to explore was Audacity. Audacity Audacity is an older software that is easier to use than some of today's most innovative DAW's (i.e. Garage Band), and it is a good FREE resource for getting students involved in creating and manipulating audio files. The software has easy functions to cut and manipulate existing sound files, and also is equipped with several effects to add to audio files, such as echo, raise or lower pitch, repeat, and others. With this program, users can also record digitally with built-in microphones or ones connected via MIDI, as well as instruments connected via MIDI. With this program, I made an arrangement of  Mah Na Mah Na  from The Muppets . Check it out below! Mah Na Mah Na Remix After the activities with Incredibox and Sountrap in previous wee...