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iPad Computers in the Music Classroom: Help or Hindrance? By Bethany Kirkpatrick, MS.ED


In an era of greater Federal and State control of curriculum, weakening financial support for public education, and increased demand for high-quality daily teaching; is this really the time to introduce new, un-proven tech- nology into the music classroom? For my classroom, curriculum, budget and student-learning, the answer is unequivocally -Yes.


When iPad computers were released early last spring, I knew it was a technology I wanted to experiment with in my classroom. The sixth grade students who study at Lincoln Middle School in Portland come from very diverse socio-economic backgrounds. My budget has dwindled over the last several years, and although I have been awarded several grants through the donorschoose.org website for the purchase of an LCD projector, many MIDI-keyboards and an interactive whiteboard, I knew it would be a struggle to find enough money for an iPad cur- riculum project. So, I began looking for a fund- ing source.


The Portland School District employs Commu- nity Coordinators (CC) who work to support cur- riculum by researching and implementing com- munity connections. One morning I received a call from the CC in my building telling me that the McCarthey-Dressman Educational Founda- tion in Salt Lake City, Utah, offers Academic En- richment Grants large enough to fund my project, but the grant deadline was only five days away and with a complex application form, the task seemed daunting. However, I found the applica- tion process very helpful. Through the process of writing the six essays required by the application, I was able to clarify my vague idea of using iPad computers in the music room into the outline of an iPad based research and composition curricu- lum. The grant was submitted on time with great excitement and anticipation.


Six weeks later a letter arrived on a rainy Satur- day afternoon in early July informing me my


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