Blog Post #7

Blog Post #7

Topic: Summarize and reflect on what you've learned this week.

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            In all teaching situations there must be a way to monitor student progress and growth. The instructor me have vast experience and wisdom, however, remembering everything a student does and has done in the past requires some form of assessment. Though the assessment may not always need to be formal, it does need to be, that is to say, assessment must occur. Many assessment tools, strategies and methods have not changed over the years, however methods for student learning have changed drastically. Technology has accelerated not only the amount of information a student can learn because of increased access but it also provides educators an accelerated, accessible vehicle for assessing students. Online quizzes and assessments afford a vast number of conveniences to both the educator and the student. During this module we discussed assessment in the music classroom as well as approaches that can be used to simplify assessment administration and grading. In this post I will discuss what I found to be most useful from the information and exercises provided regarding technology and assessment in the music classroom.

            During this module we discussed Google Drive and it’s associated products such as Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms. As means of creating and storing administrative products for the music classroom, efficiency and simplicity is where I believe the productivity suite is most beneficial. In terms of assessment, Google Forms is an effective and convenient service that can be utilized to create digital assessments for students. Additionally, Google products can source extra software called add-ons which give seemingly immeasurable functionality. “Flubaroo,” for example, is extremely useful add-on for grading submissions of quizzes, tests, or assessments which are created through Google Forms. By allowing automated grading of answers, with the option to email results to students at the end, Flubaroo truly streamlines the assessment process by saving time, space and resources.

            To use Google Drive you simply need a Google account, then, the process of creating documents is simple. To create new assessments using Google Forms you can just drag-and-drop text, multiple choice, paragraph, drop-down list, etc. and fill the fields to create your quiz. In order to take advantage of Flubaroo and its capacity to email grades, you just have to remember to include a name and email address field on the quiz. So many assessments can be created, completed and graded this way.  Many of the benefits of this type of assessment and grading would be most useful for classes such as music history or music appreciation where the information has a best answer rather than a performance based course. However, I can see where this method of assessment could be very useful for facts about repertoire and etiquette in the performance based classroom.