Martina Lutz

Will Appalachian Students, Through the Use of Technology, Have More Access to Music Education?

1. What is your problem of practice? Currently in our impoverished area, students lack the ability to obtain and access an instrument.
2. How do you know this is a problem? As the band director for every school in the county, I currently travel from school to school with a car full of instruments and clorox wipes to disinfect them because they must be shared.
3. What strategy will you implement this year to address the problem? All students in the county grades 5-12 will be receiving chrome books for school to replace the use of textbooks. If I were to obtain a set of midi keyboards, I would be able to teach children piano as an option for learning music.
4. What resources and personnel do you need to implement your strategy? I, along with my volunteer assistant would implement the activities. We need the keyboards of course, and the connecting cables, then we would use one of several laps available to connect the technology.
5. What research question will guide your study of this innovation? Will Appalachian students, through use of technology, have more access to music education? Will students in Appalachia become more involved in music programs if technology is incorporated?
6. What outcomes will prove that your innovation has succeeded? More students become involved in music programs. Students use the technology to improve music reading skills.
7. How will you measure those outcomes? I will take a sample in my band classes of how many students have access to their own instrument. I will take assessment of how many students can read music on a staff, and how many of those students know scales, and arpeggios. After utilizing the new technology, i will re-evaluate student skill level in the areas of music reading and scale/arpeggio progression.
8. How can you be sure that any positive outcomes on these measures are actually due to your innovation and not something else? I can ensure that the outcome is due to innovation by the simple fact that this will allow more actual students to have access to a playable instrument. Without an instrument to practice, there is not a lot of room for growth.