Week 10 Reflection: Tech Edge in the Classroom

The three videos I watched of the Tech Edge in the Classroom podcast series are Episode 146: Music Apps, Episode 15: Apps for Music Engagement, and Episode 16: Teaching Music, which all are involved with music education.

In Episode 146: Music Apps, the host, Guy Trainin talks about several general music apps that are great for an iPad in a classroom setting. These apps include Songza, Garage Band, Auxy, and Drummer. He talks about all four of these apps in the episode below, and one of the apps that I have the most experience in is Garage Band. Despite its price of $9.99 it is an extremely useful app for music teachers, I’ve even used the app as a class in some of my classrooms at college and have been using it since high school, showing that it’s great for most ages. I think that if a teacher created a simple project using any of these apps that the students could learn to use it easily and would be inclined to keep using them through their educational career.

 

The 2nd episode I watched, Episode 15: Apps for Music Engagment, shows off a great lineup of apps that are made to help keeps students as engaged in music as possible. These apps inlcude, Smule: Glee, Tap Tap Revenge, and Virtuoso Piano, which are all mostly game-based apps that make music learning a fun experience for students. The one non-game app that I have experience with is the Virtuoso Piano, which is not only a free app but also a great starter piano app for all music students to use for anything ranging from tuning their instrument to general music composition. After watching this episode I definitely am wanting to try out the other apps discussed as they look entertaining to play, even from a college level musician like myself.

 

The 3rd and final episode I watched was Episode 16: Teaching Music, which is made up of apps that are meant to be used by the teachers themselves to help teach the material. Apps like Music Tutor, Magic Piano, and Music Sparkles, which help teach students sight reading, piano playing, rhthym, and more basic music skills. Out of these apps the one I would want to experiment most with in my classroom is Music Tutor. This app would be great for students who struggle with sight reading, which is one of the most common issues in the music setting. I would recommend all three of these apps to my students if they were having any kind of specific issues with music and help them through how to use it to their advantages.

After watching all three of these Tech Edge videos I am looking foward to my future classroom and how I can impliment technology such as these apps into my classroom. I would recommend not only all of these apps but also this specific podcast to all educators as an extremely helpful resource to help students learn through todays technologies.