Many of the well-documented benefits of music stem from the fact that music-making is often a social or shared activity, that making music together is a positive and pleasurable experience.
Increasingly, technology enables us to recreate that social experience as individuals. From listening to your choice of music streamed straight to your headphones, to using sequencers or digital audio workstations to record, edit, manipulate or playback sounds in unlimited parts, music has never been so accessible or so personalised.
As cloud-based solutions increase in popularity, there are many ways in which these might integrate with the social aspects of music-making and technology, opening up new ways to be creative collaboratively. While music curriculum time is increasingly squeezed, accessible tools to consolidate content from lessons can provide new ways for music learning and music-making to continue outside the music room. Meanwhile, cross-platform cloud-based solutions can help to utilise technology to which students have access outside school already.
Planning to integrate cloud-based solutions
Keep in mind that instrumental staff might be able to contribute to planning discussions about how these might be used to the greatest benefit of all students.
- Cost Most educational versions of cloud based solutions come at a price. In some cases you may have to purchase a school licence or a number of virtual ‘seats’. Be aware that while some providers offer a ‘freemium’ model, an education version has huge advantages despite the costs. As with any use of online approaches, school policies for safe internet use, data protection and monitoring should be kept in mind. Although a quick search for cloud-based platforms yields plenty of suggestions, a platform with an education version should state their policy for how the platform supports schools to ensure that students are operating in a safe online space.
- Try before you buy It is important to identify what you want to achieve before you invest. Make the most of any free trials on offer and run a pilot with one class before you pay up for your full licence, identifying what you want, or need, to be able to do. For example: consider value for money, how the price per student works out across a year, and how many students you would like to be able to benefit from the resource. It will be an important part of the planning process.
- Cross-platform Students have a range of devices available to them outside school. If the cloud-based solution you choose only works on a certain browser, or has an app that is only available on Android or iOS, then you limit use for students and therefore may not get the best from any financial investment you make on their behalf.
- Does it allow for collaboration? If much of your music teaching and learning takes place in groups, is it possible to replicate this through using a cloud-based platform? Anything that can extend the classroom model of students working together with appropriate input and support from the teacher helps to keep the learning going between lessons, and therefore maximises the use of lesson time.
A few ideas to get you started
Schools often buy into Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Google Classroom or Microsoft Classroom on behalf of all staff, so making them work with some of the more creative tools below could be a good way to start looking at options. Consider:
- Specific cloud-based tools to create or capture music online, e.g. Noteflight, Soundation, O-Generator, BandLab
- The opportunity to collaborate with others to create music outside the classroom, e.g. Soundtrap
- Making the most of learning outside the classroom to build on what happens in lessons, e.g. Edmodo, Seesaw.
The most effective use of any cloud-based solution is to integrate it into the teaching and learning that takes place, rather than bolt it on as an additional topic or unit. Taking some time to research, plan and find out what has worked well for others, then signing up for a free trial, is a great way to get started in opening up new ways for students to create and collaborate outside the music classroom.
