As we approach the final section of our exploration of technology in music education, we now turn our attention to assessment, and professional development and organization. As we consider the methods of assessment using technology, we must always remember our TPACK, which involves our pedagogy and content being supported by technology. We must always remember assessment methods, principles, and reasons for our assessments. Assessments are there not to just run some numbers on a screen or on paper, but to gauge students’ level of understanding and provide feedback with opportunities for being better.
In our text, Bauer (2014 p.132) describes four purposes of classroom assessments. Number one, give students a clear picture of their progress and how they can improve. Two, encourage students to improve. Three, classroom assessments are formative in nature and four, formative assessments should be frequent. The first two of these purposes focus on the validity of the assessment to make sure that it aligned with learning outcomes, provides an indication of achievement, helps improve learning, and is reliable. The second of these purposes is very important, especially in music skill development and assessment.
Because many music classrooms are based on the development of performance skills the assessments that we use must provide the feedback that fits the correct pedagogy which we are using to teach these skills. As an example, if you give only a number score for a playing test it would provide only the students current situation, that would not facilitate the best method for development of skill. We could still use numbers to quantify the student result, but those numbers need to be alongside some specific feedback to help the student know what the next step would be. A technology tool we can use to provide both is Smartmusic.
We have discussed Smartmusic in a previous blog post. Smartmusic used as an assessment tool is fantastic. Teachers can both hear the students practice as well as provide that feedback right away. Something I learned from another music educator who was utilizing Smartmusic was one of the benefits of Smartmusic is you get to hear the students perform their best take, not just a one-time shot or snapshot of what could possibly be a bad day. Students can attempt and reattempt each assessment provided through Smartmusic. They practice and then perform the song. When they record themselves, they can make their evaluation and assess their own sound and they can try again if they think they can do better. This type of assessment, whether you use Smartmusic or a different recording assessment method, provides opportunities for the students not only to give you a snapshot of their current skill level but it also provides opportunities for the students to practice, assess themselves, and them see their progress. The program can give them a very clear picture of how to improve and paired with teacher feedback can become a powerful tool to make music assessment more meaningful.
Part of the feedback process is to make sure that that feedback is regular in terms of timely feedback specific to criteria and provide students opportunities to give their own feedback. Aside from these recording assessments and developing skills, there are other assessment methods and tools to help us as educators understand how the students are understanding the musical material. There are very simple paper and pencil assessments that can assess musical knowledge and technology can keep us organized. Using a Google form, for example, can be an easy way to organize and get those snapshot formative assessments on a regular basis so that we can adapt our teaching to help the learner obtain that information and align with learning outcomes.
Using technology to organize ourselves in the classroom as well as our professional lives are key to helping us become more successful teachers. One of the greatest free tools available is Google suites. Using the calendar, the drive, Google Docs, and all the other tools, utilizing these can help us as educators both provide learning opportunities that are easily accessible in the class or at home and provide opportunities for us as educators to be more focused and organized. another one of the other tools that I like to use personally is OneNote from Microsoft. I'm able to keep notes and access it from multiple locations and devices as well as keep my professional notes from conferences, take pictures and put it in the same document, add handouts and links for resources in my notes. Keeping things in one easily accessible location helps me be more productive.
With both our professional lives and classrooms being organized, we will provide greater opportunities for our students to learn. The impact of a balanced education that includes music education is great, music can help us become better people with more fulfilling lives. So, it is vital that we can organize ourselves in such a way so we can help our students learn and not worry so much about the vital small little details, details which allow our music program successful. Using technology to streamline those small details will help us in our classrooms to a much greater degree so we are able to be the facilitators of students musical development.
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