Appalachian State Gets in Tune with Tablet PCs

Hugh Sung, our resident Tablet PC / Music evangelist, ought to love this story. Jennifer Snodgrass, an assistant professor with Appalachian State University, uses a Tablet PC to teach her music theory class, as well as help with her job as a teacher. Apparently, it has become quite a successful project.

At the bottom of the article, is a good audio of Jennifer talking about Tablet PC’s and their use in the classroom, and the advantage they are bringing to the university.

From Appalachian State University:

Students in Jennifer Snodgrass’s music theory classes are learning more than the dynamics of composition. They are exploring ways technology can enhance their learning, and in the process helping develop ways other students and instructors can use technology to teach the nuances of music theory.

Snodgrass is an assistant professor in the Mariam Cannon Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University. She has received $39,823 from Microsoft Research & External Programs to explore the use and efficiency of Tablet PCs in the music classroom.

Tablet PCs are laptop computers with a touch screen enabling users to ““write” or ““draw” on the screen when using a special stylus. The screen rotates 180 degrees and can lay flat on the keyboard. Images from the laptop can be projected onto a screen for classroom viewing.

Jennifer Snodgrass, an assistant professor at Appalachian State University uses a Tablet PC laptop computer to teach music theory. Snodgrass received $39,823 from Microsoft Research & External Programs to study the effectiveness of the technology in music classes. (Appalachian photo by University Photographer Mike Rominger)
Using technology in the classroom is a regular practice for Snodgrass, who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland with a research focus on computer-assisted instruction. While a faculty member at Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis, she received an SBC Ameritech Grant for Teaching with Technology.

When Snodgrass came to the Hayes School of Music, she began evaluating the Tablet PC as a way to enhance her classroom instruction. ““In music theory, you look at the intricate details that comprise the musical composition,” she said. ““I used the Tablet PC for a semester, and my students were just amazed that I could scan a piece of music, then zoom in on a particular measure of music, draw on it, and zoom out so that they could see how the measure works within the context of an entire piece.”

Tags: Music, Tablet PC