Like their colleagues who teach the secondary grades, elementary-school teachers who properly integrate music technology into their curriculum are likely to reap the rewards in the form of increased student interest and achievement. However, they must often apply the technology in ways that are different than what middle- and high school teachers do in order to reach their younger students. For example, while children of all ages can benefit from project-based learning, the approach must be customized to be appropriate for students in each age group.

Generally, older students seem able to learn software in greater depth than can the younger children. At the elementary level, therefore, many teachers use a variety of tools and don't get into the programs as deeply as secondary-school teachers might. Even within the elementary grades, some teachers find that fourth and fifth graders learn keyboard and general music skills more rapidly than do third-grade students. With younger students, you have to pay more attention to the scaffolding (the process of supporting the students until they are able to work independently) and guided practice of the simple basics than you do for older children, so that the younger students don't get off-track. In an educational sense, scaffolding, in the form of coaching or modeling, supports students as they develop new skills and understand new concepts.

According to Jean Piaget, elementary school students are concrete sensory learners. Kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade learners fall into the preoperational stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. After age seven, the preoperational stage of intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. That is why, at the elementary level, it is necessary to rigorously incorporate the use of technology with the whole experience of learning music.

Elementary students are still in the process of building systems. With their general-classroom teachers, they work on developing a sound-symbol relationship with the alphabet and words, and in music class they work on a sound-symbol relationship with musical notes and phrases. In both cases, students need to use a multistep process in order to learn which symbols go with particular sounds, how to form symbols, and so on. High school students are working at the macrocosmic level, while elementary students are at the microcosmic.

High school students already have a system in place for a sound-symbol relationship. Middle school and high school students are formal operational thinkers, thinking about thinking. Possibilities become more important than reality. High school students can see more patterns and make more connections than younger children, and can think abstractly. They can construct a whole experience from the parts, and can keep several opposing ideas in their minds simultaneously.

Older students can, for example, use the computer without the presence of traditional mechanical musical instruments. Elementary students, on the other hand, need to connect the traditional instrument and voice to their experience with the computer. They need to understand that the physical experience of making music is represented by the computer playing back the music they have created. One way to accomplish this is to have kindergarten through second grade use glockenspiels (see Fig. 1 and Web example 1 ), third graders use song flutes, fourth graders use recorders, and fifth graders use keyboards. It is helpful to keep in mind the Chinese proverb, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.”

Project-based learning (PBL) is a great way to incorporate technology with the whole experience of making music, helping us achieve several objectives at once. PBL emphasizes long-term, interdisciplinary learning activities that incorporate practical skills and address real-world concerns.

Projects of this sort are fun to design — the process is similar in some ways to that of composing music — and you can incorporate the topics that children are working on in their regular classroom. Your goal is to create a number of occurrences or activities with several elements that will be performed and will cause a change in the people involved.

Many districts have their own music standards based on the MENC National Standards and the state framework. (For more on the MENC standards, see “Music Technology and the National Standards, Part 2” on p. 10.) It is also a good idea to design instruction that leads to the attainment of the student and teacher National Education Technology Standards from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE NETS) and your own district technology standards. If you plan lessons around the McGraw-Hill Share the Music curriculum or something similar, you can include technology projects based on those lessons to achieve the standards.

However, if you are able to design parts of your own curriculum, you might want to consider backward-mapping from the standards to actual lesson plans, which is one of the latest models for designing instruction. Backward mapping involves designing the assessment first and then planning the learning activities. (For an example, see www.calstate.edu/CAPP/projects/Module_2.pdf.) The MENC also provides an online resource that can help with assessments (see the sidebar “Web Contacts”).

One project that has been very successful and popular with my students over the past few years involves creating streaming performance videos and original music compositions for publication on the school's Web site. In this project, students make a sustained effort, working alone and in collaboration, to create a composition that is displayed on the Web. Technology is interwoven with the whole music-making experience, an important consideration for the elementary student. In this case, students use a computer to create a streaming video of their glockenspiel performances, as well as an interactive file of their composition, created with Finale NotePad.

Our goals include working on MENC National Standards 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 (performing on instruments, composing, reading notes, listening, and evaluating music and music performances, respectively). Students practice their ISTE technology-standard skills by communicating their thoughts and feelings using input and output devices, taking advantage of technology resources such as the online software, and sharing files. Working collaboratively and responsibly, students are also able to effectively communicate about technology through developmentally appropriate, accurate terminology.

Before we get started with this project, let's recognize that many teachers do not yet have the resources to publish pages to the Internet. Furthermore, video is more difficult to produce and post than audio, and the quality of streaming video (and sometimes audio) over the Internet depends on the speed of one's Internet connection. In addition, as we will discuss shortly, permission release forms are always needed before posting student work or images, and you might also need to consider privacy and security issues. If any of these considerations are problematic for you, don't give up on the project. Instead, use your creativity to design a variation that works for you and your program.

Teachers who lack access to a school Web site are not necessarily left out in the cold. Web-hosting services such as http://myhosting.com are available for as little as $9.95 a month, allowing you to have your own Web site relatively inexpensively.

Finally, teachers should always monitor any student who is using the Internet. Good Web-monitoring practices will quickly become second nature, as with other important everyday safety precautions.

This project is most easily accomplished if you have your own classroom. If you are an itinerant teacher, some aspects might be a bit inconvenient, but the project can still be practical and worthwhile.

You will need some low-tech materials: pencils, erasers, and composition-paper templates for everyone in the class. Using a different template for each grade level helps achieve the necessary benchmarks. For instance, in second grade the template can be big enough to allow the children to write their own words. In third grade, I like students to compose a song flute duet, and in fifth grade, we use a template for a 12-bar keyboard blues. In my classroom, the children store their work in a folder, including reference materials with the names of the music symbols we have covered and the symbols' relationships to their instruments.

You will need a sufficient supply of glockenspiels with mallets, song flutes, recorders, or small keyboards. It might also be helpful to have some music stands. Students can work in pairs or teams, if necessary, to stretch your limited supply of instruments.

These days, some districts (at least in California, where I teach) require four computers in the classroom in order to qualify for grants. If possible, I recommend having four desktop computers, complete with USB ports, sound card, speakers, headphones, and at least one computer with a composite-video adapter for connecting your computer to a TV. (These adapters can be found at a variety of consumer-electronics stores and Web sites.) Fortunately, many newer laptop computers offer the same amenities as most desktop machines, and some even have S-Video jacks or come with video adapters.

Ideally, you would use a laptop computer for each student, but it's okay to share. Fortunately, Radio Shack makes a splitter cord that divides the computer's audio output three ways, so as many as three children can work together on one computer, using headphones. If you have a few dollars to spend and need something that offers better sound quality and individual level controls for each set of headphones, check out headphone mixers from companies like Rane or Rolls Corporation.

The computers should have Internet access and Finale NotePad software. It's also great to have a network server, because that allows students to save their work to a place where you can directly access it from your computer. As we'll see, though, there are some caveats regarding younger children having access to a file server.

You'll need Web-publishing software, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft Front Page. You might also want a scanner and CDR blanks for saving student work.

In order to make a 30-second video, you will need a low-cost video camera or Webcam. These are available from most computer and consumer-electronics stores, with prices ranging from $10 to $100 and more. It is unnecessary at this level to have editing software and an expensive digital video camera, although a better camera will shoot superior video.

You will also need an inexpensive dynamic microphone with either an ⅛inch jack or a ¼-inch jack and ⅛-inch adapter, which you will plug into the sound card. Budget mics are available for as little as $10, although at that price, the quality will be relatively poor. If you can afford $80 to $100 for a better mic, such as a Shure SM-58, you will get much better recordings.

The first step is for the teacher and students to compose a model together on the white board or on an overhead of the template. For the lower grades, I like to divide the composition into ABA form, using the analogy of an Oreo cookie. In the A section, the children are only allowed to use the “chocolate” quarter-notes, eighth-notes, and quarter-rests (or ta's, titi's, and ta rests). In the B section, children are asked to use the cream notes, such as the white (uncolored) whole note and half-note.

If you are working with kindergartners, you may only want to start with a three-measure ABA composition. In that way, the children would choose either one whole note or two half-notes for their B section. As you move up the grade levels with lengthier compositions, the children would be able to use both whole notes and half-notes in their compositions.

It is helpful to break down the composition process into a series of simple steps so that the children do not get overwhelmed. The questions to ask children are as follows:

1. Do you want a rest or a note?

2. Which rest or note do you want?

3. If it is a note, which letter/pitch do you want: C, E, G, or A; F, A, C, or D; do, mi, sol, or la?

4. What number does the symbol stand for? How many beats?

5. Does it add up to the amount of beats per measure that the time signature indicates?

After you model the process, you can use direct instruction to have the children compose a piece together. The students can then compose a second piece independently.

Encourage the students to sing the notes and chant ta's and titi's, as well as play their instruments. They will work hard to finish their composition as they look forward to their turn on the software to create their composition Web page!

Students get three points in red pen on their paper when they finish, and they are then assigned to one of the four computers in the room. If all four computers are in use with students starting activity 2, he or she can skip to activity 3 and be put on a waiting list for activity 2.

The free Finale NotePad software (see Fig. 2 and Web example 2) is perfect for use with elementary students. Since the MENC standards do not ask the children to get too detailed or extravagant, Finale NotePad's features are sufficient for the children to accomplish the benchmarks successfully.

For this activity, it is a good idea to have your computer hooked up to a TV display or a projector. The first step depends on the rules in your school district about downloading and installing software. If you are allowed to install software, you can start by showing the children how to download a copy of Finale NotePad. Keep a record of which classes have seen it downloaded and installed. This is helpful for students who have never downloaded a program or have never seen one downloaded.

After downloading NotePad, students should be shown how to click on Remind Me Later when it asks you to register, and Continue when it asks if you would like to purchase anything else. Next, show students how to input their title and name. Small children need to be reminded that capital letters must be used in titles, and that they are made with the shift key on the keyboard. In our district it is necessary for children to use their first name only, because we are not allowed to post students' last names to the Internet.

If you are not allowed to install software on school computers, just forge ahead with the copies of NotePad that the school's computer tech has installed on your classroom computers. You also can send the children home with a letter to their parents introducing Finale NotePad and providing instructions for installing the program on the family computer, if they have one.

With the software installed, the next step is to show students how to fill in the rest of the wizard, including instrument family, instrument, key signature, and time signature. Many younger children need to have a template of the Finale NotePad file with the time signature, key signature, and so on already filled in. Older elementary students, such as 5th graders, are better able to handle those tasks.

Once NotePad is set up, it's time to model how to input notes and rests according to the rules of the project. Then you can show the students how to play the music and save their work to the server or hard drive as .mus and html files. Of course, students will need to know how to find their saved work when they return to the computer, so show them where the work is saved. I create a student work folder on my hard drive every year, and inside that folder are folders for every teacher's class by grade level, such as “3 Smith.” If children are working with individual laptops, this activity can be taken one step further by using direct instruction in order to have the children go through the steps together.

It is important to recognize that children in grades 3 and lower have a difficult time saving files correctly, let alone saving them to a server and finding them again. Sometimes students accidentally click on the wrong files and even delete files without realizing it, so you are well advised to supervise the students and their files when they are working on the computers. In addition, many children will have questions throughout the lesson, so be prepared to help with the computers while teaching the rest of your class.

Each time the children come to music class, you will need to make sure the kids are at the correct computer and are working on the right activity with the appropriate partner. If a student takes a long time completing their paper from the first activity, or is waiting a long time for their turn on the computer or the video, consider pairing them with faster students to help complete the project. If you feel it necessary, a slow student could use a scanner to input work but that defeats one of our goals, which is to teach them to use a notation program.

When students practice reading notes and performing on their instrument, they must learn to think about what the rhythm and pitch are at the same time. Students should evaluate their own performance and should be able to play their composition three times in a row without a mistake before playing it for the teacher.

Naturally, the children will be eager to perfect their performance and will look forward to their turn to see themselves on the computer monitor and TV. When my students are able to play their compositions, I give them a red smiley face on their papers and allow them to move on to their next activity.

The next activity involves having the students perform for the class and recording the performances with a video camera, if you have one. Of course, this activity is also an opportunity to teach proper audience behavior during a performance.

It is helpful to rotate jobs. Have one child aim the camera at the performers and say “lights, camera, action” while another child is at the computer, starting and stopping the recording and saving the file. Instruct the performer to say “hi, my name is (student's name), and I am playing my composition (title).” Keep the performances short — no longer than 30 seconds — and save the image as a compressed .avi file to keep the file size down.

If you do not have a camera and would like to record audio only, plug a mic into your computer's sound card or audio input. At this point, you will need to use audio recording software. Specific program recommendations are beyond the scope of this article, but you have lots of choices, including shareware and freeware that can be downloaded from the Web, as well as commercial music software. If the files are going to be sent or stored on the Internet, you should save them as .mp3 files, which will save a lot of space and downloading time. If file storage and download time are not factors, you can use .wav files.

After a student performs for the camera, it's time for audience members to give feedback. The children in the audience raise their hands, and the performer selects among them. The performer then asks the selected student questions like “What did you like?” and “What could have been better?”

Next, the class can view the videos on the computer using Windows Media Player, QuickTime, iMovie, or whatever video-playback software you have, using them to stimulate a discussion of the final “product.” For the final assessment, you can use a scoring rubric (see the sidebar “Assessment/Scoring Rubric”).

This project can extend beyond the subject of music. For example, teachers at any level can create inexpensive streaming video of their students doing oral language activities.

The Web is a great place for children to display their videos and music compositions. Children can view and listen to each other's work, and parents can see and hear exactly what their child is doing in music class. Families with home computers can download, view, and even experiment with their child's work at home, using widely available (and often free) software. This is also an opportunity to see the work of other children. Teachers can get lesson ideas by seeing what someone else is doing.

Before we get further into this, it is important to note that this activity is not appropriate for everyone, and it involves a number of special considerations regarding privacy and security. It might be worthwhile to discuss the project in advance with some other parents you consider to be representative of the group, so that you can account for possible objections while you are still in the planning stages.

For starters, before you can publish student work and student video images to the Web, you will need parents to sign a permission slip, such as a “Student Work Release Form: Internet Web Project Publishing.” Preface this permission slip with a letter to the parents describing your project and offering instructions on how to view their child's work online. You need permission to post the child's original composition, the actual music performance (a separate issue from the composition), and especially the child's image in the video.

One way to help ensure security and privacy is to set up a password-protected area on the Web site where the videos, in particular, can be placed. This is a smart move even if nobody requests it. Even with this precaution, though, some parents will not want videos of their children posted to the Internet. Privacy and personal safety are valid reasons for such a decision, so if that's the response you get, you'll just have to accept it and modify the activity. For example, if parents object only to posting the videos, you could ask permission to post just the NotePad files and an audio recording of the music, without images.

Assuming the parents approve and the permission slips are returned, add the Finale NotePad files and the video files to the school Web site in front of the class. Your students will gain experience by watching this process, and the more capable older students might even learn to publish the files themselves. (Middle and high school students can easily learn this skill, but it can be a difficult challenge for younger students.)

It's important to realize that although broadband Internet connections are becoming commonplace, many parents probably still do not have broadband service. Furthermore, streaming videos work poorly — when they work at all — over dialup connections. Therefore, it is wise to provide downloadable files in addition to or instead of streaming video. Use a format that can be played on both Macintosh and Windows computers. Windows Media is an excellent format because the quality is good and players for Macintosh, Windows, Linux, Palm, and other operating systems can be downloaded free from Microsoft.

You can find virtually endless ways to use technology to enhance your teaching methods. For example, you can also have the students create CD covers using a draw, paint, or photo-editing program, which addresses standard 8 (understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts).

A more elaborate idea that addresses MENC standards 6 and 9 is a collaborative research and presentation project on music from a country of the student's choice. This could be done using the Web and a presentation program such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote. I also recommend incorporating the Big6 information-literacy techniques (see Fig. 3).

Using the Internet has made me a more efficient, creative teacher. I can research music lessons, music products, and music-teachers' organizations. I design developmentally appropriate lesson plans that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of my students. The Internet also allows me to apply technology to develop students' higher-order skills and creativity.

Project-based learning works. As you might expect, it takes many hours to plan and prepare projects and well-organized Web pages. Furthermore, the success of an Internet-based project depends on the age of the students, the number of students involved, and the degree to which parents and others in the community can access the Internet. But the PBL approach offers tremendous learning potential for teachers and students alike, and the technology required is rapidly becoming mainstream. Start planning now and watch your students reach new levels of achievement — and have fun doing it.

Maureen Spranza (mspranza@slzusd.org) teaches in the San Lorenzo Unified School District at Lorenzo Manor Elementary School in Hayward, California. She has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Mills College and a Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music.

This scoring rubric is designed to assist in assessing the music and performance listening exercises in Activity 5. In this case, we're evaluating K — 2 students, as indicated by the use of glockenspiels.

Points	3	2	1
Paper and Computer	Uses half-notes or rests, quarter-notes or rests, eighth-notes or rests	Only a few errors	Symbols are not used consistently
	Correct notes: do, mi, sol, la (C, E, G, A)	1-2 errors	3-4 Errors
	Two beats in the measure (meter), with correct bar lines	1-2 errors	3-4 Errors
	Prosodic (music represents title)	Representation can be re-created another day	Better choices might have been made
Glockenspiel Video	Excellent rhythms, steady beat	Good rhythms, generally steady beat	Rhythms and beat are unsteady
	Correct notes/pitches	1-2 errors	3-4 errors
	Timbre is excellent, mallets held correctly	Tone is generally good	Tone is not ringing
	Head up and shoulders erect	Good position and posture	Marginally acceptable position and posture
Discussion	Emphasizes extramusical aspects of the composition	References how good the performance was technically, as well as how musical it was	Says “I liked it” when he or she didn't
	Always uses correct terminology rather than general vocabulary terms	Uses correct terminology	Uses incorrect terminology
	Students evaluate whether they remained quiet, seated with legs and arms still, with their eyes watching and their ears listening, and reserved their applause	Demonstrated appropriate behavior	Evaluated whether they demonstrated questionable behaviors such as tapping feet, shouting, getting up, talking, humming along

Big6 (information-literacy model) www.big6.com/kids

Intel (PBL site) www.intel.com/education/projects/wildride_prof_dev/workshops/project_based.htm

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) www.iste.org

MakeMusic (Finale NotePad) Web www.makemusic.com or www.finalemusic.com

MENC Performance Standards www.menc.org/publication/books/performance_standards/contents.html

Microsoft Windows Media www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp

Mrs. McGowan's First Grade Showcase (music-enhanced Web-site building) www.myschoolonline.com/folder/0,1872,34898-119831-38-33802,00.htm

National Education Technology Standards (ISTE NETS) www.cmrls.org/resources/ballard_iste.pdf

Project-Based Learning (PBL) http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/PBLGuide/WhyPBL.html

Rane Corporation (headphone amps) Web www.rane.com

Rolls Music Corp. (headphone amps) Web www.rolls.com

Shure Inc. (microphones) Web www.shure.com