Musical Assessment and Professional Productivity with Technology

Formative Assessment

"The goal of formative assessment is to allow the teacher and student to adapt their learning approaches to better achieve learning goals." (Bauer, Music Learning Today, pg. 133) Most student's dread tests and quizzes but they are an essential part of the learning process. This fear most likely stems from the misuse/abuse of the assessment process. Often, assessments have been given too much emphasis or outweighed other educational tools. Nonetheless, assessments give both students and teachers a clear understanding of what learning has actually occurred. The Mid-continent Research for education and Learning states that the feedback of assessments should be 1) corrective in nature, 2) timely, 3) specific to a criterion, and 4) some feedback can come directly from the student. As teachers, we often forget that these assessments are as much an evaluation of our teaching as they are of our student's learning.

Authentic Assessment

To the degree that the assessment is valid, it must be authentic in what it is asking. When it comes to music, an authentic assessment of a learned skill must require the student to perform that skill not simply describe how the skill is supposed to be performed. Authentic assessments provide "direct evidence of a student's skill and understanding of a learning outcome." (Bauer, Music Learning Today, pg. 133) Certainly, in a music theory class there is a need for students to be able to write what a Perfect 5th looks like beginning on C4. But when choral or instrumental students are assessed on their understanding of what a Perfect 5th sounds like, the evaluation must be based on their performance of that interval.

Technology for use in Assessment

One of the quickest ways to assess learning is through a test or quiz. Utilizing Google Forms, teachers can digitally create a media rich assessment. These assessments can combined elements of both written and authentic assessments through the use of embedded mp3s and videos. Additionally, through the use of Flubaroo, an online grading script add-on to Google forms, teachers can automatically grade the assessments. For performance based assessments tools like Audacity, Garage Band, or even a simple audio or video recording application on a smartphone can be utilized. Students can record their performance and email the recording to a teacher for evaluation.

Blogs, wiki's, ePortfolios and presentations can all be useful assessment tools, allowing students to demonstrate performance knowledge through engaging in music. In a cumulative assessment, ePortfolios are an especially robust way of presenting the breadth of knowledge acquired during the duration of a course.

Assessment Management

Learning Management Systems or Course Management Systems are great ways to store the assessment information for quick retrieval and inquiry. These systems allow students to have access to assignment descriptions, grading rubrics and, once completed, feedback for how they performed on the assessment. Flubaroo's "email" feature helps disseminate grades automatically, a useful tool for keeping students informed.

Professional Development

Developing a personal learning network (PLN) is key to ongoing professional development. The ability to hone in on information distributed through the internet that is applicable to your area of study is crucial. Social networks, social bookmarking and RSS feeds all assist in clearing out the noise and focusing on areas of interest. This can be essential when developing TPaCK strategies.

Data Management & Communication

Google offers a wide range of online services that assist in creating content, managing the data and communicating with others. Google Drive is their online storage and document creation service where you can create spreadsheets, posters, flyers, newsletters, presentations and documents. They are all free, but be sure that when you share them your permissions are set to your liking. Google sites are free websites that can be utilized by students and teachers to create ePortfolios, Webquests and other websites. Google Calendar allows you to share a calendar and embed that calendar in a website.

There are other popular data management solutions. Dropbox allows you access to files across many different devices including phones and tablets. You are also able to collaborate and share folders and files without having to email the files. Microsoft Skydrive and Apple iCloud also offer similar data creation and management solutions.

Rehearsing and Performing Music with Technology

Music has come along way in this digital age and no where have the advancements made more of an impact than on the rehearsal time. I make a designation between rehearsal and performing, though for the most part they are very similar. By rehearsal I mean any time when an individual or group is practicing when there is no audience. As a vocalist back in the day, this meant trudging to the practice room to play warm-up scales on the piano and listen to my recording of my lesson on audio-cassette. When I was teaching choirs at Bloomington Christian Schools it was typically piano or nothing. Recordings were available but they were costly and left very little room for interpreting the music.

Now with computers hooked up to the internet, rehearsing has become a much more engaging activity. Groups post their performances to YouTube, allowing other groups to hear and see alternate approaches to songs. This provides more than singing it the right way that a recording of professional singers offers. It allows students to develop critical listening skills and experience a broad range of approaches to any particular piece. In addition to performances, training lessons for just about every instrument and vocal part can be found on YouTube. While this doesn’t give feedback like a typical music teacher can, the ability to hone skills in this manner is affordable, accessible and practical. Maintaining skills is critical for growing in musicianship.

The process of rehearsing can be daunting for young musicians. Much like learning a new language, learning to sing or play requires interpreting visual code and translating the neurological signals into muscular impulses. Practicing without feedback can lead to bad habits and misunderstanding music. In order for practice to be most effective it should be done over multiple days rather than extended rehearsing on a single day. This goes contrary to our nature which is to wait until the fear of failure or disappointing our teacher takes over and we cram for the next lesson. However, the student that is self motivated, finds joy in making music during practice times usually because they are successful.

Simple technologies have existed for years that assist in rehearsing. Metronomes help keep tempo and are essential for internalization of rhythm. Pitch tuners are a fantastic way for vocalists and instrumentalists to receive feedback about the accuracy of their intonation. One lat simple technology that has been available is audio recording. This allows the musician the ability to self-evaluate, a crucial skill.

One fantastic technology that helps overcome the hurdles of rehearsing is SmartMusic.com. At its core, smart music is a way for students to rehearse and receive feedback from all the above technologies. Additionally, teachers can publish practice requirements, pieces, accompaniment tracks to play along with and receive practice logs for grading. SmartMusic.com offers music for every musician except choral works. Teachers can utilize the program in their classes for everything from warm-ups to showing how individual parts fit into the whole.

Other technologies exist to help with the rehearsal process. Band-in-a-box and CyberBass are both geared toward accompaniment. Audacity is an open-source multi-track digital audio recorder and Abbleton is a multi-track audio editing software that can be used with MIDI devices for live applications. The internet provides a host of sites that provide MIDI music, “jamming” rehearsal opportunities and even digital versions of physical instruments designed to aid in learning the instrument.

Teaching Music has never been so accessible and yet so complex. Adoption of technology should be done with careful consideration and plenty of time to learn the systems. Technology has an annoying habit of crashing right when you need it. Preparation is the key to making the most out of technology and utilizing it as a tool to help your students become better musicians.

Creating Music with Technology – Composition

 In a recent episode of Downton Abbey, season 4 episode 5, the new ladies maid brings a sewing machine into the house. This is met with great distain from several of the other servants, especially Mrs. Patmore, the cook. In previous episodes she has made it know that she saw no use for new gadgets, even a refrigerator. The interaction over the sewing machine causes Mr. Barrow, the under-butler, to remark, “Mrs. Patmore is not what you’d call a futurist.”

While most music teachers are not quite as adverse to technology as Mrs. Patmore, our music classrooms tend to speak otherwise. There are several reasons for this—finances, curriculum, education, etc.—but mostly I think it has to do with a need for a paradigm shift. Our current classrooms are set up for large group interactions, whether choral or instrumental, and music made by these large groups is geared toward performance rather than composition.

While teaching compositional techniques can be done in a larger group setting, by in large, digital music composition is done in a solitary or small group setting. A transformation is needed in order to effectively integrate digital music composition into the musical education experience. Nevertheless, the addition of teaching digital musical composition both in traditional music classrooms and in new classroom settings benefits existing students and those who engage in music but not in the traditional performance based classroom.

At its core digital music is composed on a desktop computer, laptop or tablet. The software used can be a straight digital audio recorder or a more complex digital audio workstation (DAW) that allows for the addition of both MIDI instruments and preset music or loops. For recording live audio, additional hardware is needed, microphones, cables and an audio converter. For inputting MIDI no additional hardware is needed but a keyboard, electronic drums, guitar, etc. can make putting in music easier. The main difference between using digital audio and MIDI is that MIDI can be assigned to make any sound where digital audio will sound as it was recorded.

The benefit of these systems is that it makes composing music attainable for novices. Most software is intuitive and often utilizes prepackaged music loops or template based songs. This software allows students to play, making good musical choices for composing. As with most software though, students will hit a ceiling as their creativity cannot be realized or when the software doesn’t allow for enough prepackaged options.

Music educators will find that they will be able to reach a larger population of students through this type of program. The aural skills needed and learned by this type of education benefit traditional programs too. It also challenges students to begin to think in terms of what makes good music as opposed to just reproducing written music. As teachers embrace this new technology they will realize, like Mrs. Patmore did when her apron was fixed by the sewing machine, that when technology is put to good use in the classroom it can become a powerful educational tool.

Bicycle Built for Two

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