WHAT IS IT?

SmartMusic (https://www.smartmusic.com/)  a tool that allows students to learn at their own pace wherever and whenever with immediate feedback. The student only needs a microphone which teachers can have available. This allows students to work alone as efficiently as working in groups or with teacher feedback. This benefits the teacher because they know that the student is getting good feedback at all times when playing.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Using a microphone, students play a song displayed on the screen after a count in. The notes will light up green, if played correctly, or red, if played incorrectly. The red notes will also tell them whether they played the wrong note (displaying the note they played and the written one) or player the right note at the wrong time. All standard method books and much band music is available one this site. This allows students to move ahead in method books or learn new music if they would like to.

Photo taken from smartmusic.com

LIMITATIONS?

Smartmusic is not free. There is a trial for educators to see if it will work for their classroom, but it is 40$/year which can add up over time. The microphone is separate, and the program for the students costs money as well. A way to avoid costs for the students, is to download the ‘classic’ program on a school computer or laptop, but this would limit the number of students who could use it at one time.

In music, self assessment is not often used because of fear that the student will assume they are better than they are, but a recent Recorder Technique idea changed this. This is available through: http://artsassessmentforlearning.org/music/

WHAT IS IT?

This resource gives a teacher the rubric, and any other materials that were used for this recorder Technique idea. The idea was to implement peer and self-assessment into learning the recorder that is guided through the rubric and other materials. The students ended up learning more that previously imagined. all of the specific documents to the project are available at the following link: http://artsassessmentforlearning.org/project/recorder-technique/

IS IT TRUSTWORTHY?

Yes! This is a specific project conducted in a specific class and does not claim to be indicative of other potential learning. It simply offers resources for those who wish to implement more AfL and AaL in the arts classroom.

LIMITATIONS?

This study is of course limited because it is only one specific instructor with a specific class. Though I believe it can be adapted and used as a model, there is no specific data regarding this.

WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

This post is partially about the specific article linked (http://www.teachhub.com/classroom-management-6-authentic-assessment-tools ) as well as Teachhub.com . This specific post is about different ways to assess learning in the older terms (Formative, Diagnostic, summative). Summative being Assessment of Learning. The article concentrates on using classroom management for learning and often incorporate technology which is useful for a teacher.

Two specific methods in this article for Assessment of Learning are Game Shows and Differentiation and within the post there are different links to external sites that can create them. An example of this is http://www.wordle.net/ for differentiation. This allows students to create word clouds as a method of demonstrating their learning (an example of this is on the left). This is great to have in one location for a teacher looking for creative assessment strategies.

IS IT TRUSTWORTHY AND/OR LIMITED?

This is a trustworthy site because it is made for teachers by teachers, so the options given will be tried and tested. However, it is limited by the ever-growing and changing internet since links can change quickly, so some links are broken. It is also geographically limited because some terminology is only used in certain  places and not in others.

WHAT IS IT?

This source is often called CompMusic which stands for Computational Models for the Discovery of the World’s Music. Much musicological research concentrates on Western Music and popular music, however this is a relatively new online database that has recordings of world music from 5 different world traditions.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

This database is called Dunya and contains the different music (available at http://dunya.compmusic.upf.edu/ ) and the teacher can access actual recordings from artists in the place of origin. The database is very user friendly, so the teacher only needs to click the link, then the style of music (all listed on the home page), then search a song.

It is trustworthy because the researchers themselves come from the different regions where the music comes from and many years have been put into building this database in a way that accurately represents the music itself.

LIMITATIONS?

The teacher must create a login and register with the dunya database. Much of the site does not use western music terminology and instead uses the terminology specific to the type of music. This teacher must be able to understand this to use the database.

All photos and information are taken from http://compmusic.upf.edu/ and my own experience using the database