7th Grade Music Tech and Social Media

7th Graders Music Students at Nessacus Middle School get an education in both music and technology. The two areas combine in a class called Music Tech where students learn how to use web-based applications to learn about music. Sometimes called Web 2.0, web-based applications have the advantage of being accessible from any computer, anywhere. In addition, many web-based programs allow users to share information through a variety of widgets.

GOOGLE DOCS
Students use Google Docs in Music Tech. Google Docs is a suite of productivity applications similar to Microsoft Office provided by Google for free. Students create, use and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations and websites via Google Docs. For example, for the Styles Report, students use the web to research a style of music unfamiliar to them and then profile an artist or two within that style. They must gather information about characteristics, instrumentation, historical development of the style, etc. Students gather information using a Google Doc Document. Then they create a Google Presentation (slideshow similar to Powerpoint) complete with audio/video examples. These presentations are embeddable in Blog and Web Pages.

DEL.ICI.OUS-Bookmarks on the Web

Del.ici.ous is a social bookmarking website where users can save and tag websites for viewing later. As a last step in the music styles report, students gather url (http://) links for anyone wanting to learn more. These are stored at our class Del.ici.ous site.