Chad Criswell, Iowa music educator and also editor for many of NAfME's articles on technology in music education, has run MusicEdMagic.com for years. I have always enjoyed his work–both in NAfME publications and on MusicEdMagic.
He recently posted a video review of the upcoming PracticeFirst program, which is coming from MusicFirst this fall. Ultimately, it is a green note/red note program that is priced at a low rate ($6 per student) and is multi-platform. Chad put the preview version of the program through its paces….with his daughter!
I love the video–Chad is articulate and friendly (as always) and it is fun to see his daughter collaborating, even with a sticking 3rd valve on the trumpet.
Chad mentions that iOS devices don't run the preview…and this is correct. They are hoping to have an iPad version in the fall. Chad also mentioned that the program requires a minimum of 100 subscribers, which could be problematic for small schools that don't have 100 students in music! I need to check with MusicFirst about that, but I would be extremely surprised if they didn't have a solution for smaller schools. And let's be honest…although we have many big schools in the Midwest, you are as likely to have a small school as a large school when you live in this part of the country.
If you aren't following MusicEdMagic, you should add it to your list of regular sites (or to your RSS feed), and I am going to look forward to future video reviews from Chad!
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Technology in Music Education 