Loujain Kouider, MAC student, publishes article on streaming music in the classroom
Secondary MAC student Loujain Kouider published an article, titled "The Sound of Teaching," in the community journal of the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL).
In her article, Kouider calls on educators to use music apps like Spotify alongside more commonly used classroom apps like Socrative and Adobe Connect. “Spotify offers a variety of features that are enticing and can be manipulated to benefit the basic functions of the classroom, or even carry the weight of entire summative assessments,” she said.
She recommends using the application in multiple ways. To begin, teachers can create a classroom-specific playlist based on songs students select. This boosts promotes their autonomy, she explains, and gives them a peer-selected soundtrack that they can listen to while studying in the evenings. The app also allows teachers to get to know their students through their taste in music and their reasons for adding particular songs. Finally, Spotify contributes a new layer of understanding to subject-area coursework through its extensive catalog of music from around the globe and across time.
MACUL is the statewide organization that helps educators identify sound educational practices related to technology as well as understand the implications of rapid changes in technology.