Today’s lesson has two components: A discussion of technology integration, and a Soundtrap assignment where you can interact with MIDI in more detail.

SAMR: A Model for Tech Integration

Please watch the video below which discusses the SAMR Model, a heuristic for examining tech integration:

Then, watch the brief video I made that discusses SAMR in music education contexts:

We will discuss some of these ideas when I return, but overall, keep in mind the following broad principles:

• Technology usage is not an educational objective on its own; we use technology to do things
• Technology brings affordances and constraints; each influence the experience had in the learning setting
• Lessons in which technology redefines or modifies the possibilities for learning are most compelling
• The SAMR Model offers a way to evaluate, discuss, and plan for technology usage in your classroom.

More About MIDI

In the last lesson you learned about how MIDI is notated/graphically notated (duration, pitch, and velocity) as well as some of the affordances that MIDI provides. In this lesson I would like you to experiment with some ways of entering and editing MIDI information in Soundtrap. First, watch the video where I demonstrate your assignment:

The sheet music you will use for the assignment, Birdie, Birdie, Where is Your Nest? is below:

Birdie, Birdie, Where Is Your Nest_

Assignment Objectives:

Soundtrap Link to Assignment

1. Enter in the music to Birdie, Birdie, Where is Your Nest
2. Use the recording function to play in some of the part using either your computer keyboard or an external musical keyboard (like the one’s in the MIDI Lab).
3. Enter in MIDI notation using the draw tool on the piano roll editor

When you are finished, you should have the two parts to Birdie Birdie successfully entered into your Soundtrap project.

For additional help, check out the Soundtrap Tutorials page. The crash course video has information about working with external keyboards around the 3:30 mark. The piano roll course gives you lots of helpful info.

One Last Thing

There are some interesting similarities between notation software and MIDI. Most notation editors allow you to export a file as MIDI which would allow you to enter it directly into Soundtrap without doing anything (see video below for an example).

Happy MIDI-ing and let me know if you have any questions or problems.

Good Luck!