Sigma Alpha Iota

MUSIC MEDLEY Dialing Up Apps To Teach Music By Stephanie Riley SAI Music Education Committee 1. Remember that standard messaging and data rates apply. Not all students have the ability to utilize this feature. However, in my experience, you can group students together so that they can search on a designated student's phone, or you can send home a permission slip to parents at the beginning of the semester to do this. Alerting the parents of the extra use of their child's cell phone isn't a bad idea, especially if they have strict no use policies in place during school. 2. Not all students have a cell phone. Again, you can pair students together so that they're actively engaged in the research. 3. Do a test of the question yourself FIRST! The last thing that is desired by any teacher is an inappropriate response. It's also not a bad idea to be extremely clear with what your students should be texting to one of these sources. 4. Don't just limit the use of cell phones for research for just the beginning of class. It's a great idea to have questions ready to go for other portions of class, especially in those moments when students are tempted to pull out those phones and start texting their friends instead! E xcuse me, please keep your cell phones out! As teachers in the 21st Century, we face many obstacles in classroom management from behavior to motivation. We also have the added obstacle of practically every student having a cell phone — and not just a regular dial-and-talk cell phones, but smart phones. So, a few years back, when I was absolutely frustrated at the volume of cell phone use in my classroom, the old saying "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" kept coming to my mind. I thought to myself: I absolutely love my smart phone just as much, if not more than my students, and use it for so many things in my life on a daily basis, there must be a way to integrate them into my classroom. So, I happened upon a workshop at my state's music education conference about apps in the classroom and discovered numerous possibilities for my students, smart phone or no smart phone. You could divide this technology incorporation into two categories: mobile devices (paid and free apps, smart phone or regular mobile device); and traditional computers (paid and free software). For today, let's explore mobile devices and how we can best utilize them in our classrooms. Research Each day, I start all of my classes (Music Theory, History of Rock and Roll, and yes, even Chorus) with "The Question of the Day." The purpose of these questions is to either recall information from our last class together or to start pondering a topic that we're embarking on that day. I tell my students that they may use any source (i.e., the mobile device) to come up with their answer. If students have a smart phone such as an Android or iPhone, students can simply use their web browser to find information. If a student has a regular cell phone, they can text their question to Google at 466453. When using this particular resource, it is best to keep your question short and simple. For example, I was introducing my students to Phil Spector last week and his creation of "The Wall of Sound." So, I asked them to research what Music performance the wall of sound is, hoping that his name would come up and that it was a recording technique that he pioneered. The students would simply text "The Wall of Sound" to 466453, and here is the answer that they would receive back from Google: "The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles." So, both items I was hoping for came back from Google in approximately 30 seconds. Another texting source you can use is Cha-Cha at 242242. When searching the exact same phrase, the following was returned: "Wall of Sound is a music production technique for recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector in the 60's." Again, the answer I was hoping for came back, but this time a little shorter and to the point. Things to consider when asking students to do these searches: Have you ever heard of a thing called an "iband?" If you haven't seen one yet, an iband is a group of people who play musical instruments on their portable devices such as an iPod, iPhone, pad, tablets, and Android based phones. You can keep the arrangement very simple and perform "Jingle Bells," or you can come up with an elaborate arrangement of "Carol of the Bells" depending on what you would like to accomplish in your class. One of the best iband performances I've seen online is by Northpoint, particularly their rendition of "Feliz Navidad." Downloadable apps for these assignments can range in price from free to $10. Paid apps can start at $0.99 and go upwards depending on what you're looking for. Both phone platforms have free drum kits and percussion, keyboards, guitars, strings, and even basic DJ apps for free. Some great paid apps to potentially invest in include: 1. Bebot — A great synthesized keyboard like app with a cute little robot featured in Northpoint's rendition of "Feliz Navidad" ($1.99 on iTunes). 2. Garage Band — The well-known PHONES continued on page 4 sai-national.org SPRING 2013 PAN PIPES 3

• Cover