Developing a Comprehensive, Integrated Long Term Music Technology Plan

As the use of technology becomes more common in music education, it is important to develop a comprehensive approach for integrating technology into curricular goals.  A flexible, multi-year and multi-grade plan correlated with curricular goals will ensure the most effective use of technology while offering a sense of continuity across multiple grades.  A long term music technology plan will also help administrators and teachers plan and budget for the appropriate acquisitions, professional development and maintenance associated with the use of technology.  It is important to understand the elements that should be contained in a plan and to have a structured approach to developing such a plan.

The use of technology in music is typically determined on an ad-hoc basis.  Teachers usually start by implementing a technology solution to address a specific need.  Notation software is often a starting point for many music educators.  They start by purchasing a notation program for their own use as a time saving tool and then discover how it can be an effective tool to for students to use in learning composition or theory.  Other teachers start with a theory or ear training program to supplement their lessons.  Another common starting point is the use of technology for recording.

After an initial exposure to technology, teachers often discover the many benefits related to using computers in music education.  Students are excited about the opportunities for creativity, interactive learning and immediate feedback.  Teachers see an increase in their ability to accurately assess student progress and will hopefully start to see some time savings by automating certain tasks.  Determining what technology to adopt next can be a challenge as there are virtually an unlimited number of options available to teachers but usually very limited funds.

A flexible, multi-year and multi-grade plan correlated with near and long term goals will help to ensure the most effective use of technology.  A multi-year plan helps to address the many opportunities for using technology in teaching music, while realizing that teachers don't have time or money to invest in them all.  A plan that considers future uses for technology also ensures that the software and hardware you are using now is compatible and will integrate with any future plans.

Creating a plan that is multi-grade ensures continuity.  As music teachers often teach multiple grade levels this is an important consideration.  However, a really useful plan will provide both entrance and exit expectations so that students are expected to have a certain level of proficiency and that when they enter or exit a program with a new teacher, they will have already mastered certain skills. 

One of the biggest concerns about the use of technology in teaching music is budgeting.  A long term plan can help develop proposals for administrators and ensures that all elements of investment are planned for, including time, the need for professional development, maintenance and upgrades.

Although there are a number of items should be included in a plan, it is very important that the plan is flexible.  It should be a living document that can be reviewed and modified as required.  I would suggest that your plan should include a timeline, address multiple grades, directly relate to the curriculum, include an implementation plan, consider budgeting and provide for evaluation and benchmarks.

Timeline

Starting with the timeline, it is important that you think both short and long term.  Instead of narrowing your focus to only think about what you want accomplish next year, start by imagining what your program will look like in five years.  Ask yourself what activities will your students be engaged in, and what additional learning opportunities will they have that they don't have now.  Don't be afraid of dreaming - technology is always changing, and your impossible dream might someday become a reality.  Create a short term and a long term section for your plan and include your dreams in the long term section as it gives you something to grow towards.  The long term section will also ensure that your focus isn't so short term that you aren't prepared for future developments.

Your timeline is going to help you prioritize since you won't have the time or resources to do everything at once.  It will also help you develop a long term budgetary plan for your administrators.  This can be an important part of your proposal that will help to demonstrate your commitment to using technology in teaching music.  Ensuring that your timeline addresses long term goals will also help you to plan for training and professional growth.  For example, there may be topics that you want to explore, such as audio recording or software synthesis, but you aren’t sure how to get started.  A long term plan gives you the time to learn and orient yourself towards the new technology. 

Multiple Grades

You need to ensure continuity within all of the grade levels you teach, both in terms of curricular goals and in terms of use of technology.  For example, if you choose to use software for teaching musical literacy, you need to determine if the students will complete the entire program by the end of the year.  If they will, what program would they work on next year?  If not, how far do you expect them to get, and where will they start the following year? 

Not only will this multiple grade approach ensure continuity, but it will also help make budgeting easier since you will be prepared to purchase software that continues from where your current program leaves off.

Ideally, your multi-grade plan should extend beyond the grades that you teach.  Even if you don't have a formal list, you probably have some expectations of what skills your students should have when you first start teaching them.  You also have some ideas as to what skills they should have developed by the time they move on to the next grade or teacher. 

Your plan should formally address some entrance and exit requirements, both in terms of music learning, and technology exposure and skills.  This will help with continuity and ensure your use of technology is effective and efficient.  For example, if you can expect students to come in knowing how to use a notation program, you can plan for your theory instruction to include composition activities without having to teach students how to use the software.   

Students benefit in this situation as your plan will ensure that you don't teach your students how to use Print Music, while the next teacher uses Sibelius and after that they have to learn to use Encore.  Instead of wasting time teaching technology, you can be teaching music. 

Multi-grade plans also make remediation and enrichment more consistent.  If you know that students previously worked with Music Ace Maestro, you can easily use it for remediation and reinforcement if required.  As another example, if you know that students will be working with Reason when they advance to the next grade, use it as an enrichment opportunity for students that are ready to go beyond the material that you are presenting to the rest of the class.

A multi-grade plan will add to the credibility of your plan when dealing with administrators and budgeting.  If you get commitment from other teachers by demonstrating the benefits to them, you can present your administrators with a plan that will be widely adopting, increasing the likelihood of funding approval.

Curricular Goals

Your plan must directly relate your use of technology to the curriculum you are responsible for delivering to students.  Curricular goals demonstrate that you aren't using technology for the sake of technology, but that you actually have measurable, music learning goals.  Relating each planned use of technology to a specific curricular goal will help in gaining support from your administration for using technology in teaching music.  It also makes it easy to demonstrate to stakeholders, such as parents, how the activities students are engaging in relate to the curricular requirements.

Implementation Plan

Your technology plan should have a section regarding implementation.  This should be as descriptive as possible.  Try to paint a picture of how students will be using the technology.  Not only does this make it easier to explain your plan to others, but it will also help you better plan for the resources you need if you know how you will use the technology.

Budgeting Considerations

In developing the implementation plan, try to make recommendations for specific hardware and software that you will need.  This will make it easier to include a budget in your plan.  The budget will then help assist in prioritizing your goals and will ensure that your plan is realistic.  Unfortunately, when implementing technology in music education, budgetary considerations are usually the first question asked by administrators, so it is an important element of your plan.

Evaluation/benchmarks

The final element in your plan should be a discussion of how you will determine if your plan was successful.  You should be able to describe how you will measure student success to evaluate if your use of technology meets the curricular goals you identified.  Plan to periodically assess your plan so you know if you are meeting your goals.  As with other elements of your plan, benchmarks and evaluation will add credibility to your plan in the eyes of stakeholders.

A comprehensive approach for integrating technology into curricular goals is an important tool to ensure the student learning.   We've examined how the plan must be flexible, multi-year and multi-grade, and should correlate with curricular goals.  Your plan will help administrators and teachers plan and budget for the appropriate acquisitions, professional development and maintenance associated with the use of technology. 

In Part 2 of this article we will identify the process required to develop a plan.

Part 2

In part one of Developing a Comprehensive, Integrated Long Term Music Technology Plan, we examined the elements that should be found in a plan.  Next, I'll outline a process for developing this plan.

Identify Curricular Goals

Start by identifying your larger curricular goals for each grade you teach, and then look at specific skills within each larger goal.  You might refer to your local provincial or state requirements, or the MENC national standards to start.

Once you've identified your curricular goals, start identifying how technology can help.  For each goal consider how technology can help in instruction and assessment.  Also consider how it can help as a teacher tool, such as preparing worksheets or recording playing tests.

Some curricular goals will have obvious ways in which technology can assist.  For example, theory or aural skills requirements can be easily addressed by software.  Be sure to consider all areas, even those that may not be obvious.  For example, can technology help your students learn to play better in tune?  (Depending on what skills you believe are required to play in tune, technology can help, even if it isn't obvious on the surface.)  Other examples of less obvious solutions may be considering if there is some way to better assess student performance, or examining if technology can facilitate the compositional process.

You should also examine roles of technology beyond main curriculum integration by considering remediation and enrichment.  Consider how you can use technology to help students who don't have the prerequisite requirements or help students who are struggling to meet the curricular expectations for their grade level.  In addition to remediation, identify how you can provide enrichment that offers students the ability to examine the depth of the curricular goals and go beyond the surface requirements.

Multi-grade

To address the multi-grade aspect of your plan, try to have a divisional meeting with other music teachers.  Start by identifying common musical and technology entry and exit goals and then work towards consensus on how to use technology to achieve these goals.  Although your plan focuses on the technology skills you expect students to have and to acquire, these should all relate back to actual music learning goals.  You may need to adjust your entrance requirements to correlate with the exit goals of your feeder schools.  After addressing these multi-grade issues you can better determine how to use technology for remediation for students that don't meet your entrance goals. 

In addition to the pedagogical benefits of using software across multiple grades, there is a financial benefit as many software companies will negotiate divisional licenses at a much reduced cost.

If it is not possible to meet with all of the other music teachers that your students have or will interact with, start by meeting with one or two other colleagues or your divisional or regional arts or music coordinator.  As other teachers start to see their students benefiting from your plan, you will find that it will become easier to expand the multi-grade elements of your plan.

Timeline

Once you have had the opportunity to meet with other teachers, you may need to revise your plan based on their plans and goals.  You can then start developing a realistic timeline that is based on your priorities and long term goals.  When deciding what goals to start with consider not only the most important goals, but also the ones that are most easily attainable.  Your timeline should also consider that some goals may be dependent upon the completion of others.

Implementation Plan

The implementation section of your plan needs to address how you and your students will actually use technology.  There are a number of implementation approaches to consider.  For example, you may use software solely for demonstration to students, or have them work in small groups at one or two computers in your classroom.  You may decide that it would be more effective to book a computer lab for the entire class to use at once.  Another important consideration is how you will teach students the skills required to interact with the technology.

Budgeting and Requirements

Once you have identified your long term curricular goals that fit into a multi-grade plan you can start identifying software and hardware that will meet those goals.  Pay attention to the requirements for the software you select to make sure that you plan for hardware that will meet those requirements.  Be sure to examine the implementation plan to determine the quantities involved in your budget.

Remember to include all hardware you will require in your budget, including computers, monitors, sound cards, speakers, headphones, MIDI keyboards, microphones, cables and desks.  Work out a rough budget for acquiring the hardware and software that you require.

It is important that your budget also include estimates to cover maintenance such as software or hardware upgrades or repairs.  Also consider professional development costs, such as books, videos, on-line courses, or workshops.

Plan Evaluation & Benchmarks

The final element of your plan should be to develop some ideas as to how you will evaluate the effectiveness of your use of technology.   Identify key benchmarks or milestones in terms of student performance and ability for both technological and musical proficiencies. 

This section of your plan should paint a picture of what the successful implementation of technology will look like and must relate directly to your goals.  For example, if your plan includes the use of technology to help students develop compositional skills, then a CD of your students work or a printed score of their composition would serve as indicators of success.

Conclusion

Developing a comprehensive, integrated long term music technology plan is an important process that will ensure the most effective use of technology in teaching music.  It will allow teachers to identify how technology will assist in meeting curricular goals in both the short and long term, while ensuring continuity and assisting in budgeting and planning.  A plan will also help teachers to evaluate and assess their use of technology.

About the Author

Kelly Demoline is a music educator and president of Kelly’s Music & Computers.  In addition to his K-12 teaching experience, Mr. Demoline has also taught Music Technology for Brandon University along with many music education organizations throughout North America.