Top Ten Strategies for Technology in Music and Art Instruction

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Take advantage of these ten powerful strategies for using technology to enhance the teaching of music and art.

Music Strategies

1. Students use software like Apple's GarageBand as a personal recording studio — Students have the flexibility and resources they need to support their own creative musical explorations.
2. Teachers use an electronic keyboard lab to develop students' skills in keyboarding, theory, and harmony — Networked systems allow the teacher to monitor individual students as they build their skills.
3. Software such as Practica Musica serves as a tutorial in music fundamentals — Interactive software gives students hands-on practice in music theory and ear training.
4. Music Ace's "Doodle Pad" teaches young students about parts for different instruments — The software makes it easy for young learners to "write" music with parts for different instruments.
5. Students build a website to help teach music history — The wealth of images and information on the Internet gives students the material they need to research composers, compositions, and periods of musical history and to share their findings on the web.

Art Strategies

1. Students take virtual field trips to art museums — Through virtual tours available at many sites, students can "visit" museums and see great works of art that serve as illustrations of artists' work and models for their own work.
2. Students create electronic portfolios to illustrate their creative products — PowerPoint presentations, videos, electronic books, and websites offer versatile venues for students to document and share their work.
3. Illustrate artworks/techniques with digital slide shows — Teachers can store large collections in very little space and show parts of collections to illustrate techniques and products of various artists.
4. Teacher-created websites give short tutorials on art concepts — The Internet offers an easy, motivating way to let students develop background knowledge of art concepts on their own.
5. Students create an illustrated desktop-published brochure or newsletter — This activity is a great way for students to practice writing as well as visual design skills.