A Possible Future for iPads & Tablet PCs in the Music Classroom
Posted by jamesfrankel on January 31st, 2010
Yesterday I wrote about my first impressions of the iPad in music education and education in general. I am sure that many more of these types of conversation will precede the launch of the iPad, and even more will follow in the months ahead. The comments so far have been quite insightful, and I look forward to a continued dialogue. I do want to be clear that as a consumer, I can’t wait to get my hands on one; but as an educator, I think that there are some improvements that need to be made in order for it to replace the current model of desktop and laptop computers in the classroom. The following is my vision of the radical change that iPads and other PC tablets will hopefully bring to both our pedagogical approach, and the possibilities for exciting learning opportunities in our classrooms. While certainly a bit pie-in-the-sky, it hopefully illustrates the many different ways that iPads might be used in a music classroom.
Two years in the future….
A middle school general/instrumental music teacher steps out of car ready for a long day of lessons, rehearsals, and classes. Over her shoulder is a small bag containing an iPad, her keys, her lunch, sunglasses, and a baton. She does not have to drag in a milk-crate on wheels filled with materials, papers, tuners, student work that she has graded the night before, a handheld recorder, and a plethora of other teacher tools. Her only tools are a baton and an iPad. She smiles as she enters the building, looking forward to another day with her students. Although she has been teaching 22 years, she still looks forward to coming to school and the many exciting projects that she is working on with her students.
As the opening bell rings, the students start entering the building. They too have small bags slung over their shoulders. No massive book bags filled with textbooks. Just their lunches, some typical kids things, and an iPad. When the first period bell rings, the music teacher pulls out her iPad, and asks all of the students in her room to pull out their iPads as well. Her 6th grade general music class will start as soon as some housekeeping tasks are complete. A piece of attendance software on the music teachers iPad automatically detects which students are in the room, which are in the building and on their way, and which are simply not in school that day. The task of taking attendance is a simple as clicking submit. The record is sent to the school’s attendance software. After the students are logged into their machines, the daily announcements are automatically downloaded via an RSS feed, along with other useful articles from various school-focused blogs and news outlets on the web. There is no longer a need for homeroom. The students are expected to stay on top of the various things happening at school. Within two minutes, her general music class begins.
Today, she is teaching her students about Scott Joplin. She opens up a Keynote presentation that she prepared the night before. She points her iPad toward her class and pushes her presentation to the students. Their iPads download her presentation and within 30 seconds, using iPad Remote Desktop, she goes through the presentation on her iPad, with all the students iPads synced up so that they can only see what she is presenting. On the fourth slide of her presentation, she has embedded an MP3 of the Maple Leaf Rag. The students hear the music through their own iPads which is synced to the teachers machine to avoid any type of latency. After listening to the piece, the students are asked to open up Pages, and add an entry about Maple Leaf Rag to their listening blogs. The teacher has an RSS feed for each student, and using Google Reader, can easily access and assess the students work anywhere, at any time. After ten minutes, the teacher continues her presentation. A few slides later, she brings the students to the Smithsonian Jazz site, and an article about Scott Joplin. They are encouraged to look around the site, and find a few interesting facts about his life. The presentation continues, and the students are guided through some more music and even some videos about Joplin’s life. At the end of the presentation, the teacher announces that the students will be composing their own rags, based on the harmonization of the Maple Leaf Rag. She asks the students to open their notation software, and she pushes a file that she has prepared to the students to download. The class is almost over, so she explains the assignment: using their notation programs, the students are to create an 8 measure melody in the right hand, using the left hand part from Maple Leaf Rag. The assignment will be due the following week. Between this class and then, the students will post their compositions on the class wiki for comments and feedback. They will use their school-issued nanoKEYs to enter notation at home. The bell rings, and the students pick up their iPads and move to their next class.
Second period is another section of 6th grade general music. This class is a little behind the previous one, but the use of technology facilitates differentiated instruction, and she is not worried about them not being in the same place. She would rather her students have meaningful and substantive learning experiences than follow some artificial timeline for when certain material should be covered. Using student blogs, the class wiki, and iPads, the teacher can create individualized group learning environments that focus on the needs of her students. Those students who are ahead can participate in virtual activities online that keep them interested and learning. Those who are lagging behind can get extra help from their teacher using the tools that Web 2.0 provides.
After her third period prep (where she works on scheduling her electronic music ensemble rehearsals in preparation for their performance at the state MEA conference in February), she welcomes her band students to their rehearsal. The students walk in with their iPads and their instruments. After setting up their instruments, they sit down in their places, and attach their iPads to the stands that have been specially designed to attach securely to their iPads. The teachers asks them to open their warm up exercises on their iPads. Before the warm up exercises, she tunes each section chair with a tuner app from the iTunes App Store. The rest of the band tunes as well. After they warm up, the teacher introduces a new piece by opening up the score on her iPad and pushing it to the students. Each student only receives their respective part. The teacher talks through the piece with the students, and using the highlight feature of her iPad, highlights certain melodic and rhythmic motives for the students. After playing through the opening section a few times, she notices that they are having difficulty counting the dotted eighth-sixteenth rhythm that is prevalent throughout. To help them learn it, she takes control of their iPads (again using iPad Remote Desktop) and brings them to www.musictheory.net where she has them complete the relevant exercise on that rhythm. Because the iPads now have Flash compatibility, they can finally utilize interactive Flash-based websites like MusicTheory.net. The students complete the trainer exercise and their scores are automatically sent to the teachers iPad using an RSS feed. Once she is satisfied that they understand the rhythm has them rehearse it a few times using the metronome app from the iTunes App Store. The teacher also assigns the piece as homework using SmartMusic. The rehearsal continues with a few pieces that they have already worked on, and the teacher records the rehearsal on to her iPad for archival purposes.
After a period of lunch duty, the electronic music ensemble arrives at the music room excited about their upcoming performance. Using a few of the music apps available on the iTunes App Store, the students have composed several pieces of music and are working collaboratively on incorporating video into the performance. She loves this period the most because the students themselves are in charge of the music making experience. Some of them are advanced enough to have written their own apps using the iPhone SDK (which they are registered for). The sale of these apps, along with several popular recordings that they have sale on the iTunes Music Store (using TuneCore.com to upload their albums), help to support the music program. The students also have their own loop selling business, but they do this on their own. Instead of paper routes, they are working musicians selling loops to help them pay for college. The ensemble takes out some of the hardware devices that the teacher purchased, and use applications such as Max/MSP and Ableton LIVE, along with some controllers to work on their latest piece. As there is no available repertoire for a group like this (yet), they are responsible for composing all of their music. Sadly, the bell rings, and the fun has to stop. The students pack up their iPads, put the controllers away, and head out the door for their next class.
The end of the school day is approaching, but first she has two sections of 8th grade general music. She loves teaching these classes because they are currently working on creating a film about the Renaissance. Using iMovie, GarageBand, notation software, USB microphones and keyboards, as well as the built-in video cameras on their iPads, the students have been charged with creating a Ken Burns-styled documentary about various aspects of music, history and culture of Europe during the Renaissance. This project has been under way for the past month, and students are working in collaborative groups both during class and outside of the school day, using wikis and Google Docs to create the script and storyboard, as well as grabbing various images and sound files from teacher-approved websites. Once the projects are complete, the finished products will be posted on the music programs’ dedicated, private YouTube Channel. Students will be invited to write critiques of each others’ work once posted. The built-in wifi on the iPads means that the students can be anywhere when they complete assignments. They can also send the entire school their finished projects using the RSS feed from their YouTube channel, so when the students open their iPads one morning, they will have a link to these projects automatically appear in the news reader.
The maintenance of these machines was a pretty big fear for the school district’s IT department, but when they did a cost analysis of annual old fashioned textbook purchases and adoptions, they found that the $699/wifi enabled iPad price tag was actually less expensive. With digitized textbooks loaded on to their machines on the first day of school each year, students are assured of the most up to date texts available. Once the school district adopted the iPads as their primary method of information dissemination and assessment, they hired certified technicians to keep everything up and running. Students in Kindergarten are given iPads which are specially designed to absorb some of the wear and tear they might expect to receive, and the students keep them until the end of 2nd Grade. In 3rd grade, they are given a new iPad and keep those through the end of 5th grade. Middle school means another iPad, and one final iPad for high school. In total, 4 iPads in 12 years. The students are allowed to personalize their machines in any way they wish, and at the end of their use, they are donated to students in third world countries - many of whom they have been collaborating with using the OLPC XO machines.
But the music teacher doesn’t really care about any of this. She only knows that she gets a new iPad every 3 years. At the end of the day, she updates her class wikis and blogs with assignments and discussion questions before heading home. She puts her iPad into her bag and heads home. Once there, she sticks her iPad into her docking station and monitors what her students are doing in the various online environments she has created for them. It never ceases to amaze her how much her students communicate with each other about her assignments at home. She occasionally interacts with some of the student discussions that are going on in the evening. She also checks for the SmartMusic assignments that come in fairly frequently - she is encouraged that they are picking up on the dotted eighth-sixteenth rhythms. Maybe tomorrow’s rehearsal will be even better. As she goes to sleep, she looks forward to the many exciting things her students will do.
What do you think? Wishful thinking? Possible? Good for education? Bad? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
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January 31st, 2010 at 4:10 pm
You have painted a convincingly realistic picture here! I am a bit skeptical about what percentage of 22 year teaching veterans would/will embrace new technology so readily. I also have been disheartened at how long it’s taking school systems to make the leap away from traditional textbooks, so two years might not be a very realistic timeline for such a step (although I would love to see it!)
January 31st, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Wow…first off very well-written. And it’s really something that educators have to work towards since there is something fundamentally different about the way the student and the teachers are interacting here. It does seem a little overkill in that I simply don’t see all of this happening within two years but otherwise it’s a great vision and really shows the potential of the device for various different markets. The fact is that no one really knows which market this device is going to appeal to, whether it be the business, education or creative markets. It all essentially depends on what software is available and whether they can replace the function of full desktop apps that are currently being utilized by students. Most people who criticize the device today simply don’t realize this and are caught up with small things like Flash support rather than seeing how it can virtually change an entire market. However, what the post really leads me to believe that someone like YOU should be the pioneers and that a company like SoundTree should strongly consider conceptualizing and developing iPad applications/solutions.
January 31st, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Martha and Kulpreet,
Thank you so much for your comments. It is true that 2 years is a bit optimistic, but I want teachers to be doing this type of thing as soon as possible. Call it unbridled optimism! Martha - I hope that devices like these inspire those with over 20 years of experience to try a new approach to music pedagogy. I t could provide much needed inspiration to those who feel that they are in a rut and counting the years until retirement. Some of my most enthusiastic students at Teachers College are those who have been in the classroom over 20 years.
Kulpreet - your comments are very wise for your years! I hope that this type of thing happens before you graduate because students like you would benefit the most! Hope things are going well for you. Please stay in touch!
Jim (Dr. F)
January 31st, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Hi Jim,
I love it, and I’m sold!
A couple of thoughts: In order to have such a seamless experience from class-to-class with all your students, using a variety of software applications, you need everyone to be on a compatible system - or a closed system, the way Apple is now. The advantage of this is that everything is designed to work together. The downside is that you are at the mercy of what Apple determines to be important (Flash, for example).
My observation of schools is that they are very hesitant to “go Apple” and commit to one platform. Being locked into one company is a risk for school systems.
I was half expecting Apple to unleash a cloud version of iWork, rather than a modified version for the iPad. Schools are all moving to broadband/wireless access, and moving apps to the cloud with some kind of local sync might be the way to enable better compatibility.
Finally, Apple needs to support open formats. Proprietary formats, for any kind of application, restrict the ability to communicate freely.
I do wish that Apple were more open. I get that they want to control the user experience so that it is good, but they need to balance that with potential frustration of users who want to do more than just purchase from the iTunes mall.
With the prices coming down, perhaps they will start listening to educators again - for $500 we can actually afford to purchase!
- Matthew
January 31st, 2010 at 8:32 pm
OMG! Can I please live in your dream world - just for an hour or two? Please?
Thanks for making my night. I’m happy to know that I’m not the only one out there who believes that scenarios like this are possible - and hopefully probable.
Kathy
January 31st, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Thank you for posting! I am inspired by your insight (as well as your storytelling skill), and I hope to see these ideas realized in the future!
~Donny
February 1st, 2010 at 12:39 am
[…] A Possible Future for iPads & Tablet PCs in the Music Classroom: Fantastic article by Dr. Jim Frankel: “Two years in the future…. A middle school general/instrumental music teacher steps out of car ready for a long day of lessons, rehearsals, and classes. Over her shoulder is a small bag containing an iPad, her keys, her lunch, sunglasses, and a baton. She does not have to drag in a milk-crate on wheels filled with materials, papers, tuners, student work that she has graded the night before, a handheld recorder, and a plethora of other teacher tools. Her only tools are a baton and an iPad. She smiles as she enters the building, looking forward to another day with her students. Although she has been teaching 22 years, she still looks forward to coming to school and the many exciting projects that she is working on with her students.” […]
February 1st, 2010 at 6:27 am
Jim — I always love reading about your vision. In house, we have been thinking a ton about innovation, not so much technology, but innovative teaching strategies. In any field, you can’t learn everything in college. After college, and during the first job, it is critical for us all to extend our education, learn new methods and bring them back to the classroom.
With that said, I still think we teach largely how we ourselves learned. If we could take your vision and integrate those methods and techniques into colleges and universities, do you think future music educators would be more likely to teach the way you outlined? I do. Anyone who provides innovative services counts on the fact that we can educate teachers during professional development, showing them the benefits of using certain services or techniques with the end goal being the benefits to their students. This method has been working well for years. I think we must all now look closely at college prep programs to ensure there is not such a wide gap between after college and what we are presenting during professional development.
Add this strategy to the energy 22+ year veteran teachers bring to the table and I see your vision coming to reality more quickly. Thanks for the insights. And thank you for stressing how important additional features are to really making tools like the iPad work for educators.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:07 am
This is a carefully considered, creative, and well-written article. My only caveat is that we must be vigilant in not allowing technology and teaching “about” music to replace teaching the “doing” of music in the classroom (and I do not say that you are advocating this…). I believe that we need to remember to include elements in our classroom music lessons that consist of skill-based, developmental content, such as singing, being physically rhythmic, and performing in a manner which transcends the technology.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Mark- well stated!
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:33 pm
I enjoyed the vision put forward in this post, and certainly look forward to using iPads in my classroom someday. I think that the “killer app” for use in education is a cloud-based set of apps that seamlessly communicate student work and grading to a teacher’s computer, free students from always using the same iPad in a classroom set, as well as allow teacher control of student iPads. The iPad Remote Desktop as you envision it is essential to teachers directing student learning.
One more thing: everyone seems to be assuming that only the features and software that have been announced so far are going to be available for the iPad. While there’s nothing official, I would not be surprised to see apps from the publishers of Finale and Sibelius, and clones of Apple’s Garageband, if not a new Apple app called GaragePad (or PadBand?) Remember: no one could have foreseen the immense amount of apps available for the iPhone/iPod Touch before the App store came into its own, but new, incredible apps are introduced every day. Developers now know this is a new opportunity for an app ‘gold rush,’ and have 2 years of developing experience. In other words, if it doesn’t exist, wait a few months…
Dave
February 4th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Jim - great article! Hopefully all teachers have a vision in what their great, yet average, day would be like, and how the current and future technology can make that possible. I think that would help inspire them to take part in the change that is coming.
Matthew - you mention Apple’s closed system. I think they are more open then many realize. You can acquire music from other resources and import them in to iTunes (CD, Amazon, etc.), and Google Apps are available to be used on the Mac as well (and hopefully the iPad).
I understand school’s hesitance to commit all of their technology to one company. I don’t necessarily think they should, but if that company is offering solutions that meet their budget, and are making teachers more active and students more involved, then it should be implemented. Schools need to keep their eyes on the prize - creating an environment for the students where they can become the best citizens they can be.
Does it really matter whether they use MS Word, iWork’s Pages, or Google Docs? None of those apps will be the same in 2 years let alone when they graduate. Teach them how to use “a” word processor, or even switch it up after a few years and show them another. The change might actually make them better at accepting and thriving with the inevitable changes that occur with software and computers in general.
February 5th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
The implementation of technology like this is a tool that educators need to embrace, but teachers need to be willing to learn themselves. While things such as the iPad have quite a bit of potential, they can also serve as a huge distraction if the teacher takes the first half of each period to figure out how to use the device. That being said, if teachers learn how to use the equipment efficiently, a lot of time could potentially be saved from using a device like this. Many problems could potentially be eliminated as well. Lost music could be a thing of the past. Forgotten textbooks would not be a worry. Imagine how easy the task of handing out or collecting pieces would be. The potential of this kind of technology is amazing. Great article!
February 6th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Wonderful article - I second Kathy Kerstetter’s idea of wanting to live in this world!
I have tried to implement such things as online homework, worksheets and every student having a copy of Sibelius notation software for compositions, analysis etc. But as many have said there is always opposition or normal limitations that tend to block these innovations. The iPad however, could revolutionise education.
With its affordable price, the myriad of iphone music apps available and its ‘apple lure’ so much could be achieved for education and especially music education (so long as they fix the flash support). Great article and I hope to see your vision come to life very soon.
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:03 pm
[…] never seen the classrooms of the edgy teachers who founded Learner’s Edge Inc., much less the wire-free, inquiry-rich techno-zone of James Frankel’s imagination. The graphic designers dug deep into their own 20th Century experiences to find the traditional […]
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:39 pm
This is a well written description of the life in a day of a music teacher with an iPad. I have written quick a bit about the iPad’s use in general education. I have mentioned some about it’s use in music classes as well. You can read more about some various apps that need to be created in order to make your vision come true though. 15 iPad App Concepts for Education” Only one of the apps mentioned here is related to music though. However, in order for a school to take the plunge into the iPad universe, it will need to be beneficial to all classes and teachers.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
[…] I’d rather connect you to a really useful article within. This article discusses uses for ipads that tablet pc’s within music education. In this article he isn’t selling anything other than an idealized […]
March 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Absolutely! Thank you for keeping this site. I can’t help but find new ideas everywhere I look on your blog! I really like this version of the future and hope to see it in the next few years!