The Moral of the Story: Use What Works

Select the Best Tool for the Purpose

One selfish reason for writing this column was to have an excuse to find and experiment with new technology on a regular basis. Technology is constantly evolving, and it can be very difficult to find the best application, platform, and/or device for the task. Two platforms I recently tried in my classroom were Flipgrid and Seesaw. Both have received rave reviews from my colleagues in the field, and it appeared as if using both would be a benefit to my classroom. My campus also just switched to Canvas as a learning management platform, which meant there was another set of tools with which to collect assignments and videos. After using both Flipgrid and Seesaw with my students, my students and I determined that Flipgrid worked the best for our classroom. Flipgrid allowed my students to record and share peer teaching in class so that they could be in smaller groups to peer teach during class in a format similar to other social media platforms, while still providing a secure setting limited to those enrolled in the course. The videos could then be watched by students who wanted to see a lesson taught in a group they were not with during peer teaching. Canvas also allows for video submission, which can be used for individual assignments that are not sharable, such as skills tests on recorder and piano. Seesaw, although a platform that works wonderfully for many of my colleagues, was just one more platform that was not needed in this context. The purposes were met, and one more platform used for submission and feedback became very confusing for students. If the purpose was to expose students to additional platforms, then perhaps Seesaw would be a consideration. Until that time, we are sticking with Flipgrid.

What Else Can It Do?

Another secret to what can be perceived as technological skill: I really do not use an excessive amount of applications or platforms. The technology I use in the classroom are tools with which I am extremely well versed. For example, many of the students coming into my elementary methods course think that PowerPoint is only capable of making slides with text. Occasionally the text is even animated to add interest or emphasize a point during the presentation. PowerPoint is a powerful tool, and I use it to build materials constantly from icon cards to animated listening maps. Many have access to PowerPoint, as it is a primary application in the Microsoft Office suite. Much of what is available in PowerPoint is similar in another common platform—Google Slides. Google Slides does not have all the capabilities as PowerPoint, but there are still many tools and engaging presentations that can be created to enhance students’ musical skills.

How do you learn what else a piece of technology can do? Play with it! Technology is quite difficult to “mess up.” Many platforms or applications have undo features or ways that mistakes can be “fixed.” It is always possible to “cancel” or “close” a program if needed to reset. Clicking on buttons, trying out a feature to see what happens, or just going through the font selections can be an eye-opening experience. For example, one night I was looking through the fonts on Kahoot. It turns out the Greek font on Kahoot has two characters that look exactly like stick notation for quarter note and a pair of eighth notes. I can now do rhythmic dictation or identification using Kahoot, which was well worth the few minutes of clicking around in the fonts.

Sometimes Low-Tech/No Tech Is More Efficient or Just Preferable

One of my colleagues teased me during a class because I was running three devices at once—all for a different purpose—while working at a back table in the classroom preparing to teach. The amount of technology at our fingertips can bring us more information than we ever thought possible almost instantaneously. However, it can also cause distraction from the primary purpose of a lesson or task. When a lesson requires students to join a platform, such as Kahoot or Nearpod, there is often a long cesura as they log in, type their name, and wait for the other students or the network to catch up. Depending on what the students have to do with the platform, there may also be further instructions needed to successfully complete the activity. Typically, there is one student who will have difficulty logging in, adding to the milieu. Do the students really need all of this to meet the objective of the day, or could they have used some cards on the floor to compose? How much time could they have been working on melodic dictation with icon cards to determine if they know the song learned in the previous class?

Similarly, technology can make our lives easier. Using Excel with pivot tables has completely changed how I analyze data, and it is wonderful to have such a powerful tool to help me do what is needed for my job in a much faster way. My intention was to track data using an application called iDoceo, which I downloaded with good intentions a few years ago. My plan was to keep all my lesson plans together with my data sets so that all my information would be in one place. Since then, it has become apparent my time is better spent keeping my data sets where they already live in Excel and continuing what has evolved as my lesson planning process. Having a folder with my lesson outlines that I can open without the distraction of my screens is the best solution for me. Those written outlines keep me on task during class while still allowing me to write in notes for the current class and reminders for subsequent classes. This is how my process has worked for quite some time; it is more efficient and practical for me to keep it as is.

Final Thoughts

Technology is another tool that can help students learn music concepts and help us build effective learning materials and stay organized. The constantly changing landscape can make using technology a challenge, as we want our students to have as many music experiences as possible each time they enter our classrooms. Technology should enhance our pedagogy, not detract or distract. Hopefully the guidelines above help guide decisions about the technology use. It has been a pleasure to write this column for the past 6 years, and I look forward to reading the next columnist’s ideas for technology in the music classroom.