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EdTechTeacher brings resources together for teachers from teachers. Check out Apps

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Checklist- • Which classes may use this tool- Music appreciation, choir, or both- • Will this tool help my students independently- • Can this tool be used for assessment- • Does this tool provide reports to adjust in

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February, 2014
I just noticed that it has been a year since my last list of iPad apps for teaching music. Several new interesting music apps have seen the light since then and therefore I decided to create another more comprehensive list of some of the best iPad apps for teaching music to give music teachers more options to choose from.

GarageBand turns your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio - so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play a piano, organ, guitar, and drums.

forScore has an arsenal of tools ready to help you turn practice into performance. Create links to handle repeats with a single tap, play along to an audio track, and use half-page turns to see the bottom half of the current page and the top half of the next one at the same time, removing jarring transitions once and for all.

Symphony Pro lets you compose complex orchestrations, lead sheets, chord charts, and guitar tabs on the iPad and instantly hear them played back. This is the easiest and most comprehensive way to compose sheet music on your iPad.

Singing Fingers lets you fingerpaint with sound. Just touch the screen while you make a sound, and colorful paint appears. Touch the paint to play back the sound again!

Draw lines and watch as Soundrop uses them to create music! Listen with headphones for the full effect.

- Tap and Drag to draw a line.

- Drag the handles to edit or double tap to delete.

- Drag dropper to reposition drop point.

- Audio pans left/right with bounce location onscreen.

6- SoundPrism

SoundPrism enables you to create beautiful music immediately without any previous knowledge. With its unique visualization of pitches and intuitive controls composing sophisticated melodies, tone and chord patterns becomes child's play.

Scorch generates interactive notation. Easily learn songs or adapt them to your instrument-then give a great performance using Music Stand mode. Whether you want to showcase your own music or purchase scores from world-class publishers, Scorch is the easy way to practice and perform your favorite sheet music on the go.

The Novation Launchpad is an easy-to-use app for iPad that will have you making beats and music instantly. It comes with eight ready-to-perform sessions that span different musical genres, with regular new content delivered via In-App Purchase. Browse categories, packs, and favourites from your library to create your own sessions on the multi-colour Launchpad grid, and make and remix your music.

inHarmony is a new kind of a musical instrument simplifying composing and playing music by just displaying notes limited to the selected diatonic scale, which are always in harmony with the presented chords.

GrooveMaker gives you a completely new way of making music by automatically remixing the hundreds of loops included on the 8 available tracks, in virtually limitless ways for millions of different grooves at your fingertips.

Finger Stomp has included an exciting Practice mode. Users will be able to select up to 50 different tracks with varying levels of difficulty. In addition, tracks are divided into sections and Users can adjust the tempo to learn authentic street music and Urban old-school beats at their own pace and leisure.

With a simple and clean interface, easily connect the output of one Audiobus-compatible app into the input of another. Use Audiobus to play a synthesizer live into a looper or multi-track recorder, or use one app to manipulate the live output of another.

This app allows you to make songs that sound like drips and drops falling on a tiny orchestra of instruments. Pressing the multi-colored raindrops triggers notes that loop every six seconds. Combine different colored drops and notes to compose your own rainy-day melodic backdrops. A metronome is also included to help you keep time.

Chord Detector is an app that will analyse audio sources and automatically detect the musical chords within it. With Chord Detector you can learn to play any track in your devices music library or Dropbox folder providing its not DRM encoded.

This app is a real first for percussion. It's an exciting and powerful tool, opening up the world of rhythm in a completely hands-on and inspiring way. Whether you are a novice just looking for a bit of rhythmic fun, a songwriter or producer looking for a fresh rhythmic idea, a percussion student writing arrangements for a project, a music teacher looking for rhythm ideas to teach, or a drum circle facilitator seeking to expand their repertoire, this app has something for you.

Create real music just by drawing and watch as the creatures play your creation. Get creative and re-mix your songs with different instruments, or accessorize your characters with a hat and sunglasses. Use Heart Coins to unlock new instruments and other fun items.

DM1 is an advanced vintage Drum Machine. It turns your iPad into a fun and creative beat making machine.
Easy and fast to use, loaded with 86 superb electronic drum kits and beautiful hyper-realistic graphics, DM1 has been designed for a lot of instant fun.

Finale SongBook™ transforms your iPad into an interactive music folder, so you can view, play, and print music scores created by the entire family of Finale products. Finale is the world standard in music notation creation, and Finale SongBook™ brings this standard to the iPad.

Pattern Music allows you to: Create songs intuitively using layered instrument patterns, Play an interactive polyphonic musical instrument with over 50 different voices, and Jam along with your iPod Music Library without leaving the app.

20- Real Piano Pro

A full 88-key piano app that brings you realistic grand piano sound, smoothly moving and zooming, customizable key labels, and professional tuning & transposition functionalities.

21- Note Perfect

Note Perfect is the pocket workout for music students! Test and improve your note reading against the clock in our addictive and enjoyable game.

Ear Trainer is an educational tool designed for musicians, music students and anyone interested in improving ones musical ear. It is filled with over 160 individual exercises covering intervals, chords, scales and relative pitch.

23- Percussive

Percussive contains a total of five instruments. Glockenspiel, Kalimba, Xylophone, Vibraphone and Marimba. The instruments look and sound fantastic with their gorgeous 3D designed artwork.

24- Notes for Little Composers

Starting music lessons is so exciting but for many children, that excitement ends when more and more notes need to be memorized which is not easy to do.

Remix your life with MadPad! Turn everyday sights and sounds like your car, an empty soda can, or your friends into the ultimate percussive instrument. Who would have thought everyday life could be so musical?

26- Everyday Looper

Everyday Looper allows you to record 4 musical phrases - 6 on an iPad - and loop them right away. You can then mix and merge them on the fly.

27- Guitar Lab

TrueFire's Guitar Lab app streams video guitar lessons with text, standard notation and guitar tab to your iPhone, iPad or Ipod Touch.

28- Improvox

ImproVox is a new vocal instrument. Real-time pitch correction and harmonization enable you to create lush harmonies as you sing - and always sound in tune! Add vibrant textures with effects like reverb, echo, and flanger, record your performance and share it with friends.

29- Tab Toolkit

If you play guitar, bass, drums, or keyboards, TabToolkit is the best way to learn and jam along with your favorite songs! TabToolkit gives you 3 ways to get great music: buy instantly in the Tab Store, upload from your PC, or search online.

With this program you can compose music anywhere. On any device. It also available (for FREE!) for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Maemo, PalmOS, Android, and other system.

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February, 2014 I just noticed that it has been a year since my last list of iPad apps for teaching music. Several new interesting music apps have seen the light since then and therefore I decided to create another more comprehensive list of some of the best iPad apps for teaching music to give music teachers more options to choose from.

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I have been searching high and low for an efficient, easy-to-understand list of criteria for evaluating hardware, software, tools, and everything in between. Most online articles that I found focus on selling things, or are incredibly vague or incomplete so I decided to do some brainstorming based on what I have found in my own practice speaking to students, teachers, specialists, and researching online. Here's what I came up with.

TechPudding's checklist for evaluating technology:

Always put learning first. What is it that you want your students to learn, examine, discuss, think about, use as assistive technology, and research? it is useful to create a list of what you want to do first so that you don't forget anything or get distracted by extra bells and whistles. How does the technology help to accomplish your learning goals? There are so many options for applications, software, and hardware out there that you will definitely be able to find a tool for every learning opportunity.

Higher order thinking skills. Does the tool support you and your student's engagement in higher-order thinking? Andrew Churches' Educational-Origami wiki provides a look at Bloom's Taxonomy (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation) and Bloom's Digital Taxonomy (remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, creating).

Does it follow universal design for learning (UDL) principles? Meaning, does it allow for: 1) multiple means of representation, 2) multiple means of expression, and 3) multiple means of engagement? UDL principles are becoming more and more important as we move toward personalized, real-world learning and away from teachers as conduits of knowledge that use limited modes of teaching and delivery.

How about usability? Is it user-friendly? Is it easy to learn for everyone who will need to learn it, including teachers, administrators, students, and parents? What kinds of training and support are necessary? How long does it take to get comfortable with it? One way in which you can "try before you buy" is by downloading a trial of a prospective application or service. It is useful to have people of varying comfort with technology try it out, and for students to try and evaluate it.

How much does it cost? What can you, your students, and your institution afford to spend on training, maintenence, upgrades, and the like?

Word-of-mouth. Researching online user discussion boards and asking specialists for recommendations can be very useful. But also be careful about word-of-mouth. I find that people often recommend anything that is new, just to sound like they are on top of the trends (or they try to sell you products and services).

Reliability and support. How much support is required? Are there frequent updates that need to be installed? Does it break down easily? You can find information about this from real users on discussion boards.

Flexibility. This refers to how the software is used, what it can produce, how much it can expand with increased use and access, and how it might expand to offer more services in the future. For instance, utilizing Google Apps may offer incredible options in the future as its services and access points expand.

Evaluation and monitoring tools. Does the technology come with tools for you to monitor how you and your students are using it? Does it come with tools for you to evaluate your students' learning? If these tools are built-in to the application, it can be a huge bonus for both teachers and students.

Security and privacy. How does this technology protect information and privacy of its users? Who has access to what is shared and how is it shared?

User interface. The more I use different tools, the more this has become a deal-breaker for me. When user interfaces are cluttered, illogically laid out, or overly complicated, they immediately turn me off. Information and commands should be laid out with the most-used ones easily accessible. There should be no more than 3 mouse clicks to access any option or command, and vocabulary should be readily accessible to new users. Again, UDL principles dictate that software and apps should offer visual, audio, text, and other forms of support, not just one. Furthermore, the user should be able to create their own shortcut keys and commands for exactly what she/he would like to accomplish.

Sharing and communication. We know that collaboration online and sharing with an authentic audience is important to both student learning and teacher collaboration. Therefore, the software should enable sharing either in a secure way to authorized users, or in a public way to all users online. The tool should make it easy to view, share, comment, communicate, evaluate, contribute, and socialize synchronously and asynchronously.

Integration with existing tools. Does this tool support or integrate well with the existing tools that you are currently paying for or using? Can you use it to "fill in the gaps" for existing applications? How can all of the tools that you use collaborate with each other and enable you to do more than you could with them independently?

Don't get attached to one tool. This is the most important thing to remember! There was a time when we all thought that Microsoft Word was the be-all and end-all of word processing tools. But now there are multiple ways to produce, share, collaborate, and contribute to written texts. There will always be new tools-one is released every second, so don't get stuck using only one. Always be on the look-out for recommendations and discussions about the next thing. That way, you will be able to find the best tool for whatever job you are engaged in. You can sign up for online newsletters, blogs, and other services to help stay up to date.

What are your criteria for evaluating technology, applications, software, tools, or hardware for the purposes of learning and teaching? What can you add to this list based on your experiences?

Checklist for Evaluating Tech Tools, Apps, Software, and Hardware

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Checklist for Evaluating Tech Tools, Apps, Software, and Hardware

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I have been searching high and low for an efficient, easy-to-understand list of criteria for evaluating hardware, software, tools, and everything in between. Most online articles that I found focus on selling things, or are incredibly vague or incomplete so I decided to do some brainstorming based on what I have found in my own practice speaking to students, teachers, specialists, and researching online.

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Practice Sight Reading and Sight Singing Exercises Online – Sight Reading Factory®

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SightReadingFactory.com makes practicing the important skill of sight reading quick, easy, effective and fun! This cloud-based service allows you to customize and generate unlimited sight reading examples instantly, on-demand for students of all ages and abilities.

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Introductory and intermediate music theory lessons, exercises, ear trainers, and calculators.

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Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn - any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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The ASSURE model is a natural fit for blended learning environments, as it gives corporate trainers the opportunity to integrate technology into their ILT (Instructor-Led Training) classrooms while still personalize the corporate training experience. In this article, I'll explore the basic principles of the ASSURE model, and I'll offer 6 tips that can help you use the ASSURE model in blended learning strategies.

How To Apply The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning: 6 Tips For eLearning Professionals

While many blended learning approaches may strive to incorporate technology into the ILT environment, at PulseLearning we believe the ASSURE model takes it one step further by catering on the specific needs of the every learner. Rather than offering general tech tools or resources, it focuses on giving each learner the specific technology they require to achieve their personal goals and objectives.

What Is The ASSURE Model?

The ASSURE model gets its name from the following six stages involved in the process:

E: Evaluate and revise the blended learning strategy.
All eLearning strategies are a work in progress, due to the fact that technology and learner needs are always evolving. Thus, the final step in the ASSURE model is to evaluate and revise your blended learning strategy to ensure that it is as beneficial as possible.

6 Tips To Use The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning

1. Conduct surveys and online assessments to research audience.
To focus on the specific needs of your learners, you will first have to know what those needs are. Surveys, focus groups, interviews, andeLearning assessments are all valuable tools that can help you analyze your audience's traits and experience levels. They can also give you a good indication of their learning styles, such as which exercises will appeal to them and how they absorb information.

2. Create custom-tailored objectives.
Aside from the organization-wide objectives and goals that you've created, you should also develop goals that are learner-specific. What learning behaviors do they need to display? What knowledge do they need to know by the end of the blended learning course? Is there a particular task they need to master or skills sets they must build? You must also have a way to test their knowledge and determine if they have actually met their goals and objectives.

3. Choose tech tools that align with common goals.
One of the most common blended learning strategy mistakes is using technology just for the sake of technology, rather than finding the tools that are ideal for the particular audience and training goals. Ideally, you should choose tools that your learners are already familiar with or have a minor learning curve, rather than those that may be difficult to master. For example, if you are developing a group collaboration online assignment that utilizes a project management platform, you must be sure that your learners can actually use the online platform when it's time to work with their peers.

4. Get learners involved.
As is the case with all learning strategies, it is important to get your learners onboard and make sure they are all excited about the process. Start your discussions with thought-provoking questions that prompt them to seek out answers online and expand their knowledge. Create an online community forum where they can go to address concerns, get help from their peers, and stay in touch with their online facilitators. Ask for their feedback so that you can figure out what's working effectively and what may need to be modified as you move forward with your ASSURE blended learning strategy. Get them involved, so that they feel as though they are a vital part of the blended learning experience and that their opinion matters.

The ASSURE model can help you not only blend technology with traditional classroom training, but give your learners the customized experience they need to broaden their horizons. Use this article to integrate technology tools and resources into your blended learning strategy while still catering to the specific needs of your corporate audience.

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6 Tips To Apply The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning - eLearning Industry

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The ASSURE model is a natural fit for blended learning environments, as it gives corporate trainers the opportunity to integrate technology into their ILT (Instructor-Led Training) classrooms while still personalize the corporate training experience. In this article, I'll explore the basic principles of the ASSURE model, and I'll offer 6 tips that can help you use the ASSURE model in blended learning strategies.

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Curriculum

4 Ways Technology Can Make Your Music Lessons Sing

New tech tools that give students control over their music also inspire them to create and innovate.

Integrating technology into the music classroom can be a real challenge. For one thing, students don't have desks, so any device with a keyboard presents a logistical problem. Nevertheless, the potential payoff is big. By introducing virtual instruments and digital composition, teachers are empowering students to innovate in ways that were unimaginable 10 or 20 years ago, and are making their classes more engaging and interactive.

Yet some teachers still teach music courses much the same way they were taught in the 1950s. According to Christopher Russell, director of choirs at Oltman Middle School in St. Paul Park, MN, "Those teachers can be very successful and have very good programs, but they are missing out on tools that could help their students become better musicians." On the other hand, he added, "You can't force it on anyone, and if you do, it ends up being a tremendous failure."

When Oltman Middle School introduced a 1-to-1 iPad program in the fall of 2013, Russell was a step ahead of most teachers in other disciplines. He had already been using iPads in class for three years on a limited basis. "I already had the pedagogy figured out and I knew which apps I was going to use," he said.

Using Tablets Instead of Paper Music
Russell said he believes that the number one use for a tablet is as a substitute for paper music. Having the music in digital format has many benefits, including the fact that students no longer lose their music. "Talk to any music or band teacher, and they will tell you that is a huge issue," he said. With the music in digital format, students can access apps to annotate their scores. Russell can send students audio recordings that they can play along with as they practice. His students can use a music-writing app such as Notion to make their own practice tracks and compose their own songs. "That is a complete redefinition of what you do with students," he said. "It was inconceivable before they had these devices."

Russell said he is also excited about a relatively new app called NotateMe, which allows him to write musical notation and convert it to digital notation. The app also allows you to take a picture of a score and convert it to digital music. This means that music teachers can now scan music without expensive software and scanning equipment, he said. "I have used the app with students to compose music and also to dictate what they hear," he explained. "The free version allows a student to scan a single line. That might allow band and orchestra students, who get music with one part, to scan their music and edit it, either to hear what it should sound like, or perhaps to create their own music based on their own part."

You can see more great feature articles in the latest issue of our monthly digital edition.

Although he knew what he wanted to do with students, Russell admitted that there have been challenges with the 1-to-1 iPad program. Last year, the biggest issue with sixth-graders was students getting distracted by playing games such as Minecraft. "There is no teacher that can always be as exciting as Minecraft," he said, "so at some point, kids are tempted to make bad decisions. The tools we have to deal with that are getting better. Apple has done a lot at the back end to fix those problems, and so have the mobile device management companies. Ours is Casper, and it allows you to lock students into a specific app."

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4 Ways Technology Can Make Your Music Lessons Sing -- THE Journal

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Curriculum New tech tools that give students control over their music also inspire them to create and innovate. Integrating technology into the music classroom can be a real challenge. For one thing, students don't have desks, so any device with a keyboard presents a logistical problem. Nevertheless, the potential payoff is big.

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Here's a startling statistic: 40% of high school students are chronically disengaged in school. There are enough reasons to go around, and I'd agree that many of them are outside of a teacher's direct control. But some of them aren't. As we pursue a set of skills, I have a great deal of control over how that happens in my classroom, so going into this school year I asked myself:

How can student-interest and inquiry drive the learning?

How can my teaching be more responsive to student needs?

How do I help students realize their own agency and ability to effect change?

Out of these questions came my Getting Better Together project focused on pursuing personalized learning and customized instruction.

These are big questions. They required me and my students to think very differently about our class. And it took me most of the first quarter to even conceive of the structural foundation for the unit, find my legs, and start the journey toward a workshop model. Luckily, Teaching Channel was able to come in and capture us in the process of learning together.

The following videos capture our efforts toward a more personal learning experience:

Structuring Personal Learning: A Day in the Workshop

One of the first days of our workshop model is captured in Making Learning Personalized and Customized. You'll see me open with a mini-lesson on analyzing informational text, then students scatter into learning centers based on their choice. One group of students conducts an interview over Skype. I've pulled others aside to work on skill deficits in their writing. Some apply the mini-lesson on analysis to an article for their research. And one group brainstorms questions for an upcoming interview. You'll see how I've tried to let student inquiry and choice lead, and how I've worked to provide blended support to the students at other stations while focusing my attention on targeted instruction to a small group.

Ultimately, I take stock in my work at getting better together: how I got to this place by witnessing and being inspired by the amazing work of classroom teachers from around the country as National Teacher of the Year last year, and what I learned about my practice after seeing how my students responded to this workshop model.

Customizing Feedback and Instruction

Helping students become better writers can feel like a Herculean task. For students, it's complex, highly variable (in terms of purpose, audience, context, etc.), and requires risk and vulnerability. For the teacher, it eats time like a certain blue monster eats cookies. Balancing student emotions, efficiency, and effectiveness in giving feedback on writing has been a great challenge for me. In Making Feedback Meaningful, you'll see the various ways I work to grow students as writers, while trying to achieve this balance.

Courageous Conversations to Improve Instruction

In Getting Better Through Authentic Feedback, leaders from two classes come together to share with me feedback from their peers about instruction, culture, and learning in our classes. I was certainly nervous about inviting students to share my short-comings as a teacher, on video, with the world. But, this practice is worth sharing because the insight that students can provide us is priceless. Only they know what it's like to be a learner in our classrooms and only they experience the instruction day-in and day-out. And the focus group allows for conversation, clarification, and creative problem solving in a way that surveys and individual conversations simply cannot. I learned so much of value and walked away from the session with solutions I could not have come up with alone.

Your Turn: Analyze and Apply

At Tch Video Lounge, you can watch about eight minutes of unedited footage of me managing the small group instruction in Bridging Learning Gaps Through Small Groups. This is a great opportunity to analyze a chunk of the lesson and think about your own practice. You'll be prompted with questions to think about how you might handle something differently or apply certain choices to your own classroom in a way that works for your context. You'll also be able to see how others answered the prompts to learn from the community!

Lessons Learned

Since the Tch crew visited, we've completed the unit this workshop model was built to support. I've discovered so many positives from personalizing the learning, and the students have created some incredible products (which will be the subject of an upcoming post).

Particularly, I learned that students need to be coached on using models effectively, but a good one can clear the weeds of uncertainty. I noticed remarkable gains in writing proficiency across blog posts for most students, likely due to targeted and flexible feedback. Most importantly, my instinct that putting in the work to create curiosity-driven learning would result in authentic engagement and students taking action has been substantiated.

My next steps are to reform the workshop from research on issues of justice, to literature and inquiry questions on identity. I hope you'll join me on that journey (more soon)!
This work was made possible through support by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Sean McComb teaches students English at Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts in the Baltimore County Public Schools System. Sean also supports the development of teaching and learning for Baltimore County's STAT Initiative. He is affiliated with the Maryland Writing Project, NCTE, Learning Forward, and ISTE. Sean is the 2014 National Teacher of the Year and a Teaching Channel Laureate. Connect with him on Twitter: @Mr_McComb.

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Here's a startling statistic: 40% of high school students are chronically disengaged in school. There are enough reasons to go around, and I'd agree that many of them are outside of a teacher's direct control. But some of them aren't.

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Project-based music is a way for students to personalize their learning, take ownership, use relevant technology, build upon and acquire new skills, and showcase their understanding to key learning outcomes-and yes, solve a real world "problem." As with other types of personalized classrooms, project-based environments focus on learner outcomes and 21st century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication.

This type of democratic learning environment has students learning by doing and by allowing all to explore individual interests and passions, learners are more motivated and excited about school. Finally, this real world context has a direct connection to our students' lives outside of school.

The heart of project-based music is personalized learning. This student-centered environment places each student in control of their learning outcomes, the resources they use, and the ways in which newly acquired skills or mastered content will be showcased. A few takeaways about personalized learning and project-based learning are:

Learner becomes more responsible for their learning

Connects with learner interests, passions, and talents

Makes learning relevant to each individual student

Inquiry based education

Acquire skills to select and use appropriate technology

Makes use of various 1:1 technologies

Goes beyond differentiation and individualization

Projects in which students take control of their learning can be started with any grade level and are perfect for the music classroom. There is no one size fits all first step so . . . start small, design a single project for your students, and center it around your learner outcomes. Don't forget to make it relevant. As you get started with your first project be sure to plan formative steps that build off one another, provide students with an assessment rubric or work with individuals/groups to create their own, include an opportunity to reflect, and create opportunities for students to share (present) their projects.

You may also find it useful to create overall objectives for each project that include a project template and general guidelines. These guidelines set up the project and helps students who are not yet comfortable designing their own learning objectives.
Music Composition

Create a remix of a favorite song

Arrange pre-made loops to create new music

Video Game / Movie trailer Soundtrack

Create a cover song

Live audio composition using recorded (found) sounds

Create a Soundscape

Instructional Videos
Students work in small groups and showcase understandings of skills, concepts, or topics and create an instructional "how to" video that highlights the process and the product. These videos serve as a recourse to other students.
Graphic Novels / Comic Books
Similar to a how-to video, having students create their own instructional guide can personalize, strengthen, and showcase their own understanding while providing a resource for other students to use in the future. There are numerous graphic novel / comic book creator apps and websites available that go beyond creating a word processing document.
Student Newsletters
Students create a newsletter for their parents and the school community that highlights what is going on in music class and explains the process behind some of the skills based products (like performance). Apples Pages, Microsoft Word, and Google Docs have built in newsletter templates as a starting point for students.
Independent Musical Focus
Students independently explore one of the many facets of music. This provides students the opportunity (and the time) to further explore and investigate an area of musical interest ranging from music history to the intersection of physics and music. Students create their own learning outcomes, how they will showcase understanding, and identify what resources they may need.

By placing students at the center of their own learning, music educators can really tap into the individual interests and passions. Personalized learning through project-based music increases motivation, learner outcomes, and improves a student's outlook on education (school). In this inquiry-based learning environment, students learn by doing and develop 21st century skills such as communication, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. All of these are perfect for the music classroom.

Some final thoughts on how to get started using project-based music to help personalize student learning.

Start small: use current learning outcomes as a guide

Scaffold activities and build formative steps

Provide valuable, timely feedback

Let students drive: FACILITATE (guide on the side)

Allow students to create HOW they will showcase learning

Provide time for all to share the projects

Bray, B., & McClaskey, K. (2014). Make learning personal: The what, who, wow, where, and why. Newbury Park, CA.

Horn, M., & Staker, H. (2014). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

McDonald, T. (2011). Unsustainable a strategy for making public schooling more productive, effective, and affordable. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Schwahn, C., & McGarvey, B. (2011). Inevitable: Mass customized learning - learning in the age of empowerment. Lexington, KY: Chuck Schwahn & Bea McGarvey.

Why Project-based Learning (PBL)? (2015). Retrieved from http://www.bie.org
About the Author Michael Hayden is a music educator from Milwaukee, WI. He teaches 6-12 grade orchestra, digital music production, and rock band for Whitnall Middle/High School, which launched 1:1 iPad programs in 2013. Hayden is passionate about music and technology, especially the new and relevant ways students can create meaningful and unique music compositions using a variety of recording/sequencing hardware and software that are readily available. Additionally, Mike is a frequent presenter at various state and national education conferences-including this year's National In-Service Conference-in the areas of music technology, secondary general music, composition, technology integration, and personalized learning. Finally, Mike is an instructional technology specialist, serving on various pilot and training teams for his school distric t.
Website: www.michaeldhayden.com

Twitter @Hayden__Michael

Email: michayden@gmail.com
Did this blog spur new ideas for your music program? Share them on Amplify! Interested in reprinting this article? Please review the reprint guidelines. The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) provides a number of forums for the sharing of information and opinion, including blogs and postings on our website, articles and columns in our magazines and journals, and postings to our Amplify member portal. Unless specifically noted, the views expressed in these media do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Association, its officers, or its employees.

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Personalized Learning through Project-Based Music - NAfME

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Project-based music is a way for students to personalize their learning, take ownership, use relevant technology, build upon and acquire new skills, and showcase their understanding to key learning outcomes-and yes, solve a real world "problem." As with other types of personalized classrooms, project-based environments focus on learner outcomes and 21st century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication.

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Kid President's Pep Talk to Teachers and Students!

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ONE OF the biggest challenges to traditional music learning is the need for practice. Students must play scales, chords and patterns over and over in hopes of developing muscle memory; for many, it is a daunting and tedious task. Research has shown that individual practice is often not productive because learners receive limited feedback and too often lose interest and motivation.

In 2013, researchers at the University of Auckland set out to determine whether an immersive, augmented-reality (AR) experience could improve the efficiency of learning of seven beginner piano students. Using goggles (AR combines what the viewer sees in the real world with images projected by the AR device) and a computer-connected keyboard, the programme drew inspiration from music and rhythm games and karaoke videos, where text and music are synchronised using visual cues. Green lines representing virtual notes appeared alongside the musical score as the user played. In "Note Learning Mode", individual notes paused and waited for the user to press the key before continuing.

Not all users loved the system-some said it was confusing or intimidating-but they could set individual goals for improvement, and the game-like nature of the system encouraged participants to compete with each other to get higher scores. All agreed it was helpful at this early stage of learning.

Last May Samanta Shi and Sean Kelly, two students at New York University's campus in Shanghai, won an award at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon for developing a music-learning platform called Teach-U: VR (Virtual Reality). Using a Google Cardboard VR device combined with an infrared sensor, users can "play" virtual instruments. Music teachers or bandmates can join the same virtual space via Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for costly instruction and making music learning more interactive and less solitary. The interface was rudimentary, but Ms Shi argues that it remains "much cheaper than an instructor and a piano".

These cutting-edge devices have not hit the market, but learners still have plenty of options. Ubiquitous tools like YouTube, eBooks, digital sheet music and digital flashcards are becoming staples of music-learning. AR tablet and smartphone apps allow learners to visualise note names, scales and chord patterns on piano keys and guitar frets. Rather than refer to PDFs or standard text, music learners can tap on portions of virtual, 3D models of mixing consoles on a tablet and see specific details about various sound changes as they happen.

Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, an award-winning New Orleans trumpeter, makes it possible for fledgling musicians to play along with tracks via his Stretch Music mobile phone app; he is now developing a VR component that will enable them to play along with him onstage and experience his reactions to what they play in real-time. "How cool would it have been if, you know, if in 1958, 1959, when, you know, Miles' band was recording 'Round About Midnight' or 'Kind of Blue', and if you could take the trumpet out and play the record as Miles Davis?" Mr Scott says in a behind-the-scenes interview for the app. "What would music sound like today if you actually had the resources to be able to do that?"

Talking at a "Learning and Teaching Music in the Digital Era" discussion at SXSW, Marty Schwartz, a guitarist, said that the immersive experience offered by the "Guitar Hero" music rhythm games in the early 2000s was an "explosive" turning point for interest in guitar music. Social media, tablets and mobile phones and apps such as Mr Scott's have since opened the floodgates. Mr Schwartz now offers more than 1,500 video music lessons online, along with downloadable "jam tracks" for students to play along to, and personal lesson tracking.

"I used to just teach based on memory, but found I was often wrong about what was actually being played. Slowing down a digital track and looping portions of it fixed that," Mr Schwartz says. "We're in an instant-gratification world now. Internet learning is great for the casual learner, and that's who I cater to. I've helped casual learners get into music schools."

Big publishers are being forced to adapt. Hal Leonard used to distribute sheet music and recordings to school music programmes on vinyl and then CDs: it now uses download cards, online play-along tracks and YouTube, which makes the music more shareable and more compatible with the digital natives learning to play instruments for the first time. "Students are now on YouTube asking their band and choir directors for sheet music for songs they are excited about," said Jeff Schroedl, Hal Leonard's executive vice president, who sat on the panel with Mr Schwartz. "A C-chord is still a C-chord, but the music delivery methods have changed dramatically."

To be sure, some aspects of music learning have remained the same, despite the vast technological shifts. According to Mr Schroedl, copies of "fake books"-collections of basic sheet music for common pop or jazz tunes-sold more in 2016 than ever before. "Hit songs drive the market more than all the bells and whistles," he says. "'Hamilton', 'Frozen', 'Titanic', 'La La Land', Metallica's Black Album. Those drive people. Songwriters are the key."

Fake books may still be selling, but novice musicians don't need them. Experiential, digital approaches to music learning are becoming more ubiquitous: countless free music performance videos and free video tutorials-not just music playing, but related themes like conquering performance anxiety-are available online. It could be enough to render any book of scales or songs unnecessary.

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Digital music tools are reshaping music education

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ONE OF the biggest challenges to traditional music learning is the need for practice. Students must play scales, chords and patterns over and over in hopes of developing muscle memory; for many, it is a daunting and tedious task. Research has shown that individual practice is often not productive because learners receive limited feedback and too often lose interest and motivation.

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by TeachThought Staff

The best lessons, books, and materials in the world won't get students excited about learning and willing to work hard if they're not motivated.

Motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, is a key factor in the success of students at all stages of their education, and teachers can play a pivotal role in providing and encouraging that motivation in their students. Of course that's much easier said than done, as all students are motivated differently and it takes time and a lot of effort to learn to get a classroom full of kids enthusiastic about learning, working hard, and pushing themselves to excel.

Even the most well-intentioned and educated teachers sometimes lack the skills to keep kids on track, so whether you're a new teacher or an experienced one, try using these methods to motivate your students and to encourage them to live up to their true potential.
21 Simple Ideas To Improve Student Motivation
1. Give students a sense of control.

While guidance from a teacher is important to keeping kids on task and motivated, allowing students to have some choice and control over what happens in the classroom is actually one of the best ways to keep them engaged. For example, allowing students to choose the type of assignment they do or which problems to work on can give them a sense of control that may just motivate them to do more.

2. Define the objectives.
It can be very frustrating for students to complete an assignment or even to behave in class if there aren't clearly defined objectives. Students want and need to know what is expected of them in order to stay motivated to work. At the beginning of the year, lay out clear objectives, rules, and expectations of students so that there is no confusion and students have goals to work towards.

3. Create a threat-free environment.
While students do need to understand that there are consequences to their actions, far more motivating for students than threats are positive reinforcements. When teachers create a safe, supportive environment for students, affirming their belief in a student's abilities rather than laying out the consequences of not doing things, students are much more likely to get and stay motivated to do their work. At the end of the day, students will fulfill the expectations that the adults around them communicate, so focus on can, not can't.

4. Change your scenery.
A classroom is a great place for learning, but sitting at a desk day in and day out can make school start to seem a bit dull for some students. To renew interest in the subject matter or just in learning in general, give your students a chance to get out of the classroom. Take field trips, bring in speakers, or even just head to the library for some research. The brain loves novelty and a new setting can be just what some students need to stay motivated to learn.

5. Offer varied experiences.

Not all students will respond to lessons in the same way. For some, hands-on experiences may be the best. Others may love to read books quietly or to work in groups. In order to keep all students motivated, mix up your lessons so that students with different preferences will each get time focused on the things they like best. Doing so will help students stay engaged and pay attention.

6. Use positive competition.
Competition in the classroom isn't always a bad thing, and in some cases can motivate students to try harder and work to excel. Work to foster a friendly spirit of competition in your classroom, perhaps through group games related to the material or other opportunities for students to show off their knowledge.

7. Offer rewards.
Everyone likes getting rewards, and offering your students the chance to earn them is an excellent source of motivation. Things like pizza parties, watching movies, or even something as simple as a sticker on a paper can make students work harder and really aim to achieve. Consider the personalities and needs of your students to determine appropriate rewards for your class.

8. Give students responsibility.
Assigning students classroom jobs is a great way to build a community and to give students a sense of motivation. Most students will see classroom jobs as a privilege rather than a burden and will work hard to ensure that they, and other students, are meeting expectations. It can also be useful to allow students to take turns leading activities or helping out so that each feels important and valued.

9. Allow students to work together.
While not all students will jump at the chance to work in groups, many will find it fun to try to solve problems, do experiments, and work on projects with other students. The social interaction can get them excited about things in the classroom and students can motivate one another to reach a goal. Teachers need to ensure that groups are balanced and fair, however, so that some students aren't doing more work than others.

10. Give praise when earned.
There is no other form of motivation that works quite as well as encouragement. Even as adults we crave recognition and praise, and students at any age are no exception. Teachers can give students a bounty of motivation by rewarding success publicly, giving praise for a job well done, and sharing exemplary work.

11. Encourage self-reflection.
Most kids want to succeed, they just need help figuring out what they need to do in order to get there. One way to motivate your students is to get them to take a hard look at themselves and determine their own strengths and weaknesses. Students are often much more motivated by creating these kinds of critiques of themselves than by having a teacher do it for them, as it makes them feel in charge of creating their own objectives and goals.

12. Be excited.
One of the best ways to get your students motivated is to share your enthusiasm. When you're excited about teaching, they'll be much more excited about learning. It's that simple.

13. Know your students.
Getting to know your students is about more than just memorizing their names. Students need to know that their teacher has a genuine interest in them and cares about them and their success. When students feel appreciated it creates a safe learning environment and motivates them to work harder, as they want to get praise and good feedback from someone they feel knows and respects them as individuals.

14. Harness student interests.
Knowing your students also has some other benefits, namely that it allows you to relate classroom material to things that students are interested in or have experienced. Teachers can use these interests to make things more interesting and relatable to students, keeping students motivated for longer.

15. Help students find intrinsic motivation.
It can be great to help students get motivated, but at the end of the day they need to be able to generate their own motivation. Helping students find their own personal reasons for doing class work and working hard, whether because they find material interesting, want to go to college, or just love to learn, is one of the most powerful gifts you can give them.

16. Manage student anxiety.
Some students find the prospect of not doing well so anxiety-inducing that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. For these students, teachers may find that they are most motivated by learning that struggling with a subject isn't the end of the world. Offer support no matter what the end result is and ensure that students don't feel so overwhelmed by expectations that they just give up.

17. Make goals high but attainable.
If you're not pushing your students to do more than the bare minimum, most won't seek to push themselves on their own. Students like to be challenged and will work to achieve high expectations so long as they believe those goals to be within their reach, so don't be afraid to push students to get more out of them.

18. Give feedback and offer chances to improve.
Students who struggle with class work can sometimes feel frustrated and get down on themselves, draining motivation. In these situations it's critical that teachers help students to learn exactly where they went wrong and how they can improve next time. Figuring out a method to get where students want to be can also help them to stay motivated to work hard.

19. Track progress.
It can be hard for students to see just how far they've come, especially with subjects that are difficult for them. Tracking can come in handy in the classroom, not only for teachers but also for students. Teachers can use this as a way to motivate students, allowing them to see visually just how much they are learning and improving as the year goes on.

20. Make things fun.
Not all class work needs to be a game or a good time, but students who see school as a place where they can have fun will be more motivated to pay attention and do the work that's required of them than those who regard it as a chore. Adding fun activities into your school day can help students who struggle to stay engaged and make the classroom a much more friendly place for all students.

21. Provide opportunities for success.
Students, even the best ones, can become frustrated and demotivated when they feel like they're struggling or not getting the recognition that other students are. Make sure that all students get a chance to play to their strengths and feel included and valued. It can make a world of difference in their motivation.
This is a cross-post from onlinecollegecourses.com

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21 Simple Ideas To Improve Student Motivation

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by TeachThought Staff The best lessons, books, and materials in the world won't get students excited about learning and willing to work hard if they're not motivated. Motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, is a key factor in the success of students at all stages of their education, and teachers can play a pivotal role in providing and encouraging that motivation in their students.

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© Marco Antonio Torres/Digital Promise
Why are students motivated to learn and reach goals?

Introduction

Motivation stimulates, guides, and sustains learning. It is an important building block of self-regulated learning, the set of attitudes and mental processes that allow a person to steer their own learning.[i] Self-regulated learning involves the action of learning itself, as well as the metacognitive processes that help learners plan what and how to learn, and evaluate the outcomes of their learning.[ii] Motivation is also closely connected to self-efficacy, a person's belief in their ability to accomplish a task.[iii]

Motivation,[iv] self-efficacy,[v] and self-regulated learning [vi] have all been linked to academic achievement.

The sections below highlight key findings from the research on fostering student motivation and learning mindsets.

Key Findings

Fostering Student Motivation

Opportunities for autonomy increase motivation and self-regulated learning.[vii]

Opportunities for autonomy increase motivation and self-regulated learning.[vii] Because of its connection to intrinsic motivation and mastery goals, student autonomy can help build motivation and self-regulated learning skills.[viii] Giving students choice, such as what work to prioritize during open study time or the option to pick a novel to read for an assignment, fosters a sense of control and self-driven learning. Educators can support students' autonomy and self-regulation by guiding them in establishing and making progress toward project goals.[ix] They can use scaffolding methods, such as sample assignments or curriculum maps, to provide students with structure and support while encouraging them to progress toward more independent learning.[x]

Feedback is more effective when geared toward the learning process, not the student as a person.

Praise can enhance motivation when it is sincere, specific, and encourages autonomy and self-efficacy.[xi] Process praise focuses on the strategies and effort involved in learning effectively. It helps students understand that their learning successes and failures are shaped by the choices they make - rather than who they are. This type of feedback is more effective than person praise, which focuses on the individual, such as calling someone "smart" or a "good student."[xii] Person praise leads children to see intelligence as fixed, rather than something they can work on improving (a growth mindset), and can undermine self-worth, self-efficacy, and diligence in completing tasks.[xiii]

Reducing the threat of negative stereotypes can improve performance.

When students are afraid of fulfilling a negative stereotype about the academic performance of their race, gender, or other group, their fear can prevent them from performing to the best of their ability, even if they do not believe the stereotype. Studies show that African Americans in a variety of academic contexts,and even white men when told that they were being compared on a math test to Asian men. Some studies have found that educators can reduce stereotype threat prior to high-stakes activities by having students write self-affirmations, reflecting on their strengths and personal values, which may help them focus on their capabilities and preparedness for the task at hand.However, other studies in schools with a higher proportion of non-white students did not replicate these findings.[xiv] stereotype threat can affect the performance of women in math and science,[xiv] [xvi] [xvii] [xviii]
An intervention that has been found to be effective involves asking students to provide demographic information after a task is complete in order to avoid priming them to think about race or gender.[xix] [xv]

Motivation and Learning Mindsets

Student motivation may be oriented internally or externally.

Intrinsic motivation is internally focused and is fueled by the inherent satisfaction one feels from completing a task or mastering a skill, while extrinsic motivation is often driven by external rewards and consequences.[xx] These two forms of motivation are not mutually exclusive. For example, identified regulation involves the conscious acceptance of a behavior as leading to personally-valued outcomes (eg. a student studying math late into the night even though she doesn't want to because she hopes to become an engineer someday), and introjected regulation involves self-imposing rules in order to avoid guilt or to maintain self-esteem (eg. a student studying math because she wants people to keep thinking she is good at math).[xx] Intrinsic motivation is high during early childhood can decline over the course of schooling as the focus often shifts from play and exploration to extrinsic rewards and punishments.[xx] Some studies show that schools and online learning programs that focus on intrinsic satisfaction, rather than external rewards and performance goals, produce higher student motivation and engagement.[xxi]

Students are more likely to succeed when they view intelligence as something that can be developed through learning.

Some students view intelligence as a static and unchangeable entity (what is known as a fixed mindset), while others have an incremental theory of intelligence as something that can be developed through learning (known as a growth mindset).[xxii] These learning mindsets impact the academic achievement and motivation of students of all ages, including outcomes as diverse as students' choice of course difficulty, their grades, their emotions about school and themselves, and their resilience in the face of challenges.[xxiii] Building growth mindsets by targeting students' beliefs about learning, and changing how they interpret obstacles to their success, can increase academic achievement.[xxiv] There are a number of psychological interventions to achieve this, including activities as simple as teaching students about the brain's ability to grow as it learns new information.[xxv]

Students do better when the focus is on mastering material rather than achieving performance goals.

According to goal orientation theory, there are two types of goals that drive motivation. Mastery goals focus on learning new material and skills, while performance goals focus on achieving tangible outcomes such as grades or awards. Research has found that when students set mastery goals, as opposed to performance goals, they have better learning outcomes and are more likely to develop self-regulated learning skills and positive classroom behaviors.[xxvi] This research suggests that performance goals may be less effective because students are drawn to compare themselves to others and to focus on avoiding failure as much as aiming for success.[xxvi]

Subtopics

Character & Morality Education
The Character & Morality Education subtopic explores research on the inclusion of philosophy, morality, virtue and related topics in education for students.

Language Learning & Motivation
The Language Learning & Motivation subtopic includes research on how and why students are motivated to learn a second language, including studies on instructional approaches for motivating language learners.

Explore this topic in theNetwork View or Chord View of the Research Map.
[i] Zimmerman, B. J. (2008). [ii] Zimmerman, B. J. (2008). Zimmerman, B. J., Bandura, A., & Martinez-Pons, M. (1992). [iii] Bandura, A. (1994). [iv] Broussard, S. C., & Garrison, M. E. B. (2004). Mega, C., Ronconi, L., & De Beni, R. (2014). [v] Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). [vi] Zimmerman, B.J. (1990). Zimmerman, Barry J., and Dale H. Schunk. [vii] Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). [xxi] Abramovich, S., Schunn, C., & Higashi, R. M. (2013). , 61, 217-232.[xxvi] Kaplan, A., & Maehr, M. L. (2007).
Investigating self-regulation and motivation: Historical background, methodological developments, and future prospects. American Educational Research Journal, 45(1), 166-183. Investigating self-regulation and motivation: Historical background, methodological developments, and future prospects. American Educational Research Journal, 45(1), 166-183. Self-motivation for academic attainment: The role of self-efficacy beliefs and personal goal setting. American educational research journal, 29(3), 663-676. Self‐efficacy. John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
The relationship between classroom motivation and academic achievement in elementary school-aged children. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 33(2), 106-120.
Academic motivation and achievement among urban adolescents [Article]. Long JF, Monoi S, Harper B, Knoblauch D, Murphy PK in URBAN EDUC (2007). What makes a good student? How emotions, self-regulated learning, and motivation contribute to academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106(1), 121.
Does Math Self-Efficacy Mediate the Effect of the Perceived Classroom Environment on Standardized Math Test Performance? [Article] [13 different authors] in J EDUC PSYCHOL (2010) Self-efficacy: An essential motive to learn. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), 82-91. Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: An overview. Educational Psychologist, 25, 3-17. "Self-regulated learning and performance." Handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance (2011): 1-12. Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in... [Article] Blair C, Razza RP, CHILD DEV (2007), Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory into Practice, 41(2), 64-70. Adolescents' declining motivation to learn science: A follow-up study [Review] Vedder-Weiss D, Fortus D in J RES SCI TEACH (2012). Buffering against performance classroom goal structures: The importance of autonomy support and classroom community [Review] Ciani KD, Middleton MJ, Summers JJ, Sheldon KM in
Are badges useful in education?: it depends upon the type of badge and expertise of learner.
[viii] Ciani KD, Middleton MJ, Summers JJ, Sheldon KM (2010).
[xxii] Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). The contributions and prospects of goal orientation theory. Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302-314.
[xxiii]Romero et al., 2014. Yeager & Dweck, 2012.
[xxiv] Paunesku, D., Walton, G. M., Romero, C., Smith, E. N., Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2015). Mind-set interventions are a scalable treatment for academic underachievement. Psychological Science, doi: 0956797615571017.
[xxv] Paunesku et al., 2015. Yeager & Dweck, 2012.
Buffering against performance classroom goal structures: The importance of autonomy support and classroom community [Review] , CONTEMP EDUC PSYCHOL.
[ix] O'Neill, J. (2000). SMART goals, SMART schools. Educational Leadership, 57(5), 46-50.
[x] A Framework for Designing Scaffolds That Improve Motivation and Cognition [Article] Belland BR, Kim C, Hannafin MJ, EDUC PSYCHOL-US (2013).
[xi] Henderlong, J., & Lepper, M. R. (2002). The effects of praise on children's intrinsic motivation: A review and synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 128(5), 774-795.
[xii] Henderlong Corpus, J., & Lepper, M. R. (2007). T he effects of person versus performance praise on children's motivation: Gender and age as moderating factors. Educational psychology, 27(4), 487-508.
[xiii] Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
Kamins, M. L., & Dweck, C. S. (1999). Person versus process praise and criticism: implications for contingent self-worth and coping. Developmental psychology, 35(3), 835.
[xiv] Steele, C. M. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52(6): 613-629.
[xv] Spencer, S. J., Steele, C. M., & Quinn, D. M. (1999). Stereotype threat and women's math performance. Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, 35: 4-28.
[xvi] Aronson, J., Lustina, M. J., Good, C., Keough, K., Steele, C. M., & Brown, J. (1999). When White Men Can't Do Math: Necessary and Sufficient Factors in Stereotype Threat.
Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, 35: 29-46.
[xvii] Thoman, D. B., Smith, J. L., Brown, E. R., Chase, J., & Lee, J. Y. K. (2013). Beyond performance: A motivational experiences model of stereotype threat. Educational Psychology Review, 25: 211-243.
Appel, M., & Kronberger, N. (2012). Stereotypes and the achievement gap: Stereotype threat prior to test taking. Educational Psychology Review, 24: 609-635.
[xviii] Bratter, J, Rowley, K. & Chukhray, I. (2016). Does a Self-Affirmation Intervention Reduce Stereotype Threat in Black and Hispanic High Schools? Race and Social Problems. 8(4), 340-356.
[xix] Appel, M., & Kronberger, N. (2012).
[xx] Deci, E. & Ryan, R. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Deﬁnitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology 25, 54-67.

CONTEMP EDUC PSYCHOL Educational Technology Research and Development Educational Psychology Review, 19(2), 141-184.

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Student Motivation - Digital Promise Research Map

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© Marco Antonio Torres/Digital Promise Why are students motivated to learn and reach goals? Motivation stimulates, guides, and sustains learning.

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SAMR iPadagogy Wheel - Music Tech Integrate

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SAMR iPadagogy Wheel - Music Tech Integrate

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A video presentation for a class on Digital Portfolios and technology in the classroom

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Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) and TIM Tools Introduction, 2013 ISTE Presentation

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What does effective technology integration look like? What does it mean? How can it be described in a way that provides guidance to teachers at every experience level? The Technology Integration Matrix provides a framework for defining and evaluating technology integration, sets a clear vision for effective teaching with technology, and gives teachers and administrators a common language for setting goals.

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Today's students have access to plenty of technology-but is it making a difference in teaching and learning?

Most studies suggest that in order for technology to impact student achievement, it needs to be leveraged in ways that transform how students engage with academic material and how teachers shape their classrooms and lessons. But it's not always easy to define what that actually looks like in practice.

In order for a school or district to be able to measure the impact of technology on teaching and learning, teachers and administrators must have a common language to talk about what successful technology integration looks like. Rubrics can help school technology leaders define their goals for technology use in the classroom and evaluate the success of technology initiatives in meeting those goals. The three models of classroom technology integration below, while very different from one another, each can provide a starting point for thinking about how technology is used in the classroom today and what teachers and technology leaders may want to aspire to in the future.

Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition (SAMR)

One of the best-known models for thinking about technology integration in the classroom is the SAMR model. Developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) looks at technology integration from a hierarchical perspective, ranging from simple substitution at the bottom to more transformative uses of technology at the top:

In the Substitution phase, we are simple using digital substitutes to perform the same tasks, with no functional change. For example, you may have students complete an assignment on a PDF and turn it in online.

In Augmentation, students use a digital substitute that includes some functional improvements. In this case, students may use a word processing program with spell check and grammar check to complete an assignment.

Modification involves significant redesign of the task to take advantage of the power of technology. For example, instead of simply completing an individual assignment, students may collaborate to create a shared project using Google Docs, or use media tools to develop podcasts or movies instead of a standard report.

In Redefinition, students use technology to complete new tasks that would not have been possible without the technology. They may use Skype to connect with experts or with other students; use web tools to collect real-time information and data; or develop a wiki project with input from other students across the country or around the world.

SAMR divides these approaches into "above the line" and "below the line" applications, with the assumption that teachers should aspire to moving "above the line" in their use of classroom technology. It's important to note, however, that SAMR doesn't dictate that ALL use of technology must be in the redefinition or modification categories; the task at hand will shape the way technology is used. Sometimes, simply saving time for teachers may be a good enough reason to use technology vs. pencil and paper, even if that technology usage isn't "transformative." Still, SAMR provides a compelling model for thinking about when, how and whether technology should be integrated into classroom tasks and lesson plans.

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Three Ways to Think About Classroom Technology Integration

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Today's students have access to plenty of technology-but is it making a difference in teaching and learning? Three models of classroom technology integration (SAMR, TPACK and TIM) give teachers and administrators some concrete guidance in assessing the use of technology in the classroom.

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Eric Whitacre - Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, 'Sleep'

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5 Technologies That Will Change Classroom Education

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Experience virtual reality on your smartphone with Cardboard.

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This video walks OER Commons users through the Google Classroom integration. After watching this video users will know how to share OER found on OER Commons to their Google Classroom.

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Liberty OER Presentation

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Back in February, an EdWeek Market brief reported that Amazon Education was starting to beta-test a new platform with educators, helping teachers navigate the jungles of open educational resources (or OERs, for short).

Well, that platform- Amazon Inspire -has officially launched today in tandem with the ISTE conference in Denver, Colorado.

A free, mostly-OER platform (see below for why it's "mostly OER"), Amazon Inspire works like a search engine for educational videos, lesson plans and games. Users can search by criteria like topics (say, "fractions" or "the Constitution"), standards, grade level, and time to complete, as shown below; additionally, they can rate materials with 1 to 5 stars.

The resources, covering all grades and subjects, are created by a mix of educators involved in the pilot, Amazon's partner organizations ( the Newseum to EdLeader21), state education departments, and future users of the platform. An upload button in the upper righthand corner lets users contribute resources.

The platform also allows users to organize sets of resources into collections, which Amazon's General Manager of K-12 Education Rohit Argawal believes will support the "ultimate goal of every teacher having collective knowledge and insight." Educators essentially choose resources to group together, describe the collection, and then offer directions for how someone could use the resources.

"Amazon is establishing a foothold that could expand into a one-stop shopping marketplace-not just for paid learning materials, but for schools' wider academic and institutional software needs."

As far as calling itself an OER platform, that is somewhat correct. In support of Amazon's commitment to the U.S. Department of Education #GoOpen campaign, many of the resources uploaded to Inspire are free, remixable, and downloadable, adhering to a definition of "open" that David Wiley explains here. But there's one big caveat: districts can restrict who sees their educators' uploads and/or collections-and in that sense, Inspire does not have 100 percent "open" content, as certain resources will be limited to limited school or district communities.

At the moment, the platform is free but requires an access code. Argawal tells EdSurge that any teachers are welcome to apply by providing Amazon with some basic information. But this isn't just about giving something away for free, as Tory Patterson, co-founder of venture capital fund Owl Ventures, told the New York Times: "Amazon is establishing a foothold that could expand into a one-stop shopping marketplace-not just for paid learning materials, but for schools' wider academic and institutional software needs."

Editor's Note: This article was updated on 6/28 with additional information. Owl Ventures is an investor in EdSurge.

Mary Jo Madda (@MJMadda) is Senior Editor at EdSurge, as well as a former STEM teacher and administrator. In 2016, Mary Jo was named to the Forbes "30 Under 30" list in education.

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Amazon Launches 'Inspire,' a Free Education Resource Search Platform for Educators - EdSurge News

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Back in February, an EdWeek Market brief reported that Amazon Education was starting to beta-test a new platform with educators, helping teachers navigate the jungles of open educational resources (or OERs, for short). Well, that platform- Amazon Inspire -has officially launched today in tandem with the ISTE conference in Denver, Colorado.

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Open Author helps you build and publish Open Educational Resources for you and for the benefit of educators and learners everywhere.

Learn more about creating OER

Groups provides a flexible environment to organize, create, share, and discuss resources with others in your network. Collaborate with group members, tag and add resources to shared folders, create your own collections, all within a public or private group.

Groups

Search through collections curated by our digital librarians

Collections

Common Core resources organized for your needs

Common Core

Hubs

A Custom Resource Center

Projects, districts, states, and initiatives make use of Hubs to bring groups of educators together to create, organize, and share OER collections that meet their common goals. Explore Hubs

Microsites

Custom Digital Libraries

Microsites are custom, flexible sites that include all the features available on OER Commons. Microsites allow your users to search resource collections using a custom taxonomy at a unique URL. Contact Us

Our award-winning OER Professional Learning programs support instructors and curriculum specialists to gain the necessary skills required to find, adapt, and evaluate high quality open materials.

In-person and virtual OER workshops help focus instructors to develop a "commons" mindset, to experience the benefits of open processes using the platform's tools, collaborative features, and workflows. This can include using Open Author for creating, remixing, and publishing shared curriculum.

Learn More

How to Search OER Commons

View all How-to videos

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OER Commons is a dynamic digital library and network. Explore open education resources and join our network of educators dedicated to curriculum improvement.

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Open educational resources (OER) are found in the public domain and can be used for free for teaching, learning, research, and other educational purposes. These materials can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed. These "5R permissions" of OER allow you to not only access the materials and resources free of charge, but also to make them even better. Sounds good, right? But what's really out there, and why should you use these resources?

There are several examples of OER available, including image and audio resources, books in the public domain, video and audio lectures, interactive simulations, game-based learning programs, lesson plans, textbooks, online course curricula, professional learning programs, and online learning platforms.

Why You Should Use OER

OER allow educators to adapt instructional materials to the individual needs of their students. This helps ensure that content and resources are up to date and relevant and fit the unique needs of diverse student populations. Because of publishing timelines, traditional classroom materials like textbooks can often be out of date by the time they're implemented in the classroom. And that doesn't even take into account the curriculum adoption cycles that exist in most districts, which result in content areas updating resources on a two-, three-, or four-year rotation due to budgetary constraints.

OER also guarantee that cost is not a barrier to accessing high-quality, standards-aligned resources. Teachers can save significant time and effort related to resource development through the implementation of OER. Additionally, the open sharing of resources allows educators to collaborate across geographic, time, and space boundaries.

Where to Look

So how do you find free, high-quality resources? When looking for OER, a good place to start is one of the repositories that house a variety of tools for educators. OER Commons was created by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, and you can search a dynamic digital library of over 50,000 high-quality OER. Curriki hosts thousands of educator-vetted, openly licensed, online educational resources and allows for the creation of groups through which students and teachers can collaborate. As a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Defense, the Learning Registry houses over 400,000 open resources for educational use. OpenEd describes itself as the "world's largest educational resource catalog" and has more than 250,000 OER aligned to standards for K-12 educators.

What if you're looking for a resource and are unable to find it in one of the repositories? There are a number of ways you can search the internet to find what you're looking for without having to weed through everything that comes up with a traditional search. One way is to do a Google Advanced Search. In the options, you'll find a field labeled "usage rights." Choosing the option "free to use, share, or modify" will allow you to locate OER. A Creative Commons Search allows you to access services provided by organizations that support OER. As a reminder, you should always verify that the work you find is under a Creative Commons license before you reuse, revise, or redistribute it.

There are also several general sites that house a variety of OER, including MERLOT II, PBS LearningMedia, NCLOR (the North Carolina Learning Object Repository), OpenDOAR (the Directory of Open Access Repositories), and COOL 4 Ed (the California Open Online Library for Education). These sites provide access to tens of thousands of innovative, standards-aligned digital resources, student experiences, simulations, learning modules, assessments, and professional learning resources contributed by community members across the globe.

Consider Sharing Your Creations

As you can see, there are numerous sites that provide high quality OER. Additional sites can be found in this shared Google Sheet of resources. Here you'll find over a hundred sites that share examples of the all of the types of OER discussed above.

Remember, you can remix or repurpose OER. Using previously created resources is generally more efficient than creating your own. Take advantage of the OER that are available and revise them to meet your needs instead of developing them yourself. Imagine how much time you can save by adapting these high-quality materials to your use and then focusing on adding the resources that are missing.

If you can't find OER to adapt to your use, create your own and share them freely with others. When educators continually improve existing OER, share those improvements, and create new OER, everyone benefits.

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Open educational resources (OER) are found in the public domain and can be used for free for teaching, learning, research, and other educational purposes. These materials can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed. These "5R permissions" of OER allow you to not only access the materials and resources free of charge, but also to make them even better.

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10 Emerging Educational Technologies and How They Are Being Used Across the Globe

For over a decade, the New Media Consortium (NMC) has been charting the landscape of emerging technologies in teaching, learning, and creative inquiry on a global scale. The NMC's advisory board includes 750 technology experts and faculty members from colleges and universities in 40 countries, and is supported by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

The NMC's latest research efforts, the NMC Horizon Report: 2013 K-12 Edition and the NMC Horizon Report: 2013 Higher Education Edition, were released this spring, and together highlight ten emerging technologies that will impact education over the course of the next five years: cloud computing, mobile learning, learning analytics, open content, 3D printing, MOOCs, virtual and remote laboratories, games and gamification, tablet computing, and wearable technology.

As an educator, you have probably heard about many of these technologies, if not all of them. But the Horizon Report project pushes the discussion into fresh territory, predicting a timeframe for their implementation into mainstream education and presenting an impressive list of institutions and individuals who are already using them in every discipline imaginable.

Too often it is education's own practices that limit the broader uptake of new technologies. Whether it's insufficient ongoing professional development or the reluctance to accept the need for digital media literacy, significant challenges stand in the way of smooth assimilation.

What the Horizon reports show, however-even more than which technologies are rising to the top- is that smooth assimilation is possible, and that countless educators are making the move creatively and with admirable conviction.

Here is a little inspiration from the people who are doing it right:

1. Cloud Computing (12 Months or Less)

In 2011, cloud computing was listed in the 12-month-or-less category of the report, primarily because of the way it had become an essential part of collaboration in both schools and the workplace. This year, the placement of cloud computing on the near-term horizon for a second time underscores the fact that the impact of this technology continues to unfold in new and expanding ways.

Language: The cloud-based Brazilian Electronic Learning Organizer helps language teachers produce and share digital learning objects and activities for their students. The learning objects are created by the teacher or assembled from a resource repository created by other teachers in the network.

Science: California State University Northridge launched the Computer Supported Collaborative Science initiative to help science teachers in high-need Los Angeles-area schools to engage students in authentic research experiences through the use of cloud-based tools.

Social Studies: Powered by cloud computing, the Global Curriculum Project allows students to participate in a virtual exchange program with school across five different countries. Students select and explore their own topics, including cuisine and ambitions.

2. Mobile Learning (12 Months or Less)

By the end of this year, the mobile market is expected to consist of over 7 billion accounts (equating to about 3.4 billion users, or one in every two people on the planet); mobile traffic on the Internet is expected to surpass desktop traffic; and mobile users will have downloaded 70 billion apps across smartphones and tablets. Educational apps are the second-most downloaded in iTunes of all categories, surpassing both entertainment and business apps in popularity.

Mathematics: Year four students at St. Leonard's College, a primary school in Australia, are using tablets loaded with math apps and e-textbooks to access information, receive instruction, record measurements, and conduct research.

Music: Students at Institut International de Lancy in Switzerland use their tablets to create music in the school's first iPad Orchestra. The iPads have provided opportunities for students with little to no training to create their own music with classmates.

Storytelling: Ringwood North Primary School in Australia participated in "The Epic Citadel Challenge," wherein students and teachers collaborated to write a digital story based on the Epic Citadel environment and turn it into an app accessible via iOS mobile devices.

3. Tablet Computing (12 Months or Less)

It is so easy for students to carry tablets from class to class, using them to seamlessly access textbook and other course material as needed, that schools and universities are rethinking the need for computer labs or even personal laptops. A student's choice of apps makes it easy to build a personalized learning environment, with all the resources and tools they need on a single device. With their growing number of features, tablets give traction to other educational technologies- from facilitating the real-time data mining needed to support learning analytics to offering a plethora of game-based learning apps.

Art: At Plymouth University in the UK, students working toward their Illustration degree are using iPads with an illustration app called Brushes to produce drawings that can be played back as video. This activity is encouraging reflection and discussion on the drawing process and enabling students to contrast techniques and highlight and correct any bad habits.

Science: Students at Redlands College in Australia are using tablets to collect and share data on indigenous rocks; geology majors at the College of Wooster in Ohio are using them to take and annotate photos of Icelandic terrain; and instructors at Yale University are sharing images from their digital microscopes with students' iPads through mobile apps so that they can annotate and capture images for future use.

Journalism: Professor Messner at Virginia Commonwealth University secured iPads for his students so they could create multimedia news stories from happenings on campus and in the surrounding community. The students learned the importance of social media in journalism and found the iPad useful for gathering news and sources.

Special Needs: Vanderbilt University graduate students are designing an Android app that enables visually impaired students to learn math. Using haptic technology integrated into new touchscreen devices, the vibrations and audio feedback help students feel and hear shapes and diagrams.

4. MOOCs (12 Months or Less)

A number of respected thought leaders believe that the current MOOC model has deviated significantly from the initial premise outlined by George Siemens and Stephen Downes in 2008, emphasizing lecture over connectivity, but either way, educators across the globe are doing some amazing things with MOOCs. The hope is that they will eventually strike a balance between automating the assessment process while delivering personalized, authentic learning opportunities.

Music: This spring, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and the Purdue University Department of Music and Arts Technology began offering their first MOOC, "Music for the Listener" that can be converted into credit. The learning environment is being delivered through Course Networking, with full translation features, rich media, and social networking tools.

Physics: An MOOC called "Landmarks in Physics," pioneered by an MIT graduate and delivered through Udacity, takes students on a virtual tour through Italy, the Netherlands, and England while explaining the basic concepts of physics at the sites of important discoveries in world history.

Writing: Ohio State University has partnered with Coursera to create a course that engages participants as writers, reviewers, and editors in a series of interactive reading, composition, and research activities with assignments designed to help them become more efficient consumers and producers of alphabetic, visual, and multimodal texts.

5. Open Content (2-3 Years)

While open content has been available for a long time, the topic has received increased attention in recent years. The use of open content promotes a skill set that is critical in maintaining currency in any area of study-the ability to find, evaluate, and put new information to use. The same cannot be said for many textbooks, which can be cumbersome, slow to update, and particularly costly for K-12 schools. More educators are tapping into the wealth of content within open repositories and familiarizing themselves with the Creative Commons protocol.

History: Learn NC is a program developed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education to make resources and best practices in K-12 freely and widely available. Their digital textbook for eighth grade history contains a collection of primary sources, readings, and multimedia that can be searched and rearranged.

Mathematics: Arizona instructor James Sousa, who has been teaching math for 15 years at both the community college and K-12 levels, developed more than 2,600 video tutorials on topics from arithmetic to calculus, all of which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution.

Science: A partnership between Bringham Young University's David Wiley and the Hewlett Foundation sparked a project in which teachers from 18 districts and four charter schools across Utah pulled together science resources to create free digital textbooks.

6. Learning Analytics (2-3 Years)

While analyzing student data is not a new practice, the field of learning analytics has only recently gained wide support among data scientists and education professionals. In the coming years, as learning analytics platforms become increasingly complex and effective, outcomes of learning analytics will have a significant impact on the evolution and refinement of both K-12 and higher education, especially in the design of personalized and online learning platforms.

Mathematics: Developed by a group of educators, programmers, and data scientists, Mathspace is an online program that meets the demands of the NSW syllabus and Australian National Curriculum for students aged seven to ten. The platform monitors how students reason through math problems and provides personalized feedback as well as analytics reports for teachers.

Reading: Kno, an e-textbook company, launched the "Kno Me" tool, which provides students with insights into their study habits and behaviors while using e-textbooks. Students can also better pace themselves by looking at data that shows them how much time they spent working through specific texts, and where they are in relation to their goals.

Writing: The University of North Carolina Greensboro uses the Mobius Social Learning Information Platform to create intensive writing courses which facilitate anonymous, peer-to-peer feedback and grading. When students submit an essay, it is automatically distributed to the rest of their randomly chosen peer group, and an algorithm turns their feedback into statistics and performance reports.

Special Education: Constant Therapy is a mobile platform that leverages data analytics and mobile technology to provide personalized therapy for people with cognitive, language, communication, and learning disorders. With 15 years' worth of content developed by Boston University, Constant Therapy's lessons adapt to meet the needs of learners while allowing language educators to monitor their progress via an analytics dashboard.

7. Games and Gamification (2-3 Years)

Game play has traversed the realm of recreation and infiltrated commerce, productivity, and education, proving to be a useful training and motivation tool. Referred to as "Game-Based Learning" in previous NMC Horizon reports, this field of practice has expanded far beyond integrating digital and online games into the curriculum. The updated category title reflects the perspective that while games are effective tools for scaffolding concepts and simulating real world experiences, it should also include the larger canvas of gamer culture and game design.

Architecture: SimArchitect is a simulation game and social connection site for architects developed by IBM Center for Advanced Learning. Players are issued a request for proposal by a fictitious client and must respond, conducting meetings with the client and team and then proposing a solution. IBM created a performance scorecard that evaluates the player's communication, architectural methods, and more.

History: The Historical Williamsburg Living Narrative project at the University of Florida is an effort to create an interactive fictional game in which the geography, culture, and characters of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia will be brought to life. Functional maps show the early architecture of the buildings, and interactive scenarios with characters like George Washington and Patrick Henry allow students to participate in discussions of the times.

Nursing: The University of Minnesota's School of Nursing has partnered with the Minnesota Hospital Association and the technology firm, VitalSims, to develop web-based interactive games that engage nursing students with real-life scenarios. With initial versions of the game already completed, health care educators are expecting to launch these digital learning tools later in 2013.

8. 3D Printing (4-5 Years)

While 3D printing is four to five years away from widespread adoption in schools, it is easy to pinpoint the practical applications that will take hold. Geology and anthropology students, for instance, can make and interact with models of fossils and other artifacts, and organic chemistry students can print out models of complex proteins and other molecules through rapid prototyping and production tools. Even more compelling are institutions that are using 3D technology to develop brand new tools.

Archaeology: Harvard University's Semitic Museum uses 3D printing technology to restore damaged artifacts from its collection. For example, by 3D scanning existing fragments of an Egyptian lion's legs, researchers can create computer models that will be used to print a scale foam replica of the complete structure, even though it was originally missing its body and head.

Astronomy: In an effort to engage inner-city students in STEM-related fields, Minnesota non-profit STARBASE has created an aerospace-themed curriculum where students plan a mission to Mars. A highlight of the project is the use of 3D printing technology to create a working rocket that students launch on the final day of the program.

Business: In early 2013, Darwin High School in Australia initiated a project intended to expose students to micro-business concepts through product development and workflow analysis. Using 3D printers, students rapidly prototype ideas, explore product design, and learn how to market their goods.

Computer Science: Students at Glacier Peak High School in Washington can receive college credit for taking computer-aided design classes featuring the incorporation of 3D printers for rapid prototype development. The courses include modeling and design, tolerance specification, documentation drawing, and assembly modeling.

9. Virtual and Remote Laboratories (4-5 Years)

Virtual and remote laboratories reflect the current trend in K-12 education toward more authentic online education. Though technology is four to five years away from mainstream use in schools, the benefits of implementation are already clear. Virtual and remote labs offer flexibility, as students can run experiments as many times as they like, both in and out of school. Because these labs are designed to allow for easy repetition of experiments, students feel less pressure to execute perfectly the first time. In the controlled environments of these labs, students are safe, even if they make an error.

Chemistry: Dr. David Yaron, Associate Professor Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, developed ChemCollective, a project of the National Science Digital Library, to create flexible interactive learning environments in which high school students can approach chemistry more like practicing scientists.

Marine Biology: In Lysekil, Sweden, high school students use virtual tools to explore the marine environment of Gullmar Fjord on the Swedish west coast, learning in the process how scientific knowledge is created. The students use a virtual ocean acidification laboratory to conduct studies on the acidification of the marine environment.

Mathematics: High School students in North Carolina are using Geometer's Sketchpad to understand how theorems are developed. The software is accessed through North Carolina State University's virtual computing lab, a cloud-based learning environment with an interactive online community where teachers share tips on the software used as well as the projects undertaken.

10. Wearable Technology (4-5 Years)

Perhaps the least educationally applicable but most complex technology of the NMC report is wearable technology. Google's "Project Glass" is one of the most talked-about current examples. One of the most promising potential outcomes of wearable technology in higher education is productivity: tools that could automatically send information via text, e-mail, and social networks on behalf of the user-based on voice commands, gestures, and other indicators- that would help students and educators communicate with one another, keep track of updates, and better organize notifications.

Chemistry: A team from the Centre for Sensor Web Technologies at Dublin City University is building a wearable sensor that detects hazardous gases and immediately alerts the user of these conditions.

Geology: Wearable cameras like Memoto, a tiny GPS-enabled camera that clips to a user's shirt collar or button and takes two five-megapixel shots per minute, could benefit geologists or archaeologists in the field, capturing hundreds of photographs or data about a user's surroundings on an offsite dig which can later be accessed via e-mail or social media.

Neuroscience: A new brain-sensing headband called Muse displays a user's brain activity directly onto their smartphone or tablet, in effect making it possible to control actions with one's thoughts and to collect data about the brain's reaction to various stimuli.
Note: Passages of the original report were repurposed here with express permission from the authors. Image source
Saga Briggs is Managing Editor of InformED. You can follow her on Twitter@sagamilena or Facebook.

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10 Emerging Educational Technologies and How They Are Being Used Across the Globe | InformED

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For over a decade, the New Media Consortium (NMC) has been charting the landscape of emerging technologies in teaching, learning, and creative inquiry on a global scale. The NMC's advisory board includes 750 technology experts and faculty members from colleges and universities in 40 countries, and is supported by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)...

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Technology Integration in Schools - An Introduction

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Blended Learning vs Technology Integration

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Created using PowToon -- Free sign up at http://www.powtoon.com/join -- Create animated videos and animated presentations for free. PowToon is a free tool that allows you to develop cool animated clips and animated presentations for your website, office meeting, sales pitch, nonprofit fundraiser, product launch, video resume, or anything else you could use an animated explainer video.

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Find hundreds of handy resources on our blog for every teacher, grade and subject. Browse our blogs on Kami how-tos, teaching tips and classroom celebrations.

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Gaggle Speaks Blog | Safe Digital Learning for K12 | Gaggle

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Technology provides innovative learning opportunities for students and teachers alike, but it's important to recognize that there is a difference between technology integration and simply using technology in the classroom.

The 2-P Rule
When you integrate technology, its use inside the classroom should be planned and purposeful. We like to call this the "2-P Rule." Make it a best practice to think of technology in the same way you think of other course materials.

Don't Put Technology First
While technology is a very exciting element to add to the classroom, it's most effective when it fades to the background. If you're spending more time learning how to use the technology, your classroom time will likely not be as productive as it could be. Remember to keep it simple, making the goal of any new technology to foster the learning experience.

The Main User
It can be very easy to slip into the habit of facilitating the technology and, as a teacher, become the main person using it. Technology integration means getting the students to not only use it, but interacting with them, other teachers and parents both inside and outside the classroom.

Collaboration
Getting students involved is just the first step. Next, make sure you get them working in groups in more collaborative ways. This allows for knowledge sharing and retention and can transform the classroom where learning happens in a more dynamic way.

Introducing your students to technology to facilitate learning is one of the smartest steps you can take. Remember, however, that learning and positive student results should always be the desired outcome.

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Understanding the Difference Between "Using Technology" and "Technology Integration" -

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Technology provides innovative learning opportunities for students and teachers alike, but it's important to recognize that there is a difference between technology integration and simply using technology in the classroom. The 2-P Rule When you integrate technology, its use inside the classroom should be planned and purposeful.

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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Are you using or integrating technology in your teaching ? At the face of it, it seems like a game of semantics but in fact it is more than that. When we talk about technology integration in the classroom we are talking about a planned and highly structured and purposeful use of technology with students whose ultimate goal is to engage students and help them develop new thinking skills. Using technology, on the other hand, is a random and sporadic process whose main goal is to instruct students on content not to engage them with content.
The chart below from Teachbytes , offers a more detailed explanation of the difference between Using Technology and Integrating Technology. Have a look and, as always, share with us your feedback in the comment form below. Enjoy

Check out the full chart from this page.

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Using Technology Vs Technology Integration- An Excellent Chart for Teachers

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Are you using or integrating technology in your teaching ? At the face of it, it seems like a game of semantics but in fact it is more than that. When we talk about technology integration in the classroom we are talking about a planned and highly structured and purposeful use of technology with students whose ultimate goal is to engage students and help them develop new thinking skills.

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FELTAG - Working With Students As Digital Leaders

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The FELTAG Report recommends visible involvement with learners as digital leaders. This short video considers some of the ways in which this may be achieved. Digital Leaders in this context are learners whose digital skills are used in partnership with FE Colleges to help further the use of technology for enabling learning.

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How to Set Up Your Digital Classroom for Success

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A new school year is upon us, and with it comes much anticipation for new learning adventures. For many teachers, those adventures include the increasing availability of technology to help transform your classroom. What frequently comes next is the big question, "How do I manage a room full of kids with devices?" Too often, teachers begin to adopt a "restrict and conquer" policy in an effort to maintain control over how and when students are accessing digital content. The focus becomes more about the device, when what we are ultimately managing are our students. A common perception can be that managing a digital classroom requires a whole new approach to be effective. However, I've found that many traditional methods of classroom management transfer successfully in a technology-rich environment - with a few adjustments. Here are five simple tips that will help lay a foundation for success.
Set Clear Expectations
From Day 1, ensure your students understand the expectations for appropriate technology use. Involve them in the process of developing house rules, and consider what the consequences will be for violations. Why not allow students to generate digital posters of the newly adopted expectations and let the class vote on a favorite? In a BYOD environment, display a sign that indicates if students will be using devices that day (and yes, it's okay NOT to use devices!) When students are not using devices, consider the practice of placing them face down on the desk. This removes the temptation to sneak a peek at Facebook under the table. Don't forget - consistency is king!
Experiment with Flexible Seating
Why does this help with classroom management, you ask? Engaged kids are much less likely to become distracted and off-task. Create workspaces that support creative collaboration. This might look like a collection of bean bags around a coffee table or a circular pattern of desks with you as the nucleus. Try different arrangements to determine what becomes most conducive to engaged activity. Gone are the days of perfectly arranged arrays of desks. Mix it up!
Prep for Success
Nothing discourages distractions more than a well-planned lesson where kids are consistently required to participate. As previously noted, engagement is key! Thorough preparation becomes even more vital when you introduce the digital element. A well-paced lesson that integrates technology effectively not only provides students with a richer learning experience, but it encourages them to remain focused on using the tech for all the right reasons. Invite them into the lesson by contributing to a backchannel using TodaysMeet or by using Chirp to share an image as a writing prompt. As you wrap up, share a blank Google slide and have groups of students design five word stories that summarize their learning for the day. Just remember that part of being prepared means you are prepared with a Plan B. Even if the technology fails, you can press on like a pro.
Be Mobile
Perhaps one of the biggest shifts that occur for educators when introducing technology is that you can no longer remain behind the desk. Moving around the room and being in close proximity with your students allows you to more closely observe how they are using the technology to help drive their learning. It is one of the best ways to deter off-task behavior, and it allows you to more quickly respond to those who may need a little extra help navigating an app or connecting to digital content. If a student is hitting the sleep button or double-tapping home as you approach their work area, take time to address the concern and have discussions about appropriate use. This communicates to the entire class that you are there to support good work habits.
Utilize an LMS
Access to content is crucial when it comes to integrating technology. Leveraging the power of a learning management system allows you to centralize online educational activity while supporting a collaborative digital environment for your students. By streamlining the process of sharing content, generating discussions, and assessing learning, you reduce down time and keep students engaged. Here at eTechCampus, we are excited to launch Converge. This dynamic LMS enhances the power of Moodle to bring you an intuitive user experience, allowing schools and organizations the ability to easily manage, monitor, connect, and innovate. Don't miss this opportunity to involve your school or district in an LMS that was truly designed with the teacher in mind.

Ultimately, good classroom management is a process and is often shaped by the dynamics of your students. Experiment with these five tips and don't be afraid to try something new!

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5 Tips for Effective Digital Classroom Management

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A new school year is upon us, and with it comes much anticipation for new learning adventures. For many teachers, those adventures include the increasing availability of technology to help transform your classroom. What frequently comes next is the big question, "How do I manage a room full of kids with devices?"

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Education for Today and Tomorrow | L'Education Aujourd'hui et Demain

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In a traditional model of teaching, the teacher is the source of knowledge. Learning is based on one-dimensional materials that are directly connected to curriculum content and skills. Today's resources however, are digital, interactive, and visually rich; a stark contrast to rather lengthy text description of topics and themes. Students are now at the centre of their learning and use today's technology and resources in ways very different from traditional learning materials. They access multiple sources, customize material to suit their needs, mix various media to create new learning, and then share it with unlimited peers through their social networking sites.

And as we transition from traditional teaching and learning approaches to digital and interactive ones, we need to carefully plan and prepare the learning environment. As good teachers have done for decades, good planning provides learning environments that enable students to successfully optimize their potential for success. Having a management plan is essential when using digital learning tools. This plan should cover components such as, classroom organization, instructional strategies, technology availability, and time. The following are some suggestions on planning your digital classroom.
Classroom Organization and Management

All of your students do not need access to devices all the time. Plan and be specific about what you want the students to use the technology for. What learning goals does the technology support? What is the best technology for specific learning tasks?

When you have a limited number of computers or hand-held devices available for group activities and students have to share, consider assigning specific roles to group members. If everyone has a specific job to do it is much easier for students to focus on the learning goal.

Arrange classroom seating so that it is easy for you to move around the room and get to students quickly.

Actively monitor student use of the technology. Walk around the classroom; be aware of which websites students are accessing and how they are working together.

Provide students with clear guidelines on school policies and procedures in working with technology in the classroom. Every school should have an Acceptable User Policy on what constitutes proper behaviour when using technology. It is important to establish norms for student behaviour, in your classroom within the context of the project. Have students participate in the development of the acceptable use and etiquette guidelines in your class.

Establish at the beginning of the unit how and where you want students to organize their data related to the project such as naming files, storing, and sharing files.

Establish a backup plan for those days when the technology or the Internet connection is not available.

Ensure the websites and learning platforms you recommend to students are secure. Review which web sites your students are recommending to each other.

Provide students with a rubric or organizer which clearly defines project expectations and also provides direct communication with parents about the project

Post anchor charts that provide technology tips or software instructions or put them in a binder near the computers. An evolving list of tips can be generated by the students as they work through the unit.

Instructional Approaches

Review the learning material provided from manuals or teacher's guides, and map the curriculum to several disciplines, including as many expectations as possible to cover and evaluate in the teaching of the unit.

The content and the lesson plans are a comprehensive resource, which should enable you to cover a selection of expectations from two or more curriculum areas.

Use the material to design and implement student learning that extends the curriculum content where and when possible.

Students are motivated and benefit from working collaboratively with their peers in a team or pairs. This type of learning requires new skills in cooperative work. Students need to learn how to get along, share and learn from each other. Forming teams needs planning. It may be necessary for teachers to consider computer skills and the specific assignment when pairing students.

Digital learning materials are most effective when integrated into the typical instructional day as opposed to being used just during scheduled lab times.

As with any other educational resource, the use of the material should be mediated by teachers. Teachers' responsibilities are not relinquished; instead, the teacher becomes a coach and mentor, using the majority of teaching time to provide instruction rather than large group lessons.

Make connections with the content in the online unit to information from other websites that are relevant and timely.

Provide specific and descriptive feedback to students as they progress through the online material, just as you would with traditional material. Integrate assessment tasks, which provide for formative and summative assessments of the tasks in the unit.

Using interactive online materials will enable learning to become much more student centred. Leave room in your planning for student inquiry and creativity.

Facilitate and encourage students' use of primary resources by using online polling, interviews, and accessing photo galleries.

Take full advantage of student expertise. Students often know more than teachers do about a technology, and teaching someone else what they know is a great way to reinforce their own learning and foster a supportive classroom community.

Even though students will do much of their work independently or in groups, they will still need to learn the skills necessary to follow schedules and maintain deadlines.

Provide opportunities for students to connect with other students and to connect with experts around the world and then collaborate.

Just as students today share their expertise and knowledge readily with each other online, it is beneficial for teachers to form online support groups as well as the traditional face-to-face connections. Expanding your learning about technology integration can be done anytime, anywhere, by joining an online educator community. Gone are the days when the only place to learn new teaching approaches was a workshop presented to a room full of people.

Different sources of technology will provide different types of access and various levels of uniformity, good teachers never relied on one teaching resource or one teaching method, likewise today's teachers will never use a single technology in a single way.

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In a traditional model of teaching, the teacher is the source of knowledge. Learning is based on one-dimensional materials that are directly connected to curriculum content and skills. Today's resources however, are digital, interactive, and visually rich; a stark contrast to rather lengthy text description of topics and themes.