Assessment and Productivity: What Can Technology Do For You?

Michael Brown

Assessment and Productivity: What Can Technology Do For You?

Dr. Bazan

Assessment and Productivity: What Can Technology Do For You?

This week in class, our goal was to discover how technology could help the music educator assess and organize the classroom.  I thought I knew a lot about technology and I considered myself a techy person, but I realize now that I was just scratching the surface of technology and its uses for the classroom.  Music educators have a lot on their plates when it comes to running a program.  We have to be educator, musician, event organizer, receptionist, treasurer, uniform keeper, and the list goes on.  The gig of the music educator is one that requires a fine balance of organization and improvisation.  The world has changed a lot from 40 years ago, and new technologies exist to make education more manageable.  Technology can help in two major areas of education assessment and productivity. 

As the assistant choral director of a 270 person choral program, I see what it takes to run a program.  Productivity is important to me because I have multiple things going on a one time.  When I first began my job, we still did a lot of handouts and things the paper and pencil method.  The first thing I added was a website that I created easily with Google Sites. The website serves as hub for information, choir calendar of events, important documents shared through Google Drive, and announcements.  I also started using Remind to communicate with parents and students.  It is easy to send messages to everyone, small group, or individuals, and it is a free tool.  Another useful technology tool for productivity is Google Forms .  At the beginning of the year, we always have a parent meeting.  I always have the parents sign in using paper and pencil.  I have to go back and manually enter all their information.  I created a Google Form that collects specific information and puts into a Google spreadsheet for me to look at later.  The other platform that I started in the program was a social media connection.  Through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, marketing a program has become so much easier.  Anyone who is on the social platform and involved in the program can share pictures and advocate for the program.

Technology is useful in other ways than productivity.  Technology can assist with one of the most important elements in education.  Assessment is how educators measure what a student has learned.  Formative and Summative are the two assessment students are measured.  A formative assessment is during the learning, and happens often and in many different formats.  A summative assessment happens at the end of the learning period, and is a cumulative of everything the student should have learned.  Technology can help individualize assessment in the music classroom.  It is difficult to assess every student’s voice and progress in a large ensemble, but it can be done.  I have students sing in small groups sometimes to try and assess, but it can take up so much class time.  I have found technology that can aid in this process.  With the aid of Google tools such as Google Classroom and Google Forms, a music educator can assess students with speed and accuracy.  I teach in a one to one school, and we have started communicating and assigning with Google Classroom.  With technology like SightReadingFactory.com, I can upload melodies to Classroom and create an assignment.  The students can open the assignment then upload a recording of their attempt to read the given melody.  This is a great tool to isolate each student voice to summative assess which student can sing the melody correctly.  Another Great tool Google Forms can help with assessment as well.  Quizzes can be created through Google Forms to share with your students.  I have started to share the Google Forms through Google Classroom as an assignment.  Google Forms can be set up to grade the quiz for you, and send the responses to the students.  This makes for a lighter workload, and can help the teacher focus on the important part of the assessment. 

Technology is a great tool and can heighten the educational experience while helping in the organization of the music program.  Before I started this class, I thought I knew a lot about technology, but now I realize that I must keep discovering.  Technology is a growing changing force that will continue to have an impact on teaching.  I will continue to find new ways to use technology to engage students in music and the program, while finding new ways to assess student knowledge.  

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York City: Oxford University Press.