Link to Educational Technology
The Smartmusic tool addresses many common themes found in the use of educational technology. First and foremost, it is teaching information literacy and teaching technological skills to students. We live in a digital era, and while instruments have not changed drastically through the years, the ways in which we teach and improve have been drastically improved. With the use of Smartmusic, students are able to sign up and log in to the online program, work with microphones and recording devices, and are able to manipulate the program to make it easier or more challenging. There are many extra tools available with further probing that include an online tuner, a place to practice warm-ups, and a place to learn and practice solo music. Instead of students working with sheet music only, they are able to use this program to further their understanding and ability of their instrument. The program also immediately addresses students of diverse needs by allowing manipulations to work slower until the skills are learned to go beyond. As the student plays an exercise, the program is monitoring if they are too slow or too fast, tells the student which notes they miss, and will even give the student the correct notes at the end of the exercise. They receive a score at the end which gives an immediate assessment, more accurately and precisely than an astute music teacher could give on the fly. It gives students of all levels a goal and a score which they can improve upon each recording, and also gives the students the ability to stop and listen to themselves to hear what went wrong. Most importantly to me, I see the Smartmusic technology as a relatively new tool that many teachers in my field have not fully discovered. As a masters student in educational technology, I have a renewed commitment to become a leader in my field and discover the possibilities and the pitfalls of technology. Smartmusic’s website contains a list of what they call “smartmusic advocates” who are leaders in the technology and have listed themselves as contacts for anyone interested in gaining more information about the program. I see this as a goal for myself to become an advocate- to share ideas, lesson plans, and successes from my experiences with smartmusic and with other technologies. I also admire the program for its business plan of expanding to become better and more applicable. On its website, you can see that it has a constant blog feed of news from around the world, it has applications for the iPhone and iPad, and it also has an online forum where questions are posed and answered. There are powerpoint presentations in place to provide to parents, students, and even administrators explaining the power of the program. They are constantly engaged in professional development by offering webinars on different tools of the program. By becoming an advocate, I truly see myself going further than my own district to be a leader on the technology. In addition, it encourages me to take my other knowledge to create a learning environment where my students are engaged, excited and willing to learn.