read hours before. Gmail can assign emails as tasks and create a tasks list for you. When you are reading an email that you feel needs to be assigned as a task, click on “More” at the top of the page, and scroll down to “Add to Tasks”. A new menu will pop up and the email will be on the list. If you click the > next to the email, you can assign the task a due date and make a note. To find your Task list the next time you login, go to the “Mail” at the top left-hand corner and scroll down to “Tasks”. The Tasks list will appear and you can click on that certain task, which will open the email that had the task listed. I learned about this when earning my Google Level 1 Certification and it has assisted my organization greatly. Zamzar (
http://www.zamzar.com/) – Convert audio, music, video, image, document, and other files into other formats for free with no added software. They state that they support over 1200 different conversions. For example, convert an “.m4v” file into a “.mov” file with a click of a button and no added software. They will send you a link to the email address that you provided so that you can simply download the converted file. There are paid versions which give you more file size, online storage, faster conversion speed, no expiry limits on files, and more.
Non-Music Tech Tools for Elementary Music Educators: • Adobe Spark (
https://spark.adobe.com/) – Post, Page, and Video – Create beautiful posts, pages,
and videos. This product is very intuitive for educators and students to utilize for creating musical stories, web pages, and videos. In addition, it is cross platform and free!
Figure 3: Gmail Task List
• Nearpod (
https://nearpod.com/) and Pear Deck (https://www.
peardeck.com/) – Students connect to your presentation on any device and answer your interactive questions. This is another way for 1:1 schools (one device per student) to gauge their students’ learning throughout the lesson. These are paid services and something that your schools would subscribe to for you to use in your classroom. • Socrative (
www.socrative.com) and Plickers (
www.plickers.com)
Figure 4: An Example of Adobe Page
- Need a free assessment tool and your students do not have access to their email addresses? Then “Socrative” or “Plickers” could be what you need. With “Socrative”, you can create multiple choice, short answer, and T/F pre- and post-tests. I have used this with a 1:1 classroom and a
classroom with a few devices. It is free and can work on multiple devices. With “Plickers”, you can create a multiple choice or a T/F assess- ment using one iOS device that scans the “Plickers” cards and records the students’ answers. There is no need for the students to have a device because you can download the free “Plickers” cards from the “Plickers” website. To read more about how I use these two free applications for assessment in the elementary music classroom, please visit here:
http://mustech.net/2017/03/using-technology-assist-assessment-elementary- general-music-classroom/ • Smithsonian Learning Lab (
https://learninglab.si.edu) – Teachers can utilize the Smithsonian’s resources from their 19 museums, 9
major research centers, the zoo, and more. They created this learning lab to inspire the discovery and creative uses of its rich digital materi- als—more than a million images, recordings, and texts. When I searched music, I found learning labs about Jazz, Opera, Hip Hop, and more. • Flippity (
www.flippity.net) – Turn a google spreadsheet into a Bingo Game, Hangman Game, cross-
Figure 5: This is a “musical hangman” game I created with Flippity
word puzzles, and more! Create a musical hangman game using only the letters of the musical alphabet. • Book Creator (
www.bookcreator.com) – Create ebooks and videos of ebooks for iOS and web- based devices! My students have easily used “Book Creator” for creating books about composers and books about recorder tips to show the next year’s students about how to play the recorder. Please visit my website,
amymburns.com, to see some examples from second and third graders (Click on “2nd “3rd
or answer questions during class because they can participate using “Padlet.” There are many other tools that assist in showcasing students’ works like Seesaw (
web.seesaw.me) or Class Dojo (
www.classdojo.com).
There are also wonderful websites that highlight music and curriculum. To find more websites like these, please visit my website and click on
“Websites/Resources”. Amy M. Burns has taught PreK-grade 4 general music for 21 years at Far Hills Country Day School. She has authored 3 books on how to integrate tech into the
elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including 3 keynote addresses in TX, IN, and AU. She is the recipient of the TI:ME Teacher of the Year, NJ Master Music Teacher, & Governor’s Leader in Arts Education Awards.
OCTOBER 2017 39 TEMPO
Grade” and
Grade”. • Padlet (
www.padlet.com) – This is an online virtual “bulletin” board, where students and teachers can collaborate, reflect, and share links and pictures in a secure location. “Padlet” allows users to create a hidden wall with a custom URL. This is wonderful for your older elementary students who hesitate to ask
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