Technology in the Music Classroom:
Equipment, Online Tools, and Apps (Oh my!)
Equipment
- Electric instruments or acoustic with pick-ups
- Interactive whiteboards
- Remember it’s a computer – anything you’d like to show them on a computer you can do on the interactive board and they can see every step.
- Document camera
- Many schools with 1:1 initiatives. Know what your school has and seek out training to use it effectively.
Online Tools
- Making Music: Chrome Jam, Noteflight, Spotify, SoundCloud, Chromatik, Kompoz
- Being Social: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest
- Audio Connections: NINJAM, Jamulus, Soundjack
- Video Connections: Google Hangout, Skype, FaceTime
- Messaging: Google Chat, Messages/iChat
- Sharing Files: YouTube, Prezi, Google Drive, Dropbox
Apps
Some of my favorites (iApps):
Cleartune – tuner, $4
Tempo – metronome, $2
forScore – sheet music storage, $7
Instruments
- GarageBand, free
- Rhythm Repeat, free
- Beatwave, free
- Soundrop, free
- Magic Zither, free
- Magic Piano, free
- Guitar!, free
- *Smule company makes good stuff
Ted – watch/bookmark Ted talks, free
YouTube – free
GoogleDrive – keeps all my documents/lesson plans, free
Pinterest – so many lesson ideas!, free
NPRnews – Music section, free
Coach’s Eye – video analysis, $5
Bowing Fun – sight-reading exercises/string crossing exercises, $2
SightRead4BowedStrings – sight-reading, free initially
Play-Along, free initially
Some of my research:
In the spring of 2014 I conducted a survey of music teachers in Pennsylvania.
Of the 3,280 teachers invited, 734 responded.
392 teachers indicated they DO NOT use apps in their classroom(s) for reasons like: #1-technology/equipment not available, #2-can’t/don’t use apps but do use other technology (computers, interactive whiteboards, etc), #3-lack of knowledge, #4-district/admin policies & rules (“no device”), #5-not enough time (planning and/or instructional).
And that’s a topic for another day. :-)
342 teachers indicated they DO use apps in their music classroom(s).
They also labeled the function of the app. (They told me how they use it.)
To see the full list of apps, by function, please visit: LindsayFulcher.com/PAapps
Here are the three most frequently mentioned apps from each function category.
Function (Apps)
Classroom Management (TeacherKit, ClassDojo, PowerTeacher)
Communication/Social Networking (Remind, Edmodo, Twitter)
Games (SmartMusic, Flashnote Derby, Rhythm Cat)
Multimedia (YouTube, GarageBand, SmartMusic)
Music Appreciation (YouTube, GarageBand, Nearpod)
Music Composition (GarageBand, JellyBand, CloudOn)
Music Performance (SmartMusic, Cleartune, Metronome)
Music Theory (Tenuto, SmartMusic, StaffWars)
News/Information (Podcast, CloudOn, Dropbox)
Utilities (Dropbox, Google Drive, Charms)